Quoted from mof:Great photo ops, and then you get to see all the massive oakland cranes up close (the inspiration for the At-Ats in Empire)...
-mof
Yep. While attending USC film school in L.A. George Lucas was exposed to the massive dual ports LA/LB and their cranes. Here’s one being retrofitted at Long Beach port 140 I snapped a pic of 5 minutes ago. A few miles away Spielberg went to Long Beach State University.
Quoted from Pinzzz:150 posts later... and Rotordave isn't in one picture?. he takes all the pictures, including the ones while he's driving?
Technically speaking he was in one (with Odin), from a previous jaunt i believe. We are yet to see a pic off an rd high kick though 
I know i couldn't do one, probably snap a hip or something of that nature, at the least it would cause fart city breakout 
What a great Adventure road trip.
Your seeing many of California's Gold. (Plug for Huell Howser)
Hope to catch up with you in so cal if you have time. When down here and you have a chance, have dinner at Ayce Gogi , Shane's great dinner pin parlor. Also known as doomid here on pinside.
Merry Christmas to you and family and what a great place to have a Holiday break.
Quoted from rotordave:Drove around downtown Reno today.
Got to say, she’s a bit of a ghost town around there!
A few of the casinos were closed down, quite a few empty stores.
We parked in Cal-Neva Casino, when you entered the casino there was a 1980s nightclub haze of smoke from the motley crew of gamblers in there. The glass front door had been kicked in, there was a bit of plywood taped over the hole which looked like it had been there for some time.
The Main Street was pretty void of traffic ... so doing a high kick in the middle of the street was as safe as going one on the footpath!
The town has added some art pieces around the place to spark it up a little. The stained glass whale was pretty cool. We joked that the BELIEVE sign may have had the BE added in error lolll
Always a shame to see an area in a state like this ... I don’t know what would turn it around. You can’t have outside drinking like Downtown Vegas, cause it’s too cold ... maybe Winter Festivals or something? But all the casinos would need to clean up their act first ... dunno. It’s a hard one.
rd
Yeah, all of the indian casinos that have been popping up all over the place have really hurt Reno's tourism. I remember going there in the early 1980's & it was very much alive. Sad to see all of the closed casinos now.
Quoted from Pinzzz:150 posts later... and Rotordave isn't in one picture?. he takes all the pictures, including the ones while he's driving?
Yeah, nobody wants to see me. 
And I admit to taking a few quick snaps while driving ... all the other drivers in CA and NV are having hour long, in-depth conversations on their phones while they aim their cars at me, so I don’t feel guilty at all.
Using a cell while driving is illegal in NZ ... really, it should be everywhere. It’s proven to be distracting.
rd
Quoted from rotordave:Here ya go.
rd
My eggnog just went through my nose!
i.e. don’t read pinside mid swallow...
Hot beverages being the worst! 
Quoted from rotordave:Probably not much to see out there Art, if the hippies aren’t there ...
I know a few kiwis that go to Burning Man every year. Not really my bag, but whatever turns them on ...
rd
They also use that dry lake bed for land speed record runs. LET’S SEE WHAT THAT RENTAL MINI VAN CAN DO!!!
Quoted from MrArt2u:They also use that dry lake bed for land speed record runs. LET’S SEE WHAT THAT RENTAL MINI VAN CAN DO!!!
I’ll give you the tip - not much! Haha
rd
Quoted from AlexF:If you happen through Virginia City, stop at the Historic "Haunted" Washoe Club. My brother Barry bartends there. He's a metalhead like you.
Today we went to Virginia City to see Barry!
Barry no longer works at the Washoe Club, so the lady on the counter says. But she said we might see him walking around town ...
Check out the pics of the club ... it’s all bent in the middle!
rd
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So we drove about 35 Mins south of Reno to go to Virginia City. It’s a gold mining town that dates back to the 1850s. The TV show Bonanza was based around this area, the fictional “Ponderosa” being “two hours horse ride” from Virginia City.
It’s really cool! Pretty much the whole Main Street is original. Half the buildings look like a decent gust of wind would knock them over.
All the footpaths are the original timber ones like you see in the westerns.
Here’s some pics of the Main Street ....
rd
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We met a couple of characters there.
