Yes, they did say it was a scenic drive!

We didn't leave Danielle's place in Reno until just after 10:00am. We had nice hot showers, we filled our water tank, and I had cleaned Sherman's K&N engine air filter the day before, so had to re-oil and reinstall it.

A few people had told us that route 395 south of Reno was a scenic drive... and they were right! It's too bad our clear blue sky finally gave way to some cloudy periods... in fact, we didn't see the sun much at all for the whole drive yesterday.

Well that was a productive day off!

We needed a non driving day to get caught up on some things and Danielle didn't mind us hanging around for the day. We got some laundry done, we had a good consistent supply of internet, and managed to get some minor repair and maintenance completed.

And, Danielle had to run into town so we went with her to pick up a couple of things and have a short driving tour of Reno, Nevada since we were here anyhow.

Nice drive to Reno, Nevada

Once again, up at the crack of dawn and did some driving right away. Nobody on the roads at that hour. We stopped in Susanville, California (pop 17,000) for breakfast and internet time before moving on towards Reno, Nevada.

A pretty comfortable drive for change... some actual straight roads without too many hills!

Through the smoke, and into clear blue skies...

Most of you will have heard of the devastation of the town of Paradise, California. We were supposed to be going right by there, but the main highway was closed due to the fires. So we altered our route to head across the mountains to Reno, Nevada.

But the winds were blowing the smoke right through our path. My thinking was that we should be able to drive through the smoke, and hopefully get far enough east to get out of it. We had enough smokey skies in British Columbia this past summer!

"What the heck was that??"

We took off from the Bear River Casino and headed up highway 36 east towards the mountains. The first part of the road took us through another section of big California redwoods forest. Ruth took a video for you below!

After that, we climbed... and at some points, very steep. We had seen the warning signs at the beginning of the road, so we knew there were going to be lots of curves and steep grades. But I don't think Sherman has ever had to climb a long 10% grade before. Probably a few short ones, but never one that goes for two miles! He had to summon all of his horses for that!

Those are some big trees!

One of the reasons we wanted to come this far south before heading east was to see the big trees in Redwood National Park. We have in the past seen some big trees... such as Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. But those are douglas fir trees, and these ones are of course coastal redwood.

When we left the casino, we topped up the gas tank once more, this time at $3.25 USD a gallon ($1.14 CAD per liter). Fuel is expensive in California (often near $4.00 USD per gallon), so we will top up when we see it near the state lows. It will be cheaper once again when we enter Nevada next week sometime.

Goodbye Oregon, hello California!

What a great day we had yesterday... let me tell you all about it!

First of all, as you'll see from the photos below, it was a beautiful blue sky all day long. Temperatures about 60F (15C) which is perfect for doing a bit of hiking and exploring. And, there was a lot of exploring to be done... once again, every five or ten minutes there is somewhere worth stopping at along this section of coastline.

Settling or Being Realistic – What’s the Difference?

Have you ever asked yourself if you’re just ‘settling’ with your life, or do you make a more realistic and positive assessment of what is around you? You can ask this question about many aspects of your life—relationships, houses, traveling, friendships… basically anything.

Settling can mean different things. It could possibly signify that you are maturing and are ready for new and exciting challenges. However, it more usually has a negative connotation, meaning that you’re sacrificing your happiness. That is when you need to be concerned.

We finally got a 100 mile drive done!

We actually got the required number of miles logged yesterday, despite the fact that we didn't really get going until almost 11:00am.

We have to be in Mission, Texas around the 28th of this month. That means, we're trying to do at least 100 miles (160 kms) a day on average. And even at that, we know there will have to be some longer days because we will want to have some rest days too!

More fun on the Oregon coast, and sunny days ahead!

Early start to the day yesterday because we had promised the folks at the Newport Municipal Airport that we would be gone at sunrise. Good thing we were too, because there was definitely some activity around the airport at that hour and there was not a lot of parking.

We actually hit the road at about 6:50am, but we only drove to the first scenic stop, which was not very far away. There is not much distance between attractions here on the Oregon coast!