Eastern Sierra interlude.....

 7:58 am - Sunday - April 10th - Gardnerville, NV - 33° F, humidity 37%, wind 3 mph out of the east by northeast......partly cloudy today with a forecast high of 63° F....a 30° differential!  On this date in 2015 TLE and I were visiting 'Four Corners'......↴

New Mexico, Colorado, Utah and Arizona

For the first time in about a week we slept with our windows wide open  Friday night in Bishop, CA.  We awoke Saturday to the sun hitting the Sierra Nevadas to the west.  Our goal was to be on US-395 northbound by 8 am....I think we exited the Tri-County Fairgrounds around 8:10 am....not too bad.....

....within 15 minutes we were beginning the assault on our first high elevation summit of the day...Sherwin Grade.....

The beginning of Sherwin Grade.....about 8 miles of 6% grade...a real 'grinder'

.....the coach ran well Friday over Cajon Pass, and several other long climbs, but Saturday we would be going over 5 high elevation summits....Sherwin Grade at 6,427', Dead Man Summit at 8,047', Conway Summit at 8,143', Devil's Gate Summit at 7,519', and lastly Simeh Dimee at 5,987'.....these five summits would prove to be the 'acid test' as to how well our radiator is working.....

Mammoth Lakes is still 30 miles away

That 6% grade is relentless!

.....it took us about 30 minutes to climb the 8 miles of 6% grade to the summit, and we took a break at the Crowley Lake Vista Point so I could check the coolant and oil levels....all was well.  Within minutes after that stop Mammoth Mountain came into view.....

Mammoth Mountain on the left (snow capped), and the Minarets on the right

.....next up was Dead Man Summit, then the city of Lee Vining, followed by Conway Grade which takes us the Mono Lake Vista Point, just short of Conway Summit.....we always stop here whether going north, or south to take a few pictures, and Saturday was no exception......

....we spent about 20 minutes before continuing on to Bridgeport.....

Conway Summit...the highest point on US-395 which runs from the Canadian border in Washington State to San Diego, CA

.....after Conway Summit there is a long 8 mile downhill grade into Bridgeport where we found a place to park, and took about a 40 minute break, including a walk around town before we continued our northward journey.....

The old county courthouse

Diesel is $7.39/gallon in Bridgeport....ouch!

.....about 10 miles outside Bridgeport we came to Devil's Gate Summit, and then the long, long downhill through the Walker River drainage, through Walker, Coleville and Topaz......

....before passing Topaz Lake......

.....and into Nevada....only one pass remains....Simeh Dimee, and then it is downhill into Gardnerville and Minden, NV.....

.....usually we overnight at Silver City RV Resort in Minden, NV, but we found out recently that there is an Elks Lodge in Gardnerville which provides 50 amp electrical, and water, so we decided to check it out.....

......they have 5 paved sites which more than fit our 62' length, the Lodge looks pretty new, and the nightly rate is just $20....

....we arrived at the Lodge around 1 pm to find four of the five sites were available.  We would have preferred to park in the site on the far left of the picture above, but due to the tightness of the parking lot it was easier for us to park right next to the Phaeton, which you see to the left of the Newell.

After getting set up for a few days we headed out to a local micro brewery called Shoe Tree Brewing Company....they have two locations....Minden and Carson City....we chose the one closest to us in Minden. Yelp gives this location 5 stars on just 5 reviews, so it must be pretty new.  The one in Carson City gets 4.5 stars on 80 reviews.....we come in around 4 stars....if there had been food, and it was exceptional we would probably be at 4.5 stars......

.....as I said, they don't serve food, but there is pizza place next store, so TLE and I ordered a medium Factory Special with Anchovies (amazing pizza!), and then went into the brewery to order a couple of brews.  We enjoyed our pizza and brews alfresco, which is our preferred mode of dining.  TLE had one of their Porters (Shoe Tree Cocoa Burrito Supreme), and I their Shoe Tree Gingie-Gingerbread Brown.....both brews get high marks from TLE and I.  What a nice way to end another successful travel day.

So far we have covered around 420 miles from Fontana with only the minor speedometer issue......the engine, transmission and oil temps have been right where they should be translating into a very stress free drive so far.  We'll hang out here in the Carson Valley for a few days before continuing to the Likely Place RV and Golf Resort on Tuesday, or Wednesday...it really depends on how the weather plays out.  We're supposed to have rain/snow here in Gardnerville Monday, and in Likely, CA snow is forecast for Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  There may be no way to avoid the weather, but we'll see.  There may be a weather window from Tuesday evening to late Wednesday when there is no precipitation, so we are inclined to leave here Wednesday for the final 206 miles.  We'll top off the diesel tank, which now sits at about 1/3 full, at the good Nevada price of $4.47/gallon.....over $2/gallon less than it was in Fontana!

Thanks for stopping by!

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