First up, there was “Stinky” who owned Bernadine the donkey. “Stinky” smelt more than the donkey. Haha! If you held a carrot in your mouth, Bernadine would eat it out of your mouth.
Stinky liked the look of Fiona so he gave her his card (below..) ... I better watch my back ...
We also met a guy walking his pig. As one does ...
rd
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Then we drove down the road to Gold Hill and Silver City.
Both places are a lot smaller, but still a lot of history.
There are still active mines around, and heaps of abandoned ones.
You see a lot of fenced off mines which are basically holes in the ground.
rd
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Then we met up with local pinhead Michael @bellystyle. He has a heap of games, many out on location around Reno. He also helps out Rick at PPS now he has moved to Sparks (part of Reno)
Michael has some cool games at his place, including Joust, Barracora, Alien Star amongst others.
rd
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After a while, we all headed around to Clint’s house, where Michael has a few other games stored. I wanted to check out the Rotation VIII, which is a rare Midway 4 player cocktail game from 1978/79.
What’s unusual about Rotation VIII is the playfield rotates automatically to each player when it’s their turn to play. Very cool! It’s layout is based off Bally’s Eight Ball ... it’s very addictive to play.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2019
Clint also had this custom VW in his garage ... it was fitted with a custom fibreglass front end which you used to be able to buy. This car was a showroom model for the mods.
We also played Clint’s TX Sector and RoboWars which were great fun.
Thanks guys!
rd
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Hey Dave and family. Love following along with your travels. The mine town pictures are awesome! The bar drink specials peeked my interest. Hot Chocolate and whipped vodka? What is whipped vodka? Sounds yummy.
That rotation VIII looks sweet! Most cocktail pins I've come across aren't very fun. That Joust looks interesting as well.
Any shows or concerts planned rd?
Quoted from rotordave:Today we went to Virginia City to see Barry!
Barry no longer works at the Washoe Club, so the lady on the counter says. But she said we might see him walking around town ...
Check out the pics of the club ... it’s all bent in the middle!
rd
Dang it Barry, he always was kind of a loose cannon. Looks like a fun place to visit anyway.
Quoted from rotordave:After a while, we all headed around to Clint’s house, where Michael has a few other games stored. I wanted to check out the Rotation VIII, which is a rare Midway 4 player cocktail game from 1978/79, just before they were bought out by Bally.
What’s unusual about Rotation VIII is the playfield rotates automatically to each player when it’s their turn to play. Very cool! It’s layout is based off Bally’s Eight Ball ... it’s very addictive to play.
http://www.ipdb.org/machine.cgi?id=2019
Clint also had this custom VW in his garage ... it was fitted with custom fibreglass front end which you used to be able to buy. This car was a showroom model for the mods.
We also played Clint’s TX Sector and RoboWars which were great fun.
Thanks guys!
rd
Just a quick note, Bally bought Midway in 1969.
Quoted from MrBally:Just a quick note, Bally bought Midway in 1969.
That’s what happens when you update your thread at 1.30am.
rd
Quoted from wallybgood:Hey RD
Thanks for posting your adventures. Look forward to every new pic.
Merry Christmas
Wally
Merry Xmas Wally. Hope all is good up your way.
rd
Xmas day in Reno!
Just had a quiet day today ... hung around the hotel most of the day.
Went for a Xmas Buffet at the hotel which was interesting. I’m not really a buffet guy ... I don’t really like them for a couple of reasons:
- don’t really like bits and pieces food, give me a proper meal!
- can’t eat enough to really get any value
- Food is usually crappy
In saying that, we decided to have one for a change. It was pretty good, they had prime rib which I like, most the stuff was pretty nice and they kept replenishing it regularly so it didn’t go cold and manky.
Buffets seem to be the #1 choice of “very large people” and there were quite a few there today, making sure they got their $26.95 worth.
I had effectively a 3 course meal which is far more than I ever eat ... so I spent the rest of the afternoon with food remorse! Haha
We went for a walk around the casino to walk some of it off, there’s not really much going on around this corner of Sparks. The Nugget is pretty busy though, the buffet queue was out the door all day.
rd
Quoted from lancestorm:Did Santa visit you on this vacation or are there presents at home?
