Why Reno for Valentine's day? Well, I have a working wife and she had an event at the Reno Convention Center with her Silpada, so I agreed to go along. Pete and Matt in the office went to Missouri on a snow goose hunt. Pete and I were having lunch last week and I told him about Reno and how the weather here was supposed to be mid seventies and I had a couple of golf invitations. He said, "Are you going to go to Reno?" I said, "Yeah, it's Valentine's day, I wouldn't be away from my wife." Low blow?
I left work Friday at 2 PM and we made the drive up the hill. She had to be at the venue by 5 Pm to set up for Saturday. We got her gear dropped off and settled in at the Sands casino. I don't capitalize Casino on purpose. This is the place that time forgot. It is old, kind of in need of , oh, an implosion. There was a Shriner's gig at the hotel, which probably tells you everything you need to know about this casino. The architecture went out with the fez, about 40 years ago. It was cheap and Darla was paying. We went to dinner at the Copa Lounge on site (again...). We had Prime Rib for $9.99 and enjoyed each other's company. We are on a strict budget and leave for The Dominican Republic and Punta Cana on Thursday, so we went right up to the room and didn't gamble.
I had set up golf both days at a little 9 hole par three course in Sparks owned by Patti Sheehan. The course is okay, but the greens are brown this time of year and it is hard to get a perspective when you are hitting onto the "green". The online cost was $5.00 and I jumped on it. My tee time was 8:42 the first day and the shop didn't open until 9 AM. There was a foursome there ahead of me and had an 8:30 tee time, but waived me on ahead of them. I played 18 holes (9 holes with two balls) in one hour and 20 minutes. I went and checked in after my round and the guy in the shop told me I should have waited for him and that Golf Now has been told that the first tee time is 9 AM. Okay.
I had dropped Darla off at the Convention Center at 8:00 AM after a quick bite at the Mel's Diner attached to the casino. I shot a 68, which sounds great, but the par is 54. It was good to get some practice in with my irons. I will miss the next couple of tournaments at the club. They have a two day Zone qualifier this coming weekend and our 54 hole team championship on March 7, 8 and 21st. I will be in Scottsdale during that event.
I headed back to the room and watched the AT&T Invitational from Pebble Beach and Darla called about 3:30 to get picked up at 4:15. I called over to Bertha Miranda's Mexican Restaurant on Mill Street in Reno and got a reservation for dinner at 5 PM. We have been to this place the last three years and really enjoy the atmosphere and food. Darla had huevos ranchero for dinner and I had a steak chimichanga. I don't think either of those got us, but we were sick that night, both complaining of a bloated feeling and indigestion. I think the oil that they cooked their chips in was bad.
We were going to go right up to the room, but the elevator was packed with people standing in line, so we played some nickel poker machines. We played maybe 90 minutes on $120 that I stored away and I hit four aces with a 2 for $200 and Darla hit four twos with a 3 for $100 and we finally got up and cashed out and headed to the room with $360. When I sat down at the machines and pulled out the money, Darla looked at me sideways and said, "Ken Lyon, you are so your Father's son!"
The next day we were up at six and out of the hotel by 7 AM and decided to hit a different breakfast spot. l forgot that we were in Reno and the town is DEAD at 7 AM. We drove around near the Convention Center and found a favorite 50's diner and pulled in to see a sign that they open at 8 AM. We drove back up Virginia Street and stopped at the Atlantis Casino and had breakfast at their café. The Atlantis has a walkway from the casino over to the convention center. Smart on their part as they get the convention crowd.
I bid her good luck and drove over to the golf course and waited to check in with the pro shop and teed off about 9:15 with two guys that were beginners. One of the guys was playing his 7th round of golf. He was actually better than his friend who had been playing for a couple of years. I shot 62 on the day and have to say, I was patient with the two guys who each shot close to 100 and that is with taking a maximum of 6 strokes on many holes. From there I drove over to the Alamo Casino in Sparks and played for awhile. I broke even on the afternoon, but had two hot dogs and four drinks (2 alcoholic and 2 diet Pepsi's). I got my money's worth, but missed the golf tournament. I was going to work on the blog yesterday afternoon, but my laptop was DEAD.
Darla called at three and said she was ready to pack it in and head home. We gassed up before we left as the gas is $2.29 in Reno and back up to $2.59 in Sacramento. It took us about two hours to drive home. Darla's truck hadn't been detailed in awhile, so I spent about 90 minutes cleaning the floors, seats, rugs and cargo area. I still found a remnant of a hot chocolate spill from Sammy probably a year or more ago. I need to get to her car a little more often. I finished in the dark, but the car was spotless inside when I was finished. The exterior is another story, but we will leave it at the airport from Thursday to Wednesday so I'll clean that when we get back. I had found fifteen minutes to wash my car before we left as it was still dirty from the rains.
I was going to do the blog last night, BUT I had to do some handicapping fort he upcoming Zone event. I like to have those completed by Sunday night and we had 80 players. This qualifier is at 90% of your GHIN and our club uses a Tournament Handicap which also needed to be checked. I finished up about 8 o'clock and called it quits. I brought my laptop into work today and I'm working on this now. It is President's day and the phones aren't ringing. I'll probably send the staff home early as it is not productive to stare at the clock for three hours.
Well, note that the blog is on vacation next week, but I will return in two weeks with the saga of our trip to the Dominican. I hope you are all happy and spent quality time with your Valentine on Saturday. Ciao.
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