Weekend in Reno

We got up early Saturday morning to fix Denae's cat walk. It needed screen put on. We got done around noon and I took a picture of the finished product.

Cat walk complete

 After that we said our goodbyes and headed east. The drive across California was very picturesque. We took some pictures along the way.

Lots of very pretty scenery

Me on a rock

coming into Reno

We took our time and got to Reno around 7pm and decided to get a room and stay for the evening.

Walking around..

The room was nice..but very bright

We went and got a Prime Rib dinner for 5.99 and gambled a little. They didn't have free Internet so I couldn't update the blog last night.
I must say, We very much prefer Vegas to Reno. It is kinda like a little and a bit rougher tiny version of Vegas. 


   We got up around 8:30 Sunday and hit the road around 10:30. 
We spent the day driving across Nevada stopping once in a while to check things out. I saw this in a little town and it made me laugh.

This is the Pussycat Ranch sign.....

 The drive was very nice, if you like desserts and mountains. Very different from Iowa! 

Me in the high plains...drifting

 We got to Elko around 5 in the afternoon and decided to stay for the night. My father used to come here with his buddies when I was younger and I wanted to share the experience. We grabbed a cheap hotel room at Stockmans. It is an older casino in downtown Elko.

I wonder if my dad stayed here?

 After checking in we went up to the gold dust casino and had (can you guess?) 7.77 prime rib. I must say it was much better than the previous dinner from the night before. Then it was off to do a bit of gambling and hit the rack. We are gonna hit Salt Lake tomorrow.

San Fransisco

Bonnie reminded me I did not post a picture of our new car...so here it is.

Our new sled!

After I posted yesterday, we went down to the bay for dinner. I was going to take a picture of the bridge, but the fog had rolled in. Actually I was told it is fog covered most of the time. I took a picture of the bay bridge, it is closer and I could see it. I could not see the golden gate bridge at all.

Smoke on the water...

 We found a restaurant called Trader Vics (nice place) right on the waters edge and ordered dinner.

Yummmm

After dinner Bonnie, DeNae and I headed to Jackson, California as we were taking Denae to a dental specialist because she had broken one of her front teeth. We didn't get started till 9 in the evening, and it was dark out already. We had 2 hours to drive because her appointment was for 8AM. We arrived about 11 PM and found a hotel. In the morning I grabbed a photo of the dump...I mean hotel.

Hotel...Motel...whats the diff

The town is small, with not a lot to see, and of course it took all day so we had to hang around till 5. I did not take any pictures because I spent most of the day in the lobby of a dentist office. We got back to Denae's house at 7 PM and I took this picture of the Oakland Coliseum, Home of the Raiders and the Oakland A's.

The Coliseum

I also took this picture of Bonnie and Denae smoking out on the deck. It is very hilly here and the place is built on the side of a very steep hill.

Looking down..I thin we are on the side of a cliff.

Look at the tree, I was waiting for it to fall down.

I then noticed the A's must have a home game as the stadium was all lit up, so I grabbed a night shot of the stadium.

Game time!!!

 
We are gonna stay here for the evening, and take off in the morning. We are going to stop in Reno, Nevada tomorrow, as it is on the way home. I have wanted to see the place for a long time so I am excited to get there. See you all tomorrow.

 

Catch Up

Well it's been a long time since we have talked, so I figured I better get busy. It has been a long summer at the cabin, with no Internet.
Where to start? My son got married last Saturday. A lot of my family came, so that was nice. My sister Sheryl surprised us and flew in unannounced the night before.

Sheryl and Dean.

What a nice surprise! Dean Loved it. The wedding was outside and it must of been 102 degrees outside, but the wedding was very nice and I was so happy for my son! 

I now pronounce you, hubby and wife!

I took more pictures and I will post them on facebook for those that may be interested in seeing more. We had found a car we wanted to buy in Las Vegas and had tickets to fly out Monday morning. We got to Vegas at 10:40 at night went to our room and chilled. Ok Bonnie chilled, I went down and gambled and drank a few beers.
The next morning we went over to the car lot and looked at the car. We liked it, so we went to the bank and got the funds, and drove off with our new Honda Civic. New to us...It is a 2004 Civic. We spent the rest of the day doing some minor gambling and major people watching. 

24 karat gold guy?

view from our window.

On Wednesday morning we got up early and headed for San Fransisco to see Bonnie's daughter, DeNae. It would be her birthday on Thursday.On the way we found this alien joint. I had to see what this was all about. Apparently we were close to area 51.

I don't think these guys are from around here.

sitting on the roof

We decided we wanted to see the giant sequoia's on our way. We got to the Sequoia National Park about 7 PM and figured we could see some big trees, then head out. Wrong! When you get to the front gate of the park, the ranger told us it was 17 miles to the giant sequoia forest. 

Excitement at the bottom...about to turn to terror...

  We headed up and didn't get there till 9PM. The drive is horrendous!!! 5 to 10 miles per hour and very treacherous driving, all up the side of mountains. When we got up there, It was dark and scary. We didn't want to drive back down at night. We ran into this lodge (the only one within 2 hours of the park) and went in to see if they had any rooms available.

Lobby of the overpriced (but nice) lodge

We were unlucky enough to find they had one room available. It was a last minute cancellation and it was the executive suite. 270 buck for one night...We did not want to spend that much, but the idea of driving down at night was worse. Here is the overpriced room...

I have had nicer rooms for 25 bucks.

We could not see much at night as it was pitch black outside...But in the morning the views were spectacular! We headed out to make our run to San Fransisco, but stopped to grab a few pictures on the way out.

These are some big trees

Towering over my 5 ft wife

This is really big!!!!!

I think my car puts into perspective the size of these trees

Largest forest of sequoia's in the world

We got to San Fran about 2 in the afternoon and DeNae was very happy to see her mom! She lives on a hilltop in Oakland and I took these pictures of San Fran and the Golden Gate Bridge.

bridge in the mist

lemons on DeNae's Deck

Ok....I gotta go, we are gonna eat dinner.....