Santa bought me 3x Ghirardelli single chocolate squares and a box of raisinettes!
And darn nice they were too.
We are very minimalist. Except for all the pinball machines ...
rd
Quoted from rotordave:had this custom VW in his garage ... it was fitted with a custom fibreglass front end which you used to be able to buy.
There was also an engine cover that gave the Beetle back end a bussle back look, so it more of a trunk appearance. Was trying to locate a photo on Google, it failed me again.
Drove down to South Lake Tahoe today.
The state line is right in the centre of the township ... Nevada one side, California the other.
Very pretty alpine town! There are some large casino hotels there, and lots of small hotels. Lots of people vacation here for the holidays, it was pretty busy. There’s a gondola up the mountain right in the middle of the Main Street.
We drove around the neighbourhoods right up to the highest street to get some pics.
Very similar town to Queenstown in NZ, but not quite as “boutique-y” as QT is.
rd
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On the way back we stopped in at Lake Spooner. It was all frozen over. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve seen a completely frozen lake.
They had some moss there that was really luminescent green.
And bears come and eat your dinner, so watch out!
rd
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Remember a week back I said that the Joystick light switch thing was one of the cooler things I’ve seen?
Well, Pinsider Carrie and husband Jawa have very kindly offered me their spare one for Xmas!
What a awesome gesture, and it’s really appreciated.
And that’s why Pinside is great.
I’ll be installing it in my gamesroom and kiwi pinballers can feel the awesomeness of my joystick!
rd
Last night in Reno tonight. We hit the road again tomorrow!
We have enjoyed this area ... from the original misgivings about the shady Cal-Neva casino and surrounding downtown area, we’ve turned around our opinions.
- The surrounding historic gold mining area is quite spectacular
- Virginia City is a must visit if you are around here. Don’t forget the surrounding gold/silver mining areas
- Lake Tahoe was very cool
- Reno is a very spread out city, we drove around most of it, and there doesn’t seem to be any really bad “don’t go” areas that I saw.
- Nugget Casino/hotel was totally acceptable and cheap as chips to stay in. $52 a night average.
The local government seems to be making Good progress in bringing big businesses and employment to the area. Tesla’s Gigafactory battery plant opened here this year with 1000 employees and they say it will have 10,000 employees by 2020. That’s gotta be great for the area. We saw other big warehouses for big companies here as well.
Photos taken from the road to Virginia City ... zoom in a bit to see Reno from afar.
rd
Quoted from rotordave:On the way back we stopped in at Lake Spooner. It was all frozen over. I’m pretty sure that’s the first time I’ve seen a completely frozen lake.
You need to come up to Canada. Our ponds, rivers and lakes are all frozen. It's currently -26 Celsius with wind chills of -39 here in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Haha 
Quoted from dirkdiggler:You need to come up to Canada. Our ponds, rivers and lakes are all frozen. It's currently -26 Celsius with wind chills of -39 here in North Battleford, Saskatchewan. Haha
Ahhhh .... ummmm .... one day!
Actually, I just remembered we went to the Arctic Circle in Finland for Xmas in 2011 from memory (we met the “real” Santa Claus which was quite an ethereal experience...) ... that was about the same temperatures up there. It was great fun having reindeer rides, dog sled rides and going on the huge tyre ride down the ice track. And we had dinner in an ice castle thing. All the plates and cups were made of ice too. Good times.
rd
Quoted from rotordave:Ahhhh .... ummmm .... one day!
Actually, I just remembered we went to the Arctic Circle in Finland for Xmas in 2011 from memory (we met the “real” Santa Claus which was quite an ethereal experience...) ... that was about the same temperatures up there. It was great fun having reindeer rides, dog sled rides and going on the huge tyre ride down the ice track. And we had dinner in an ice castle thing. All the plates and cups were made of ice too. Good times.
rd
I'd suggest visiting during summer. Much more pleasant!
I was searching how people celebrate Christmas around the world and Canada is notorious for kids writing Santa in the north pole. The postal code is H0H 0H0 
Love the photos of your trip RD! Sure looks like a lot of fun an actually inspires me to want to do the same. Your wife is just adorable with her high kicks too. She makes me laugh. I've gotta show my wife. That's something she would do too. Hope you have a ton of fun. How much longer is the trip?
