Day 45-August 2, 2012-To Alturas, CA
Got a really late start today, 11:20 but only drove 182 miles in 4-3/4 hours to Alturas, CA. Drove down Route 97 seeing nothing on the way (except a snow covered Mt. Shasta in the far distance-we figured over 100 miles away but at over 14000’ we could still see it) ‘til we got to Klamath Falls, quite a large city. Filled up on fuel because we’re only 20 miles from California and we know the gas is crazy expensive there (although Harry just looked on line and found out CT is higher than CA). Stopped for some groceries but didn’t buy any produce. There’s an inspection station into CA and you can’t bring in any produce. Last year they confiscated all our fruit. So we packed away what fruit we had in a safe place. Turns out the inspection station was closed anyway so we needn’t have worried.
Started seeing more cattle, sheep and horse ranches in California and a few potato and hay farms. This part of the country is in a valley with sagebrush and scrub oak leading up to buttes all around. We can see some mountains in the far distance but nowhere near us. We listened to the book on tape we started but we haven’t listened in so long it took a while to get back into what was going on.
Stopped in Alturas, CA at High Desert RV. They have only five sites across the street from the police station and the other four have permanent residents in them. We didn’t want to drive as far as Reno and this is the only place between here and there. Glad the ice cream lady in Diamond Lake told us about it, we never would have found it if we didn’t know it was here and glad I called for reservations this morning, which was no easy feat seeing that we have little to no cell phone service. We’re definitely not in the Pacific Northwest anymore, it was 91 degrees today and hot. We’ll see what tonight brings, last night we needed the heat, but we were at 7000’ altitude, we’re much lower now.
Day 46-August 3, 2012-To Reno
Well, so much for needing the heat, the temp reached 102 today by the time we got over the Sierra Nevada range and into Reno. It took us 3-1/4 hours to go 170 miles through the mountains, always in a valley with plains and desert for miles and mountains all around in the distance. Could barely see at one point because of the smoke and we later found out there was a fire in northern California and the smoke just settles in the valley. But the wind came up and blew it away by evening. Very dry here, they didn’t have much snow this winter and have had less than 2” of rain so far this year. Everything is really arid. Got into the campground early, by 1:30 and set up. We’re right behind the Grand Sierra Resort & Casino, which is a city in itself. Along with the casino it has a shopping mall on one floor, a 50-lane bowling alley that’s open 24/7, a 4-movie first run theatre for $3, wedding chapel, 15 restaurants, an outside driving range where you shoot balls into little decorated islands in a lake, an inside golf course, mini golf, a work-out room and spa, a huge pool on a manmade sand beach with outside bar, inside Mustangs Saloon and Dance Hall at one end and WET Ultra Lounge with a live dj at the other, three or four other bars in between, an 1800 seat arena with a Cirque show currently playing, Ultra Rush Thrill Park, convention and meeting rooms where they just had a cake icing contest where the winner was a 6’ sculpture that took 6 months to create, karaoke in another, and a family fun center with a bungie jumping thing, a go-kart track and other kid friendly activities. Reno had lots more children than Las Vegas, even in the casinos. They aren’t allowed on the betting floors but they can go everywhere else. I’m sure there’s lots of other stuff there that we haven’t seen yet. We can call security and they’ll shuttle us back and forth between the casino and the campsite but it’s an easy walk. We filled up on gas (about 55 cents cheaper in NV than CA) and then drove to downtown Reno, about 5 minutes from our campground. Lots of everything there, a riverwalk on the Truckee River with shops and art galleries, the University of Nevada, lots more tourist stuff and casinos, museums and parks, all stuffed into a few blocks. Reno prides itself on being “The Biggest Little City In The World”. We took a wrong turn and ended up on the freeway so we decided stop in town another time and instead went back to the Grand Sierra Casino to try our luck.