...and more

We found Virginia City with no problems. The road up to the town has 63 or 64 (the number is debated) hairpin turns on the way up and around the mountain. It’s a 2 lane road with no guardrails and no shoulder; and I have issues with edges, so at least part of the drive up I tried very hard to concentrate on the double yellow line in the middle of the road. The scenery was spectacular. I wish I could have enjoyed it more.

We found our way to the V&T depot so we know where to go tomorrow, and then spent some time wandering around Virginia City itself. The whole town is one of those ‘tourist trap’ communities, where the whole main street is made up of shops selling T shirts & collectibles, so we didn’t stay terribly long.

Driving back down was a little less hair raising then the trip up. Not that the road was less curvy, just that there were fewer of them. Again, no guard rails. I think that the floor on the passenger side will have permanent footprints in the floor from my attempts to apply the brakes.

We found the home of our hosts, Michael and Jacki in Carson City, and visited with them for a while. They gave us some choices for food, so we picked a pizza place for dinner. The room we’ll sleep in is about a 9X12 with a double sized futon for a bed. But since it only costs $15 and includes breakfast, it’ll do fine.

Tomorrow morning after breakfast, we plan to go to the Nevada State Railroad museum. It houses the cars of the V&T railroad that are not used for the excursions. There is also a trolley that runs excursions, so we’ll find out the schedule, and may ride it also. The V&T is only running one trip tomorrow. Their regular schedule does not start until Memorial Day WE, but a phone call verified that they’d be operating this Saturday, so we slowed down a bit to take advantage of the operating day.

Saturday May 3, Day 5

For breakfast, Michael made French Toast and bacon. After leaving their home we went to the museum and rode their trolley. It only runs around their museum property, so by the third circuit, it was pretty boring. Then drove up to the V&T in time to wander around a bit, before the train came out. The ride was nice, the scenery lovely, but the track noise was so loud we could barely here the narrator as he pointed out the sites along the way. I took quite a few pictures.

After the V&T ride, we drove back down the mountain and followed rte 50 down the east side of Lake Tahoe. We found a State Park, (not yet open for the season) and parked along the road – with lots of others with the same idea – and walked in to the picnic area to eat our lunch.













When we got to the CA border, we had to stop for an agriculture inspection. I declared the Gala apples purchased at a grocery store, and the orange picked up at a motel a couple of days before. The warden apologetically took my orange because it had no sticker on it, and let us keep the apples, which did. I now have an official State of CA agricultural confiscation certificate for the orange.

After that we drove the 100 or so miles to Carmichael, and arrived at Jeff and Tia’s at about 4:30 in the afternoon. Jamie and Zoey were there, so we got to meet the baby right away. She scoots herself around, and pulls herself up in the stairs now. Her legs are still pretty wobbly, but she’s pretty determined. She can get up the two stairs from the living room to the kitchen level.

Jeff made dinner, and we sat around and talked until nearly midnight before he guided us to our hotel.

Sunday May 4, Day 6

Tia wanted to take us to Old Fair Oaks to a festival there, so we went there about 11:30 or so. We walked through the antique car exhibits, and then walked about a half mile downhill to the river. The weather has been phenomenally good, so walking was nice! Walking back up the hill, however, was not quite as easy, and it had gotten warmer! Back at the top, Jeff & Vince went to get us something to drink, and Tia and I waited in the shade. When they got back, as we were talking, suddenly Jeff walked over to a young woman, and hugged her. It was my cousin Nan’s daughter Denise. I have not seen her since Jeff was 5 and Karl 3. She was 1 ½ at the time. So we chatted a bit, and then she and her boyfriend and his dad (with his antique car) had to leave.

Back to Jeff’s for dinner, and on to the motel.

Monday May 5, Day 7

Today we went to Sacramento with Jeff to visit Sutter’s Fort. Unfortunately the volunteers that I ‘know’ thru the Sewing Academy were not there as they only can work on weekends; but we had a really nice time. The fort is a State Historic location, so Park Rangers and paid employees are there. We chatted with several of them, and thoroughly enjoyed the day. I took pictures of a couple of period rope beds so Vince can attempt to make more historically correct head and foot boards.

After leaving the fort, we had lunch downtown, and then back to the house. Tomorrow we leave for Yosemite. It’ll give Tia a break.

