Settling.....

We are in a short term cooling trend, which may, or may not involve rain in the next few days, but will definitely see temps in the 50's and 40's, and over night lows in the low 30's.  I'm not complaining.....at least there is no persistent wind.  Once we started our nomadic journey a little over 2 years ago I was determined never to spend a summer anywhere it would get over 100 degrees....even for one day.  I have had a lifetime of those kind of summers, and really prefer it to be in the 70's....I'll even take 80's on occasion.  The average summer temps here in the Tahoe Basin rarely get into the 80's, and that is usually late summer.  It's mostly in the 60's and 70's.

We decided a leisurely bike ride would be in order for Sunday, so once I had our Cannondale singles tuned and lubed we headed out east on HWY 50 towards Stateline to familiarize ourselves with the local area as far as eateries, services, thrift shops, etc.  We encountered a little wind as we rode east, but it was blowing from the west, so it was pushing us along at a pretty brisk pace.  

At Regan Beach....notice the snow in the background

We stopped off at Regan Beach, which is just about mid town.  Back in the late 80's we spent about 8 days sitting on this beach when our kids were still wee ones.  It is very shallow here, and you can walk out a 100 yards, or more and only have the water come up to mid calf on your legs.  A great place for young kids, and, of course, the views are long.  We are basically looking due north towards Tahoe City at this spot.

We found a few thrift shops open, and made note of those that were closed to visit on another day.  We visited one thrift shop that specialized in used sporting goods where I found a very nice putter (golf club) for $5....a much nicer one than I got at the Goodwill, plus they sold used golf balls for .50 cents each, so I picked up 8 Top Flite's.....not sure how long that batch will last, but now I have an endless resupply source for replacement balls just a couple of miles from the campground.

We stopped just short of Stateline and turned around heading back to the "Y" (intersection of US 50 and California 89) to then head up HWY 89 towards Camp Richardson.  Of course, the wind that was pushing us was now in our faces.  This area along US 50 through South Lake Tahoe forms a sort of wind tunnel and seems to magnify the velocity of whatever wind there may be, so at times we were heading into a pretty stiff headwind.

After checking out a couple more thrift stores, and adding to our list of eateries we want to sample over the next few months we headed to Raley's (regional supermarket chain), which is just a block from the campground, to pick up a few items.

I spent the rest of the afternoon putting up our decorative lights, and then tuning up Debby's Townie Beach Cruiser.  The last time I worked on her bike back in Cedar Key it had some serious issues including a bent derailleur hanger that was affecting the shifting of gears.  That was about a year and a half ago.  This time all the bike really need were some minor adjustments, and a good cleaning of the drive train (front and rear sprockets, derailleur, and chain) and all was good.  Nevertheless, I spent a few hours checking everything out while watching the conference final game between the Miami Heat and the Indiana Pacers (NBA), which the Pacers won handily to take a 1-0 lead in this best of 7 series which will determine which team goes to the NBA finals.

Around 5:30 I got out the BBQ and grilled up some carne asada TLE had bought at the Carson City Trader Joe's the other day for that evening's installment of "Street Tacos".  Even at 5:30 the temperatures had already dropped into the low 50's in advance of the approaching cold front, so I had to bundle up in order to grill the meat.

We watched a recorded episode of "Survivor"....next Wednesday is the finale....and then the finale of "The Amazing Race", followed by the season finale of "The Mentalist".

That was our second day in South Lake Tahoe.......in all the years past, going back to the early 50's, the longest we would stay at Lake Tahoe was 2 weeks.....always wishing at the end of our sojourn that we could just stay the entire summer.  Now that dream has come to fruition, and here we are with 3 months to go.

Thanks for stopping by!

Da'aw

Tahoe, or "Da'aw"....Washoe Indian for "Lake"

I love the simplicity of the names given to places and things by the various Native American tribes throughout the west.  You will remember from yesterday that Washoe means "people from here".  Well, today I found that Tahoe is also from the Washoe word "Da'aw" meaning "Lake".  It sounds much more exotic when you say "Tahoe" than "Lake".  Of course, then the next thing you think of is that the official designation of this lake as "Lake Tahoe" is a little repetitive, huh?

The lake is 1,645' deep making it the second deepest lake in North America, second only to Crater Lake in Oregon....1,949' deep.  It has 72 miles of shoreline, and covers 192 square miles.  There are a lot of very interesting facts about Lake Tahoe in this Wikipedia article entitled "Lake Tahoe".  Amazingly, from 1858 to 1890 virtually the entire native forest in the "Tahoe Basin" was logged off to provide timber for the silver mines in Virginia City.  As evidenced by the next picture, the forest grew back in spades.

