Sunday, December 28

371 miles Winnemucca NV to Novato (80W to 37W to Atherton/San Marin to Novato Blvd to Sandy Creek Way)

2,323 miles total

We were up and in the car by 6:20.  It was 33* which seems balmy considering we were in temps on Saturday between 9* and 34* with most of the day in the mid-teens.   It was really clear and the sky was just starting to lighten up in the east.  Most of the day on Saturday we listened to The Emperor’s Tomb by Steve Berry.  It is another book featuring Cotton Malone, a retired special forces type spy who keeps getting pulled into ‘special situations’.  They are pretty far-fetched situations but Cotton is a good guy and the stories are good — always weaving interesting historical facts (and fiction) with economics, geo-political realities (and fake).  The miles fly by.

Here is our shadow racing along the dry desert between Lovelock (Hi OJ!) and Reno.

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Our favorite breakfast spot, The Cowpoke Cafe (one word: BISCUITS) in Lovelock is closed on Sunday so I started Yelping.  Bob really wanted to do a breakfast buffet.  In a casino.  In Reno.  So I read him reviews and checked out websites.  We settled on Sterlings in the Silver Legacy.  It had an extraordinary amount of good reviews that felt ‘real’.

We were standing at the entrance to Sterling’s at 5 minutes to 9a behind two other couples waiting for the 9a open.  We were seated in a leather booth in a lovely room with snowy tablecloths and napkins.  The table settings included multiple (nice, heavy silver) forks and knives along with water goblets, champagne flutes and china coffee cups.  Our handsome waistcoated waiter poured Bob orange juice, me ice water, and both of us Proseco and coffee.  He gave us the lay of the land and off we went.  O M G.  I don’t have much experience with buffets except for the one at the Paris but this one is incredible!  Breakfast food: scrambled eggs, omelet station, every sort of breakfast meat, waffles, pancakes, blintzes, every imaginable breakfast bread, pastry, muffin, bagel, etc.  Seafood:  snow crab claws, salmon – hot smoked, lox and gravlaax, herring – pickled plain and in sour cream, sushi (California rolls), prawns, seafood salads.  Huge assortment of cheese. Salad bar. Yogurts and cereal, hot and cold, with every possible add-in, add-on.  Ex-breakfast food: lollipop lamb chops, Asian beef, beef with broccoli, roasted salmon, beef tenderloin hash, roasted potatoes (many kinds of different potato dishes), roasted asparagus, roasted mixed vegetables (red peppers, zucchini, broccoli)… and on and on and on.  Oh and the dessert selection was enormous.  I will try to remember what Bob had but I was too busy enjoying my own choices to pay much attention.  Bob: lamb chops, potatoes, blintz, waffle, bacon, prawns, crab claws, three smallish desserts.  Me (all 2-3 bites except where noted): roast salmon, a lamb chop, mixed vegs, asparagus, sushi (one piece not a whole roll), prawn, salmon all three ways (seconds…. ), plain herring (seconds… ), greens with red pepper, mushrooms, artichoke hearts, tomato.  Maybe more herring and gravlaax.  And Ishrae, our lovely waiter, would have filled up my glass with the entire bottle of Proseco if I didn’t stop him at about two.  Turns out he moved to SF from Pakistan in 1982, lived at Buchanan and Union Street and worked at Perry’s, Disco 2000 and other places until in moved to Reno in the late ’90s.  Became a HUGE 49er fan when his buddy took him to a game, even though Ishrae didn’t really understand football.  It turned out to be the game Dwight made THE CATCH and Ishrae was a fan ever since.  He is also a Harbaugh fan and watched the Harbaugh brothers’ Super Bowl in Pakistan at 2:30 in the morning, staying up all night.  He was so kind and soft-spoken and truly a Professional server from the old school.  It was a great experience!!  Even though it seems pricey ($40 per person), the quality of the food, the service, the decor and atmosphere make it seem reasonable.  We will definitely do it again.

Rest of the trip was thankfully uneventful notwithstanding the idiots who don’t know how to drive in the mountains or the meaning of SLOWER TRAFFIC STAY TO THE RIGHT.   Even with typical slowdowns at 80/50 merge and through Vacaville etc we made it home by 1:30 to watch the 49ers (barely) win one last game for Coach.

A truly wonderful trip.  Already planning next year…….