Tonopah Staff Weekend: Sightseeing Day

Those members of the Westercon 74 staff and committee who arrived in Tonopah last night had today for the pre-meeting sightseeing.

( Breakfast at the Station )

After breakfast and the Central Nevada Museum, it was on to the Tonopah Historic Mining Park.

( A Ride in the Park )

After the Mining Park, most of us went to lunch at the A&W in the Mizpah Club, which is adjacent to the Mizpah Hotel, and is on the ground floor of the building where the upper floor is our largest single programming space for Westercon. I rather expect a lot of our members next year will be eating here.

After lunch, some of us convoyed out to the Eye of Sauron/Mad Scientist's Death Ray Crescent Dunes solar thermal power plant. I forgot to get a picture of our group out there, for which I apologize.

That was a pretty busy day, and I'm writing this as we've all retreated to our respective hotel rooms for a bit of rest, checking email, etc. Lisa and I are staying in one of the smaller kitchenette queen rooms, which we toured last week and decided to try compared to where we stayed last week.

( Room 21 Photos )

Later this evening, those of us who arrived yesterday will meet with those people arriving this afternoon and we'll work out various dinner plans. Tomorrow is going to be a very busy day, as we'll have to fit what I'd rather have two days to do into one day, but we'll manage.

Tonopah Staff Weekend: Friday Dinner

There are now enough Westercon 74 committee and staff members here that it would be difficult for us all to go out to dinner as a single group. Besides that, some of the team ate last night at the place that many of us wanted to eat tonight. So whew we gathered in the lobby of the Mizpah Hotel, we broke into two groups: one group went to the Bamboo Chinese Kitchen inside the Banc Club just north of downtown, while the rest of us (including me and Lisa) went to the Tonopah Brewing Company. Lisa got the combination platter while I got the burnt ends and also a starter of deep fried dill pickles.

( Saucy Photo )

The barbecue was excellent. It's a good thing that we have a mini-fridge and a microwave oven, though, because we had leftovers to take back to the hotel.

The Tonopah Brewing Company is across the street from the Best Western Hi-Desert Inn, and an easy walk from the Mizpah/Belvada. They have improved their atmosphere and menu since the last time we looked in on them a few years ago, and I now recommend them. They can even take fairly large groups at their "common table." There were eight of us and probably could have managed twice that. No reservations are accepted, and they won't split checks for groups larger than six, but they also don't add an automatic gratuity, which actually led me to tip more than the usual auto-tip.