September 10, 2022
9/3 – We started out the day doing some grocery shopping at WalMart and added a few more bins to help with storage. The biggest issue with living in an RV full-time is having a place to put everything and being able to easily find things when you need them. Some of our cupboards are pretty deep so with a clear bins we can put lots of like items in them and then pull the bin out of the cupboard to see what is in it instead of digging into the cupboard.
This afternoon we headed to Salt Lake City for the day. We got there at about 2 pm and played around at Clark Planetarium. It had lots of interactive displays. We got to touch a piece of Mars, see a tornado made and explore strange planets. We also were able to enjoy two shows in their domed theater. The first was The Birth of Planet Earth and the second was a Laser light show with rock music and an unusual film. It took us back to the 1970’s, Livermore High School and Ms. Petrock’s class with its weird movies. https://slco.org/clark-planetarium/
Mid-day before our late evening movies at the Planetarium we took a break and took the Trax transit to Temple Square. We spent a while there touring the Tabernacle and Assembly Hall. There was a young group of musician’s practicing for a performance and we were able to sit and enjoy their music for a bit. Then we headed back to the Planetarium and enjoyed the shows before heading to the RV. https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/feature/templesquare?lang=eng
9/4 – Seems like Sunday has turned into our lazy do nothing day. We were going to go back to Temple Square and see the Music and Spoken Word broadcast being recorded but Frank woke up with a sore back so we just hung around the RV relaxing, reading and watching some TV together.
9/5 – Today was Labor Day and Frank didn’t have to work so we had the whole day to explore. This morning we had tickets to visit The Kennecott Mine. It is the largest mine in the world and the deepest open pit mine. It is so deep that it can be seen from outer space. It operates 24 hours a days, 365 days a year. They mine a wide variety of items from copper to minerals they are not allowed to discuss. We were impressed with how big the equipment was used to operate the mine. We watched the dump trucks line up to dump what was not usable. Other dump trucks took usable material to a conveyor belt that then would take the rocks 6 miles to a smelt facility. As we were there we thought about how much Frank’s dad and Uncles who spent their lives working with heavy equipment would have enjoyed the tour. https://www.riotinto.com/operations/us/kennecott/visitor-experience
After visiting the mine we decided to do a little off-roading. Franklyn our son told us about a road that lead up to his radio station tower on a mountain. It was a really fun road and we enjoyed the trip until Frank noticed when we were almost to the top that our gas light was on. We were too many miles up to walk back, we had no cell service, and we were on a dirt road most vehicles couldn’t drive up. It was not a great place to run out of gas, so we turned around and headed back down. Went and got some gas and got our Jeep washed after all our off-roading lately.
9/6 – Today was mainly driving. After Frank finished his morning shift we left Provo, Utah and headed toward Nevada. We did have to sidetrack off the beaten route to see Bonneville Salt Flats. It was just a wide spot in the road where you could see lots of salt flats and the mountains that surrounded it but now we can say we have been there. We made it to our campground Welcome Station in Wells, Nevada just in time for Frank to get back to work. The campground we were staying at is an oasis in the desert. Lot of big trees, green grass and a creek running through it. They have a Ladybug hunt where they have ladybug items throughout the park and clues to find them. I headed out to do the hunt and take pictures for my Grandchildren. It was a lot of fun and I got to explore the whole park. https://www.wsrvpark.com/ladybug
9/7- We wanted to get across as much as Nevada as possible today so as soon as Frank got off work this morning we started driving and didn’t stop until 5 hours later when we reached Sparks, Nevada. It was a windy, hilly drive and there were lots of crazies on the road. We narrowly avoided two accidents. One when a pickup almost ran into the back of a slow moving big rig and we were right behind them both. Luckily at the last minute the pickup was able to change lanes and avoided rear-ending the rig. The second was when we came around a curve to find a car and trailer broken down in the middle of the road. We had to throw on our brakes and hope anyone behind us would do the same. They had several other people who had stopped to help them so we were able to change lanes and get around them and head on. We found a nice RV park called Sparks Marina RV Park there and we got hooked up and Frank immediately went to work. https://www.sparksmarinarvpark.com/
9/8 – When we got up this morning we had expected to head down to Truckee and Donner’s Pass to spend some time there and tomorrow we would be head to Modesto to visit family. One phone call changed everything but that is what is so nice about living on the road is the flexibility to change plans if needed. Anyway, we found out family in Modesto had Covid so we will avoid stopping there on our way out and see them after we get back from our Hawaiian Cruise in October. That meant we had to make new plans, so since we had a couple extra days we decided to spend our touring time today going to Virginia City, Nevada and camp in Truckee tomorrow and tour it then. We also found out that this weekend is the Reno Balloon show. I am super excited that we will have the opportunity to see that tomorrow before heading to Truckee.
