Day 8 - Virginia City, Nevada

Continuing the morning...

After the balloons were mostly done in Reno, I headed over to Virginia City. The town has retained much of its Old West flavor.

I guess some people died shortly after large gambling losses.

Perhaps I can afford this one.

For me, it is fun to find splashes of color and growth in a dry, difficult environment.

A good deal?

I'm not sure which is more interesting: The old truck, the man, the skeleton in the window with its legs crossed, or the miscellaneous "stay away" messages.

I took a little train ride on the Virginia & Truckee Railroad to learn some history and see past and present gold mines.

Yes, there still is some gold, and other minerals, in them hills

Old gold mine

Strolling down the street as we returned

At noon, they had a short parade through town. I am not sure if they do that every day, every weekend, or just that one weekend. The parade included camels promoting the upcoming camel races.

Are they dressed up for a parade? Or is this business casual for their legal Nevada business?

I had read about their camel races. And those sounded interesting. I was hoping it was a distance race through the desert area there. I was a little disappointed that it was a company from Kansas that had brought in animals and the racing setup. But it was still fun to watch. It was my first time to see something like that in person.

Riding an ostrich can be quite difficult.

Zebras too!

Virginia City Camel Races 2011 - Surprise Ending 1

Virginia City Camel Races 2011 - Surprise Ending 2

Despite nearly zero sleep the night before, I felt pretty good. I spent the evening over at Dayton State Park and had a nice relaxing evening. After lots of rushing the past week, I was ready to just sit for a few hours - and backup over 1,000 photos.

This is dry land.

After seeing a little lizard, I was more diligent than normal to keep the tent zipped up.

Day 8 - The Great Reno Balloon Race

For Saturday, September 10

Saturday morning in Reno came early with only an hour or so of rest. I found my way in the general direction of The Great Reno Balloon Race. Sleeping in until 5:00 a.m. and trying to find a parking spot among the crowds, I missed some of the before dawn activities. But after sunrise over the mountains, I was able to see several balloons take off.

I had a nice visit with a guy who had recently moved to the area and was hoping for some nice photos, like the rest of us. If I remember right, he had come from the L.A. area. He worked on computer graphics. So now part of his work was for graphics in various slot machines and other gaming equipment.

Opening fly-over

The elaborately shaped balloons are fun. But, from what I have seen in a few places, many of them have a difficult time getting up in the air and flying well. Or perhaps their owners and pilots take fewer risks. So they stay near the launch ground.

And that was my early morning...

Day 7 - Oregon to Reno, Nevada

I wake up in Dunes City, Oregon feeling pretty good. But looking on the map, I know I have a looooong ways to go to be in Reno, Nevada the next morning.

Campground morning fog

I took the twisty 101 down along the coast. I took a few photos along the way in Oregon. The rocky and hilly coast here is quite different from the flat and sandy shoreline of most of the East Coast.

As long as a person is stopped several minutes for road construction, they may as well look around and try to find something interesting.

I stopped for a bit at Coquille Point, Oregon Islands National Wildlife Refuge.

This part of a tree trunk is at least eight feet high.

Deer tracks on the beach

More Oregon coast

I drove through the Redwood National Park and hiked a tiny bit. The trees are huge. It is difficult to get the perspective with a photo. The road through the park is full of curves with these big trees within five inches of the pavement on either side.

Corkscrew tree and other redwood trees in Redwood National Park

Strange moss or fungus on this fuzzy tree

In northern California, I stopped at a “beach” sign before the road headed inland. Silly me, I thought I might take advantage of this rare opportunity to swim in the Pacific. It had been years since I had done that down near Los Angeles. So I brought a towel down dozens of stairs to the beach below. There were several large rocks. But I thought there should be a swimming area somewhere down there. The only people there were walking around fully clothed. I at least waded a bit. But the water was very cold. And that surprised me since it had all summer to warm up. So I walked around with brief moments in the water. And that was my “in the ocean” experience for now. That wasn't exactly what I hoped for.

Trinidad Beach

It was now getting to be late afternoon with many miles to go. The shortest, and originally planned, route would go through the mountains to Redding, California and then down to Sacramento. But it was going to be dark. So the scenic route had little appeal. And I had driven nearly continuous curves all day long with all kinds of 15-70 M.P.H. curves without guardrails. So I chose major roads down to the Bay Area.

Rather than taking time to fix something to eat, I stopped for fast food. I had not eaten a Carl’s Jr. Western Burger since 1985. They still make them. And they are still good. If I remember right, it has bacon, barbecue sauce, and an onion ring on it.

Eventually I got down to the Bay Area where I could find a major road headed east to Sacramento. As I approached Sacramento, I got on the start of U.S. highway 50. That is a destination road for more of my 50^th birthday trip. The sign said Ocean City, Maryland is only 3,073 miles ahead on highway 50. I thought briefly about doing that and throwing out the other plans. But I stayed the course. Either way, I needed to head east.

It was already late. About 1:00 a.m., I see the sign “Curves next 30 miles”. Normally, this would sound fun. But at this point, miles of curves in the Sierra Nevada mountains in the very early morning aren’t quite so appealing. But there really isn’t any alternate route at this point. So I carried on. I could see enough in the moonlight to know this area is probably very scenic in daylight. There were plenty of curves at 30 M.P.H. or slower. I only saw a couple deer crossing at one place. Traffic was light. And there was no snow yet. One of the highest points along the way was Echo Summit at 7,382 feet. I saw signs for ski resorts and other tourist attractions.

Coming down the mountain, I was able to buy gas at a “closed” gas station with pumps still on. And I arrived at South Lake Tahoe around 3:30 a.m. From there, I made my way up to Reno, Nevada. I got to Reno around 4:30 a.m. Surprisingly, I wasn’t that terribly tired. I guess the “fun” road had kept me awake.

I had to get up early. So all I needed was a place to nap for an hour or so. After scouting out some parking possibilities and looking for any Mazda dealers on auto dealer row (I saw none.), I settled for a casino parking lot. They had plenty of lights and security cameras. I set a wake-up alarm. And I leaned over on the seat to rest my eyes for a bit.