Traditions.....

7:12 am - Thursday - October 13th - Bishop, CA - 43° F, 39% humidity, wind 2 mph out of the northwesst.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today in Bishop, CA at the Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fairgrounds.  On this date in 2019 my son, Chris, and I were installing our new Winegard automatic HD dish at Ramona Oaks RV Resort.......↴ 

 

The drive south from Gardnerville, NV to Bishop, CA is only 156 miles, but packed into that 156 miles is some of the most beautiful scenery in the U.S.  Even though there are a lot of high elevation summits, and passes we must traverse as we wend our way southward, I look forward to it each time we do it.  However, I get ahead of myself.

The last time we filled our 180 gallon diesel tank to the full mark was on April 12, 2022....exactly six months ago.  The best price in town, according to Gas Buddy, was at the local 7/11 mini market at $4.99/gallon.  That is about .48 cents more per gallon than we paid six months ago.  At any rate we had only driven 408 miles since April 12th (round trip to Likely Place and back to Gardnerville) so I figured we would take on about 60 gallons.  We arrived at the 7/11 around 9:30 am, and by 10 am we had poured 64 gallons of fresh diesel into the tank to top it off costing us around $324.  I was able to get the first 20 gallons at the discounted Gas Buddy price of $4.92, but you can only pump $100 of fuel per day using the Gas Buddy card, so the final 44 gallons cost the $4.99/gallon I mentioned earlier.  Ulimately the $100 was reduced to $98.60.

We were back on US-395 a tad after 10 am and heading for our first summit of the day.....

....Simee Dimeh Summit sits at 5,797', and would be the lowest summit all day.....

....once over the summit we descent to Topaz Lake......

....and a short time later we re-entered California where we will be for the next 6 months at Glamis North.....

.....next up was the uphill climb along the Walker River.....

.....up to Devil's Gate Summit sitting at 7,519' before descending once again to Bridgeport, CA.....

....the first thing you see as you enter Bridgeport from the north is the Valero fuel station sporting some of the highest gas and diesel prices we have seen in 10.5 years of our nomadic life.....

....we took a 40 minute break in Bridgeport walking from one end of town to the other and back before continuing our journey to the next summit, and highest point on US-395.....

....if you hit this stretch of US-395 at the right time of year you will see rivers of gold in the form of quaking aspens flowing down the mountain valleys, and gorges......

....of course, no trip north or south on this stretch of US-395 will ever be complete without stopping at the vista point just south of the summit....the Mono Lake Vista point.  I believe it is against the law for a Hockwald to pass this vista point without stopping and taking a few pictures......I remember my parents stopping here each summer as we made our way to Lake Tahoe for a few weeks every year, and TLE and I have kept the tradition alive for the 51 years of our marriage.....

TLE took a short video of our descent from Conway Summit to Mono Lake

.....after passing through Lee Vining we continued south past Mammoth Lakes, coming eventually to Crawley Lake, where we do stop occasionally to take a break, and we did so this year.....

....we arrived safely, and without incident at the Eastern Sierra Tri-County Fairgournds around 2 pm, and within minutes had paid for a site for one night....site #188 in the middle of the field....

.....we'll continue on our way to SoCal Thursday morning, and should be at the Elks Lodge in Fontana by mid afternoon.

Thanks for stopping by!