And now, for something completely different.  This weekend, for reasons unknown, we headed up the hill (over the hill?) to the city not-so-affectionately known as “Dirty Reno.”  Hmmm, yeah, sounds like a place I’ve always wanted to visit.  It’s a consistent moniker though;  Pretty much everyone around here refers to it as Dirty Reno.  So much so, that when checking the weather forecast I actually typed Dirty Reno in the search field, and then was briefly puzzled why nothing showed up.

Anyway, it wasn’t really for reasons unknown.  I wanted to attend a festival up there called Canfest, and by either good or bad fortune that’s where it was.  We went with another couple also, who can’t seem to get enough gambling, so there was something for everyone.  First though, we had to make the arduous drive up I-80 to get there.  That, people, is a miserable drive.  It’s technically two lane, but with the large number of semis plodding over the mountain at 20 mph it’s effectively reduced to one lane.  Slow, tedious, frustrating drive.  We got there though, albeit with no small amount of grumbling.  Friday night was kind of a bust for me.  Everybody just wanted to stay in the casino (we stayed at Circus Circus) and throw their money in the air, so I joined them for dinner and then snuck off to the room to watch TV.  (Not an all-together unusual scenario actually, even without the gambling circumstance.)  Saturday they continued with their gambling ways, so I just kind of people-watched around the city until the real fun started.  And, by the way, the people-watching was top shelf entertainment.  Wow.  There are some hard people in that town.  I didn’t lack for material, I’ll just say that.  (Bonus side note:  The Sporting KC farm team was in town, staying at our hotel.  Enjoyed talking with a few of them.)  When the miscreants were done gambling, we headed off to the canfest.  It was… A festival.  A good festival, I must say.  I thoroughly enjoyed it.  I’ll go so far as to rate it “worth the drive.”

As for the “Dirty Reno” title?  Eh, I don’t know, it was actually pretty darn nice.  The casinos were all very clean, and didn’t have the horrific smell of the Vegas places.  The restaurants we visited were all very nice too, not to mention reasonably priced.  Heck, everything there was reasonably priced, more so than at home.  I’ll go back if there’s a good reason.  (And that reason excludes gambling.  Not my thing.)  They’ve got a rib-fest coming up, a balloon fest….  All kinds of good stuff.  Done travelling for now though.  We’re back home in good ol’ El Dorado Hills, enjoying the scorching 108 degree weather.  Thought we were done with the heat for a bit, sigh.