This weekend we took a much-needed getaway from the hustle and bustle of everyday life. Where did we go you might ask? We headed to good ole Reno Nevada. I’ve always loved Reno and to be honest I’m not really sure why. It’s dirty, run down, and reminds me of a Casino graveyard. It’s where Casinos come to die.
The streets are uninviting, run down, and, often dark. However, something about Reno is alluring to me. Maybe it’s the unsavory characteristics that I just mentioned subconsciously attracting me to this desert wasteland? Maybe it’s not.
I can see where Reno used to be something special. I would guess this was sometime in the 70’s and 80’s before the boom of Indian gaming and the craziness of Las Vegas. This was a time when people would travel across the CA border via car and spend a weekend in Reno gambling and drinking, it was a simpler time I think and it was at that time that Reno really was in it’s prime.
If you fast forward to 2009 you can walk the dirty street known as the “Strip” and see old run down casino, more buildings are vacant than not. A landmark of Reno “The Fitzgerald Hotel and Casino” is gone and so is its famous rainbow bridge. I remember when the Golden Phoenix hotel was renovated and re-opened with that name and when you walk the street now, it’s empty. The doors were chained shut but someone managed to break in and nobody bothered to close up the place. It’s probably riddled with squatters at this point.
I think Reno is what Green Day should have been talking about when they were singing about the Boulevard of Broken Dreams. You can tell more fortunes have been lost than made in Reno and in parts reminds me of an urban war zone, but without a physical war. The war was between the Casinos of NV and the Indian Casinos of CA, and I hate to say it, but Indian gaming won that battle. Reno will not likely ever recover; Nevada has found it convenient to forget about them.
Danielle and I took a long walk down the strip on Saturday to take in everything, we noticed as I mentioned above several run down closed up casinos, which at one point were landmark type institutions for Reno. As we walked down Danielle noticed a Masonic building. We walked over; it was a large building at least 5 to 6 stories and all of the windows were taped up for painting. I attempted to enter, but the doors were locked.
We headed back up the Strip and crossed the bridge over the Truckee River and it was there that we noticed the large Square and Compass on the building we had just visited. This is such a building that it seems to be a deliberate focal point for anyone looking across the Truckee River. The place was impressive.
Anyway, I started blogging about my trip to Reno and really did not talk much about it. We had a great time, played some games, had some tropical drinks at Rum Bullions in ceramic parrots cups, and ate some good Prime Rib. We needed the break, but are glad to be home.
