SLOW

Slow describes the painfully long journey via Amtrak through the Sierras to Reno, Nevada. After experiencing trains in France and Europe, this all day trip to cover approximately 200 miles was somewhat of a torture test which only became pleasant because of the scenery and the delightful Amtrak crew. The long journey time cannot be blamed on Amtrak however. This run, and many others, are slow these days due to the fact that the boss, Union Pacific which owns the tracks and rights-of-way, has issued a lot of "slow orders" during infrastructure rehabilitation. Sometimes, too, they give preference to their super-sized freight trains. If and when this country decides to invest in high speed rail Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Japan have done, then we might truly make this an alternative form of transporation and not just a land cruise for Aunt Ethel and the kids.

The problem with much American equipment is that is it so darn big and heavy. It lumbers along even under the best of circumstances. The Amtrak locomotive seen above is the Genesis series from G.E. Until American railroads convert to all electric operation utilizing lighter and faster equipment, we will never get anwhere. Perhaps this is the latest diesel/electric equipment available but it seems so archaic when compared to Europe and Japan where the schedules mean something.

As for my former hometown of Reno, it is getting a little shabby in some parts of the downtown area. Business open and close and may or may not be replaced by something else. Now the Virginian Hotel on Virginia Street next to the Club Cal-Neva is closed (temporarily according to the signs on the doors) but a new hotel has opened across the street in the building that once housed the Onslow Hotel. When it had closed that building had remained empty for a number of years. Next to that the building at W. First and Virginia Streets a building which had been constructed in the sixties and originally housed Woolworths and then other businesses after that chain closed, now sits empty and boarded up. A couple of other hotel buildings to the west and northwest of that corner are also empty and dark.

Only the Circus-Circus/Silver Legacy/El Dorado complex on North Virginia Street as well as the Fitzgerald Hotel and Harrahs appear to be doing well. Reno is a bit run down and tacky when compared to Las Vegas' bustling tourist businesses and since airline fares to Las Vegas are little more than those to Reno, why bother with Reno in the first place?

Incidentally, that other photo at the top of this posting is of the old Riverside Hotel building, now living studio space for artists. It sits next to the Truckee River and Island Avenue has been converted into a pedestrian mall known as Riverwalk. At least the Reno Redevelopment Agency managed to save that building and find a use for it, something they failed to do with the old Mapes Hotel building which they blew up a few years ago. That lot had remained empty since but now some sort of ice rink and mini-park is under construction at that site. I hope that is an indoor rink as I do not know of any refrigeration equipment that could successfully deal with the hot summer temperatures there.

And now some people are talking about the possibility of covering over the big new railroad trench. Great, I wonder how they would propose to vent the diesel exhaust fumes?

Anyway, it is there and I am here, so that is that and I am outa here. Bye y'all.