Race to the Angel Nevada Weekend Recap

The once famous El Cortez Hotel in downtown Wells, Nevada

Introduction

One of the things I like to do whenever I wrap up a long weekend is to write about it.  Often times we do a trip and a lot of little things happen that we forget about.  While they generally form the overall experience of the trip, details of the trip fade and they wind up fading into faint impressions or even lost.

I do this mostly for myself and those that have a passing interest.  There won't be a lot of running stories here but this is mostly for very close friends, family and most importantly for myself.  I honestly do, from time to time, go back and re-live and re-read the experiences I had while taking a trip and they make me appreciate what I had a chance to live in.

Friday

Friday, September 9 was a travel day.  I had to drive from Salt Lake City (where I live) to Wells, Nevada.  Traffic, generally speaking, isn't terrible heading west.  Once you get past Tooele, there is about 75 miles of sheer nothingness in terms of civilization, so the drive west is easy.

To save money and not tempt myself in overeating -- much to my distress, I wound up eating at home before I left. I assembled all my stuff and after 6 pm I made the 2.5 hour journey west.

It was actually a nice drive and I enjoyed watching the sun set over the Wendover / Ruby Mountains.  By the time I made it to Wells, I was on Pacific Time and it was dark.  

In the past, I had stayed at the Super 8 and this time, after going over the online reviews, I opted to try the Sharon Motel.  This is a local, non chain hotel and it got fair reviews.  The room was clean although the bed was as hard as a rock.  The TV also was something out of the late 80's.  Also the motel backed up to the local brothel...

Belle's Brothel behind the Sharon Motel

I actually slept pretty well and the motel was quiet and probably had the nicest owner ever.

Saturday

I woke up early, ate, showered and took off for the race.  The race went really well and after catching a ride back into town, I was in search of a shower.

It was about 10 AM by the time I got back and I tried the public swimming pool, where the race was initially held.  However, they were locked up tight.  I drive about a mile back to the motel and the owner had already cleaned my room.  Bummed but not upset, I decided to snap a few pictures of the downtown area of Wells, which has clearly seen better days:

I was on the road by 10:45 and made the hour drive to Elko, which was my destination for the day.  I was pretty jazzed over my performance and I was also hungry.  I knew that the Red Lion Hotel had a decent buffet and I had a few coupons burning a hole in my pocket.  I wound up eating for $10 (plus tip) and got in a decent meal.  The food isn't as good or varied as much as Wendover's, but it was still yummy.

Dessert

I felt it was too early to even try checking in and besides, I wanted to get in a hike. To make sure my food settled okay, I gambled some and won enough to pay for my meal.  

I made the 30 minute drive to the top of Lamoille Canyon and did the Island Lake Hike.

By the time I was done with the hike, I was hungry and in desperate need of a shower.  So I headed back to the Red Lion and got my free room (it pays to play there).

I cleaned up and loafed around in the room for a bit before sauntering out to the casino.  I burned through my free play and if I recall correctly, I was neither up or down but managed to get some play in.  

My stomach was growling and I wanted to try a restaurant and just see the sites a bit.  So I headed downtown in search of food.  I had wanted to try Elko's newest (to me) Italian restaurant, Tomatoes.  I had heard good things about it but a security guard I had talked to said that they had some "production" issues.

I walked in and it seemed that I got there during a lull in the crowd.  It was busy before and after I came in, but luckily I was able to get right in and order.

The bread was yummy as was the salad, but the spaghetti was so so.  It wasn't terribly creative and the sauce wasn't magic, in my opinion.  Epic proportions, but I definitely think that they can do more with their food to make it stand out.  Probably will not go back...

It was a busy night in the downtown area -- lots of young(ish) folks running around.  Apparently there was some sort of wine tour.  I decided to jump into the Stockman's Casino.  I hadn't been there in a while and it looks like it might be under new ownership.  They had some newer slot machines and it looked like it had a good clean-up.  I wound up gambling there and had an awesome run on a Super Red Phoenix and wound up leaving about $80 richer.

I had some free play to burn at the Gold Dust West casino so I drove down there and used my free play.  I had a lot of luck there (as usual) but it was all bad and I soon found myself down a bit.  I didn't stick around long and decided to make my way back to the Red Lion.

I wound up gambling to close to midnight and had a good run on a Zhen Chan, a Fu Dao Le slot machine that has similar payouts.  I never had had any luck with it in Wendover but my machine was smoking hot:

I wound up putting a fair amount of it back in but I walked away a winner and had enough to experiment with the other machines.  I also seem to have graduated to the next player level thanks to my streak as well -- so we'll see what Elko throws my way next.

I wound up turning in around midnight -- thoroughly exhausted.  I had a super hard time sleeping though -- I was way overstimulated.

