On 4/20/07 we took a trip to Reno. Marci's Mom is a high roller (well, medium roller) at the Silver Legacy hotel. She gets her rooms comped, her meals comped, gets treated REALLY well! She invited us to come spend a few days with her pretty close to all expenses paid (just cost us gas and some food and whatever else we wanted to spend our money on). We couldn't wait!We left on Friday the 20th. It is roughly a 9 hour drive to Reno. We weren't sure how well the kids would do so we stayed the night in Weed, CA then took off again the next morning.
The kids couldn't have been any better!!!! We were shocked! We probably could have driven all the way through, but it was nice to stop. On the way back we'll do it all in one day. We figure with stops it could take us 10-12 hours.
On the way down it was BEAUTIFUL!! Just a few clouds in the sky and around 60 outside. We couldn't have asked for better driving weather. And everything was amazingly green! I've never been past Corvallis this time of year and once we got past Eugene into the farming country, it was just amazing. The photos we took don't do it justice (click the photo above to see all the ones we've taken so far).
We really only had to gas up once in Grants Pass, but we did again in Susanville just because we've never driven this and didn't know what we had coming up - we had just under half a tank but could have made it into Reno without any problems. Spent the night at a really nice Motel 6. I know, I know, "What? Are you crazy? A Motel 6 is NICE?" Yes, it really was nice and for a place to crash for a night, it was perfect - great price, clean and a very nice shower. No complaints.
Saturday the 21st we got going again. Drove back down I-5 to 89 to 44 to 395 and into Reno. That took us through several National Forests and up as high as 5100 feet, most of the trip was around 4000-4500 feet. NO SNOW!! We saw some on the sides of the road, but the roads were fine. At first it was raining semi-lightly and had some snow/slush mixed in. But soon that stopped and the roads were dry the rest of the way. Only one "official" rest stop between Weed and Susanville, and it was a very nice one (see the photos). But there were plenty of other places you could have made a stop if you had, stores, parks, etc.
Going into Susanville was a very steep downhill. Then from there on out it was pretty flat and lots of nothing to see. From 89/44 to 395 there was very little traffic. We got stuck behind some people now and then, but they were still doing at least 55 so it wasn't bad. And there were plenty of places to pass people. After Susanville it was a 2-lane road with a lot more traffic, but again traffic was moving and we had places to pass if needed. Then about 30 minutes out of Reno the highway divided (lots of land between north & southbound lanes) and we now had two lanes, so passing was easy.
It took about 5 hours to get to Weed, then another 4 to get to Reno. Again, the kids were EXCELLENT!! Fortunately our Honda Pilot has a DVD player in it AND you can hook up our Playstation. They watched a lot of stuff and Riley played some games. That really helped a lot. And it helped us too - we couldn't watch the shows, but we could listen to them. Kinda like listening to a book-on-tape/disc. The car did a great job, and it was a very enjoyable trip.
Now we're here in our hotel room (which is AMAZING and has an incredible bathroom). It's midnight, Marci is having fun with her Mom, the kids are crashed hard, and I'm about to crash myself. Two more fun-filled days here then we leave on Tuesday. I'll try to write more and will definitely be uploading more photos. Gotta love Flickr!!!
Later!
