Having Reno/Lake Tahoe Sledding Gambling Fun With Spencer Jack & Jason

A couple days ago I blogged about Spencer Jack and my Favorite Nephew Jason being masked bandits in Seattle.

Jason had emailed me some photos of Spencer and himself on top of the Space Needle and on the Monorail.

I replied back, asking a question or two about a subject or two.

Jason then replied saying he and Spencer Jack were about to leave for a couple days on a Thanksgiving getaway. And that Spencer was getting impatient to leave, and pacing, whilst Jason wrote his reply to me.

So, last night, as in Thanksgiving Evening, incoming email from Jason and Spencer Jack contained multiple photos, with the only text being something like "You can probably guess where we are."

Well, the first photo told me they were at a location with casinos. Vegas? But that photo did not look much like Vegas. Reno? I had no recollection of Jason ever going to Reno. Some other gambling/casino mecca? Of which there are many in the western states.

The next photo confirmed Spencer Jack and Jason were at a gambling mecca.

Jason at a slot machine at an airport. The only airports I have been in which have slot machines are McCarran in Vegas and Reno-Tahoe International.

The next photo narrowed the guessing, eliminating Vegas, with the win going to Reno.

I replied back to Jason, saying I figured the location to be Reno when I saw the above photo and recollected a giant silver mining feature in a Reno casino, the name of which I could not quite remember, other than it having Silver in the name, and that it was attached to Circus Circus.

Jason replied back, clarifying the name as Silver Legacy, and that it also connected to the El Dorado Casino.

That had me trying to remember when last I had been at that location. I think it may have been 1996. I'd been to Moab, mountain biking, then west across Nevada on the World's Loneliest Highway, then a stay in Reno, at Circus Circus. I distinctly remember going to the El Dorado buffet and over eating worse than I have ever over eaten. And then having trouble slowly waddling back to my room at Circus Circus, where I collapsed til I recovered.

Now that you are continuing to make me think about it, my last time in Reno may have been later in the 1990s. We rented a big ol' Cadillac for a roadtrip to Yosemite, with one night's stay in Reno on the way. The route from Reno to Yosemite routed by Lake Tahoe and then Highway 49 to Yosemite. 

That roadtrip, I think, is the last time I was at Lake Tahoe, which is relevant to the next photo.

That would be Spencer Jack standing on a dock, or deck, on Lake Tahoe. If you drive the entire length of the Nevada side of Lake Tahoe you come to a spot with incredibly HUGE boulders. I suspect Spencer Jack and Jason did not drive that far, because I doubt they would miss that photo opportunity. Or the opportunity to climb on those HUGE boulders.

I have never been at Lake Tahoe during the skiing/sledding time of the year. Later Thanksgiving evening Jason sent another email. That one had a video attached showing Spencer sliding down the hill you see above.

One would think if it is cold enough for snow to stick in quantities sufficient for sledding that it would be too cold to do any swimming. One would have thought wrong, apparently, if one thought that.

I am guessing that Spencer Jack and Jason are staying at one of the Lake Tahoe casino resorts, and the one they are staying at has a heated outdoor pool, with only Spencer willing to brave the cold air to get in the warm pool.

I have no information as to how long Spencer Jack is keeping his dad in Nevada. If they had consulted me regarding what to see in that area I would have suggested driving the switchback road up the opposite side of the Reno valley to Virginia City. I have always had myself a mighty fine time in the Nevada version of Virginia City.

Upon first seeing these photos from Jason and Spencer, and temporarily thinking they must be in Vegas, my quick impulse was to call Jason to tell him his Favorite Aunt Jackie and her first husband, my Favorite Brother-in-Law, Jack, were in Vegas, celebrating their 40th Anniversary. I figured we could find a way to track down the location of the Arizonans. 

Back when I was Jason's age, and younger and older than Jason's current age, I would often escape a lot of the holiday season by heading south, to Reno and Southern California.

I recollect the last time I did a holiday season escape was Christmas of 1994. That time it was straight down I-5 to Anaheim. Disneyland on Christmas day, then other Los Angeles area fun during the following week, including going to the Nixon Presidential Library, which turned out to be the highlight of that trip.

Then it was on to Vegas for a couple nights, then Flagstaff, with the South Rim of the Grand Canyon a snowy two days before the New Year. Then on to Moab, seeing Mexican Hat and the San Juan Inn whilst crossing the San Juan River from Arizona to Utah, thinking that the San Juan Inn looked like a cool place to stay, not knowing, at the time, that less than a year later I would be staying there after four days of houseboating on Lake Powell.

