Monday 6 October 2008
We woke to another beautiful sunny day and we enjoyed breakfast with Peggy in her kitchen. We talked about Steve and felt very sad that he had gone.
We left at 9.15am and passed many vegetable fields growing artichokes and lettuce near Hollister.
Over twenty years ago we had attended a helicopter convention with our girls Hayley and Jenny in Las Vegas and we had driven to Yosemite National Park. We remembered that it rained a lot and on the way and we stayed in a motel called Casa de Fruita. Well, we were rather excited when we found this establishment just off the highway. We pulled in and filled the car at the Casa de Fruita petrol station for old time’s sake.
We found ourselves back amongst the big trucks of America – all in good condition and shiny clean (a little different from Kazakhstan and Mongolia).
On Highway 5 we drove beside big water canals used to irrigate the huge orchards.
We drove to Sacramento and visited the Old Sacramento town and went to the Californian Railway Museum.
We then headed onto Highway 80 to head for Reno. Many of our friends will remember GilesKershaw who flew in the Twin Otter with Dick in Antarctica and sadly was killed in Antarctica a year later in 1989. Giles’ wife Annie now lives in Truckee near Reno and we hoped to visit her. We rang a number of times and left messages. We hadn’t seen her for many years and having her house address we decided to drive there anyway with the hope that she would be home.
On the way we followed the railway line at Auburn and stopped at Emigrant Gap and watched the Amtrak train to San Francisco go past.
We drove through Soda Springs cross country ski resort area and Dick noticed a tunnel near the road. He had read many history books about the railways of the USA and remembered the building of the Summit Tunnel on the Union Pacific railway line.
After driving through a car park we found the entrance to the tunnel and drove slowly through the tunnel with our head lights on. It was exciting to see the bare rock surface created by mostly Chinese workers building the railway. We were able to turn around on the other side and drive back through the tunnel again.
We looked down on Donner Lake and eventually found ourselves driving beside it.
Using our old USA GPS we managed to find Annie’s house perched on the top of a hill with a fantastic view. Sadly Annie wasn’t home so we drove on and into Reno, Nevada.
We stayed the night in the Grand Sierra Resort where there were many poker machines and a casino as gambling is legal in Nevada.
Click here for the next entry – Back to Los Angeles to wait for the Earthroamer
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