Day 0ish, Thursday, July 1. Truckee, CA

Planes, Trains, and Automobiles (not necessarily in that order)

Another benefit of Covid was the loss of the shuttle out of Sikeston. It was overpriced anyway. We were forced to look for other options to get to the St Louis airport. The cheapest route turned out to be renting a car at the airport the day before our flight. We drove up to St Louis, picked up the car, then drove back to Sikeston. We then loaded up the rental and drove to my brother-in-law’s house to spend the night with him and all our other precious possessions (can you say bunny collection?).

On Wednesday morning, we got up at 5:30 to drive to the airport in time to return the car and catch the “free” shuttle to the terminal. I had made plane reservations back in January when I was confident we’d both get vaccinated (Bunny already had hers since she a front line health provider). I booked a direct flight from St Louis to Reno, NV on Southwest. 

I’ve flown Southwest for the last 9 years due to an abundance of flight points from my working days. Because of the close relationship I have with the airline, they try to accommodate me as best as possible. They decided that I would want to relive my previous two years of hiking so they rescheduled our flight to not only get us across country, but also provide a flyover of the entire PCT. What was once a 3 hour flight direct to Reno was now a 13 hour flight from St Louis to Seattle to Las Vegas to Reno. Very thoughtful of them. 

We got to Reno around 6:30. We had planned on waiting for Bear and Sassy, but we were both beat from the whirlwind tour of the west coast so we headed to the hotel. Bear and Sassy got to the hotel about an hour after us. Their thoughtless airline took them almost directly to Reno from Huntsville with a brief plane change in Atlanta. With a trip through airport security, they had left home 5 hours earlier. 

I headed to their room and made plans for us to meet for breakfast while Bunny dozed watching the TV. Thoughtlessly, I had left the door held open with the safety bar. Bunny woke up when her Forensic File episode ended (spoiler alert, the husband did it). She freaked seeing the door propped open, got up, closed it, and safety bolted the door. When I came back 10 minutes later, I had to pound on the door to wake her up. 

Wednesday morning, we got up to meet for breakfast. We hadn’t seen Sassy since last year, but Bear had come up in March to attempt the River to River Trail with me which we didn’t finish because of heavy rain. We had time for a quick breakfast before catching our train to Truckee. 

This is the third time Bunny and I have ridden the train to/from Truckee, but this was the first time we saw a homeless shantytown on the side of the Truckee River leaving Reno. Covid has been devastating on the lower class in our country through loss of income while the elderly have been hit with the majority of deaths. It’s a sad situation all around. We are very lucky that we haven’t been severely effected and are able to hike. 

We made it to the Red Light Inn Hostel/beer hall/ice cream parlor/brothel (everyone has to expand income opportunities in these rough times) just before lunch. We went in to drop our packs. Surprisingly Bear and Sassy’s room was ready, so we dropped everything there and headed out to shop and eat. It had only taken us 3 days to get less than 1800 miles. I had an easier and faster trip when I flew to Nepal. I hope this isn’t an indication of the pain level on hiking this year. 

EFG