Colorado-Oakland-Reno

It seems that we can never stop traveling. This morning, we flew
out of Grand Junction's friendly little airport and after a stop in
Salt Lake City, found ourselves in Oakland, California. We had
to fly to Oakland so that we could pick up the Truckasaurus.
Truckasaurus is Lynn's sister Lenlee's Toyota 4Runner that we'll
be borrowing for the next 6 weeks. It also means a very long
drive for the next few days, as we slowly make our way east to
Indiana to visit my Mom.


This drive is an adventure for both of us as we have never driven
the stretch between San Francisco and Colorado. After leaving
Mill Valley, we made the obligatory stop at In-N-Out Burger and
feasted. I mean, who can't stop at In-N-Out Burger if given the
chance? Crossing the Sierras wasn't a problem since it's July, but
I wouldn't want to drive this route in the winter since it gets literally
feet of snow at a time! We stopped at Donner Pass which is famous
in history for the struggles (and not-so-tasty food choices) of the
participants on their way west.


The Sierras are beautiful though and although we couldn't spend
much time here on this trip we vowed to return someday. Lots of
really pretty mountains, lakes and vistas...with clean running rivers.
Similar to the mountains of Colorado...but different.


Once we crossed the Sierras we found ourselves in Nevada.
Neither of us had been to Nevada before so it was something
different. We stopped at a CVS drugstore in Reno (it was huge!)
and they actually had 20 slot machines in the store! Probably
not uncommon for Nevada, but certainly different than what we
are used to. We drove a bit longer than we wanted to but we had
reservations at the Red Lion Hotel and Casino in Elko, Nevada
and we pulled in about 9:00. It was a really nice hotel. When
we checked in, they gave us a coupon book for free stuff and
after we ate dinner, played $5 worth of free slots and ended up
losing $10 more. They wouldn't make a lot of money off us,
but when in Rome...or I guess in this case, Elko...