The record high temperatures in Reno and the surrounding area in general were blown away overnight be some pretty strong winds. The temperature outside this morning when I went out to retrieve our map from the car was 46 degrees, and a brisk breeze accentuated the cool temperature.
Bill and Dale were both up shortly after us, and Dale fixed a ham and egg breakfast for everyone. While Bill and Dale were busy in the kitchen, Erin and I went into the theater room to peruse the scrapbook Dale had recently put together for Bill. Bill played baseball for the USC Trojans in the mid to late 1950’s, and was their star pitcher, earning the MVP award in the college baseball World Series. The book was a huge leather-bound volume with his name inscribed in gold leaf. A half-sphere of a baseball completed the cover embellishments. The pages contained photos, letters and articles from his childhood on through his high school, college and professional baseball years, including a stint with the Seattle Rainiers. He was recently inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, an honor for which he is justifiably proud.
We sat around the dinette table off the kitchen for breakfast, where the conversation ranged from high finance to family to where were we headed next. We finally said o
ur farewells to our gracious hosts and headed out around 9 o’clock.
Not too far south of our departure was Carson City, the state capitol. A couple miles south of there, we decided to turn west on highway 50 get a glimpse of the Lake Tahoe shoreline. We crossed over a mountain pass before descending to Lake Tahoe, still above 7000 feet in elevation. A roadside park provided an ideal viewpoint for several photos and some time to just admire the view, as well as the huge granite boulders we could walk among. We met a small lizard who claimed one of the boulders as his own, and though he would skitter about when approached, he never left his rock while we were there.
We proceeded on along the shoreline through the Cave Rock Tunnel. Cave Rock is the remnant of an ancient volcano, and is a sacred spot for the Wahoe tribe, where only the shaman could enter the caves there to seek spiritual advice for his followers.
As we approached South Lake Tahoe, we headed back over the mountains on highway 207, rejoining 395 to continue our route south. The Tomtom navigation device was relieved that we were finally back on track, as it was solely focused on getting us to the town of Bishop. When we turned off 395 towards Lake Tahoe, every few miles it would ask us to make a U-turn, sometimes through the Jersey barrier. When we didn’t comply with those requests, it changed tactics, suggesting a left turn followed by another left turn, a thinly disguised U-turn request indeed. Whenever we pulled into a scenic bypass, it pleaded with us to go back the way we came as we pulled back onto the highway. We were glad it was speaking to us though – yesterday, as we crossed over the border from Oregon to California and the highway number changed from 39 to 139, it remained strangely silent. It didn’t pipe up at a left turn further down the road either. We went through the menu system, turning the sound off and on, checking the volume, even turning it off and on, but it was adamantly silent, although it displayed arrows – not wanting to leave us completely in the dark. We thought maybe there was a law against mechanical voices in California, as it shut up just as we crossed the border. Then we began thinking we had somehow fried something on it, and we would owe Laura and Jim a new one. Finally, late that night after we retired, I gave it one more try and found a menu that said it was configured to broadcast the voice to an FM radio. I changed it back to internal speaker and all was well again. Why it changed to a radio broadcast in the middle of the day we’ll never know. It didn’t even tell us what station to listen to.
When we rejoined highway 395, we stopped to top up the fuel tank in Gardnerville, while the price was still a merely unreasonable $3.73 per gallon. We continued on south and re-entered California, again offering our token apple at the agricultural inspection station, only to be told to keep it. Continuing on, we passed by Mono Lake and several small towns, eventually arriving in the town of Bishop, where we topped up the gas tank once again so we wouldn’t need to purchase any in Death Valley. We only took a little over 4 gallons that stop, our first stop where we only spent 20 bucks. We are surprisingly getting between 32 and 34 mpg so far – I had expected about 29 for the trip. Riding two up and pulling a trailer with my motorcycle, we wouldn’t be getting much better than that.
At Lone Pine we turned off towards Death Valley, climbing first to get over yet another couple of passes before descending to the valley floor. As we were approaching Panamint Springs, Erin pointed out a jet, which looked to me to be an F15, although I’m not sure. It was flying low and fast, and was soon out of sight. Looking at the map now, I see that China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center is just south of that location, so I’m sure it was on maneuvers from there.
The wind continued to blow, and in some areas kicked up enough dirt and dust that we ran with the lights on. We also drove through one dust devil as it crossed the highway, pushing us first in one direction, then the other. I hope the video turns out on that one.
We arrived at Stovepipe Wells amid a near sandstorm, and found that they were open for business. We browsed through the store, then decided to continue on to Furnace Creek, another 18 miles or so down the road. That’s where we are now, at the Furnace Creek Ranch, which is really just a nice motel. We have all the comforts of home, and although there is no Internet connection in the rooms, there is a wifi area near the general store and saloon area, so I plan on going back up there in a bit to see if I can post this.
Tomorrow we’ll explore some areas of the valley floor, hopefully without the sandstorm. It was about 90 degrees here when we arrived, down from 116 yesterday. If the wind stops, it will probably be much warmer tomorrow.
