Nevada & Family (Reno/Winnemucca)

We were leaving Lassen around 8am to make it over to Reno, where we would stay one night so we could get some outdoor rated caulk and work on a few little maintenance projects. While we were driving through the forest, we realized this was most likely the last time we will see the lush green forest for a long while. :( So, we said our goodbyes...

It never fails that there is construction on any one route we are on, and we were not surprised to see this...

I think anyone can agree, that when you are passing a construction zone you find more people standing around doing nothing, than any employees actually working, haha!

Eventually, we were through the construction zone and spied the Nevada State Line sign!

Soon, we were in Reno and on our way to the Sparks Marina RV Park, which the Good Sam Book gives an amazing rating. We were impressed by the service and the park itself! It is within walking distance to the Sparks Marina (which used to be a rock quarry, but has since been filled up with water from a few "gully-washers") and features a putting green, pool & spa, waterfall, and club house. The sites provide plenty of room and the roads are easy to maneuver.

Once we were parked and settled, we headed out in search of caulk and groceries, but on the way we got distracted by a few casinos downtown. Sean and I usually will take a few dollars to play penny slots to pass a little time. It is amazing how long you can play a slot with only $2-3! This time around, Sean wanted to play something different so we hit up a video blackjack table. We were surprised at how little of a crowd there was, and how clean and quiet it was at the time we went (late afternoon). But, we are used to Las Vegas and this was our first time in Reno. Needless to say, we like Reno!

After playing around, we got our groceries and were once again reminded my we HATE going to Walmart...but, we eventually got out of the craziness and went back to the motorhome to get the caulk plastered to the skylight and finish up a few chores. After all was done and dinner eaten, we went on a long walk around the RV Park and down to the Marina, and were treated with a beautiful sunset.

We really liked the layout of the community surrounding the "marina" area! There were waterfront houses with a 2 mile track running along the backside next to the water, canal-front homes with private docks (pictured below), and lots of activities with a private marina, sand volleyball, and swimming. We noticed that there were no "for sale" signs in sight. Sean and I thought we would stop at the real estate office to see what the current prices are. There were quite a few homes in the surrounding area that were very decently priced, though we didn't see any ads for any of the Marina community.
 

The next morning was a bit of a lazy one because we were just headed down the Interstate to Winnemucca. I have some family there, so we decided to stay a few days to hang out! We met up with my Aunt Leann and my cousin Chris the first night we were in town at The Martin Hotel, which is now only a restaurant (with over 100 years of history). It is a local's favorite, and a traveler's new found favorite! They serve very large portions in a 4 course style of dining, and it was very yummy!

The next day, we were being super lazy because it was cold and rainy outside, so we didn't get moving until about 10am. We met my Aunt for lunch and took her to see our motorhome. This is where she got acquainted to the "captain's chair."

She left us to go explore, since we were wanting to drive up to Winnemucca Mountain to get an over view of the town. The road is actually paved going up the mountain, and in surprising okay condition. With the weather being cold and rainy, we expected it to be cold, but not 37 degrees! Bbbbrrrr, again! The wind was actually blowing ice off of the broadcast towers, but the view was great!

After exploring, we met up with my Aunt and her friends at a coffee shop to chat. Her friends are avid RVers for most of the year, but they do come back to their home in Winnemucca for a couple of months out of the year. We were getting carried away talking, that the coffee shop was actually closing and kicked us to the curb, haha!

We went back to the motorhome to rest a bit and made plans to meet up with my relatives for supper. My Uncle John works in a Gold mine north of Elko, NV and was making a long trip back to Winnemucca to see us before we had to leave in the morning. He pulled up at the restaurant nearly just after we got out of our car, talk about great timing! We had a great dinner and afterward went with them to a community choir practice. I must say, they sing rather well!

Once practice was done, we got a photo with my Aunt and Uncle (minus Chris since he was at home slaving away at his Calculus homework) and said our goodbyes, since we planned to head out early in the morning. We had a great time hanging out with them!

Redding/Lassen Volcanic National Park

When we finished visiting the Giants, we headed to a point on the sketchy map that was in the pamphlet we found at a kiosk, called Cape Mendocino also known as the furthest most west you can go in the Lower 48 States. The roads getting there were extremely steep and winding, which made us glad we didn't take the motorhome.

  

We found some wildlife on the way there, a bunch of turkeys and a few deer. 