Sunday

In the morning, I packed up and went over to the Red Lion buffet again.  I was there too early (is that a sign up a problem?) and had to kill sometime in the casino.  I wound up profiting a bit, but I mostly wanted just to eat and hit the road. 

Who said you can't have cake for breakfast?

By the time 9 AM rolled around, I inhaled a buffet (and again got to use a coupon) and took off to hike Winchell Lake, in Wells.

After hiking, I was once again sweaty and dusty.  I rolled into Wendover around 3 PM and they have a gimmick where you earn a tier point (i.e. you gamble a bit) you get to spin some video wheel to earn free play or tier points, or what not.  I haven't had much luck with it, always getting tier points.  I am too far away from making the next level to worry about it but there's always the hope I'll get some resort credit or what not.

I gambled a bit and of course I got tier points.... cry.

I gambled pretty aggressively at the Peppermill and got some hits but mostly misses.  

I was exhausted and I had a free room offer from the Wendover people.  I didn't feel like driving another 100 minutes home and I had another change of clothes in my suitcase.  So I opted to redeem the free room and spend the night.

I cleaned up and used the shower before using the pool.  The amount of dirt that I washed off me was incredible.  It was one dusty trail I had done up in Wells.

Had the pool to myself.

I played around in the pool and decided I was pretty hungry.  I managed to get a 50% off buffet and ate like a king.  Wendover is still my favorite buffet (for the money -- followed by the Suncoast in Vegas)

I gambled some more at the Montego Bay and my luck went from lousy to utterly crappy.

I turned in fairly early and tried to sleep but despite my exhaustion I couldn't sleep very well, despite taking some OTC sleeping aids.  

I woke up just shy of 5 AM and cleaned up and made my way out to my car.  The casino was a ghost town except for some hanger-ons and insomniacs.  

It is quite an experience to drive in the desert in the early morning hours.  There are no street lights and it is like driving through a black vortex.  There are only a handful of cars the desert is just incredibly empty.  Luckily, nothing lives out there so you don't have to worry (much) about animals in the road way (not like you are going to have time to stop at 80 mph).

Work was difficult for a Monday.  Being sleep-deprived and physically exhausted made it a tough day, but I got through it.  After work, I took a picture of my car and here is what it looked like.  You can definitely tell I had a "good" weekend.

Lamoille Canyon Half Marathon Trip Recap

Introduction

First off, this post really isn't about running but about the long weekend trip I took to partake in running the Lamoille Canyon Half Marathon.  I mostly do these types of posts for myself, as occasionally I like to take a trip down memory lane.

Either way, I did take a bunch of pictures of the events that transpired as well as eat at some new and interesting places.  So someone out there (besides me) may find this useful.

Friday

I took a half day off from work and left around 11 AM to make the roughly 3 hour trip from Salt Lake City to Elko, NV.  Normally, I wouldn't have taken a day off, but I had to be in Elko by 6 PM pacific time to get my bib.  

Of course, I planned on stopping in Wendover on the way out.  I like their Friday morning buffet and I had earned enough points on my previous visits to acquire a free meal.  It has been a while since I was there for a Friday as I love their seafood ciappino soup.  We stopped at Montego Bay and I knew better than to gorge but I definitely ate enough to get my money's worth.

After eating, we decided to let the food settle for a bit and gamble.  They had 8x comps so we wound up playing a bit there.  My belief is that when they up the comps, they seem to make the machines tighter.  Whether there is any truth in that remains to be seen.  I did get some entertainment for my dollar and earned back some of the comps that we had used for breakfast.  I left a little lighter in the wallet so I suppose we paid for our breakfast after all.

The rest of the trip to Elko was pretty uneventful and by mid-afternoon we reached the place where the packet pickup was being held.  It was pretty much an easy-in, easy-out and I double checked exactly where I needed to be in the morning.  

Before making the trip, I had discovered that this weekend's race corresponded with the Elko Motorcycle Jamboree.  This basically meant that all Harley Davidson, black leather wearing rider was going to be there.  They had blocked off most of the downtown area so I made the short walk from the outfitter's store to the downtown area. 

I was pretty impressed with all the classic cars and biker swag for sale:

The crowd looked a little rough but generally speaking people were well-behaved and I didn't have any incidents with loud or obnoxious people all weekend.

It was pretty warm to be walking around so we got back into the car and made our way back to the Red Lion, which was the hotel I had booked for two nights.  Usually I get a room free for a night or two, but being that it was motorcycle weekend, they weren't honoring the free room vouchers unless you were a far higher roller than me.

The Red Lion is a nice hotel and I recommend staying there if you are ever in Elko.  For $200 I got a pretty decent room that was super sized.  It was close to the casino, which had me worried.  Normally you get the drunks coming in from the casino at 2 AM in the morning talking in the hallway but I was only disturbed once or twice.

