Five Eastern Sierra Passes.....

 7:04 am - Saturday - April 25th - TWW - 41° F, humidity 50%, cloud cover 52%, wind 6 mph out of the west by southwest.....partly cloudy skies today with a forecast high of 65° F here at the Honey Lake Rest Area off US-395.  We find ourselves less than 2 hours from LPG&RVR.  On this date in 2018 TLE and I were in St. Louis, MO.....

Left to right: Moi, TLE, Kay and Creig (pronounced Craig)

.....having dinner at 4 Hands Brewing Company with TLE's brother, Creig, and his wife Kay.  You've only met TLE's sisters before, but she also had two brothers....Creig and Read.  The view this morning....

....sunrise over Honey Lake in the background.

We always have a time in mind for when we want to begin our driving day, and on Friday it was to be on the road between 8 am and 9 am.  It was a chilly morning in Bishop necessitating the use of our block heater (heats the coolant in the block of the engine) to heat up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 for the first time in half a year.  The switch for the block heater is in the bedroom right above the head of the bed, so I usually, around 4, or 5 am on departure day, lean over and flip the switch so by the time we leave a few hours later the 6v92 will turn over and fire immediately.  Having access to 30 amps on each leg of our 50 amp system allows us to run our 2 electric heaters, the block heater, and our electric kettle at the same time....they each draw around 10 amps.

I had already disconnected from the water source Friday evening, so all I had to do after finishing my daily missive was to shutdown Starlink, and then unplug from shore power.  I fired up the big Detroit Diesel 6v92 around 8 am, and we were on the road by 8:10 am heading northward on US-395.

Our initial goal for the day was the Walmart in Indian Hills, NV (just south of Carson City) where we would do some shopping at the Walmart and Trader Joe's, which is in the same parking lot.  If you have followed our blog for any period of time you know that between Bishop, CA and Indian Hills, NV there are 5 summits we must climb, and descend.  The first is Sherwin Grade which begins about 15 miles north of Bishop.  It is around 8-9 miles long, and involves a continuous 6% grade topping out at 7,000 feet above sea level.  The second, just past Mammoth Mountain Ski Area is Dead Man's Summit (8,047'), then the grand daddy of all summits/passes on US-395....Conway Summit which at 8,143' above seal level is the highest point of the entire length of US-395 from the Mexican Border to the Canadian Border.  Then there is Devil's Gate Summit just north of Bridgeport reaching 7,519' feet above sea level.  The last pass, just past Topaz Lake, NV is Simee Dimeh sitting at a mere 5,978' where you begin a slow, long descent into the Carson Valley.  From Bishop to Indian Hills it is about 150 miles, but due to all of the summits, and climbing and descending them in mostly 2nd gear at 32 mph, it takes almost 4 hours, but the views are amazing....

Leaving Bishop

Beginning the climb up Sherwin Grade

At the top of Sherwin Grade near Tom's Place

Crowley Lake

Beginning the Conway Summit climb

Mono Lake

Mono Lake and Lee Vining in the distance

Conway Summit

.....it was basically rinse, wash, repeat for a little less than 4 hours.  I set the cruise control and just hung on to the wheel.

We reached the Walmart in Indian Hills around 11:55 am.  Our Jello plan was to shop, and then spend the afternoon and night in the Walmart parking lot (it used to be legal to do so until this year), but we were met with 'NO OVERNIGHT PARKING' signs, so that changed our plans immediately.  We usually stay at the Tahoe/Douglas Elks Lodge in Gardnerville, but spending just one night does not overcome the difficulty in backing into their RV sites, so on the spot we made a new plan.  We would spend a little over an hour there shopping, and for me taking a nap, before continuing on another 2 hours to the Honey Lake Rest Area in Janesville, CA where we have overnighted numerous times over the past 4+ years, then arrive at LGPG&RVR Saturday morning.  It's about 88 miles from Honey Lake to the golf course....

The Walmart parking lot

.....by 1:15 pm we were back on US-395 northbound through Carson City and Reno.  Road construction has been ongoing on US-395 through Reno, and north to the California border over 10 years, and it is still not complete, but it is close....maybe in 6 months when we head south again it will be FINALLY done.

Once we escaped the road construction the drive became fun again as we crossed back into California just north of Border Town, NV.  The drive to Honey Lake was without incident and took almost exactly 2 hours....

Starlink deployed

Doesn't she look pretty!

....we found a nice pull site near the back of the Rest Area, parked, leveled, and settled in for a nice afternoon/evening.

Thanks for stopping by!