Our view for the next 3+ months

We left Washoe Lake State Park around 9 am with 39 miles to go....another long, arduous day, right?  The biggest test of the day was the 11 mile climb from HWY 395 up HWY 50 to Spooner Pass where we went from just under 5,000' elevation to over 7,000' in that same distance.  We were mostly in 2nd gear running near "red line" on the tachometer to keep the big DD 6V92 cool.  The grade runs 7-8% most of the way, which pushed the operating temperature of our power plant up to 218 degrees.....the highest I've seen it since last year in Alberta when we climbed the 11% grade up to the Columbia Icefields near Jasper.  Once we crested Spooner Pass we had about 12 miles to go and it took most of that distance to see all the temps get back to normal (oil, coolant and transmission).

We arrived at Tahoe Valley Campground around 10:30.......

.....and within 30 minutes were settling into our site for the summer, #426...........Tahoe Valley Campground is an "Encore" resort and part of the Thousand Trails membership campground system.

We mostly spent the rest of the day getting settled, and getting all our "stuff" out that makes our life sitting in one place for so long more enjoyable.  Of course, one could say just being here at Lake Tahoe would tend to make one's life more enjoyable, and you would be right, of course.  Our site is one of the few here with a clear view of the southern sky, and we were able to dial in our satellite dish within a few minutes.  Our site also has a cable TV hookup.....sweet!  Our site is 70' long, so is just perfect for our length.  As if things could not get better, we are 10 feet from the WiFi repeater, so our WiFi is excellent!  Most of the services we need are within walking, or bicycle distance of the campground, including several great restaurants, and a Subway!

Our good friends, Bill and Debby, arrived a little after 1 pm, and we hooked up with them around 7 pm to walk to Lake Tahoe Pizza Company.....just a block away from the campground.  Their pizza is amazing.....TLE and I had the "Jackpot" with everything on it, plus anchovies on my half.  Yelp gives them 4 stars on 217 reviews.....I'm thinking our rating will be slightly north of that.  

Getting ready for a summer of fun with Bill and Debby!  Ironically, Bill and Debby are from Lake Tahoe originally, and have just finished 4 years of nomadic travels.  This is their 3rd, or 4th summer here at Tahoe Valley Campground, and it is from them that we heard about this workamping job.  We first met them in Cedar Key, FL back in March of 2012, and became immediate friends.  We hooked up again that December back in Cedar Key when we spent 5 weeks there after our stint at Amazon.com up in Campbellsville, KY.

Thanks for stopping by!

Three things.....

Washoe Lake State Park is a place we will return to for at least a week next time. The potential here for us remains completely untapped.  A two night stay is not nearly enough time to get a feel for a place, but the "feel" we get is a good one.....one worth more exploration.

We headed into town around 10:30 am to run our aforementioned errands.  Our first stop was at the Goodwill in Carson City on HWY 50 where we have browsed before.  We both did some more culling of our clothing, and I got rid of some stuff in the trailer I have been hanging on to for way too long.....everybody knows I'm never going to use that stuff, right?  After making a donation of two large bags of stuff we decided to do a little shopping.  I needed some golf clubs to use this summer.  Back in the 70's through the early 90's I played golf on a pretty frequent basis, but then after seeing my clubs sit for years without use due to our involvement in youth soccer I sold them at a yard sale so someone else could get some use out of them.  It was a good decision as I have only played three time in the last 20 some odd years.  Nevertheless, I've had a hankering to play golf again.  This particular Goodwill had an enormous selection of used golf clubs and I was able to pick out a matched set of irons (3-8) by Wilson, and a matched set of metal drivers (1, 3 & 5) by Spalding.  I also picked up a putter by Wilson, and a sand wedge and a pitching wedge, as well as a pretty decent golf bag......total cost...$30!  TLE picked up another outfit....blouse, skirt and shoes, for $11.

The "new" clubs....now all I need are balls, tees and a golf glove!

Just about the time we were checking out of Goodwill I got a text message from my daughter-in-law that our grand daughter, Cynthia, had given birth to our first great grand child.....Daniel Christopher.  He was born with his mouth open, and making lots of noise just like all the Hockwalds are.  He came in at 6 lbs. 2 oz. and is 21.5" long, and shoot, he already had a full head of hair!

My daughter, Meredith, hold Daniel Christopher

From Goodwill we headed to a local full service car wash to get the Beetle spiffed up for the first time in a long time, then south on HWY 50 to Trader Joe's to stock up on stuff we like from them, and then to Costco for a few things.......we couldn't resist the temptation to ingest a couple of their ballpark franks ($1.50 each....includes a drink!) before heading back to the coach.