We gambled a bit at the Red Lion and I actually made back some of my money.  I played a variety of machines and was actually getting a lot of entertainment and actually cashing with some minor wins.

For dinner we walked across the street and ate at Jr's Restaurant.  It is part of the Gold Country Casino, which is affiliated with the Red Lion.  I've never had a bad meal there.  They seemed to have new menus and I carb loaded with some spaghetti.  Very good and the cost was offset by some coupons I had.

We wound up gambling a bit more but nothing terribly exciting happened.  By 8 PM we decided to call it a night and watch some TV.  I had to be up early the next morning.

Saturday

I slept like crap -- as usual before the race.  I always have worries my alarm isn't going to go off or some unforeseen tragedy occurs.  Couple it with sleeping in a strange bed and feeling kind of warm, made it a difficult night.

In the morning I ran the Lamoille Canyon Half Marathon, which you can read about here.

After the race, I wound up hanging around the park for a good 90 minutes making small talk with whomever I could strike up a conversation with.  It was just a beautiful morning and I enjoyed every minute of my experience doing the race.

After the race and loitering around, I made the roughly 30 minute drive back to town.  I cleaned up and decided to head on over to the Gold Dust West.  I was dying of thirst and they have self-serve sodas there, which I used to quench my thirst.  We also gambled there quite a bit, since they had given me a tiny bit of free play via the mail.

I wound up winning a minor jackpot on Fu Dao Le, which definitely put me over the top:

$120 minor jackpot win

I wound up putting back some money but overall I left a winner, which is the first time ever at the Gold Dust.  Shari wound up hitting a minor jackpot too on some bonus wheel game:

We wound up using a $5 off coupon for lunch.  I had a salmon + fries, which was good.  Service was a little slow and I wouldn't recommend their cafe to vegetarians.  It was pretty barren of any non-meat items.  Sure you could go with pancakes or a salad, but it needed some non-meat alternatives.  The food was good though...

After eating we thought about going back downtown to check out the motorcycle show, but I was crashing pretty fast and so we decided to head back.  I tried to nap for a bit, but I was over caffeinated and over stimulated.  

I think we gambled a bit and I wasn't doing terribly well.  So I decided to read by the pool.  Normally Elko can be pretty warm, but it was 75F at best so I only lasted a few minutes in the heavily-shaded pool.  It was refreshing but their pool is pretty small.  If it was warmer, I would've stayed in a lot longer.

After cleaning up, we headed back across town to Dos Amigos Restaurant.  I've been itching to try the place for a while since most people we talked to liked it.  They were prompt with service and the portion sizes were huge.  It was a team-service method so people were constantly assisting us.  I was never quite sure who our server was, but either way, my hunger was definitely satiated.  I also ran into a fellow runner at the restaurant who I met at the race.  It was good to see a somewhat familiar face.

After eating we went back to the Red Lion in hopes that our names would be drawn for their random hot seat drawings (spoiler alert: it wasn't).  They had a Father's Day special of earning a small toolset if you earn 350 points.  I came up slightly short and I wasn't really willing to chase it for a $10 tool (you probably have to gamble a couple hundred to get that many points -- granted you win some, you lose some).  I wound up doing okay and by the end of the night my wallet was a little heavier with money but I certainly wasn't cleaning the place out.

Sunday

In the morning, I stumbled out of bed and attempted a 5-mile-ish run.  I was extremely sore from the half marathon but the more I ran, the better I felt.  It was nice to take some pictures.  I even discovered the Elko bike trail and put in a short distance on that:

Elko Bike Trail

After cleaning up, we packed up and made our way eastward to Wendover.  We had a 2-for-1 buffet pass and they were offering 4x comps.  So with whatever money we had left, we'd use it there.  I am happy to report that when I left Elko I pretty much had the same amount of money in which I came -- minus tips and petty change.

Breakfast, as usual was awesome and I ran into a friend of mine who said the slots were hot.  I really didn't expect them to be hot, but just about everything I played, I made a small but tidy profit on.  I also got quite a bit of entertainment for my money.  Also, the longer I played, the more comps I made, so I have more freebies coming my way next time I go.

I did get a couple of hot hits on the bonus wheel game, including a 5x payout on a $10 win (just missing the 50 times).  I also got 50 free spins which netted me another $55.  Some machines I didn't do well on, and clearly were primed for me.

I actually came out ahead gambling-wise.  It wasn't a huge success, but anytime I get a lot of entertainment, free meals, and more money in my wallet, I am happy.  Shari didn't fare as well.  She tends to bet more aggressively than I do so her fortunes tend to swing wilder in either direction.

Hopefully I can make it back to Elko for their 4th of July celebration.  I did it last year and I had so much fun that I really want to do it again.  So hopefully something will work out.