Monday, Sept. 7, 2009 – Labor Day (and Catie Nasser’s B-day!)
Top 5 Most Comfy Beds of the trip; Jared’s is up there. As hard as it was to get up, the sun – which has been with us almost every day of our voyage – made it quite a bit easier. T-Rex and I recounted JCU Glory Days over some coffee (Rex, we left out the RA Lip Sync where we won it all on "Bye Bye Bye" by NSync, due in part to shameless me dolled up in a slinky dress) and then we rolled out to the Wild River Grille in downtown Reno for some lunch. Reno is a study in juxtapositions, let me tell you. You have all these gritty casinos and hotels next to this beautiful river walk area. We feasted on a great turkey burger, some scallops, and some Ahi tuna as the Truckee River chugged alongside us. For maybe the second or third time in our lives, Jenny and I did not overeat. I’m still proud of us. After lunch we walked around the river, envious of the tubers bouncing through the little rapids. But today we had an agenda, so we bid farewell to the man, the myth, the legend: Diesel/Jared/T-Rex.
Next stop: the Mustang Ranch, the first legal brothel in the U.S. And all you Puritans, calm down, we just got a tour. Of course I can’t tell the whole story here, seeing as this is a family blog, right? (I have this image of my niece reading this before she goes to bed, and then asking “Mommy, what’s a Kama Sutra chair?”) I’ll just say that Mandy, our tour guide, was spectacular. For other interesting details, buy me a beer the next time you see me.
Speaking of beers, they were 2 for $5 at the Nugget Rib Burn-Off back in Sparks, and I must say that Negro Modelo in a plastic cup was one of the best beverages I’ve ever quaffed on a hot day. The sun beat down on my dome and I bought a $5 cowboy hat to save my scalp. Jenny, queen of the hard bargain, got a $40 Derby hat down to $20. A cover band ripped out Joplin and Zeppelin tunes, and the female singer made me realize just how similar Janis’s voice was to Robert Plant’s. And the star attraction, the ribs themselves, did not disappoint. We had ourselves a few wet bone samplers, bartered for some pulled pork when our money started to run low, and finished it all off with the dessert of all desserts, Funnel Cake.
Then it was off to Lake Tahoe, where the views are nothing short of extraordinary. Blue mountains, clear water, huge evergreens; I’ll let the pictures do the talking. (And really, here on the ol’ blog with its low resolution and small pics, they might just be whispering. If you want the full tour of the 2500 (and counting) pictures we’ve snapped, just give us a shout the next time you’re in Newport, KY.) We found a beach and watched the sunset from an empty lifeguard chair. Then it was my turn to sweet talk a lower price out of the hotel receptionist. Jenny gave me a slap on the butt and told me to go work my charm. I got the young woman’s price down to the point we were willing to pay, and when, fifteen minutes later, we first sank our toes into a bubbling Jacuzzi, we knew we had made the right decision. For a while, we had the whole pool area to ourselves, but then three nice folks from Philly joined us in the hot tub. They had just come from Burning Man out in the desert, and the stories they told us about that spectacle were amazing. As the one guy said to me, “it was total freedom of expression. Some people aren’t ready for that level of freedom. They think they want freedom, until they realize that being able to do anything you want means that everyone else is able to do anything they want.” Anything. That got me thinking about the way we all define freedom. And I’m still thinking about it. Taking that to be a good sign, I’m happy to have found a new writing prompt for my students in Freshman Comp this fall. Let freedom ring, people, any which way you can bang it out.
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