I extended my last Las Vegas trip and popped into Tahoe for a couple of days prior to coming home. As the plane was in its descent I looked out the window and was a bit shocked. The wildfires from California and had made their way into Reno and I was greeted with a hazy, orange colored sky. I just shook my head and wished I hadn't extended the trip. The air in Tahoe was even worse as the poor air quality settled between the mountain with no wind to blow it away. I entered Mont Bleu and the entire casino smelled like a burnt forest. They were fine with the face shields (my host had said it needed to be a mask). Admittedly, if I had an N95 mask, I would have worn it by choice with the unhealthy air quality. Flights back were about 5x what I paid for my flight so I figured I'd suck it up (hopefully not literally) and make the best of it. Surprisingly, table limits were as high as Vegas on the craps table so I continued to play the dark side. I ended up picking up a few hundred at the tables and a few hundred on sports which got me back to even (was down about $900 when I got there from the last few days in Vegas).
I've always enjoyed talking with the dealers as there's a real sense of community. Most of them know me so they were happy to open up and tell me what's they've gone through since the pandemic started. And FWIW, I like these people because they don't care about your politics for the most part and seem to be straight shooters. And I would say if you lean to the extreme on either side, you probably wouldn't have felt all that comfortable if you engaged them in a conversation because they would tell you how they felt and not hold back any punches.
I told them on the way over, the freeways were like the Indianapolis 500. They smiled and said the highway patrol is taking a hands off approach unless you are being completely reckless. They simply didn't want to be involved with anything they didn't deem as absolutely necessary due to the negative press the police were getting. The dealers didn't like wearing the masks but understood the necessity for it and wanted to make sure the casino didn't get closed back down (but they were pretty much over it). I saw them do the mask pull thing every few minutes to get some extra air (it's still laughable to me to think about the "Karens" that would insist masks don't impact your breathing). One of the dealers showed me the irritation on her face from her sweating underneath. Then she showed me her hands and said she didn't think she even had finger prints anymore due to the harsh chemicals they had to use to clean their hands. With that said, if you came in claiming the whole thing was a hoax and tried to be defiant, they'd give you the middle finger and cheer when security threw you out of the casino (I pretty much thought the same thing of people who wouldn't abide by the same rules we all had to deal with on my first trip to Vegas). Oh, and of note, their bar was open. They laughed at people that tried to claim that the riots had no impact on the increase in hospitalizations and said it was one of the main culprits that caused it, in addition to the influx of people from California who came to vacation (and they were apparently blitzed with visitors). They told me on the way out of town, that I should visit downtown Reno to see how the rioters had trashed the city.
The day I arrived the air quality was 170 (150-200 is considered unhealthy). On the Saturday I left, the air quality was a 253 (above 200 is very unhealthy). I had planned on taking a hike on Friday prior to seeing the air quality (all the hiking trails were closed).
It was nice to be leaving there but enjoyable in many respects to hear what they were going through and realize that I didn't have it so bad in Texas.
I've always enjoyed talking with the dealers as there's a real sense of community. Most of them know me so they were happy to open up and tell me what's they've gone through since the pandemic started. And FWIW, I like these people because they don't care about your politics for the most part and seem to be straight shooters. And I would say if you lean to the extreme on either side, you probably wouldn't have felt all that comfortable if you engaged them in a conversation because they would tell you how they felt and not hold back any punches.
I told them on the way over, the freeways were like the Indianapolis 500. They smiled and said the highway patrol is taking a hands off approach unless you are being completely reckless. They simply didn't want to be involved with anything they didn't deem as absolutely necessary due to the negative press the police were getting. The dealers didn't like wearing the masks but understood the necessity for it and wanted to make sure the casino didn't get closed back down (but they were pretty much over it). I saw them do the mask pull thing every few minutes to get some extra air (it's still laughable to me to think about the "Karens" that would insist masks don't impact your breathing). One of the dealers showed me the irritation on her face from her sweating underneath. Then she showed me her hands and said she didn't think she even had finger prints anymore due to the harsh chemicals they had to use to clean their hands. With that said, if you came in claiming the whole thing was a hoax and tried to be defiant, they'd give you the middle finger and cheer when security threw you out of the casino (I pretty much thought the same thing of people who wouldn't abide by the same rules we all had to deal with on my first trip to Vegas). Oh, and of note, their bar was open. They laughed at people that tried to claim that the riots had no impact on the increase in hospitalizations and said it was one of the main culprits that caused it, in addition to the influx of people from California who came to vacation (and they were apparently blitzed with visitors). They told me on the way out of town, that I should visit downtown Reno to see how the rioters had trashed the city.
The day I arrived the air quality was 170 (150-200 is considered unhealthy). On the Saturday I left, the air quality was a 253 (above 200 is very unhealthy). I had planned on taking a hike on Friday prior to seeing the air quality (all the hiking trails were closed).
It was nice to be leaving there but enjoyable in many respects to hear what they were going through and realize that I didn't have it so bad in Texas.
