Following is a tale of why Reno doesn't get much business during the
winter.
Normally it takes 5 hrs for me to go from Monterey County to Reno using
I-80, maybe an hr longer if I use 50. Before leaving, I check CALTRANS for
road conditions & the weather channel for hr-by-hr weather forecast. We left
at noon on Fri, knowing that there might be snow over Donner pass when we
got there. When we got to Colfax, traffic was at a dead stop. I exited,
filled up & heard from the scuttlebutt among other travelers that there was a
45-car accident which will close 80 all night. No problem, I remapped another
route on my GPS & checked with CALTRANS on conditions on 50 which was
clear. I wanted to stay on major highways since minor roads aren't plowed as
often when it snows, so we doubled back to Auburn to pick up 49 which takes
us to 50 which will take us to S Lake Tahoe & then Reno via the back way.
Going E on 49 to Placerville is something I've never done but it was a pretty
drive & we had a brief stop at the McDonald's to pick up something to eat
before we took off again but chains or snow tires w/4WD was required. No
problem again since we had the latter. It's about 4 or 5 PM which is normally
plenty of time to get to Reno by midnight. What I wasn't prepared for were
2 long delays on 50 that were probably due to accidents. We finally got to
S Lake Tahoe near midnight & stayed at Montbleu to gamble for a bit. When
we left for Reno, I remembered what a local employee had told me a while
back about taking Kingsbury grade (207) to Minden & then 395 to Reno instead
of staying on 50 to connect with 395 in Carson City to go to Reno. Even
though it's longer, suffering the bad weather is much shorter time since you
reach the summit of the Sierras a lot quicker. It's true & the rest of the
trip was just careful driving at near 55 mph which was a lot better than 25
- 25 mph on the other side of the Sierras. We still had weather on the
eastern side but it was light rain as opposed to snow.
Once in Reno, I played in 2 tournaments, a blackjack & slot & both
probably lost a third to half of their customers due to the road closures & people
giving up. One person complained about no road info on the Reno radio
stations. I said that if they reported it you would have turned around. If you
want road info, you have to listen to Sacramento stations or check CALTRANS
(1-800-427-7623).
During this whole trip, I can't say that I felt in any danger, just a
little frustration because we didn't know why we were stopped for so long.
Having audiobooks to play really helped to while the time away & having gotten
gas & food earlier prepared us for the long hrs of waiting. In all my prior
trips it had never taken me more than 8 hrs of travel time to get to Reno
since I was always able to find a way around the delays. Well, this was one
time I couldn't outsmart mother nature.
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