Sunday June 23 2002

San Francisco, CA to Reno, NV

Weather:  

San Francisco - the sun is out today, high in the low 70's...just beautiful out

Reno - Welcome back to summer...highs in the low 90's and completely sunny

Total Miles To Date 5,319 miles   (not updated)

Money spent today:

$5 on wine tasting

$28 on gas

$30.12 on Benihana

Total Spent today

$63.12

Total Spent To Date

$2,738.53

10:30 and I checked out of my hotel and I'm on my way to the last two tourist spots in San Francisco.

About 4 blocks from my hotel on the same street, Lombard Street, is the crookidest street in the world....Why would anyone build a street like this...what were they thinking.  It is quite a scene and quite a drive to the bottom.

Here's a down and up view.

From the top of the hill if you turn left, you also get a view of Alcatraz

After my stop at the crooked street, I went to the Golden Gate Bridge, which happen to be on my way to Reno.

Now, don't get me wrong.  The Golden Gate Bridge is nice, but so is the George Washington Bridge and they don't have a gift shop of a viewing stand there.  Plus, it's not gold.  Oh well, here's a picture.

11:25 and I'm on the road again...Hey no toll on the way out...You always know a good city because the toll is on the way in.

I headed up 101 to 39 to 29 and then just got lost in the Napa Valley.

It's amazing how warm it gets the farther away you get from San Francisco.

Here's something strange.  Amidst the Napa Valley Wine Country is a Nascar racetrack.  The only reason I mention this is because I'm stuck in tons of traffic because of these Nascar freaks.  While I was stuck in traffic, I guess they started off the festivities by having some fighter jets fly over and drop some weird fireworks sort of bombs.

Anyway, it finally cleared up, and I took some side road that got me completely lost and I ended up at the Buena Vista Winery.

Basically, I walked in and they charged $5 a glass.  You then go up to a counter and the guy behind the counter gives you a list.  And then you choose to have a taste of whichever ones you want.  I've never been a wine connoisseur, but when you taste this many wines you can actually taste a difference.  It was a really cute place.   A lot of couples were there.  You get to bring your own picnic if you like.  So people would bring a picnic basket and buy a bottle of wine and just chill....very nice!!

there were just lines and lines of grape vines everywhere

After drinking many glasses of wine, I decided the best thing to do was to drive.

Thank god for empty back country roads...

This is random.  I never talk about me getting gas.  I mean really, what's there to talk about.  But I stopped at this gas station, started pumping gas and went to use the facilities.  I came back and it's stopped right at $28 even...What are the odds that it topped itself off.  It never does that...anyway, back to the voyage

5:10 and I'm in Nevada...Thank God!!  I've been in California way too long!!

5:40 and Reno in worst city in the world.  And I use the term city loosely.  There is nothing, I repeat nothing redeeming about this city. First of all the Rodeo is in town.  So everything is booked.  I had to find a hotel on the other side of this small town.  This hotel use to be the Flamingo but now is the Golden Phoenix.  Every other hotel is booked yet this massive hotel has like 15 people in it.  Weird.  So, I check in and they tell me that they are backed up in room service, so my room won't be ready for an hour.  At 6pm the room isn't ready?  That's the kind of town this is.  

I walked around town and I saw no reason for anyone to come here.  Why would you come here if you could go to Tahoe or Vegas.  Hell Atlantic City has more to offer.  Are you starting to get a vibe of how I feel here.  This is the only place I've gone to in the entire country that I would never come to again.

I came back to the hotel an hour later, checked in and wandered around again.  After boredom kicked in, I went back to hotel and decided to go find dinner.  There was a Benihana in the hotel, so I went there.  I figured good food, meet some people and just chill.  The people at my table were from Reno.  They had nothing to offer in form of conversation, even amongst themselves.  But the food was good and chef was entertaining.

I went back to my room and just chilled and watched TV.  

Once I got comfortable, I heard a train.  I went to my window and saw a union pacific train go right by the hotel.  It was 41 cars long.  I know, I'm way to bored in this town.  Anyway, remember the movie, My Cousin Vinny.  There was a scene where he asked about the train, and the response was its goes by so often you won't notice.  Well, that's what I had.  About every 20 to 30 minutes all night.  And the trains got longer.  Anywhere from 40 - 100 cars in length.

Weird.  I'm going to sleep so I can leave early...

C YA

notes:

I'm digging Nora Jones...buy her cd and listen to her (especially the song "don't know why"

I forgot to mention the guy who sold me Alcatraz tix was from Nyack..

Why did Avril Lavigne change her name to just Avril...and why did she re-mix the song?  hmm..

Listen to the Spiderman Hero song and listen to Seal, Kiss from a Rose..it's the same song

Total Miles Traveled Today 

Ok, so I forgot to write it down again...