You’ve may have read by now that Therese comes from New York-not Buffalo, or Rochester, or Binghamton or Albany-Long Island New York. There lives a big Italian family who she misses very much and will hop on a plane for no reason just to visit them. So when one of them head west anywhere in California or Northern Nevada-she’s there and she will see them. So when her cousin Gina announced that she was going on a comped trip to Harrah’s in Reno Therese and Rob hopped in a car and were there. It helped that Harrah’s arranged for a second comp room and the ‘luxurious’ accommodations were free.
Now Reno. Have you been to Reno lately? Well when we got there and found Gina she suggested we go for a walk along whatever the main road is. It isn’t a strip-I’m not sure what it is. It’s the road. ..Kind of like that book and movie…in fact we may have been a post apocalyptic set of a movie waiting for the zombies to attack. But Gina saw a sign for the biggest margarita in Nevada and that’s where we were going.
Since the walk to Circus Circus to hunt down this drink was one we made quickly. First of all we wanted this state champion drink-second of all it’s pretty creepy here. So we made it to the casino where we noticed a man bent over by the curb. “Hey what’s that guy doing?” What was that guy doing? He was getting sick right there on the sidewalk.
We muscled our way through Circus Circus which reminded me of Chuck E. Cheese on Steroids to find the stand where they sold the biggest drink in Nevada. Not just Reno mind you-the whole state. Gina owns a bar and as the expert decided our best bet was Hawaiian Punch and Rum. I don’t remember how much rum but I Do remember it was going to contain 64 ounces of Hawaiian Punch. Now I am on day 7 of the 17 day diet and I’m pretty sure gallons of Hawaiian Punch are not part of the plan-that’s okay I’ll drink lots of water.
Our drinks came with a harness and a super long straw-so we strapped it on and we ventured back out onto the streets trying to avoid the walking dead. Now I’m not much of a gambler-I can play the slots but other than that I’m quite intimidated by anything involving a table-but this is Reno-there are no intimidating gamblers and I had my cousin Gina here to show me the ropes. So when we sat down at a 5 dollar Black Jack Table I said “teach me to play!” And the fun began.
The dealer was very nice and told us her name was Liz and asked us about us and where we were from. I think we both said New York and it came up that we were Italians married to Irishmen and that Gina owned a bar. Liz told us that the name of the two guys playing at the end of the table and said her and the guy at the end were related because they were both named Ferguson. Everyone was very patient as I learned that you can’t take out your cell phone, or takes pictures, or breathes, and when I should or shouldn’t hit etc. The four of us were there for a long time with different fifth people jumping in and out of the games.
We kept on playing. Gina kept refilling her giant rum and punch with drinks from the cocktail waitress-literally she would pour it right back into her harnessed drink holder. I was at this point drinking bottled water. First of all I had done pretty well with that drink but I was on the 17 day diet after all. Besides, I sort of kept dropping things by mistake into my giant drink so I was done. We swapped stories with our table mates and bopped along with 80s music being played in the casino.
Well we were all having a great time when suddenly a song at least familiar to me came over the loudspeaker. Rock your Body by the Black Eyed Peas. This song was from this decade (maybe the 00s but regardless it was younger than the other songs by far) to me this was a welcome relief. I’m a top 40 fan-I listen to it to work out. Gina pretty much is a classic rock girl. After all she owns a biker bar. Liz the dealer said “would you play this song in your bar?” Gina replies in her Gina like way “I would never play this crap in my bar-this sucks” Now the guy at the end of the bar who had been pleasant enough and wasn’t a freak-but just a guy with a baseball cap, an Hawaiian shirt and some cargo shorts, speaks up and says “I’m Fergie’s Dad.”
Well –if you know this common girl you know one thing about me….I am relentless-and Gina is me times 10. We just laid into this guy-right Fergie’s dad is playing the 5 dollar table in Reno. Then we drilled him with questions about Fergie and laughed and laughed we never for a minute bought it and we never stopped. At one point his friend turned to me and said “He really is Fergie’s dad.” And we laughed and laughed and mocked this guy some more.
There was something however, about the way Fergie’s dad looked, the sad look on his face when he got up that made me think ‘uh-oh”. Whatever -the fun continued with other table mates and other dealers for hours after that. But there was something about that guy and the look on his face that kind of made me think hmmm..But come on –Reno? 5 dollar black jack? No way.
Well the night ended and we woke up the next day-had the fabulous breakfast buffet and hit the road for the five hour ride home. But of course- I couldn’t stop thinking in the back of my mind that that guy might have indeed been Fergie’s dad. So I hit my friend Google and alas was shocked to find out…he was indeed. Commoners and celebrity family members should not mix in commoner territory. That is the lesson to be learned.
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