May 2 Day 4
We both slept really well last night. Interesting motel. Probably built in the ‘60’s. No cups, no clock and a real key for the door. Also, no breakfast. But it was cheap, the other option was $79/night – and no breakfast. We ate at the Cowpoke Café.

After crossing another desert area – this time probably Alkali. We’re back into mountains. These are lower, rounded and no snow, and we’re very close to Reno here. We plan to go on down to Virginia City so we know how to find it tomorrow. There will be one excursion trip at about noon. Then I hope to go on up to Lake Tahoe and check out some of the sights there. We’ll be staying in Carson City at the home of an Evergreen Club member. They have a dog named Henry. ;-)

A note of explanation

I mentioned that we would stay with an Evergreen Club member, and I think I need to explain what that is. The Evergreen Club is a travel club open to people 50 and over. The requirements to join are that you have a space for a guest to sleep, are willing to feed them breakfast in the morning, and enjoy meeting new people. There is a worldwide network of members, though most of them are in the US. When you stay at the home of a member, the nights sleep and breakfast cost $15 for a couple.

I had planned to use the club fairly often as we crossed the country, but in fact only did so twice. There were very few nights for which I could predict arrival date and time, and one must give advance notice of your wish to stay.

...and more trip

April 30 Day 2

The eastern half of Nebraska is very much like IL & IA,. Green with rolling hills and farms. But as we moved west, the state becomes flatter, and more barren. As the elevation begins to get higher, the vegetation thins out and becomes scrubby. The trees are mostly evergreens. We followed the Platte River for miles. Along the river on both sides of the highway, were small manmade ponds of various sizes. I wondered if they were from strip mining or quarrying (sand and gravel are plentiful out here) Vince thought they might have been the result of building the highway. Lots of people fishing in them.

It was another beautiful day, and the temp got up into the high 70’s. Nebraska is an extremely long state. It seemed we’d never get to the end of it. As the elevation rose, we drove through the high plains. We saw thousands of head of black angus, many of which were in feed lots getting fattened up for market.

Just west of North Platte, NE, we entered the Mountain Time Zone. No mountains in sight yet though.

Along the way we saw a huge wind farm with perhaps a hundred wind turbines. Many of the exits off of the highway were simply to unpaved roads. The ramps were paved, and once at road level, the paving ended, and the road often went off into nowhere.

Finally out of Nebraska and into Wyoming. We keep going up into the high desert. Here there are no trees at all. Sandy soil and scrub. The cattle are free ranging. No neat pens, and not much in the way of civilization is visible. I saw a herd of pronghorn antelope which spread out over a couple of miles. Jeff said it may have been more than one herd, since I probably saw more that a hundred and they don’t usually travel in herds that large. The weather forecast is for rain & snow tonight and tomorrow, so we will push on west. Had planned to stop in Laramie; but it was too early to stop, and in view of the forecast, we opted to push on to Rock Springs, another 188 miles. We drove through a little rain a snow showers going across the high plains, but not enough to slow us down. So we were pretty tired by the time we got there.


May 1,Day 3 We woke up with our internal clocks still on Central time in Rock Springs, WY and we were on the road by 8:15 MT heading toward SLC, UT.

We are traveling through the high desert. It’s pretty barren lots of scrub, but no trees. The soil seems to be very sandy, and about all that can live out here are grazing animals and their predators. This is Wyoming cattle country.

An hour into the drive _ Ft. Bridger – we see lots of snow capped peaks to the south and west of us. The hills around us are layers of limestone topped with sandstone. All badly eroded into interesting shapes.

Near Ft Bridger is a large Wind Farm. A long line of wind turbines high on a ridge, positioned to add electric power into the grid.

We are also suddenly back below the tree line. Scrubby dwarf evergreens dot the hillsides, and a few deciduous trees show up too. We also ran into some snow west of Ft. Bridger.

We have encountered mostly truck traffic all on the way since leaving Omaha. It’s not really tourist season yet, so not many 4 wheelers along this route. We’ve also seen many signs along the highway saying that if the lights on the sign are flashing, that traffic should get off the highway at the next exit. I don’t think I’d want to get caught out here if the highway was closed due to snow. There is NOTHING out here! Not even many rest areas.

Suddenly, we crest a ridge and begin the descent into Salt Lake City. The road has between 3% and 6% grades and S curves all the way down speed limits 75mph. A few white knuckle curves, and we’re down.