I spent the afternoon cleaning up my new clubs and dreaming about walking the fairways once again.  The wind came up about mid afternoon and blew pretty hard until about 8 pm, but nothing like the wind in South Dakota, or all across Nebraska and Wyoming.

Caught this beautiful sunset over Mt. Rose just as the wind was dying....notice the long contrail streaking across the sky.

Friday three things put a big smile on my face.......new clubs, my first great grandchild, and a cool sunset....I'm still smiling!  Now...........OFF TO TAHOE!

Thanks for stopping by!

"People from here"

Once again clear blue skies, no wind and balmy temperatures greeted us Thursday morning as we prepared to drive 58 "grueling" miles south from Fernley to Washoe Lake State Park.  By the way, Washoe is/was the name of a tribe of Great Basin Indians who lived in the Tahoe area on the border of what is now California and Nevada.  The title of today's blog is the definition of their tribal name.

We were on our way a little after 9 am and heading south on US 50 to Carson City.  Our total driving distance of 58 miles is one of our shorter days in a few weeks.  The highway is mostly divided the last 30 miles and the closer we got to Carson City the more congested the highway became.....naturally.  This was not our first time taking this approach to Carson City on US 50.....it was just 6 months ago, almost to the day, we we rolled into this town in the dark after a long driving day from Ely, NV.  That stretch of night driving reconfirmed to me why I don't like driving the coach at night, and is the last time we have done any night driving.  Driving 62' of steel on narrow city streets at night in an unfamiliar area is very disconcerting for me.  I have no problem driving a regular car at night, even in an unfamiliar area, but let's face it, even in a car it can be difficult navigating in an unfamiliar area at night.....that is just magnified 10 fold in the coach.

We arrived at Washoe Lake State Park a little after 11 am, and found the perfect spot for our coach after driving around both loops of the campground.  There are no reservations here, so it is first come, first serve.  Of course it is still the "off season" here and the campground is only about 1/3 full making it pretty easy to get a good spot.

After setting up our campsite, paying our camping fees, and taking a few minutes to clean the solar panels we spent the rest of the afternoon sitting outside reading, enjoying the gentle breezes and balmy temperatures.  Even though the high was forecast to be 87, it felt more like 77.  We have a nice view of Washoe Lake and the mountains surrounding the Tahoe Basin, and we are now just 20+ miles from our summer destination!

We'll hang out here for a couple of days taking care of some errands......there is a Trader Joe's just a few miles away, as well as other services we need, so Friday will be a shopping day to stock up on things we love from Trader Joe's, do a little "junking" perhaps, and then Saturday morning we will head into the Tahoe Basin for a few months.

The batteries seem to be doing just fine....after 3 hours of TV watching they had only gone down 5%, which is normal.  Hoping there is no long term damage, and this two day dry camping stint should give us some of the answers for which we are looking about the status of our house batteries.

Life is good.....thanks for stopping by!

Sparking....

How delightful to be able to sleep with ALL the windows open Tuesday night free of the fear that hypothermia might become an issue at some point in the wee hours.  The skies continued to be deep blue Wednesday, and the temperatures delightfully balmy.

Our task for Wednesday was two fold: 1) Meet our CampeForce representative at Amazon here in Fernley, and 2) Check out other possible RV parks in the area to obtain a firm reservation.  

We drove directly to Amazon around 11 am and met for about 10 minutes with Amanda who was able to answer all our questions.  Unfortunately, they do not give tours at this Amazon facility like they do at the Campbellsville, KY Amazon, so our introduction to the interior workings and layout of the Fernley Amazon will have to wait until we do our orientation in November.

From there we headed directly to the other contracted RV park in town aptly named Fernley RV Park.  I had put my name in about 60 days ago on their waiting list, however, when we inquired as to our current waiting list position it was discovered our name never made it on the list.  At any rate, this park only has about 27 sites for Amazon workers, unlike Desert Rose, which has over 100.  Our odds of getting into Desert Rose are pretty certain at this point, so it was on to Sparks, NV some 30 miles to the west.

