Truk 7 — Getting to Reno from Nowheresville
It was a beautiful Monday morning in paradise; I was about to leave on my journey to Reno where I would make my new home. I would be flying World Air to Oahu. I would then transfer to United Air in Honolulu who would take me to O’hare. Ozark Air would fly to St. Louis from Chicago. I would then drive my new car to Reno. World Air had mechanical problem on the way from Honolulu to my island; they returned to Honolulu but didn’t cancel the flight. World Air did get the plane back in the air late Monday; it arrived at my island 6 hours late. There were lots of grumbling passengers who, like myself, had missed their connection to the mainland. After arriving in Honolulu, I began my effort to reach the mainland. I would take any flight that would get me to a major airport west of the Mississippi. I could find my way to St. Louis from any airport once I got to the mainland. It was late at night in the Honolulu airport; I had no reservation, no ticket & no idea how I would get to St. Louis. I tabulated all flights heading east from Honolulu in the order they were leaving — none had seats available. I was on every standby lists and waited by each gate as plane after plane left without me. At about 2:00 AM, United called my name for their LA flight.
United seated me in a seat at a cocktail table intended for drinking patrons; the drinkers were wanting me to move almost as soon as the plane was in the air. I planted myself on a bar stool out of the hustle bustle of drinkers & flight attendants serving beverages to passengers in conventional seating. Everything quieted down after 2 hours into the flight & I thought I’d get some sleep — not a chance. The flight attendants had nothing to do but hang out; they did have to remain attentive. My seat was still occupied by some hard core alcoholic nursing his beverage until asked to return to his seat. I remained on my bar stool most of the night. I thought with their flying this route regularly, flight attendants would have regular activities (playing cards, reading, etc.). One flight attendant asked me to tell a joke — my best joke at that time was my mousetrap joke. That started it — a three hour joke-a-thon. Some passengers joined for a short time but I was the only one who lasted the entire night. The flight attendants called ahead to reserve a seat for me on a TWA flight to St. Louis.
The connection was tight & LAX is a difficult airport to get from the United gates to TWA gates. With no baggage in hand, I made the TWA flight with no trouble except with security. TWA didn’t like me paying cash for my ticket & having no luggage — security pulled me out of line to check my paperwork. My having reservations, a good story, secret security clearance & my passport helped get me on the plane. I slept the entire flight (3 1/2 hours). I made it to the car dealer late afternoon. The car dealer had moved my car back into deep storage when I failed to make my noon appointment. They pulled the car back out on the lot for me & we began the process of my taking possession. There were a few items requiring attention on the car — a service technician stayed late fixing the car while I & the sales manager did the paperwork. It was 6:00 PM when the journey westward finally got underway.
During my teens when I first started buying new automobiles, I was taught that the best way to provide for a car sound system was to have a cheap AM radio come as original equipment & then change it out for top quality sound equipment later. This was my plan for the car I had just picked up in St. Louis; I forgot about my driving 1700 miles with a sound system that had weak reception & poor sound quality. All I could find on the radio through Missouri & Kansas were religious & country stations. I sang to myself much of the way. I added installing a good stereo system in the car to my Reno to-do list . I hoped I’d have the time for installation of a sound system during the 6 days I’d be in Reno.
The original road trip plan before the 6 hour delay was to spend the first night of my drive in Oakley Kansas with the hope to make it to Denver. If I got on the road early from St. Louis & I wasn’t too sleepy, Denver would be reachable. Having less than 5 hours sleep & getting on the road 6 hours late made themy reaching Denver out of the question. I stopped my first night on the road at a dumpy motel in Junction City planning an early start the next morning. I barely made it out of my room by the 11:00 AM check out; however, I was rested, clean, breakfasted & well stocked with road food. Knowing Reno was now two days away, I decided to stop at the place with the most 24 hour services & lodging choices, Salt Lake City. I was in bed at a nice motel in SLC a little after midnight - I set my alarm for six. I figured if I felt unrested when the alarm sounded, I would just grab two more hours before my final leg of the drive. At 6:00 AM, I was rested & anxious to get on the road. I rushed through my shower, grabbed some to-go breakfast & hit the road by 7:00. If I could make it to Reno mid-day, some business items could be addressed that afternoon. I was planning to drive a bit faster than was normal for me (Nevada had no speed limit) in an effort to assure a productive afternoon in Reno. My maintaining about 90+ mph through Nevada helped me arrive at John Asquagas Nugget before noon. I planned to stay at the Nugget because that is where I’d told my travel agent, house sitters, and wife they could phone me. After checking into my room (which wouldn’t be available until 3:00), I grabbed a newspaper to look for apartments. I needed an apartment where I could be absent for months at a time without adverse developments. I sat at a table in the KENO coffee shop where I slowly nibbled my lunch, won $200 & made a list of apartments I wanted to investigate.
