By the River (4th Blog for Northline)

            Anita and I found our way out of that Cal Neva and back onto the streets, and we decided to head back to the river. We went over to the river to see the same setting that was also in the book Northline on page 144.  Allison was finished with her shift at the Cal Neva and she decided to take a walk down by the river to relax a little bit. She ran into Dan Mahony while on her walk, and after some convincing, he took her to get coffee at the Cal Neva lunch counter.

The route of our adventures.
A: UNR
 B: Cal Neva
C: The Little Nugget
D: The Eldorado
The random circle at the bottom: The River Walk

            As Anita and I were walking from Cal Neva towards the river, I realized that the route we took was probably the same exact route that Allison took that day after work.  We were walking from the Cal Neva to the river, and so was she.  I understand why Allison would choose to take a stroll by the river after work one day, because the river is really beautiful and calming. I’m not sure if the river walk was constructed yet in the time frame that this book takes place, but if it were, then Allison would have been headed toward beautiful fountains and bridges.

The view across the river

            When Allison saw Dan, she was not too excited to talk to him and almost wanted to avoid him.  It sort of bugged me, how unwilling she was to make friends. I know she had a difficult past and all, but there is no way for her to get over her abusive ex-boyfriend, Jimmy, unless she lets herself.  I think Allison was too closed off from the world and she did not try hard enough to give herself a good life.  With that being said, this walk that she took, and the resulting “coffee date” afterword, was really a turning point in her life, because she was leaving behind the old “girl” and actually becoming Allison, the person she was meant to be the entire time.

            When Allison was going towards the beauty of the river after a long night at work, it could symbolize her trying to find the beauty in herself after she has gone so many years of being beaten down.  There is beauty inside each and every one of us, and all Allison had to do was find it.

            Anita and I walked by the river and we observed a lot of interesting happenings.  As we were walking, a few older men started asking us how our day was, and somewhat harassing us, and I felt a little bit frightened. Downtown can be a somewhat scary place, and Allison did a very good job of surviving it without being scared off.  We saw some pigeons that were all sitting on a ledge on a bridge, and it was just strange how there were so many of them peacefully sitting there and not really doing anything.  I have never understood birds, especially pigeons.  It was nice to see the birds living in complete harmony with each other, and not squawking annoyingly or getting into fights.

The pigeons on the Bridge

            The walk by the river was relaxing and really peaceful, and I feel like I’ve grown closer to the character of Allison, and I understand her better now that I have retraced some of her steps.

Top Deck Restaurant (3rd Blog for Northline)

            Anita and I walked out of the Eldorado and continued south on Virginia Street until we found the Cal Neva casino.  This was our next destination for retracing Allison Johnson’s steps, because Allison worked for the Top Deck Restaurant, which is located on the third floor of the Cal Neva.  We walked into the Cal Neva through the front doors, and my first opinion was that the Cal Neva is not as nice as the Eldorado or the Silver Legacy.  The Cal Neva was filled with a layer of cigarette smoke, and it was full of people gambling. Anita and I looked at each other, and we headed straight to the nearest escalator.  We did not know which level the restaurant was on, but we assumed that since it was named “Top Deck” that it probably is not on the first floor.  We got off the escalator on the 2^nd floor and walked around, and we saw another escalator up with a sign above it that pointed upward for the Top Deck restaurant.  We rode the escalator up, and it let us off on the 3^rd floor.  I had never been inside the Cal Neva before, and neither had Anita, so we were both clueless as to where the restaurant was located, but Anita saw a sign that said that the restaurant was to the right, so we went right. We finally found the Top Deck Restaurant, and we looked inside.

The Cal Neva

            The Top Deck Restaurant is an important setting in Northline, by Willy Vlautin, because Allison works as a waitress here fulltime.  Allison works the graveyard shift, and while doing this, she meets some interesting people, and she starts to become friends with some of the regular costumers.  This is the first place in Reno that she starts to feel comfortable at, and she starts to enjoy her job.  She meets Dan at the Top Deck, because he comes and eats breakfast here once a week.  Allison and Dan slowly become friends, and by the end of the book, Dan has become Allison’s closest friend in Reno.

Top Deck Restaurant

            Anita and I walked up to the restaurant and I took some pictures of the front of it.  A waitress who worked there asked us if we were eating there, and I responded by telling her that we were just observing it and visiting it for an English assignment.  The waitress seemed a little confused, but she seemed content with the answer, and she went back to her duties for her job.  Anita and I looked at the restaurant’s menu, and we tried to find Dan’s usual breakfast meal on the menu, and we ended up finding: Classic Breakfast, $5.95, 3 eggs any style, choice of ham, bacon or sausage, served with hash browns & toast.  We took a picture of the menu, because we were excited to find something that directly correlated to the book. 

Dan's usual on the menu

            It was really interesting going to the place that Allison worked, and comparing its actual appearance to what I had pictured while I was reading the book.  I did not think that I would enjoy going on these walks as much as I did.

The book and the menu, together

The Dessert Buffet (2nd Blog for Northline)

           I walked out of my dorm around 2:00 in the afternoon on Saturday afternoon and headed for downtown Reno.  As I left the dorms, I looked at Anita, my walking buddy, and I asked her where she wanted to go to observe for the three walking blogs that we had yet to complete that were all based on the novel, Northline.  Anita said that she did not mind where we went, so I suggested that the first stop of our adventure for the day would be to go to the Eldorado. The Eldorado is one of the nicer casinos downtown, and it is attached to Circus Circus and The Silver Legacy.  We headed towards the casino, and I pulled out the book to review what events Allison experienced while at the Eldorado.  The book takes place in the Eldorado from page 153 to page 156.

