Reno - The Adventure: Part 1

 

Hey guys! 

This past week we took a trip to Reno, Nevada to see where my parents live for the first time since they moved there. We decided to take the Amtrak California Zephyr there because A: its a long boring drive, B: it's relatively cheap and C: I really really wanted to have the experience of riding a train for the first time. And I am sure glad we did!

Now, when I say cheap I mean, it was only $87 round trip for 1 ticket. That's pretty awesome!

The California Zephyr runs daily between Chicago and San Francisco, coursing through the plains of Nebraska to Denver, across the Rockies to Salt Lake City, and then through Reno and Sacramento into Emeryville/San Francisco. 

Our train was scheduled to come into the station at 11:30 PM but the train has a tendency to being late because things can happen like having to stop and check engines or coming into contact with a freight train that needs to pass on the same track. But when I say late...I mean like an hour late at most maybe. This being our first train ride ever, of course our train was late by almost 7 hours! Seriously?! That would happen to us right? We did find out the reasoning was a freight train had gone off the tracks that the Amtrak was driving on as well. So basically it took 6 hours to clean that up.


But alas! Our Train finally came in at 5:30 AM! 
I quote, "We felt like Harry Potter when he was looking for platform 9 3/4 and he finally laid his eyes on the gleaming steam engine of the Hogwarts Express. . .except there's no steam engine and it's not gleaming at all." - Travis

 

We found our seats but had to be super quiet because people were sleeping. We decided since we were up all night tracking the train, that we would catch some shut eye too.

 After we woke up, we decided to wonder the train and go get some foodage. We learned quick that you have to learn to walk with the train because its so bumpy! Otherwise you will fall right into someones lap.
The doors to each cab are pretty cool. It's a big metal door that you have to press a big black button and the door slides open. It reminds you of a spaceship because it opens so fast and makes a suction noise!

We headed up to the skycap. The skycap is basically a big dining/hangout area that you can go to so you don't disturb people sleeping in the seating areas. It also has huge windows even on the ceiling so you can have the full scenic experience. 

Travis and I thought there could be nothing better than watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerers Stone on our first train ride. We took our portable DVD player to the skycap and started watching it. We noticed a little red headed girl next to us who was secretly watching it, so we invited her to watch it with us. She was super shy but her mom convinced her to sit next to us and watch it. She had never seen it! She seemed really into it but she stayed pretty quiet. It was also kinda of hard to hear it because of all the noise but at least she got to see some of it. Maybe she was making up her own story in her head. Who knows :)

Towards the end of the ride, we did cross paths with a freight train, so we had to maneuver and stop the train so they could get by. But alas, at 3:00 PM Reno time, we finally made it!!!!

My parents greeted us at the station. It was really good to see them!

We got into the car and they took the scenic route home so they could show us the town. The part we drove through was kind of rough looking, but once we crossed the bend, it was like we were in another world. Downtown (or Midtown as they call it) was pretty cool. The casinos are all right there in the same spot and the little shops around there are pretty cool too. There was an awesome little river that went through town too that people were fishing and swimming in.

After we checked out that area for a little bit, we went home and got all freshened up to hit the town.

This is the end of side one. Please flip the tape over to continue :)