Tuesday Jan 30, 2024 - Sacramento CA to Sparks NV

It’s all about the weather..  There is a storm coming in a day or two and it’s going to be rain where it’s warm and snow where it’s cold. The Sierra Nevada mountains are going to get a bunch of snow so we need to be careful where we go. I guess getting snowed in somewhere would not be the end of the world but getting snowed in on Donner Pass would be kind of creepy.

We looked it over pretty thoroughly and we will go over Donner Pass to Reno, where we’ve never been, then re-look-at-it over there.

But first we’re going to the Sacramento Train Museum which is a California State Park run place. We first did a drive through downtown and saw the capital. The downtown is kind of run down and there are a lot of homeless folks there, which we had heard. The capital is a beautiful typical state capital looking domed building.

The railway museum is very impressive. There were several school groups, both elementary and high school aged. As usual the elementary school kids were wide eyed and excited and the high school kids not so much. Things never change.

The trains are real and original. The Transcontinental Railroad started here in Sacramento and went east while the other end started in Omaha and came west. 10-15,000 Chinese were hired to build the west end and most of the museum focused on this early history. The 10:30 tour had only 4 of us and the tour guide. He was very knowledgeable but had a super soft voice so you had to stand on top of him to hear. Upstairs were the “Toy Trains”, which were all the old and new model trains like Lionel, Buddy-L, and Bachmann in all the scales from Z to the big ones (G??).

They even had a Thomas the Tank Engine room with a couple of working model trains going. Something for everyone.

After the museum we walked through Old Sacramento, which is the old part of town and is now a tourist place with lots of shops. It used to flood all the time so they moved everything up a floor including the street, so there’s a basement level that’s mostly not used any more.

We collected the van and headed up Rt 80 to Reno. It was only a couple of hours but it climbs and climbs until you crest Donner Pass at 7220 ft elevation. There’s snow up there but it was sunny and warm all day so no trouble weather wise.

We stopped in Truckee just to drive through downtown. Looks like a typical ski town. Next we stopped in Reno and drove through downtown. It is actually pretty tidy but of course it is wall to wall casinos. But tastefully done.

Deb found a hotel in a casino in Sparks, the town next door, which was really inexpensive so looks like another hotel night ahead. We’re guessing it’s cheap because they want you to gamble. We had supper at Poncho and Willie’s, one of the four restaurants within the casino, and it was delicious and reasonable.

Back to the hotel to watch another episode of The Terminal List and then bed.