Quoted from kklank:Love the photos of your trip RD! Sure looks like a lot of fun an actually inspires me to want to do the same. Your wife is just adorable with her high kicks too. She makes me laugh. I've gotta show my wife. That's something she would do too. Hope you have a ton of fun. How much longer is the trip?
Another couple of weeks.
Still lots to do!
PS your Elvira is still going sweetly!
rd
Quoted from rotordave:Remember a week back I said that the Joystick light switch thing was one of the cooler things I’ve seen?
Well, Pinsider Carrie and husband jawa have very kindly offered me their spare one for Xmas!
What a awesome gesture, and it’s really appreciated.
And that’s why Pinside is great.
I’ll be installing it in my gamesroom and kiwi pinballers can feel the awesomeness of my joystick!
rd
Is that upside down? Will it be installed the other way up down under?
Quoted from ajfclark:Is that upside down? Will it be installed the other way up down under?
I’ve yet to see how it works ... so doubt some twiddling will be required as USA light switches are upside down to everywhere else in the world (up for on, down for off ....)
rd
Quoted from rotordave:I’ve yet to see how it works ... so doubt some twiddling will be required as USA light switches are upside down to everywhere else in the world (up for on, down for off ....)
rd
There's an installation video:
I think you're right, I don't think those screw holes would line up with any of the light switches in my house.
Quoted from ajfclark:Is that upside down?
The only one I've ever seen was installed just as in the image: apparently upside down.
I still have not figured out how to make it turn the light on at my friend's place, where i just stumble down the stairs in the dark after poking at it on the wall briefly... Now he's going to read this and laugh at me...
Enjoying the pics RD!
As for joystick switch, I have one too and assuming you guys use the same toggle (Jon-decora) light switch as North America, it’s wise to swap the up and down of switch as the stick moves it the opposite direction.
BTW, I’ve had mine 5+ years and only recently changed batteries and has worked great. Best $1 I ever spent at Thinkgeek!
Quoted from dmacy:BTW, I’ve had mine 5+ years and only recently changed batteries and has worked great. Best $1 I ever spent at Thinkgeek!
$1? There's people flogging them for $75 USD on ebay: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Power-Up-Arcade-Light-Switch/263365177931
Quoted from ajfclark:$1? There's people flogging them for $75 USD on ebay: https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/Power-Up-Arcade-Light-Switch/263365177931
Those are the people who drive nice cars and pay off mortgages early.
We left Reno this morning ... lots of nothing out on Hwy95!
We reached a town called Mina, where I stopped to take a couple of photos of a sign. A local came out of his house and called out, so I went over for a chat. He was an interesting dude called Jeff. He had moved to Mina from Sacramento some years back to free up all his debts. Unfortunately his wife passed last year, so it was just him and his 2 dogs now. He was selling sections for $2000 each ... although so far, nobody had bought any.
We had a 20 minute chat about Trump, how the government owns 80% of the land in Nevada, the alien information that just came out, the Stealth plane Air Force bases in the area, and the big army base on 95 that is the worlds largest ammo dump.
He showed me his 1949 bus, it was the same age as he was. Cool dude.
rd
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We drove around Mina ... lots of trailer homes and deserted properties.
Luckily, they make good photos.
rd
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Then we headed on to Tonopah.
Tonopah is a historic silver mine town dating back to 1900.
First up, we looked at the miners cemetery. There were people buried here who had come from all around the world to hit the silver rush - England, Ireland, Finland, Greece ...
rd
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The rest of Tonopah was pretty run down ... there were some abandoned houses that showed glimpses of faded riches.
The Clown Motel looked pretty creepy ...
We noted that it offered a “Clan Room” ... spelling mistake? Maybe ...
The historic Mizpah Hotel sat empty for years, until it was renovated in 2009 to its former glory. You can stay here for $120 a night, if you’re lucky, one of the two prostitute ghosts may come and pay you a visit during the night ...
The other multi-storey building is being renovated into apartments and office space. Evidently, they are building more solar arrays out here so they think people will be wanting apartments ...
rd
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