Sparks Marina RV Park

We arrived at the first RV park on our list called Sparks Marina RV Park located just a mile off I-80 on the Lincoln Highway across the street from Sparks Marina.  We were immediately captivated by the upscale nature of this park, and went in to inquire about getting a reservation, initially as a back up to Desert Rose, but ended up deciding we would stay there this Fall....well, about 90% sure.  It is a 30 minute drive via I-80 to Amazon, and the way we figure it with the VW that is 1 gallon of gasoline each way, or about $8/day.  The benefit of staying there means we will have excellent cell phone service, which is noticeably lacking in Fernley, and we will be within walking distance of most services we need on a regular basis.  A great example for me is the local Supercuts is just 3 blocks away.....I desperately needed a haircut so we headed there after securing our reservation at Sparks Marina RV Park....I was seated immediately, and on my way out the door within 15 minutes.

The frosting on the cake is that I have both a cousin, and an uncle who live in Sparks and am looking forward to spending time with them, as well as celebrating Thanksgiving with them when we come back in the Fall.

We headed back to Fernley arriving around 1:15 pm and went directly to the local Walmart Supercenter, which is directly across the street from Amazon, to do some shopping, and get lunch at their in house Subway.  From there we stopped off at the local Scolari's Supermarket to see if they carried Snap-E-Tom's and they do!  Yay for me!  We quickly procured the 6 cans they had on the shelf to add to my stockpile, which was down to one can.....:D

By the time we arrived back at our coach the temperature was up to a delicious 85 degrees, so I decided to spend some time outside taking care of some things in the trailer, and then pouring the 2 gallons of Delo 100 40 wt. oil I bought from West Marine back in February into my oil reservoir....the reservoir holds about 4 gallons of oil, and is completely separate from the oil in the engine.  When I need to add oil I just open a gate valve and let it drain into the engine until it is back to the "full" mark.

Late afternoon we took a walk around the park logging another mile of walking, and then both took long, relaxing showers.  It was a good day which saw us accomplish all of our objectives we had set for ourselves during this two day stay in Fernley.....I love it when a plan comes together!

Thursday we drive a whopping 58 miles south and west to Washoe State Park where we will dry camp on the shores of Lake Washoe for two days before heading into the Tahoe Basin on Saturday morning.  We are only 78 miles from our summer destination.....no more 200+ mile days after two weeks of one after the other.

Thanks for stopping by!

We found it!

Tuesday morning we awoke to......wait......29 degree temperatures, although clear blue skies.  We were starting to wonder if we would ever find ourselves in a land where no heaters were required before 11 am, and after 5 pm.....we are getting so tired of the cold.  I know, cold is a relative term, especially for those of you who reside in places where it snowed in the last few days.  For those of us who routinely seek out t-shirt, shorts and flip flop weather 29 degrees is a "little it" out of our comfort zone......no, wait.....I have to be honest......a "little bit" is a gross understatement.....WAY, WAY out of our comfort zone!

We merged back on to I-80 westbound around 9:30 and quickly put Elko, NV in our rear view mirrors.  Our driving distance for Tuesday was just over 270 miles.....a longish day for us....well for me, since I'm the one who guides our coach down the highway.  TLE acts as our "in flight", voice activated concierge....if I have a question about, say, what our altitude is she will look it up.....we do have an altimeter, but it works off atmospheric air pressure, so I need an independent reading to adjust it if necessary to current conditions.  If I'm wondering about a place to eat lunch, or dinner she will look it up.  If I need my water refilled, or a snack she will take care of it....all I have to do is hold on to the steering wheel, and guide the coach down the road.

We took our first break at the 65 mile mark, and our second with 140 miles to go.  At the second rest stop we took our traditional 1 mile walk around the facility 4 times before continuing on.  If only there had been another rest stop available after 60-70 more miles it would have been a perfect day, but the next rest stop was 105 miles west of our second stop.

We both love the wide open, giant expanses here in the western U.S., but sometimes you need a break from staring at "BIG".  At any rate we came upon the final Rest Area on this day's journey around 3:15 and took a 20 minute break.  Whilst TLE took a nap, I walked around the coach doing my usual daily tire inspection and found all to be in order.  No unusual tread wear, no tires running way hotter than the others......just like we like it.

The last 35 miles were essentially down hill to Fernely, NV, our destination for Tuesday.  Why Fernley of all places you might wonder?  Well, Fernley is the site of one of Amazon.com's 3 fulfillment centers where they hire what they call "CamperForce" people.....nomadic folk such as we are.  We needed to check out the local RV parks Amazon has contracted with to host their CamperForce folk.  There are only two parks in Fernley itself, and the others are any where from 10 to 30 miles away.  We prefer to be as close to the Amazon facility as we can, so it is important to us to be able to get into one of the two parks in Fernley.  Right now we are on waiting lists at both those parks (Desert Rose RV Park and Fernley RV Park).   The next closest park is in Fallon, and then you get into the Reno/Sparks area.  Since we are on waiting lists for the close parks we are going to visit the others until we find one where we can at least confirm a reservation.....hoping all the while that we will transition from "waiting list status" to "confirmed reservation" status at one of the local parks.

