Reno Success

There was some snow on the way to Reno


Arriving left and departing right, at Reno.

We made it to Reno. The train left Emeryville on time and arrived only one hour late in Reno. Not sure why other than it appears to be the way things work. Most of the snow is gone but there was some at the top. Nice views, great weather. We enjoyed a late lunch about 2pm in the dining car.

It's nice taking the train "to" Reno. It's the "from" that's usually the problem. The station is right by the casinos, only two blocks to ours, the Silver Legacy. We had dinner at the Cafe Napa at Harrah's. Very good.

Neither Lou nor I are big gamblers, probably don't even qualify as little gamblers. We looked around a lot.

Monday we walked out to the Atlantis Casino from downtown. On the way we had breakfast, then stopped in several antique shops, various other stores, and the Peppermill Casino. It was only three miles to the Atlantis, but then there was the inevitable three miles back. A nice walk. We had dinner at the Silver Legacy buffet. Only OK.

Tuesday we took the river walk out to the Grand Sierra Resort (the old MGM Grand / Reno Hilton). Only 2.6 miles. We had lunch at Johnny Rockets sharing a milk shake and onion rings. We're getting smarter. We bought day passes for the bus for $4 each. When we got back downtown, we caught a bus to Sparks. Looked around the Nugget and Silver Club and the shops nearby. We then returned to our casino and had dinner at the Brew Brothers pub in the El Dorado Casino. Quite good.

Our train was scheduled to leave at 9:14 am. We had to do the unthinkable. We set the alarm for 6am. I called Amtrak to check on the train. It was running 3 hrs late so there was no hurry, back to bed we went. We had breakfast at the Circus Circus then called for the train status again. Their system wasn't working so we stopped by the train station. The train was now expected about 2:30 pm.

Since our day pases for the bus were good until 3pm, we rode the bus South on Virginia St. to see what there was further out. We stopped at the huge Meadowwood Mall, checked the place out and returned downtown via a different route going up Keitzke Lane. When we checked the train status again it was now expected about 3-3:30. We had lunch at the Silver Legacy's Sweetwater Cafe. Lou had a good cobb salad and I had a cashew chicken. Good place.

We headed for the train station about 2:30. At about 3pm I called for the train status and it was now expected about 4pm. They finally got it right, it arrived 3:59pm and departed abut 4:15 pm only 7 hours late. We did enjoy daylight through the area with snow but most of the ride was after dark. We arrived in Emeryville at 11:30pm. One nice thing about the delay is that we avoided the rush hour traffic. We got home about 12:20 am. All in all, a nice trip.

P.S.

The day after our return, there was a big fire that burnt hundreds of feet of trestle just East of Sacramento. No trains will get through between Sacremento and Reno for weeks. Just made the trip in time!