Reno: The Hidden City

[kevin_standlee]

My backup plans for going home to Nevada over Christmas involving taking the California Zephyr from Emeryville to Reno are in the soup on account of the CZ showing as being sold out on Saturday morning. A little experimentation shows, however, that if I bought a ticket on the same train from Emeryville to Elko NV, there's a seat available, albeit for $151 rather than the $60 fare to Reno. I'm trying to decide whether I should use this "hidden city" hack or take my chances driving.

My tire chains are still in Fernley. I took them out last spring and the last time I was home with the van was mid-summer. It's easy to say now, but I should have asked Lisa to bring the chains with her when she drove down here to see The Game Show Show with me. The weather forecast for Friday is not encouraging. At the moment I'm considering driving as far as Colfax starting as early as I can possibly get away from work and then check local conditions and hope for a sufficiently long break in the weather for me to be able to get over the pass without needing chains.

Comments

[totient]

I bet it would cost less than that $91 difference to either buy new chains (if they're the cheap heavy kind) or have Lisa ship your tire chains second day (if they're the expensive lightweight kind).

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

I have to balance that against my desire to not have to drive over the pass in chain conditions even if I have the tire chains. Frankly, I've never used them, and I'm not looking forward to ever having to do so. But on the other side, there are many things I've been meaning to bring up to Fernley from San Jose as I continue to right-size my living down there (and discover how little cooking supplies I really need), and having the van gives me the cargo capacity to do so.

[travelswithkuma.livejournal.com]

Bears nots knows hows tos helps. Wills thinks nices things ofs boys.

[paradoox.livejournal.com]

Last time I was in CA in chain weather there were people who would put them on and off for a nominal fee.

IMO, rear wheel drive with chains is easier than front wheel drive than chains in that you tend to have problems getting started rather than stopping. Stopping in a front wheel drive car with chains is more likely to lead to a spin-out.

[kevin-standlee.livejournal.com]

Yes, but you have to have the chains before the "chain monkeys" can install/remove them.