Reno, the first days

The first day, after nearly missing my flight because my alarm clock died and consequently making a record-setting dash from my bed to the airport via Uber and onto the plane in just a tad over 50 minutes, I managed to arrive in Reno. And talk about service! Within twenty minutes of me getting off the plane, I was driving out of the airport with my rental, everything taken care of. Vegas, kiss my ass--Reno knows w to do it.
I next grabbed a horrible Chinese lunch and a room in a rather crappy two-star motel for the night, and then I got cleaned up, took a nap, and went to see the sights:

It's not the Vegas strip by any means, but then it doesn't have all that Vegas crap revolving around it either. I liked it.

Next morning, it was off to get some warmer clothes and then invaded California and headed up to Donner Pass.

I did stop at the state park there and saw where the Donner Party had their epic cook-out in 1846, and then I headed up to the pass proper where I parked and hiked up to the old original transcontinental railway line, which is now a hiking trail overlooking Donner Lake.

The first hill climb and the look back to my car down on the road:

Chest pain, but what a view!

Donner Lake.

Support wall for the rail bed built by the Chinese laborers with just hand tools in the early 1860's:

The rail bed. The trail here passes through a mile and a half of concrete show sheds to keep the snow off the tracks lest it derail the trains. The original line was abandoned and is now a historic hiking trail, but because it's in California, everybody's kids have spray-painted graffiti on just about every inch of it.

Snow sheds and tunnel, outside:

And inside:

All that history, ruined by punks. There should be a law forbidding the sale or possession of spray paint by anyone under 30. But the Californians hiking here seem to think that it's "art" and somehow ok.

The snowshed, viewed from outside:

And more Donner Lake. Just because I'm up here, dammit.