Bill and Dale were both up shortly after us, and Dale fixed a ham and egg breakfast for everyone. While Bill and Dale were busy in the kitchen, Erin and I went into the theater room to peruse the scrapbook Dale had recently put together for Bill. Bill played baseball for the USC Trojans in the mid to late 1950’s, and was their star pitcher, earning the MVP award in the college baseball World Series. The book was a huge leather-bound volume with his name inscribed in gold leaf. A half-sphere of a baseball completed the cover embellishments. The pages contained photos, letters and articles from his childhood on through his high school, college and professional baseball years, including a stint with the Seattle Rainiers. He was recently inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame, an honor for which he is justifiably proud.
We sat around the dinette table off the kitchen for breakfast, where the conversation ranged from high finance to family to where were we headed next. We finally said o
ur farewells to our gracious hosts and headed out around 9 o’clock.Not too far south of our departure was Carson City, the state capitol. A couple miles south of there, we decided to turn west on highway 50 get a glimpse of the Lake Tahoe shoreline. We crossed over a mountain pass before descending to Lake Tahoe, still above 7000 feet in elevation. A roadside park provided an ideal viewpoint for several photos and some time to just admire the view, as well as the huge granite boulders we could walk among. We met a small lizard who claimed one of the boulders as his own, and though he would skitter about when approached, he never left his rock while we were there.
We proceeded on along the shoreline through the Cave Rock Tunnel. Cave Rock is the remnant of an ancient volcano, and is a sacred spot for the Wahoe tribe, where only the shaman could enter the caves there to seek spiritual advice for his followers.
As we approached South Lake Tahoe, we headed back over the mountains on highway 207, rejoining 395 to continue our route south. The Tomtom navigation device was relieved that we were finally back on track, as it was solely focused on getting us to the town of Bishop. When we turned off 395 towards Lake Tahoe, every few miles it would ask us to make a U-turn, sometimes through the Jersey barrier. When we didn’t comply with those requests, it changed tactics, suggesting a left turn followed by another left turn, a thinly disguised U-turn request indeed. Whenever we pulled into a scenic bypass, it pleaded with us to go back the way we came as we pulled back onto the highway. We were glad it was speaking to us though – yesterday, as we crossed over the border from Oregon to California and the highway number changed from 39 to 139, it remained strangely silent. It didn’t pipe up at a left turn further down the road either. We went through the menu system, turning the sound off and on, checking the volume, even turning it off and on, but it was adamantly silent, although it displayed arrows – not wanting to leave us completely in the dark. We thought maybe there was a law against mechanical voices in California, as it shut up just as we crossed the border. Then we began thinking we had somehow fried something on it, and we would owe Laura and Jim a new one. Finally, late that night after we retired, I gave it one more try and found a menu that said it was configured to broadcast the voice to an FM radio. I changed it back to internal speaker and all was well again. Why it changed to a radio broadcast in the middle of the day we’ll never know. It didn’t even tell us what station to listen to.
When we rejoined highway 395, we stopped to top up the fuel tank in Gardnerville, while the price was still a merely unreasonable $3.73 per gallon. We continued on south and re-entered California, again offering our token apple at the agricultural inspection station, only to be told to keep it. Continuing on, we passed by Mono Lake and several small towns, eventually arriving in the town of Bishop, where we topped up the gas tank once again so we wouldn’t need to purchase any in Death Valley. We only took a little over 4 gallons that stop, our first stop where we only spent 20 bucks. We are surprisingly getting between 32 and 34 mpg so far – I had expected about 29 for the trip. Riding two up and pulling a trailer with my motorcycle, we wouldn’t be getting much better than that.
At Lone Pine we turned off towards Death Valley, climbing first to get over yet another couple of passes before descending to the valley floor. As we were approaching Panamint Springs, Erin pointed out a jet, which looked to me to be an F15, although I’m not sure. It was flying low and fast, and was soon out of sight. Looking at the map now, I see that China Lake Naval Air Weapons Center is just south of that location, so I’m sure it was on maneuvers from there.
The wind continued to blow, and in some areas kicked up enough dirt and dust that we ran with the lights on. We also drove through one dust devil as it crossed the highway, pushing us first in one direction, then the other. I hope the video turns out on that one.
We arrived at Stovepipe Wells amid a near sandstorm, and found that they were open for business. We browsed through the store, then decided to continue on to Furnace Creek, another 18 miles or so down the road. That’s where we are now, at the Furnace Creek Ranch, which is really just a nice motel. We have all the comforts of home, and although there is no Internet connection in the rooms, there is a wifi area near the general store and saloon area, so I plan on going back up there in a bit to see if I can post this.
Tomorrow we’ll explore some areas of the valley floor, hopefully without the sandstorm. It was about 90 degrees here when we arrived, down from 116 yesterday. If the wind stops, it will probably be much warmer tomorrow.
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