# Reno, Sacramento and on to Las Vegas...



## caravanman (Sep 17, 2014)

Reno, Sacramento and Las Vegas...

I arrived in Reno by Amtrak train from Chicago on Sunday 7th September, tired and grubby after two nights on the train.

A long shower and a few hours sleep worked wonders, and so the adventure continues...

My hotel is part of a casino, which means that if you play your cards right, so to speak, you can get a room at a quite reasonable price... They assume you will gamble and so they more than recoup the low cost room price, but not so in my case!

This casino has the roughest looking players ever... you would think you were in a movie, where the inmates are ancient, sluggish, haggard zombies, forced to endlessly feed their machine masters ... Elegant it ‘aint.

My room was fine, good views out, and being right next to the Amtrak station, very convenient.

Food is a slight problem for me when I travel, I prefer to eat low sugar, low salt, low fat products, which is a challenge both on Amtrak and with many of the popular food offerings. I enjoyed a Vietnamese meal, and managed to find a good supermarket for fruit and such, as well as a nice Russian owned cafe, where I got good coffee, good conversation, and free wifi...

Downtown Reno is pretty ragged, many vacant properties, quite a few street people wandering about. Enjoyed a long walk down the main road, Virginia Street, and visited several alternative antique and quirky curio type establishments.

Weather very hot and sunny, so even the downtown felt cheerful.

Gathering of hot rods and old restored cars nearby... it's amazing what is allowed on the roads here, some very cool home made contraptions were too fast for my camera to snap.




The Truckee river flows through town, they have made the area nice in the recent past, but sadly it seems to now be lacking a bit of upkeep. Several folk swimming in the shallow water, nice that it is allowed, some places have too many health and safety notices.

A few days of relaxation, and my own room, and soon time to move on to Sacramento.

The main bus interchange for Reno is very close to the station, and I assumed my Greyhound would go from there too... Joined up public transport?? Not in Reno, the Greyhound depot is about 10 blocks away, quite a hike again with the cases.

Greyhound advise getting there an hour early, so I did. I was annoyed to find that I had to pay $15 for my second case... the info was on their website but not visible as part of the ticket purchase procedure. Seems silly that a guy with one case bigger than my two together got away free... never mind, I will know next time.

An elderly Philippine woman sat next to me, I remarked that it was good to have a slim seating companion, and she said that was why she had sat next to me too! She was very good company, widely travelled, and we had a long chat. I had been to Sacramento Greyhound some years before, so was surprised to find the Sacramento depot had since moved. Fortunately, my seating companion was taking the bus downtown, and pointed out my stop for the hostel.




I really like the Sacramento hostel, it is located in a 3 story Victorian house that has been “raised up” twice and moved on wheels to it’s current resting place.

Part of the fun of hostels, for me, is meeting fellow travellers, one never knows who the room mates will be...

I had an upstairs room, and an American guy of a similar age to myself was already in residence. He turned out to be rather selfish, and insisted in placing the only fan in the room so it blew directly onto his bed. I later overheard him on his phone trying to find some “radar to look through walls”, turns out he suspected his wife was cheating on him and wanted to spy on her! I hope she was enjoying herself, he was cold towards me too... probably too much breeze from that fan!

One big plus for me with hostels is the facility to use a kitchen to cook food, so after a visit to the supermarket I was quite well fed for the next several days.




Had a ride out to Folsom historical district on the tram, as well as other routes, and a look around the old town and along the river... weather very hot again, 100F degrees, about 38C. Too warm to walk far, at least for an old fart like me! One first for me here, I saw a guy drinking moonshine from a screw top jar!







Met some very interesting people at this hostel, one lady who “house and pet minded” and was also trained to do voice work, for radio and talking books, etc.

One rather loud lady who said she was a clairvoyant... not sure if she could tell I thought she was full of bull s*** or not... probably she could, as she was so “gifted”

A rather abrupt lady who was looking for a permanent place to live, and many more of the usual suspects one meets in hostels.

A most interesting Australian professional photographer was one of the guests, she had been working at a summer camp, and had her quality camera and other valuables stolen in the New York bus station... On reporting the theft, she was told it happens daily, and still there was no security on duty. Logic?

She managed to buy a used film camera with several lenses, her preferred shooting medium, while at the hostel for a good price.

Her being a very cool person, she invited a few of us out for a look at an art event and drinks and we walked to a bar. Sacramento has some damn fine places to drink, if this venue is anything to go by, and I had a most enjoyable time. She mentioned that I looked passable from the head to the ankles, but my sandals were not much of a babe magnet! Sadly for me, thankfully for the youngsters, I had to be up at 5.30 next morning, so I went back to the hostel early and left them unsupervised ;-)







Interesting Canadian guys in the room on the last night, attending a music event and doing a sky dive.