What surprised us the most was when the road spat us out to drive right along the ocean! It was such a beautiful drive, even with the thick fog and rain. In fact, the fog was so thick that we were unable to find the lighthouse located on Cape Mendocino. It was hard to even find the Jeep when you hike away from it, haha!

This was the furthest we could go west.

We finally got back on the road and made our way to the motorhome. The next morning, we woke up at 5am to steady dripping coming from the shower, which did not entirely surprise us seeing as it was raining harder than we had ever experienced! We saw it was dripping from the skylight, so we went to work taking the skylight insert down to inspect the damage. It turns out there was one small spot where the water was coming through and to our dismay we found that there was no caulking on 2 of the sides of the skylight from the inside! So, we put some caulk that would work (luckily we had some) and put the skylight back together and went back to bed, haha.

We woke up from our "nap" a short time later and were on the road to Redding, CA by way of Highway 299, which is steep and winding too. There was actually a wreck in one part of the road that was very curvy.

Once in Redding, we thought we would stay at Walmart because we needed groceries anyway and that sounded the most convenient, but after getting the groceries we found many "people of Walmart" that we didn't feel comfortable spending the night around. So, we found a private park nearby (Redding RV Park) and it turned out to be a very nice park. Much better than the Walmart parking lot, haha!

Sean wanted to stop mostly to watch Saturday night college football games, but we had trouble with the satellite getting a strong signal, so we had to resort to the cable provided by the park. Luckily, the local ABC channel was broadcasting the game Sean was wanting to watch!

The next morning, we were on the road again! Destination: Lassen Volcanic National Park. By the way, this park is really neat! Similar to Yellowstone, but without the ridiculous amount of people. We were kind of peeved by the $10 entrance fee to get in the park and then $18 per night of dry camping! Of course, the sites provided are extremely un-level and the road in and out is quite small, then to top it off, when you are done camping and are ready to dump your tanks, there is a $5 charge to dump! Needless to say...we didn't pay the $5 to dump. (There wasn't anyone there collecting, so we laughed at the pay station and continued about our business...)

We noticed the sites had bear proof boxes, so you know we had to put Molly in there for a good laugh! Then we found a stump that was a perfect pedestal for Princess Molly!

After all the fun putting Molly on things, we decided to head up the park road (because we were told that the road was closed due to a rock slide from recent rain, and that it would open later in the day) to see if we could glimpse the rock slide. We though we would see the "road work area", but weren't able to find it so we are assuming that it was cleared already. We didn't want to ruin the remainder of the road because that was where the volcanic steam pools and mudpots were, so we turned around and decided to visit the Visitor's Center near our campground.

We camped at the Manzanita Lake campground. This area has a store, gas station, visitor's center, and the beautiful lake nearby. It was a great place to camp, but we just wish it had not cost so much. We wanted to make a campfire and cook hotdogs and marshmallows, so we walked to the store to see how much a bundle of wood would cost, only to find that it is $8.99! Forget that! I went and found my own wood with Molly, who did semi-help, though she kept wanting to chew the sticks she found, haha!

While we were out finding our campfire logs, Sean decided he was going to work on his horn. It took him a while to figure out why the horn wasn't working, but finally pinpointed the problem to the collar around the steering wheel and the connection there. I felt so embarrassed when I started hearing the blaring of the air horn in the forest! Of course Sean had to test exactly what was going on with the connection, so all you hear is the silence of the forest...then, "BOOOONNNKKKK!!!" Haha!

Once we thoroughly scared all the wildlife away from the entire park, I started up our campfire trying the old-fashioned way (kindling and a lighter) first to see if I could get it going, but the wood proved to be too wet. After a few moments thinking it had finally caught, but was proven wrong, Sean did the next best thing and stole a small amount of diesel from the fuel filter of the motorhome and unleashed it upon the tiny fire I had managed to keep going. Now we were cooking!

We hadn't realized how cold it had gotten outside because we were sitting next to our campfire, but when we headed out for our evening walk, we soon regretted leaving the now freshly put-out campfire. We never realized how cool it would get that night either, when we woke up to it being in the lower 40s. Bbbrrrr!

After turning the heaters up and snuggling a while in the warm covers, we were ready to head out to the active area of the park, called Bumpass Hell and Sulfur Works. This was really neat to see because I have never been to Yellowstone and never have seen any volcanic areas.

Here is a video of one of the bigger steam pools.