Friday, June 20, 2003 - Reno, Nevada
I slept okay but was awake early with some back pain; I don't have a
back rest on the Road King, and without the sleeping bag and tent on the
bike, there was no back support. So I was awake at 5:55 a.m., my old
"alarm" time (when I was working).
I got up at 6:00 a.m., turned on CNN, and found and "Express Checkout"
slip under the room door. I had been invited to put my "keys" in the box
at the front desk, and I did not need to "check out."
I went downstairs about 7:00 a.m., where I followed Bogey & Carol and
Mike & Katie to the parking garage. I wished them a good trip, loaded my
T-Bag onto my bike, and waved them goodbye. To make it easier for others
to load and leave, I moved into the spot that these folks had just
vacated, then went back to the casino and waited for the rest to come
down to breakfast.
We had a nice little crowd at Mel's Diner for breakfast, and I played
Keno while eating. I was surprised when my three numbers came up and I
won breakfast, worth about eleven dollars. That was nice!
After breakfast I went back to my room for one last sweep and found that
the housekeeping staff was already servicing the room. I went back
downstairs, turned in my "keys" and walked to the parking garage.
As we had come in last night, parking was a little tight, but we got
four motorcycles into two spaces, leaving one bike with no place to
park. So Danny parked his bike in a handicapped spot and we put Gene's
placard on it. This made more sense than moving three bikes to get
Gene's out and putting it in the handicapped spot.
Back to this morning, Frank was accosted by someone in the parking
garage, complaining about the motorcycle parked in the handicapped spot.
Frank pointed out the placard, which they had missed.
Then he proceeded to tell them a cock-and-bull story about how the guy
who rides that bike need the placard because he has epilepsy. When the
complainer thought about that a minute and seemed puzzled, Frank told
the busy-body that we ride with one person on each side of him, so that
if he has a seizure while riding, we can reach over and hold his
handlebars so he doesn't crash.
Evidently the complainer gets all his exercise by jumping to
conclusions.
Anyway, we loaded and fired up the bikes and left the Sands Regency
garage at 9:15 a.m., stopped at the Chevron Station at 4th & Keystone
for fuel, then rode east on Interstate 80, through Sparks and out into
the wilds of Nevada.
We turned eastbound on Alternate U.S. 50 near Fernley, rode past Hazen,
then turned onto eastbound U.S. Highway 50 near Lahontan Reservoir and
rode into Fallon NV. It was only 62 miles, but there would be no gas for
many miles, so we stopped for fuel at a Chevron Station at 10:30 a.m.,
then continued ethrough Fallon and east on U.S. 50, the Loneliest
Highway in America.
We zoomed past Salt Wells (where I did _not_ see the girls waving), Sand
Mountain and the Loneliest pay phone, and Cold Springs, where I may stop
some day, over New Pass summit and into Austin NV, where most stopped at
Chevron and I stopped at Shell about 12:35 p.m., then doubled back and
parked near the International Cafe.
We had a nice lunch, I had a steak sandwich and drink for about $8, and
others had other delicacies, and Kathy observed that the wiener was too
big for the bun. No comment.
We had been warned that there might be some problems with crickets, or
was it grasshoppers, but we didn't see very many, and there definitely
were not any swarms of them blocking traffic.
We continued another 70 miles into Eureka NV for fuel at the Chevron
Station at 3:25 p.m., then backtracked 3 miles, through a little rain,
then turned north on Nevada Highway 278 for about 88 miles of Lander
County and a few more miles into Carlin NV, then 23 more miles to Elko
on Interstate 80.
We arrived at the Stockmen's Hotel Casino at 5:30 p.m. (113 miles from
Eureka), parked on the street near the corner of 4th and Silver Streets,
and walked about 100 feet to the casino entrance.
I have done a fair amount of traveling in the past few years and have
seldom found check-in to be so quick and easy. When I gave my name, they
were ready with an envelope containing a metal key-style electronic room
key and an envelope full o' coupons and literature.
I took the elevator up to Room 330 and found nice "western" wooden
furniture, fluorescent lighting, Decora switches and switchplates, a
nice closet, a door to the balcony, atrium and pool below, and a small
but adequate bathroom. The place had evidently been here for many years,
but had been upgraded along the way and would suit my needs quite
nicely.
Sprint PCS did not work in Elko, nor could my phone find an analog
carrier to fall back on. What a shame! I would not be disturbed by
annoying phone calls while traveling.
Across the hallway from my room I met Tom and Darryl, who were also
visiting Elko, and had requested that specific room, partly for the view
of the open lots that had the vendor booths. They also had plenty of
plastic beads (for throwing), ala New Orleans. They told me to stop by
and enjoy the view any time, that they had plenty of beads to throw and
plenty of cold beverages to drink.
About 6:30 p.m. several of us gathered at the Elko Convention and
Visitors Authority booth, where our member Peggy introduced us to her
brother, Ralph McMullen, executive director, who promised us a walking
tour the next day.
Ralph and his staff are familiar with most of the businesses in town, so
if you're planning to visit Elko and need information, be sure to
contact them.
Afterwards I was in a Wendy's kind of mood, so I took the (free) shuttle
from the Stockmen's Hotel, down Idaho Street to the other end of town,
and then walked back. There are several other hotels, including the Red
Lion, several gas stations and restaurants on the way. I also passed
the Elko Inn Express, where I had stayed in late April, the Citibank
branch and Domino's Pizza, among many other businesses.
I got back to the Stockmen's and asked about a players club. They don't
have one. Then I investigated cashing a check. At most other casinos in
Reno, Sparks and Las Vegas, it's easy, but the requirement here was that
you have a valid check-cashing card, which you had to have known about
and applied for in advance. The process seemed complicated and
time-consuming, so I walked back to the Citibank and took some cash out
with my ATM card in about 10 seconds.
Then I walked back by way of Roy's Market, where I could have gotten
some cash back, but did not, and got something to drink.
Back at the Stockmen's, I discovered that they don't have bill readers
on the slot machines, you have to use "coins," like Reno in the
seventies.
So I used a few "coins" and "changed my financial position," then went
back up to my room about 9:30 p.m., checked on the neighbors' view of
the activities below, turned on CNN, took a shower, watched a little
Discovery Channel and got to bed around 11:00 p.m. The neighbors were
hootin' and hollerin' at girls on the street below, but I managed to get
to sleep okay.
Miles for the day = 357. Miles for the trip = 626.
Tomorrow: enjoying the Jamboree, a great Basque dinner, and a walking
tour of some of Elko's houses, and I don't mean that in a "real estate"
way.
Dave S.
1996 FLHR-I Road King
BS#146, DOF#181, NEWT#4, KOTOR#1, SENS, CVNS G&W
--
Dave6592 at accesscom dot com - - -
http://www.accesscom.com/~dave6592
Home of "Experiences at Fry's Electronics" & "Please Use Turn Signals"
Dave Schultheis, San José, Silicon Valley, Santa Clara County, CA, USA
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