Virginia City was a great place to visit. Samuel Clemens was a reporter there and first used the name Mark Twain there. We toured the town and enjoyed lunch in one of the old establishments. We did a mine tour inside the Ponderosa Saloon which at one time was a bank. The mine entrance was found behind where the bank vault when the it was moved. Our guide was enjoyable and had so many fun stories to share. https://visitvirginiacitynv.com/
Our trip up and back was on Geiger Summit and is considered one of the nation’s dangerous roads. Glad we didn’t have to bring our RV up it. We stopped at an overlook where there were still chimney’s standing from when the WPA work crew camp in the 1930’s. It had amazing views of the valley below. https://www.dangerousroads.org/north-america/usa/4977-geiger-summit.html
9/9- Today was a long, very full enjoyable day. We got up at 4 am so we could go over and watch the Reno balloon show. It was fantastic! They started out with about 30 balloons doing a glow show. The lite up their different balloons to the music playing. The balloons were beautiful and we were able to be only about 50 feet away. They have a limited amount of balloons who are licensed to fly in the dark and they are called the dawn patrol. They told us before the balloons launched that we might have to get out of the way as the wind guided where it wanted. We decided to move back from the balloons to a more distant spot because both of us don’t move that fast and didn’t want to get hit by a basket. The spot we picked was perfect because as the 12 dawn patrol balloons launched they ended up flying right over our heads. We were back at the campsite by just a little bit after 6 am so Frank could start his morning shift. https://renoballoon.com/
When he was done working at 10 am we headed out to Truckee, California which is only about an hour down the road. We got to our campground unhooked the Jeep and headed to Donner’s Pass. Due to all the forest fires, that California and Nevada have been experiencing the skies were gray and smoky but we were still able to enjoy the view from Donner’s Pass. Frank decided to be a mountain goat and did some serious climbing of the rocks while I watched from below.
We had heard that the former train tunnels that we went through with the kids in the early 1990’s on Amtrak where now decommissioned and could be explored. We went in prepared with our flashlights to explore. We tried to find a place to get to them and then Frank saw a dirt road that lead to an area right next to the entrance of one of the tunnels. We headed down there and parked and walked over a half mile each way through the tunnel that had been blasted into the mountain. It was neat to explore until we reached the third tunnel and suddenly heard lots of bats. We decided our hike had been long enough and headed back. The tunnels had been marked with lots of graffiti by previous hikers. As we headed back we passed four other groups hiking our way. We got back to the Jeep and saw that after people had seen our Jeep they had driven down to the tunnel and parked there too. We were quite the trend sitters. https://tahoetrailguide.com/hiking-the-historic-donner-pass-train-tunnels-in-truckee-ca/
As we headed back to our campground we stopped at Donner’s Lake for a few minutes to enjoy the view. This whole area reminds me so much of the area near Tahoe (Silver Lake) where I used to camp growing up. After we got back to the RV Frank went back to work and I did the laundry. I also got to Facetime with several of my grandchildren which was fun. Tomorrow we head to Livermore to visit family.
Leave a Reply