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