The area south of town by the airport seemed to best meet my needs. I looked at three studios before I returned to the first apartment complex where I signed the papers for a one bedroom unit with a carport (I wanted a full garage but no one had one). I liked that there was a manned desk on site to receive parcels & hold my mail if my mail box overflowed. The apartment wouldn’t take my cash — they wanted a check. The only checks I had were for my local island bank & no mainland banks would honor them. I had been warned by my island bank not to use those checks stateside. People using the island checks on the mainland have been charged fees for bounced checks & at least one person was threatened with fraud charges because they knew the check was defective when they wrote it. I was to bring the rental office a cashiers check the next morning & they would give me keys. I had a physical street address now so I could get a checking account, get the car registered, get mail started, get utilities connected, etc. I spent Thursday evening at a Virginia St. mall shopping for towels, kitchenware, & other items I may need in my apartment. I planned to not bother with furniture, bedding, TV, floor coverings, & other things that could wait four months. Made it to bed quite early even though my room included preferred seating at the shows plus complimentary drinks that tempted me to stay up later. Some other night within the next week I may feel I can spare the time to party.
Banks, State offices, Insurance offices, telephone company, & other places I needed to go were closed til the next morning (Friday) then closed through the weekend. I had to make the most of the business day on Friday & not get sidetracked on anything that could wait. To further complicate matters, I told the wife & house sitters to call me at the NuggetFriday morning. I had none of their phone numbers so I couldn’t call them. I figured the house sitters & the wife could set up meetings with me in South Shore sometime during the weekend. I didn’t want to sit around the hotel room Friday morning waiting for calls when I needed to be setting up bank accounts, getting the car licensed, etc. I awoke earlyFriday morning with no alarm. I was supposed to stay in my room & wait for calls from my house sitters & my wife; I figured no one would call before 8;00 AM so I left my room for breakfast. It was the KENO Cafe again — no wins of note this time. I talked to the hotel desk about my phone situation — expecting important call while needing to be out taking care of business. The hotel told me I could call in from anywhere to get my phone messages — as long as my callers left messages, I could just call in & get the call-back numbers, find the nearest pay phone & I’d be in business.
I decided to hit the motor vehicle office at eight AM thinking that might be the toughest process to accomplish. They fooled me; I was in & out in less than a half hour. I liked my new drivers licence in that Nevada had non-photo drivers licences. My plates were nice & displayed Washoe County as my residence (that would move me through California’s bug inspection stations without stopping). Checked in with the hotel — no calls to my room yet. On to the phone company. I gave the phone company a bunch of money (installation fee plus four months service charge); they ordered my phone installation for next Tuesday. I would have to be at the apartment during phone installation & they couldn’t give me a precise time of installation. The phone company couldn’t tell me my phone number either until the phone was installed. I wanted my phone number printed on my new checks but it looked like that wasn’t happening. Still no calls to my hotel room. I had enough time to get gas & electricity connected in my name. I made it to the bank by 10:00 AM when I expected the doors to open. I chose Bank of America near my apartment because they have so many branches everywhere; I intended to rarely be in Reno so a local bank just wouldn’t do. The bank had opened at 9:00 AM instead of ten as I expected. I wasted an hour & was kicking myself for not checking banking hours before I left the hotel. Opening a checking account & getting a cashiers check for my apartment went well except they put a two week hold on my account. Luckily, I had a huge amount of cash in my pocket to pay for everything. I stopped by my apartment with the cashiers check & I picked up my keys. I still needed car insurance & transportation to San Francisco next Thursday. I decided I’d go back to the Nugget at noon to wait for my calls & regroup. I picked up a news paper & car sound system magazine (I hadn’t been aware of such a publication previously). I went to my room to order room service & wait for the calls I was expecting from the house sitters & the wife. One o’clock came & went — no calls. I had a phone number for my wife’s sister in San Jose so I planned to call that number if I continued to not hear from the wife during the afternoon. If the house sitter didn’t call. I’d make the three hour drive to my house near South Shore & surprise the sitters.