Amtrak bus from Sacramento station to Stockton, then train to Bakersfield. A young girl sat at the opposite table, and a guy heavily tattooed asked if he could sit there too... He never stopped talking, The girl had my admiration as she parried him with interjections of "awesome!", "cool!" and "wow!"

His story might be true, involving just that day leaving prison, having cancer, his kid, drugs, his drugged up wife, etc, etc... The young girl was highly educated, and managed him very well... glad he did not choose me to sit and talk to!




Bakersfield to Las Vegas by Amtrak bus, all in all a long tiring day’s travel again... Feel travel is taking a bigger toll on me than ever before... must be my age

To be continued...

Ed


----------



## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 17, 2014)

I guess the smoke wasn't in Reno when you were here, right? We're currently blanketed with a massive layer of smoke from the first out in Yosemite. Really bad for breathing, everyone is complaining about it right now and shutting themselves indoors with air conditioning.

I never really found that much to do in Sacramento, I guess the train depot and river are cool. Maybe you could've ridden the bus over to Arcata and visited the Redwoods National Park. That might be cool if you're never been there.

Nice shots from Sacramento, looks like you had a good time! Hope you have a good time in Las Vegas too. I see the hotels are really cheap in Las Vegas, are they really that cheap or are you forced to pay resort fees all the time?

I guess your Greyhound was one of these, right? https://www.flickr.com/photos/[email protected]/14413545259/in/set-72157645568405286.

Pretty darn bad seats, ride is decent depending on the unit and driver. Hopefully your driver was nice, I once had a trainee named Loewy that drove pretty darn bad and rocked around.

Silver State started a new bus line from Reno to Las Vegas, costly and slow though, and it uses poor HeckVan Hool equipment.

Heck, it looks like there's tons of Van Hools in Bakersfield. I know some people that drive the contract service. They got new CX45 models, still not great but they're cheap. That bus driver in Bakersfield is wearing a white dress shirt with yellow vest, that's Greyhound's trainee uniform LOL, I know he's not a trainee but still.....

I wonder how was the bus from Sacramento to Stockton. Haven't taken that model in a while.


----------



## caravanman (Sep 17, 2014)

Hi Swadian,

I am sorry that I did not realise you were in Reno when I was there... maybe we could meet up next time?

You are correct on the bus type from Reno, nice and modern, all fine for this fairly short ride.

The Amtrak bus from Sacramento to Stockton was fine, a sweet good natured old guy with a West Indies accent was our driver.

The Bakersfield bus was fine, the driver seemed to be having a bad day, a bit short with passengers, bordering on rude. He was a jerky driver too!

No smoke in Reno when I was there, although there was mention of it once on the local news.

Cheers,

Ed.


----------



## oregon pioneer (Sep 17, 2014)

As usual, another good trip report! Say, what was that about the sandals? I wear Birkenstocks, it must be part of getting older. I'm much easier to get along with if I put comfort ahead of fashion.

:giggle:


----------



## Bob Dylan (Sep 17, 2014)

Ditto on the sandals for me! Long as its over 50 degrees I wear sandals and I wear them on the Trains ( I do take Sneakers )!

Sounds like Reno is becoming the Detroit or Atlantic City of the West! I'm not the biggest fan of any Gambling Mecca, but Reno used to seem like a regular city with Gambling!

Don't really know why people still go there, Tahoe is much prettier and I hear Sparks is Safer!!??


----------



## tp49 (Sep 17, 2014)

Ed, you know I lived a block over from the hostel the last time you came through Sac and I remember watching them move it across the street the last time they did it. I don't anymore but still pretty close. I've always wanted to see the inside but since I'm local they'd never let me stay there. Do you have any other pictures of the inside?Next time you're in town let me know I'll show you some places to drink for sure. We can go to our idea of an English pub so you can tell them exactly what they're doing wrong  .


----------



## tp49 (Sep 17, 2014)

jimhudson said:


> Sounds like Reno is becoming the Detroit or Atlantic City of the West! I'm not the biggest fan of any Gambling Mecca, but Reno used to seem like a regular city with Gambling!


I'd argue Stockton's the Detroit of California (don't know about the west but California for sure.)


----------



## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 17, 2014)

I think Oakland is the Detroit of California but without the smoke. Reno is having a smoke siege starting every afternoon and clearing out early the next morning. At times in the night we have gone to red-level alerts for smoke. It's 5:00 PM right now, and if you went outside, you couldn't see any of the surrounding mountains or hills. Plus you would probably choke and cough until you got back inside.

It's bad, it's really bad!


