Steve and I started the road part of our road trip this morning. But for those who've been out of the loop, here's some background.
A friend of ours, Leigh, who lives in California, is heading back to Indiana to work on a PhD this fall. She didn't want to drive her car and shipping was expensive. We're retired, we're flexible, so we volunteered. Leigh and her husband Wes have recently purchased a fixer upper and they think there are only 3 people (Steve and I being 2) who don't think they are crazy. I think that's 3 more people than think Steve and I are sane for volunteering to drive a Prius from California to Indiana.
Anyway, after comparing schedules, we decided that today would be the day to leave California and head east. That would give us a whole day after returning from a family reunion in Vermont to do laundry and repack before flying to Sacramento. No sweat!
What we didn't count on was my coming down with a monster cold. The reunion ended Saturday night and Sunday morning I woke up with a bad cold. No way could I miss our flights home, so I loaded up with medicine and Kleenex and we headed home. First, a 2 hour drive to Albany, followed by a flight to Baltimore. Then we changed planes for Indianapolis. Finally back in Indiana, when we reached our neighborhood at 10:30 pm, all the lights were out: street lights, apartment buildings, everything. Our next door neighbor was just pulling into her driveway and had some news. The power company said a transformer had blown and it would be 12:30 am before power would be restored.
I didn't need power to go to sleep, so I was in bed in about 15 minutes. We had power when I got up the next morning and started laundry. Steve had gotten up earlier and his was almost done. Bless a man who does his own laundry! I had it easy Monday. It was sleep, laundry, eat, sleep. Still have a cold, but was feeling I might survive two more plane flights on Tuesday. Luckily, the dogs are at their second home, Jocelyn's, so we didn't have to worry about them.
Steve meanwhile is running around trying to get a list of things done before we leave, including some shelves installed in the room Leigh will be staying in. Sorry Leigh, he'll finish them when we return. But he did get a lot accomplished that we hadn't finished before we took off for the reunion.
I did survive the two flights on Tuesday, without too much trauma. One poor guy who was on both flights tried to strike up a conversation with us, but between Steve's hearing aids and my cold (I keep losing my voice), it didn't go well. Steve did ask him about the Brickyard race, that's why he'd been in Indiana. He said it was a smooth race and Ryan from Purdue won.
Leigh picked us up in Sacramento and we drove to Vacaville. I didn't realize this area was so FLAT. Maybe flatter than Indiana, except you can see mountains in the distance. It's also very dry.
I crashed early at Wes and Leigh's. Leigh made me some almond pound cake for breakfast and the aroma was tantalizing every time my coughing woke me up at night. I love all my friends who help me with my food allergies.
Wednesday morning was finally here! Time to go! Not quite, Steve has two projects he wants Wes' help with - a cell phone antenna that he wants to be able to mount to a tripod and a repair to a suitcase. Yeah! I get to nap some more. If you have questions about the cell phone antenna, talk to Steve.
It's after lunch when we finally get on the road and I need another nap. I sleep until we're through Sacramento and up in the mountains on our way to Reno, our first overnight stop.
Rest stops aren't like this in Indiana!
Apparently, this stretch of I80 parallels the path of the original transcontinental railroad.
We could usually see the railroad tracks across the valley and even saw a freight train. Part of what we are driving through is the Donner Pass area. For a history lesson, check out Wikipedia.
We finally roll into Reno, where we are staying at the Nugget Casino for one night. It's my first stay in a casino and hopefully my last. Our room is on a no smoking floor and is fine. But the rest of the casino strongly smells of smoke, including the smoke free restaurants. I'm still coughing and won't be doing any hiking soon, but we've made it through day one!
This is my first blog entry ever and I have no idea what I'm doing, so please excuse typos and other errors. Hope the pictures show up right, too! With luck, we'll have better photo opportunities as we go along.
