I mentioned previously that my OE trip was to start soon, implying that I was going to be commuting to my assigned base to start the trip. 
Since I was still officially in training the commute was for ‘company business’ and allowed me to book confirmed seats. That meant I didn’t have to worry about getting a jumpseat or hoping that there was an empty seat left somewhere in the back of the plane. It also meant that to take advantage of the reserved seats I was going to have to do a 3-flight commute to get from my home to my base.
My plan was to leave Reno at 6:30 on a Sunday morning and arrive at my base in the eastern U.S. that night in plenty of time for the start of my trip on Monday afternoon. Earlier in the week a winter storm passed through the area and dropped about 8” of snow at our house. It took a couple of tries, using both the blade on the front of our lawn tractor and a motorized snow thrower, but we got it all cleaned off the driveway. The city finally made a pass down our street about Wednesday and made the street passable, but it took 4-wheel drive to climb up the hill leading out of the neighborhood.
I kept an eye on the weather and as luck would have it, another big storm was due to hit Friday night and continue through Sunday. Unfortunately this time the weatherperson was right. A heavy, wet snow started falling late Friday night. Saturday morning we cleaned 6-8 inches of new snow off the driveway and it was still accumulating. That afternoon I plowed another 2-3 inches and hoped for the best.
At about 7 pm I called the local cab company to set up a 5 am pick-up for a ride to the airport. They said that because of the snow, they weren’t taking reservations or making any promises. That wasn’t good. Time for plan B.