----------



## caravanman (Sep 17, 2014)

Hi,

I remembered someone from AU was somewhere near the hostel, I had an idea that you worked at City Hall?

They are very easy going at the hostal, and I am sure if you wanted to have a look at the common area's they would oblige. I have a link to some additional Sacramento pics, including more from the hostal here: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10152717067274120.1073741836.682004119&type=1&l=943f35e4e3

Cheers,

Ed


----------



## AmtrakBlue (Sep 17, 2014)

I love old houses. Thanks for the pics. I was initially going to stay in one of the HI's hostels in San Francisco. The one in an old hotel, but decided to splurge and stay at the "party" hotel because I'd never been to SF and arriving late was a little worrisome for me since I'd heard that that hostel was in an iffy area.


----------



## tp49 (Sep 17, 2014)

caravanman said:


> Hi,
> 
> I remembered someone from AU was somewhere near the hostel, I had an idea that you worked at City Hall?
> 
> ...


Took a look at the pictures and the hostel looks as nice inside as it does outside. They did a beautiful job with the place.

Nice picture of both one of my favorite lunch spots Ambrosia on K Street and the demolition of the building at 5th and J Streets (Downtown Plaza is being demolished to build an arena for our NBA team.) I don't work at City Hall but I do deal with them semi-regularly. I work fairly close to the demolition picture. The other side of that building (L Street) looks like a war zone.


----------



## caravanman (Sep 18, 2014)

Just a few thoughts before I leave Las Vegas tomorrow...

Jim, I have been thinking on your remarks about Reno becoming like Detroit, and I don't feel that is true... I may have given the wrong impression in my report. As I see it, the downtown area is pretty much the area where casinos and tourists are. Locals are going to be in their cars, tourists are inside the casinos, so those visible on the streets and the downtown buses will mostly be the poorer folk... (and me!). The place does have a good few shops vacant, but it is nothing like Detroit, which I hear may be improving again, slowly.

I had a very nice day out yesterday, GG1 and his pal met me and drove me up to Mt. Charleston, 7000 feet asl, much cooler, and a world away from the artifice of Las Vegas... Thanks again Eric!

Just picked up a hire car this evening, so will venture off to escapades on "the wrong side of the road" tomorrow....

Watch this space!

Ed


----------



## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 19, 2014)

Reno's bad part right now is definitely the smoke. The tourists in casinos are actually often suspicious-looking, some are dressed aggressively or inappropriately, same with the people wandering the streets. Most folks are indeed always in their cars on at home, as public transit is slow and infrequent. Sparks is worse than Reno and South Reno is quite bad, the part around the Peppermill is run-down and has lots of suspicious people.

I'd say the biggest problem with Reno is the deserted, vacant streets with too much suspicious people.


----------



## The Journalist (Sep 19, 2014)

Looks like you caught some of the stragglers from Hot August Nights (classic car show) in Reno. It sounds like you got to Midtown, which is good. Lots of weird/interesting stuff there. I'm intrigued by your mentioned of a Russian café, caravanman; do you remember what it was called?


----------



## caravanman (Sep 19, 2014)

Hi,

The cars were there on the same day the air race show started, I kind of wondered if they might have been part of that.

The cafe was owned by a Russian woman, they did coffee and also some Russian influenced foods and soups. I understood from the owner, during a long conversation, that she had also been involved with selling perfumes, but ran that side now from home.

Called Aroma Club : 4001 South Virginia Street, Suite A/C Reno, Nevada 89502 775-825-7725
Located across the street from the Atlantis in the Reno Town Mall behind Round Table Pizza.

http://www.aromaclubreno.com/specialt.htm

Cheers,

Ed


----------



## Swadian Hardcore (Sep 19, 2014)

Round Table Pizza? Heard they were good but never been there.


----------



## caravanman (Sep 20, 2014)

Nor me... Funny enough, I saw an old guy advertising the place, holding up a sign board on the main street, and spoke with him twice. He was quite the "artiste", juggling and twirling the board to attract attention.

If you do visit, say hello "from the Engish guy who suggested he also use roller skates!"

Cheers,

Ed


----------



## The Journalist (Sep 20, 2014)

Wow, I've probably walked near that place hundreds of times and never seen it. I'll have to check it out. I'm pretty sure I know who you're talking about with the Round Table sign though. Round Table's a chain, but a decent one. High grease content (they don't skimp on the cheese), though, so it might not have been ideal for you anyway.


----------



## caravanman (Sep 21, 2014)

The owner was saying that many people just don't know it is there, I think she has lease problems about what signs she can put up. The pizza placard guy said he lives in Sparks and cycles to work, if that is any comment on the pizza. Nothing about pizza grabs me, I am afraid!

Ed


----------