It was about two in the afternoon when the call finally came from the wife — she explained she could only call during her break. The wife no longer lived at Tahoe. She was now working for State of California & living at Capitol Towers in Sacramento. The wife was in contact with the house sitters & she had, in fact, helped them put an offer together to buy my house. The wife had it all set up that the house sitters would have dinner with the two of us in Sacramento Saturday evening was good for me with the exception of my feeling the 3 were trying to pull a fast one on me. I made plans with the wife to meet her for lunch then spend the afternoon addressing issues like divorce & property settlement. Nice phone call, even though it was late. Back to my chore list.The travel agent at the Nugget booked me on a flight to San Francisco with only 35 minutes to connect with my flight to Honolulu. Because time was tight between flights, I decided to fly with no luggage, even a traditional carry-on. We islanders carried little totes that were about a third cubic foot. My island tote was going to be my only luggage for the return trip to my island home. Inside the tote would be my camera, one shirt, one trouser, underwear, toiletries & paperwork. One Item remained on my Friday to-do list & that was car insurance.
I noticed a State Farm Insurance office next to my bank when I was setting up my checking account. With no referrals & little need for a spectacular insurance agent, I figured why not this guy. I’d not been exposed to no-fault insurance before. I was amazed at how inexpensive it was. The agent gave me tips on parking my car for months in a carport. He suggested a removable stereo, an excellent car cover, a trusted friend to come by & start it up once each month, & he went on. The agent recommended an auto sound shop from whom I should purchase my car stereo — I followed his advice & late that very afternoon got a spectacular under dash Pioneer cassette player — AM/FM unit with great speakers. The stereo shop also installed my license plates with frames advertising their shop. Following the stereo installation in my car, I went clothing & luggage shopping. Along the way, I picked up dozens of audio tapes plus more household items. The clothing in which I traveled was island wear & needing laundering. I elected to wear unwashed new clothing to Sacramento. Reno was not a place with fashion — most clothing stores specialized in western wear. I elected to purchase three casual silk off-the-rack sports jackets, silk tail-out open collar shirts & linen trousers. With some difficulty I found a pair of casual oxfords (I have very big feet). The sandals I’d been wearing with chunky socks were drawing looks of disapproval. I loaded up with underwear too. I dumped a lot of the stuff at the apartment before heading back to the Nugget. I unwrapped all my purchases & packed a suitcase thinking there may be some reason that i stay overnight in Sacramento. I laid out my travel outfit for the next morning. Light tan linen trousers & salmon silk button-up tail-out shirt with a black blazer over the arm as an accessory.
The next morning, the hostess at the restaurant gave me a “You look nice this morning.” which I know is code for “I don’t like the way you usually dress.” I thanked her anyway as she seated me at a four place table as I asked.
I needed the extra table space to spread papers relating to the real property sale & divorce settlement issues. My accountant had collected all money owed by my past clients including the bankrupted contractor. The accountant placed this money ($30K) in an escrow account in case my ex-partner or some one else wanted some of it. I wasn’t going to bring up my failed business in the divorce if possible. The assets of the business may not belong to me but they certainly did not belong to the wife. I placed the business papers in the leave in Reno pile. There were income tax issues & it really mattered that my wife had postponed filing income tax as I asked her to. She needed to file as a married person filing separately to make my tax exempt status work. All filings for both our federal taxes needed to be sometime after I’d completed my 510 days. I had all my papers covering filing extensions, income, etc. & I’d asked the wife to assemble hers for our meeting today. I was going to have my accountant complete tax forms for both of us after I’d completed my contract on the island. I didn’t know her income or how much cash she had but I suspected the amounts were less than mine. I intended to be generous in the cash settlement but I could not do spousal support. The irregular pattern of my work was not compatible with making such payments. If she had all the financial papers we needed, I could make copies & drop them at my accountant’s office at Tahoe South Shore Monday. I was hoping (but not expecting) sale-of-house papers to be generated during the Saturday evening meal & I could drop them at the title company in South Shore on Monday also.
I just won $500 playing KENO!
I know the house sitters’ offer was for as-is condition but I had maps, covenants, deeds, a survey for the easement that had never been recorded — just a big pile of stuff of which I doubt the sitters or even my wife had knowledge. I had to be assured that there was a plan to address or a choice to not address each of the problems with the house. Any one of those problems could cause the sale to get hung up for years. My career plans would be incompatible with the house sale being delayed. The process of my becoming satisfied that house sale problems would be properly addressed was a process I expected to require more time than the few hours at dinner on a Saturday night. As I sat in the KENO Cafe, I sorted the real estate papers and divorce papers into piles. I decided to repackage all papers from the accordion file folder I brought from the islands. I felt 1" three ring binders with Manila pocket type dividers would best suit my needs. I was hoping someplace that sold such things would be opened at 8:00 AM. Back at my room I checked yellow pages & found an engineering print shop just a few blocks from the Nugget. I called — they were opened & had what I needed. After a quick walk to the print shop where they made copies & loaded the binders, I headed to Sacramento.
