LARAMIE WYOMING - For a Night

The first picture was taken at Laramie, Wyoming.  There was a brief rain shower followed by a lot of sunshine.  As the clouds were building to the East, it was raining through the sunshine...the rain was happening in the air, but it did not hit the ground.  If you look closely at the picture, you can see the straight lines in the billowed clouds.  The second picture shows the salt flats on the Nevada/Utah border.  As you can see the ground is completely white.  If you look real close, you can see cars lined up to race at the Bonneville Salt Flats race way.  It was pretty awesome to see miles and miles of white ground.  Please excuse the window frame off to the left...we were roaring down Interstate 80 when the picture was taken.  Larry drove 13 hours today and we had two small breaks totaling less than an hour.  The driving weather has been perfect since Reno.  Until the next time.  Sharon

LEAVING RENO NEVADA - Trendwest Resort

Reno was fun-filled and full of adventures.  Larry and I spent days touring the countryside.  The top picture reflects a snapshot of Reno at night.  While standing on the 2nd Floor of Trendwest Resort you see the view of the Eldorado Casino in downtown Reno.  The lights are so brillient, it was difficult to focus.  The person standing to the side was someone bar-b-queing and taking in the view.  As always, we met very nice and gracious people.  While dining at Mel's Diner we ran into our neighbor from Renton, WA...what a small world.  The picture below shows snow still in the moutains that surround Reno and much of Nevada.  Today was the day to leave Reno at 7 AM...well, not soooo!  Our RV was not ready until 3 PM, so by 3:20 we were leaving the City with 5-6 good hours of driving time.  We stopped at a small town called Elko, Nevada at the Iron Horse RV Resort...right off I-80.  The Park is very, very nice.  We called for reservation about 18 miles from town...a commercial break for the Verizon Droid X navigation system...it's the best.  Within minutes we were confirmed and scheduled to arrive in 15 minutes.  It's a little after 10 PM, so I need to sign off because tomorrow at 4 AM we will be leaving.  PS  We did get in our 2-mile walk.  After arriving at 8 PM, we walked (mostly uphill) to Taco Time.  Their menu here was double what's in Washington with many different items...plus, the food tasted better.  Take care until Denver, Colorado.

RENO SITES AND ADVENTURES

Yesterday we walked over five miles checking out the sites, tours, shopping, museums and casino events.  So much has been going on, it's hard to know where to begin the story.  The last two nights were spent at the Days Inn at the edge of town; followed by today and tomorrow night at WordMark Condos.  Things worked out perfectly even though we had to put the Motor Home in the shop on Friday.  The bottom half of the radiator is plugged (soot and grime over time that has plugged it royally).  It is a tedious, pains-staking process to manully remove the junk from the radiator.  The blessing is that we were also able to secure a room at WordMark that is a "10" on a scale of 10.  (smile)  While on the phone with the agent at 5:30 pm Friday with no rooms, in the middle of her conversation; a cancellation happened.  The RV should be ready when it's time to leave. 
Some other good visits...We went to the Automobile National Museum which held Harrah's (Casino Owner) huge collection of automobiles going back to the first Ford.  It was organized amazingly around the streets, homes, and decor for the period surrounding the car years.  The top picture is an old cadilac.  The collection is too numerous to mention. 
The River Walk was nicely done which stretched for miles from east to west.  We shopped at Outlets at Legends in Sparks, NV (2-3 miles east of Reno).  The Mall was pretty big.  There's a store called Scheels at Legends Outlet.  The store had 85 speciality shops under one roof.  It has a fully operating ferris wheel in the middle of the store.  The second picture is the ferris wheel...we weren't up for taking a ride.  This store still remains privately owned. 
The last adventure yesterday was a trip to the Bonanza Casino for the Hot August Nights Classic "Show "n" Shine" with awards and trophies.  There were rows and rows of classic cars, beautiful cars; plus, it was hot...not quite as bad as Kansas, but hot none the less.  Well...it's time to sign off.  Take care and be safe. 

WE MADE IT TO RENO

We finally arrived in Reno, Nevada around 9 PM last night, after leaving Brookings at 7 am yesterday morning.  Traveling 101 to Highway 299 near Eureka was a 135 mile trek of mountain ranges with curve speeds dropping to 20 miles per hours.  The edge drop offs were stories high with little to no guard rails for support.  Traveling to Reno represented 13 hours of mountain climbing.  Exhaustion does not begin to explain how beat Larry was when we arrived...I was exhausted too; but I did not do 12 hours of straight driving.  The top picture shows how really close the rocks are to the edge of the road...observe the white line in relationship to the rocks.  The bottom picture is no joke on the curves traveled.  This sign represented 5 miles of tight road curves that had 20-35 mile an hour speeds...now apply this speed to 70% of the trip...luckily near the end of the trip we did have freeway speeds in areas without road construction.  Most of Northern California and Nevada had road construction, reducing travel lanes to one.  All in all, we are happy to be here and are enjoying the weather...85-89 degrees. 
PS  We did encounter an overheating problem about 60 miles from Reno, so we had to wait for the water temperatures and transmission fluid temp to go down.  Once cooled, we arrived with no further problems.

LEAVING BROOKINGS, OR Tomorrow

Well these are the last pictures everyone will receive from Oregon.  Tomorrow we are leaving for Reno, Nevada...bright and early.  Today was beautiful, sunny and warm.  These pictures were taken at Harris Beach in Brookings.  The top picture shows many Sea Gulls hovering around people with bread crumbs.  It was pretty amazing because the Sea Gulls were suspended in the air catching crumbs as they were tossed in the air.  The wind was keeping them floating at low levels to the ground.  The second picture was from a point at Harris Beach.  Gina and Paul are here and joined us today to enjoy one last day and dinner before parting.  It's hard to put into words just how beautiful the Oregon Coast is...simply awesome...simply breath-taking.  PS  The dinner at Sabastians was wonderful...more seafood.  (smile)
Reno here we come through California's Redwoods and beyond.  Signing off until Reno.