After Mexican Hat it was one night in Moab, waking up there on New Year's Day. Hiked around Arches National Park in the snow. Then on to Canyonlands National Park where from Islands in the Sky I saw mountain bikers far below. I said then that I was gonna get me a mountain bike when I get back to Washington and return here to mountain bike. It would be two years later I would do so, riding miles of trails with a group called MudSluts.

Weird to remember back to when I used to go places, lots of places, a lot of the time. And now, here I am, in Texas. I have not been out of Texas for over a year. I have not been to the Dallas/Fort Worth zone in over a year. I have not been further than 50 miles from Wichita Falls in over a year.

No wonder I have a constant feeling of being borderline stir crazy...

My Search For Fort Worth Stairs To Step Took Me To Oakland Lake Park Today

A couple days ago at Oakland Lake Park I was surprised by how easy it was to run up the steps you see in the picture. I assume step running had become easier due to the increase in my aerobicizing over the past several months.

So, today, with precipitation intermittently precipitating, I decided to return to Oakland Lake Park and get me some aerobic stimulation via stair climbing.

There are three other step climbing options, in addition to the one you see in the picture, all close together, in Oakland Lake Park. I step climbed all 4 today, multiple times, and then I was off to Town Talk where I saw the Tamale Kid, but did not have him asking me if I wanted any of his mama's tamales.

There are not a lot of locations, in this elevation variation challenged  part of the planet, where you find a lot of stair steps taking you to a much higher elevation. I actually can not think of any.

A long time ago, to be precise, August of 2004, I found myself staying in an apartment in Tacoma, overlooking Stadium High School. Stadium High School is so named because of its football stadium, it being a natural football bowl, with a lot of seating. And a lot of steps.

I saw guys making the treacherous climb to break in to Stadium High School's stadium in order to run up and down the steps.

After watching the stadium stair steppers step stairs for several days I decided to give it a try.

It did not take me long to realize I was not in as good a shape as the other guys I saw doing stair stepping.

I remember back when I was a devoted jogger, being in Reno, getting in my jogging exercise by running up the stairs of the Circus Circus tower. I don't remember how many floors Circus Circus had. I do remember the towers are tall.

The buildings in downtown Fort Worth are not very tall. I wonder if there is access to the stairway in any of them?

My Anonymous Tacoma Informants Are Wrong About Toxic Fat

I am starting to grow a tad weary of messages from my Tacoma Informants. Some of it is just a tad too mean spirited. Now, I am not squeamish when it comes to mean spiritedness. Sometimes being a bit mean spirited is just what a situation calls for.

I think I need to clarify, for my Anonymous Tacoma Informants, my actual attitude towards the entity known as Toxic Tacoma Person #1, aka Fubbo.

The tone of the messages from the ATI (Anonymous Tacoma Informants) is that they basically think I hate Fubbo.

This is not the case. Yes, I've been appalled by Fubbo's behavior, offput by it, with my delicate feelers (term stolen from Gar the Texan) hurt by the behavior. But, hating Fubbo never entered the equation. It is more a thing of feeling sorry for the girl and her self-destructive, self-defeating ways. That and I do not like chronic lying.

So, this morning the ATI tells me that Fubbo is doing some heavy duty lying on her blog in a blogging about being fat due to eating a lot to cover her shame. Or something like that. And then the ATI got mean spirited, saying Fubbo was lying about having been non-fat in her earlier days.

Well, I can vouch for that fact, the non-fat fact. The ATI's are wrong in thinking Fubbo is lying about her skinny past. In the picture at the top you are looking at Fubbo, years before she became toxic and bigger. That is me, standing next to Fubbo, also years before I became toxic and bigger.

That picture was taken in front of the Boot Hill Cemetery in Virginia City, Nevada. We were staying in Reno, having driven there in Fubbo's little rotary motor Mazda car.

The second picture, where Fubbo is being all Betty Grable with her right leg, surrounded by snow, is at Crater Lake. That is Big Ed next to Fubbo, on the left, and Miss JW on the right.

As recently as April of 2006, Fubbo was significantly smaller than the 2008 and, I assume, the 2010, version. She'd been going to Weight Watchers and was looking good and healthy. After that she was hit with a family woe that would stress anyone, with her coping mechanism being to seek comfort in food, with Fubbo being the eventual result.

So, there you have it, my Anonymous Tacoma Informants, photo documentation of the Thin Fubbo. Now let's have ourselves an Informant Moratorium for awhile. Unless you come up with some really good material.