Thursday, August 18, 2011

Utah tried to freeze us out last night.  It almost worked.  When I got up this morning and walked out of the RV, I could see my breath!  We weren’t expecting that in the middle of August.

So, we got some coffee, turned the heater on, and got on the road.  And it was quite a road today.  Mountains, Salt Lake City freeway congestion, the Great Salt Lake, the Salt Lake Desert, and then lots of scrub with mountains in the distance and an occasional train going past.  Oh, and we needed to put the air conditioner on once we left the mountains and got to the Great Salt Lake:  one extreme to the other.  We kissed Utah good-bye and went on to Nevada.

Nevada is mountains, scrub, a passing train, an occasional ranch or hay field where they were lucky enough to find some water, and of course casinos.  We ended up having breakfast in a casino restaurant in Wendover.  It was either that or McDonald’s.  No other choices.  The bonus was that between the two of us we put $5 in the slots and got back $9.

After stopping for gas in Winnemucca (isn’t that a great name?), we had supper in Sparks, just outside Reno, near the California state line.  After supper, we found an RV park in Sparks.  We pulled into a spot and of course the office was closed.  Following instructions on the door, I went across the street to a resort to do an after-hours registration.  It worked out just fine.  But the interesting part about registering is that the clerk was in the corporate office, wherever that is.  I stood at the registration desk and talked to him on a large flat screen TV.  I swiped my credit card and he verified it remotely.  Talk about Big Brother!

Once again the best part of the trip was Uncle Don telling stories.  He keeps me laughing!

Our mileage report is 540 today and 2,048 so far.  We have 211 miles to go.  We plan to be at Uncle Tony’s tomorrow afternoon! 

PS – We spent almost the whole day without cell phone reception.  AT&T better watch out.  Uncle Don is not amused.