We decided to spend a couple of nights at Desert Rose RV Park, and arrived there just about 4:15.  We did not make any reservations as this is the off season, and were able to get a spot easily using our Passport America card for a 50% discount off their daily rate.....we paid just $39 for two days here.  While I was checking in I asked if they could check my "waiting list" status and found out we were #5 now on the list....we started out on "page 3" of their waiting list two months ago, so we have moved up a lot....in fact before I finished checking in another camper called into cancel their reservation, so now we are only 4 away from getting a spot here at Desert Rose.  Nevertheless, we will do our due diligence Wednesday and get a firm reservation at another park, and then hope that in the next 5 months we get our spot here.  Desert Rose is a nice park, with concrete pads, good WiFi, cable TV, a nice community room, and a large laundry.....and only 4 miles from the Amazon warehouse.....Yelp gives them 4.5 stars and we would agree.....so far!

We had barely finished setting up for our two day stay when TLE put on her concierge hat and found a great Mexican place for dinner.....we both just felt like Mexican Tuesday night.  We settled on El Guadalajara and headed over for dinner about 5 pm.  Yelp only gives them 3.5 stars on 21 reviews, but I noticed the last 6, or 7 reviews done in the last year were all in the 4-5 star range.  We would rate them at a solid 4 stars......fresh food, prompt service (even though they were quite busy) and nice ambiance.  There are several Mexican restaurants in town and we hope to sample a few of them when we are back in town in November.

It was a perfect ending to a longish day, and what do you know?  We have finally found warm weather.....at 5 pm it was 84 degrees with a projected low of only 51 degrees......wonderful!

On Wednesday we will visit with our CamperForce representative, Amanda, and hopefully get a short tour of the facility, then we will head out to check out the other RV parks in the area......life is good!

Thanks for stopping by!

Hasta la vista MDST!

Our 3 day stay south of Salt Lake City came to an end Monday morning about 11 am.  We eased on to I-15 north bound to continue our westward jaunt on I-80, but before we did that we stopped at the local Flying J to add a couple hundred dollars worth of diesel and top off our tank.......this last 52 gallons will get us into the Tahoe Basin for the summer where we will not have to worry about fueling up again until early September.

The drive west on I-80 was flat except for two passes of 6,000' and 7,000' that we had to traverse.  While is was only partly cloudy we actually got snow flurries as we took a break at the top of the 7,000' pass under mostly blue skies.....weird!

We have not driven this stretch of I-80 before so this was brand new territory for us.  I-80 skirts around the southern end of the Great Salt Lake, and it is giant!  Just as you come to the Nevada border you see signs indicating you have reached the famous Bonneville Salt Flats where so many land speed records have been set and attempted over the decades.

Great Salt Lake

Nearing the Bonneville Salt Flats

Our total driving distance for Monday was 230 miles and was as uneventful, and pleasant as you could hope for.....our kind of travel day.  There was a slight wind out of the north, but it was hardly a factor, and certainly not the intense wind we had faced the last two days of travel into Salt Lake City.  By the way, we heard on the radio as we were merging on to I-80 westbound that I-80 was closed going east at Rock Springs due to the snow they had gotten the last couple of days.....we got out of there just in time!

We had planned to over night in the Elko Walmart parking lot, but about 12 miles east of Elko we spied a cute little RV park on the south side of the interstate and decided to get off and see if they had a space for us (Elko RV Park).  As it turned out they had ONE site left that would fit us.......things always seem to work out for us.  This little park is about a thousand feet from the Humbolt River which parallels I-80 for quite a ways.  This park is made up of mostly full time residents, but the park is kept in very nice condition, and shows continued maintenance.  As it turned out it was a good last minute decision as the overnight low temperature got down to 29.

Just after we crossed into Nevada we re-entered Pacific Daylight Savings Time and left Mountain Daylight Savings Time.  On another positive note our house batteries seem to be okay.....they did finally charge back up to 100%, so we'll see over time if there is any long term residual damage, but the real test will be the next time we dry camp and how quickly they discharge.

Tuesday we will arrive in Fernley, NV for two days....we're going to take some time to visit several RV parks that have contracts with Amazon.com to see which one we will stay in when we come back to work for Amazon in November....then south to Washoe Lake for a couple of days, then into the Tahoe Basin for the summer!

Thanks for stopping by!