The entrance of the Eldorado

            In Northline, by Willy Vlautin, Allison works at a Curt Vacuum office with a woman named Penny.  Penny has lived in Reno for many years, and she knows her way around town, so Penny takes Allison to the dessert buffet at the Eldorado after a day’s work in the office.  A storm was coming in and it was a cold evening.  Penny and Allison get their desserts, and Penny asks Allison about the boyfriend that she recently broke up with.  This is the first time that Allison tells anyone from Reno the story of her recent life in Vegas, and this is a huge step for Allison, because instead of avoiding her past, she is facing it.  Allison tells Penny that Jimmy, Allison’s ex-boyfriend, knows that she is in Reno, and Penny gives her the advice to call the police and alert them of the situation and to get a restraining order on Jimmy.  Allison brushes off this suggestion, but Allison takes Penny’s suggestion that Allison should get her GED seriously.

The buffet and the man with the mop

            Anita and I walked up to the Eldorado, and we discussed its similarities to the book as I took a couple pictures of it from the outside. We crossed the street and entered the casino and saw rows and rows of slot machines and tables. It is like in the book, “Penny lead her through the casino, past the tables, the endless rows of slot machines, the bars, up to the second floor and the dessert buffet.”  Like Penny and Allison, Anita and I looked for a way to the second floor, and we took a ride up the first escalator we saw.  I had been inside the Eldorado before, but I had never eaten in its dessert buffet, so it took us a while to try and find it.  We somehow ended up inside The Silver Legacy, and had to turn around because we were obviously headed in the wrong direction.  The odd thing about casinos is that the lighting inside makes it seem like it is around 5 o’clock in the afternoon, and the lighting never changes.  I took some pictures of fountains and decorations, and then I say a sign that read, “Buffet” in the distance.  I pointed towards it to lead Anita over there, and briskly walked towards it.  We got there and the buffet was void of people except for a man mopping the entrance.  We found the buffet, but it wasn’t open.

The fountains

           We looked inside to the seating areas and tried to imagine Allison and Penny sitting there and having dessert.  I looked at my watch and realized that we had to go to two other locations before the sun set and it got dark, so we found our way out of the Eldorado and headed towards our next destination: the Top Deck inside of the CalNeva. 

The Eldorado

Awful Awful (1st Blog for Northline)

On Tuesday, November 6, I went on a walk downtown at about 5:00 in the afternoon.  Anita and Terrayna joined me on my adventure to the Awful Awful, which is located in The Little Nugget.  We left the Nevada Living and Learning Community and began our trek towards the Awful Awful.  We discussed taking the Sierra Spirit bus, but decided against it, because in the novel, Northline Allison spent most of the book walking from place to place, and not always utilizing public entertainment.

Going inside the Awful Awful

Anita and Terrayna had never been to the Awful Awful at the Nugget, so I was very excited to be the first person to take them to this restaurant.  I have lived in Reno for over seven years, so I, on the other hand, have had many opportunities to go to Awful Awful and experience the deliciously unhealthy burger and fries.  We ordered our meal, and we decided to split two burgers between the three of us.  Both Terrayna and Anita were unsure of why I insisted that we did not order a burger for each of us, but once we got the food, they realized that we still would not be able to finish all of the food while splitting it amongst us.

We had the cook cut the burger in thirds

In Northline, by Willy Vlautin, Allison Johnson is the main character, and she moved to Reno to escape from her abusive boyfriend, Jimmie, who lived in Las Vegas.  Allison ends up eating at the Awful Awful after she takes a second job working as a vacuum telemarketer.  It was the last day of Allison’s first week working at the vacuum company, and Penny, her coworker/boss took Allison out for dinner at the Awful Awful.  While they were there, the book goes into detail about how the casino part of The Little Nugget was half full of old men on the slot machines, and when I was at the Awful Awful, I realized that the majority of the people who were using the slot machines did happen to be older men.  As Anita, Terrayna, and I ate our food, we sat in the back of the casino in the little restaurant, similar to where Penny and Allison sat while they ate.

Me with our food!

Allison and Penny discuss marriage and fitness while at the Awful Awful, and this is somewhat ironic, because it is odd to talk about getting in shape while eating a burger from the Awful Awful.  In specific, Penny tells Allison about how Penny gained over 170 pounds after getting married, and she said she did this by eating at the Awful Awful almost two times a week.  Penny tells Allison about how her husband did not appreciate how much weight Penny gained, and how it was the main reason for the breakup.  This was an important piece of information to the story, because it shows that both Penny and Allison do not have an easy life when it comes to men, and this may be the reason that they connect so well and become instant friends.  Also, Penny talks about how she has just accepted herself the way she is, and how she hated herself for many years, and this applies to Allison, because Allison has major self-esteem problems, so Penny can relate to those problems.

It was interesting to retrace the steps of a character in a book, and it is eerie how much Reno is the same as it was in the time period that this book was based on, but also how much Reno has changed.  Many of the places that Allison went to on her journeys are not even still existent in Reno, and this shows that there have been some major changes occur in the culture and history of Reno since this book has been written. 

Our walk back to the dorms

Anita, Terrayna and I finished our burgers, but not the fries, and we started our journey back up Virginia street and into our dorms.