We were supposed to catch the train from Reno to Sacramento; however, this was where we experienced our first aberration in the trip. I was sitting in the hotel lobby waiting to check in when I received an automated phone call from Amtrak notifying me of a delay in the next leg of our trip. I asked for the automated message to connect us to a human, which it did. The human assured me we had no trouble, but the train was going to be delayed the next day. We planned for a departure three hours later (but we went to the station early in the morning to make sure). We had the option of leaving on a bus for Sacramento at our regularly scheduled departure time, a bus at 11:30, or taking our chances and waiting for the train. We decided to take the bus at 11:30, because we needed to make connections with our rental car in Sacramento.

We missed taking the train through the mountains, but Amtrak refunded our roomette fare and we rode comfortably on the bus with 12 other people, arriving close to our original planned arrival in Sacramento.

While in Reno, we stayed at Harrah’s (because it was across the street from the train station). Here’s the view from our room:

We didn’t want to rent a car for our single day in Reno, so we planned our stops for walking. We visited the car museum and walked downtown. When we met friends for dinner, they picked up up and brought us back to the hotel. This 1913 electric car still runs and has a range of 80 miles — greater than the Volt. (The museum took great delight that their electric car was still running long after the GM vehicle was exhausted during it’s debut.)

Here are a few more vehicles I enjoyed seeing:

I love the tail fins. How about a copper Rolls Royce?

A 1921 Ford. One of the earliest RVs.

A beautiful 1913 Stanley (Steamer)

Thank you for visiting for the April A-Z Blogging Challenge. Today’s entry is “Grand Tour”-themed, about our Amtrak trip we took last month. I’d love to hear your thoughts or questions in comments. If you don’t want to miss an entry, please enter your email address below, press sign-up, then check your inbox to click the validation link to get these blog posts in your inbox.