Reno

When we got to Reno we parked in a large, mostly unoccupied KOA behind a casino west of town, then called Freightliner and were fortunately able to get an appointment to bring in Tuzi Wednesday morning.  Next we called Ann and Ed Burgess, Highlands University classmates of Susie.  They retired in Sparks, a town adjoining Reno on the NE.  We went to their house, then to an Olive Garden for dinner and had a great visit recalling the many and varied classmates they knew.  Ed was a football player recruited from West Virginia as was Susie's late husband, Manny.  Most of his career was as superintendent of a boys' reform school in Elko, NV.  He developed and ran a very progressive program before people even knew what progressive was.  Ann was from Deming, a good friend of Susie and was in her wedding.  So, 52 years later, there was a lot of: Do you remember old Sanky (I kid you not)?  He married Gloria and the last I heard they were living in Sun City.  (I'm making up the details, but you know the sort of conversation I'm talking about.)

Jumping ahead, we got together again Wednesday evening, after we had picked up Tuzi and parked her at the Sparks Marina RV park (had the cleanest and best restrooms I've ever seen in a RV park) and had dinner at their house..  Here's a picture of the three Highlands Cowboys grouped around their iconic symbol.

Tuesday we circumnavigated, by car, Lake Tahoe.  Beautiful place.  Known for the clarity of its water and its awesome surroundings.  Mark Twain, then Samuel Clemens, was here in the early days of the Nevada Territory and had this to say:

"So singularly clear was the water that when it was only twenty or thirty feet deep the bottom was so perfectly distinct that the boat seemed floating in air!  Yes, where it was even eighty feet."

Here's a small sampling of the pictures we took.

Susie liked this large pine cone.

Add boats.

I used my camera timer. Now you see him.

Now you don't.

"Talking to you is like talking to a post!"

A lot of the lake is lined by private property, much of it pretty grand.  But, there are also state parks and undeveloped shoreline, too.  We started at the north end of the lake, went down the east side, had lunch on the south end and ice cream back at the north end - about a 70 mile, all-day trip.

There was one white-knuckle stretch of about 100 yards where the road went along a high ridge that separated Tahoe from another lake.  Two lanes only, no shoulders, no guard rails.  I think it was straight down, way down, on either side, but didn't/couldn't look to see.  Susie may have had her eyes closed.  There was no warning that I saw.  Just suddenly you were on this automotive tightrope.  Whew!

 

Wednesday we dropped Tuzi off at 7am, found a place in Sparks for some breakfast, then drove to the old mining town of Virginia City.

 We took a short train ride to and from Gold Hill while the conductor told us some of the area's history.

We walked the main street shops and I toured the museum in the old newspaper basement room where Samuel Clemens worked as a reporter and editor.  Here's his actual desk.

It was a race with the clock whether Tuzi would be ready Wed. pm.  We made tentative plans to stay the night with Ann and Ed, with whom we were to have dinner.  Fortunately, Freighliner stayed open until seven and about 6:30 we got the call that we were ready to go.  We picked Tuzi up, parked her at the nearby RV park, and had a great dinner that the Burgesses had graciously delayed for us.

 So, we ended up with two fine days of sightseeing and visiting in the Reno area and with a motor home ready to cross the mountains and deserts back to Cedar Crest.  Did we make it?  Stay tuned.

Cheers,

Susie and Rob