Kyle stopped the car in Reno and we hopped out for a quick bathroom break. When we returned to the car, it would not start. For twenty minutes Kyle and I looked at the car, trying to figure out what was wrong. The car did not smell funny or appear overheated...It just would not start. Finally, we decided we would have to take the car to a garage to have it examined. Thankfully, a garage named Greg's Garage was right down the block on 4th West Street. I stayed by the car while Kyle went to the garage to look for assistance. When Kyle came back, Kyle, a mechanic, and I laboriously pushed the car to the garage to have it examined. Half an hour later, Kyle and I were sitting in the garage waiting for Jim, the mechanic helping us, to tell us what was wrong with our car. Jim explained to us that our water pump had broken and our car could not start because of it. He said that he could fix the car by 2:45, but it would cost us $500. We need the car for the road trip, so Kyle and I agreed to the cost and decided to wander around Reno until it was time to pick up the car.Our wanderings lead us to a Starbucks, where we decided to sit for a while and discuss our funds for the trip. Our parents had given us $600 each, giving us a total of $1,200 to make it to Richmond in five days. The broken water pump, however, left us with only $700 for the next four days of our trip. Pulling gas and food money out of that amount, we had roughly $235 left. With these disconcerting thoughts, we left the Starbucks and returned to Greg's Garage.
Jim had done a great job fixing the car, so we decided to continue driving, leaving Reno at 3. We traveled for an hour or so before we had to fill up our tank. We stopped at the quaint town of Lovelock and quickly filled up the car at PJ's Food and Gas. At 8, we reached the town of Wendover, Utah, which is just across the Nevada border. Searching frantically on Kyle's phone, I looked for a cheap hotel to spend the night at. I finally found a place called the Knight Inn, which was not only extremely cheap, $30 a night, but also included breakfast.
Once we set up our room, Kyle and I walked to the McDonald's for dinner. It is not the healthiest place to eat, but we were tired and greatly troubled by our low funds, so we ate the greasy food. I hope that we can find a cheap grocery store somewhere to buy our food for the rest of the trip...It is now extremely late, and we are going to leave early again tomorrow morning. Despite our hardships, we managed to travel 600 miles today....That's not too bad for the first day.
I sincerely hope that the rest of our road trip runs more smoothly than today did!
Route: We took 101 South to 80 East which took us over the Bay Bridge out of San Francisco. We stayed on I-80 East until we reached Reno, Nevada. After our mishap in Reno, we got back on I-80 East until we hit Wendover, Utah.
Where our car was fixed:
Greg's Garage
410 East 6th Street
Reno, NV 89512-3323
(775) 324-0911
Where we ate:
Breakfast: We ate at home before we left - No cost.
Lunch: None, we were too worried about the car.
Dinner: McDonald's, two drinks, one side salad and one McDouble 4x$1=$4
1120 W Wendover Blvd
Wendover, NV 89883
(775) 664-3633
Snacks: None, not that hungry today. We did sit at Starbucks for a while when our car was broken though.
400 West Fifth Street
Suite 101
Reno,
NV
895034446
US
775-348-7800
Where we stayed:
Knight Inn
505 E Wendover Blvd
Wendover, UT
We filled up the tank with 12 gallons today - $42
PJ's Food and Gas
1455 Cornell Avenue
Lovelock, NV 89419
Budget Remaining:
Well done for Day 1. Love the details and the photos. Looks like a scary but well crafted trip thus far. Keep up the good work.
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