Dr. Mike's Manly Vacation, Day 1

Probably the most manly place to vacation in the US is Nevada, and the most manly part of Nevada is Northern Nevada. While Las Vegas has more people--mostly transplants from Caliofrnia--Norhtern Nevada is old school Nevada, where a combination of Mormonism, real cowboys and libertarian values created a society where gambling, whoring, and fully automatic weapons are all legal.

We aren't even vacationing in Reno. We're in Fallon, a town of 8,000 people and three times that many cows, current home of Top Gun, and for some strange reason a stop on the NHRA circut. It also has a 1/4 mile dirt oval right next to a trap range, a great big Walmart and six small town casinos. Real cowboys and real sailors roll into the Nuget to play Texas Holdem all night long.

On our first full day here we did what everybody else was doing. We went to the high school rodeo. That's right, Fallon has a high school rodeo. This is where real cowboys are born and raised. They went through all the regular events except for bull riding. That night we drove to Reno, a much more manly town then Vegas any day, to celebrate a friend's birthday. We went to a steakhouse, of course. Ruby River, which had prime rib you could cut with a fork. It's right accross the street from the peppermill Casino, and a world away from New York City.