48 Down, 2 to Go

About six weeks ago, our son David told us that he was giving a paper in Reno and asked if we wanted to travel with him. Now, Reno wasn't the highest thing on our to-see list, but the double bonus of (1) getting to see David make a presentation and (2) getting to check one more state off my list of states I've yet to visit, made us immediately check our frequent flier miles status!

We sneaked into the room to see David's presentation and restrained ourselves to not proudly shout out, "That's our son!" and then set about to explore the Reno area for a few days.

While David attended meetings, Ken and I went to Carson City, capital of Nevada and historic town. We took a walking tour of the old houses, but mostly gawked at the beautiful fall tree colors!

We then visited downtown Reno which is really quite attractive. The casinos dominate the skyline, but the Truckee river walk was beautiful and we enjoyed watching kayakeers trying to do roll-overs in the little rapids right downtown.



Our first stop traveling with David was up in the mountains south of Tahoe on the way to Virginia City, site of the Comstock Lode. It was easy to imagine the excitement in this town in the 1850's when the gold and silver were discovered and it was a boom town. Our ride on the Virginia and Truckee RR was fun...but, alas, no gold for us.











After an afternoon of sunshine, our first views of Lake Tahoe were through heavy clouds. The next morning was drizzly but that didn't affect our excitement at Taylor Creek on the southwest edge of Lake Tahoe. We were right on time to see the Kokonee Salmon spawning. In the crystal clear shallow stream we saw 100's of bright red salmon, some dead grey salmon who had finished their life cycle in the same stream where it began several years ago, and even saw some carnivorous ducks! It was truly amazing!

Even more amazing, we were lucky enough to see rainbows in several locations. Each time the sun broke through the drizzly clouds, another rainbow appeared. Spectacular!

As we drove around the west side of the lake on the next day, the weather became rather brutal. The wind storm that was about to cross the whole country was with us all day along with cold, cold rain. Nonetheless, we trucked on to the northwest section of the lake near Donner pass. We spent a lot of time in the museum there - a rather old fashioned museum that made the whole tragedy of the Donner pass crossing seem all the more real. It's impossible to fathom what those early emigrants faced traveling without Thinsulate or fleece, without maps or accurate trails, without food, facing disease and even having babies. Wow! Are we wimps!

After two days in Lake Tahoe area, we drove across the snowy and windy Donner pass to Pyramid Lake which is east of Reno. The Truckee River is the only water that flows out of Lake Tahoe. The Truckee River eventually makes its way to Pyramid Lake. David tells us that this lake is quite lovely in the sunshine, but what we saw was what you see in the last picture. Pyramid Lake is within an Indian reservation and we enjoyed learning about their culture in the little museum at the southern end of the lake.

So, in a very few days we experienced many weather changes, many cultures, many historical events, many natural wonders and, most importantly, spent five days with David. We didn't see any bears - though there were lots of warnings - and we didn't gamble - though there were slot machines EVERYWHERE!

So now I'm hoping David invites us to conferences in Idaho and Hawaii! Then I will have set foot in all 50 states...and had some more cool adventures!