Reno Air Races

Well, I had never been to the Reno Air Races before. What an event!!! If you have any interest in airplanes or racing this is an absolutely MUST SEE. There is excitment all day long between the air races themselves and the aerobatic performers between races. Military aircraft, skydivers, displays of aircraft you will probably not be able to see anywhere else....I could go on and on. The event was held Sept. 11-16.

The Hotel: There were 14 of us staying in 7 rooms at Fitzgeralds. I had never stayed there before and when looking it up I was a little concerned but it turned out to be groundless. I quess all the rooms had been renovated in 1999 and although they were nothing special they we all clean and intact with firm beds and nice bathrooms. Nobody complained about anything. Some of us had rooms overlooking the train tracks (north side) but they have put a concrete lid over the tracks now and if you turn the a\c on and close the windows there is very little noise. We didn%26#39;t even notice it.

Food: We ate in the Fitzgerald dining room one nite and had the prime rib special. All good. Other nites we walked down to the Silver Legacy and ate at the buffet. Good selection and reasonable price. Everyone ate too much.

Service: On this forum I read a negative comment on customer service in Reno from an ';in business'; individual from Kansas. I would like to point out that in the western U.S. and in western Canada service industry people are becoming incredibly hard to find and to keep. It is my opinion that the service levels in Reno are as good or better than in many other tourist centres I have visited in the last 3 years. They are trying to do the job with the resources available.

We had a free day on Monday before leaving so we took a car ride around Lake Tahoe heading west on 80 to Truckee and then down the west side of the lake, around the bottom (south end), and then through Stateside, Carson City, and back to Reno. Beautiful scenery and I guess we were driving by some of the most expensive real estate known to man while driving around the lake. At the north end of Lake Tahoe there is a marina that has lots of heritage wooden speedboats in their showroom. Beautiful to look at, very expensive to own. Its worth a look.

All in all a very fun but too short vacation and I will certainly return next year if at all possible.

Den