The weather today has been cold, and trying very hard to rain and/or snow and visibility is poor, so we decided not to go to Salt Lake Park, but kept on driving. As we drove west along the south end of the Great Salt Lake, we were able to find a parking area where we could stop and take pictures of the lake. Later this afternoon we also found a rest area where we could walk out onto the Great Salt Lake desert. It was incredible to actually find myself walking on rock hard salt! The desert is white, and is made up of mostly salt with a little sand mixed in. The only place that anything grows is where the DOT brought in dirt for the rest area, and for the roadbed. And even there the vegetation is scrubby and brown.








After passing the desert, we again drove up into higher elevations and then we spent most of the rest of the day above the tree line. Utah is a very narrow state, E/W so shortly we entered Nevada. Throughout NE, WY, UT and now in NV, towns are very sparse, so we’ve had to be a bit careful about planning our gas and motel stops. We did stop at a small town in NV to shop for lunch food so we could avoid having to stop and buy a meal. Our cooler lunches have been a good idea. They keep us moving, and mean we only buy one meal a day in restaurants.

Tonight we made it to Lovelock, NV and found a mom & pop motel to stay in. I’ve called ahead to Carson City to arrange a room with an Evergreen club member, so tomorrow night will cost us $15, and include breakfast. From here to there is about 115 miles, and we will be able to ride on the Virginia & Truckee RR in Saturday noon. Then it’s only about 100 miles to Jeff’s.

Jeff has called us on Tuesday and Wednesday nights; and Kurt called tonight. They are both anxious to know when we will arrive.

West Coast trip Journal

April 29 Day 1
Left home about 8:15 a.m heading west on I88 towards the Mississippi River. Picked up I80 on the IL side of the river, and kept going. There’s not much to see through here that we’ve not been past before. But once we got west of Des Moines, we were in new territory. We’ve never driven this part of I80 before. The scenery, though, was no different that what we see at home. We did see two communities in IA that each had 1 wind turbine. What a good way to save money for the community’s electric power needs!

We had packed a small cooler with cheese and fruit, and brought along nuts, granola bars and other munchies so we could eat lunches along the way figuring on saving money.

We stopped in Omaha to see the UP display that overlooks the city and the MS River bridges. The weather was lovely, and getting out to walk was a treat. Got pictures of the “Big Boy” steam engine there.


The eastern half of Nebraska is very much like IL & IA,. Green with rolling hills and farms. But as we moved west, the state becomes flatter, and more barren. As the elevation begins to get higher, the vegetation thins out and becomes scrubby. The trees are mostly evergreens. We followed the Platte River for miles. Along the river on both sides of the highway, were small manmade ponds of various sizes. I wondered if they were from strip mining or quarrying (sand and gravel are plentiful out here) Vince thought they might have been the result of building the highway. Lots of people fishing in them.

It was another beautiful day, and the temp got up into the high 70’s. Nebraska is an extremely long state. It seemed we’d never get to the end of it. As the elevation rose, we drove through the high plains. We saw thousands of head of black angus, many of which were in feed lots getting fattened up for market.

Just west of North Platte, NE, we entered the Mountain Time Zone. No mountains in sight yet though.

The Beginning - July, 16, 2008

My first post, ever... anywhere! My son said I should blog my travels and so I decided it was a good idea.

In May of this year, my husband and I traveled from our home in IL to visit my sons. Jeff lives in Carmichael, CA, and Kurt lives in Tacoma,WA; so we chose to take a month-long drive to see them and some of the more interesting sites along the way.

My husband is a true train nut; so some of our stops had to include rail museums, and rides. But both of us are interested in history - and specifically the time surrounding the American Civil War. We are reenactors, and I am a self employed seamstress making reproduction clothing for women and children; so you will find, as I go along, stuff that has to do with that era in history.

But let's start with The Trip! While on the road, I journaled on my laptop, so I have tons of words I can simply drop into this space. I also have all of the photos (including some video) that I took, plus everything my son Jeff took while we were together.
One of the main reasons for taking the trip this particular spring, was that Jeff's stepdaughter, Jamie, had a baby last fall, and I figured that at 7 months, she'd be fun! And she is!

We spent 8 days with Jeff & Tia, and 8 with Kurt & Boe. I will post the trip Journal and a picture of Zoey when I start up the Laptop.