Holiday Inn Express Hotel & Suites Reno

Dad invited me out to the races this year and so he, Uncle Mike, and I went on the last day. Roamed all over the air field and saw some pretty sweet rides (check out the pics). They had the Blue Angels do a show and I was surprised to see the flag from the old homestead coming down with one of the parachutists (it was the AK Air Guard). All in all a good, if short, trip.

... the landscape to come. So far during our previsous days' drive there were never any dangerously long stretches of driving without a gas station or town. Day 10 was tons of nothingness.
Around lunch time we passed through a relatively large patch of civilization with a big gas/ rest stop and a few places to eat. I was deterred by a sign notifying me that picking up hitchhikers was prohibited because of the proximity to the local prison. Yup, I'm a wuss ...

... bed, so we camped in America’s campground located six miles down the road, Wal-Mart. There were four other campers with the same plan, which is the real reason the parking lots are so big. Of course by the time we actually left we hit the store four more times, I wonder if Sam Walton had this use of his property in mind. If he had than he is truly a marketing genius.

... for a-hootin, and a-hollerin'

Oh, and beads.

Please excuse me for not posting some of the more interesting pictures from today's little jaunt, since I'm not sure what this site's policy is on, well, interesting pictures.

Besides, once you've seen one pair... you wanna see them all. Am I wrong? (That's what Google is for.)

The party had started before we even got there. I contacted a Couch Surfer in Reno, Nathan, who was just awesome, and put Z, Jenn and I up in his place the few days before burn time. We all met in Reno, Z driving the crazy awesome van across the country in 4 days, Jenn flying into the airport, and of course, me meeting up with all of them. Once again, I was blown away by the openness and giving of Nathan, and in turn all the CS I've met along the way.

I woke up this morning to the sound of Kim's alarm clock. I expected her to hit snooze. After about 5 minutes I went in and woke her up so she could hit snooze. I drifted in and out of sleep but heard the shower so I knew she was up. I was woken up when the puppy jumped on me. Kim got up and had cookie dough for breakfast and then was off to work. I am taking it easy at her place today. Making sure ...

Today was pretty similar to yesterday with most of it being spent on the road. Instead of going all the way along Interstate 80 to Reno, I took the longer route down Highway 93 and then across to Reno on Highway 50. My map book indicated that Highway 50 was a scenic road. Not sure what they define as scenic, because there wasnt a huge amount to see other than empty roads and desert!

Before arriving in Reno, I went for a ...

... experience I had with an earthquake was a imitation earthquake at the Orlando Science Center years back. There was another one a little large about 5 minutes later. The next evening while I was in my guestroom waiting to leave to catch a red-eye back home, another earthquake hit (smaller than the other 2). At this point, I decided that was enough and it was time to go home!

... tables. My brother decided to teach me a little about how to play roulette -- in the end, we doubled up and walked out with $40. We decided that was enough for now, since we will be in Vegas next week and we should save some of that luck. Reno left an impression for sure, but a tiny one compared to Vegas most likely. The next morning, we drove off to San Francisco to meet friends, and eventually head towards Los Angeles and finally to Viva Las Vegas.

Hey, I would like to thank everyone for following along with my journy. It was quite the adventure I would say! I had such a blast. I am definitly planing to do this again, soon, but with a companion. It is a little lonely by yourself. I will also buy the "lonely planet" travel guide books. I would recomend taking a ...