NAS to AFB
Pictures after I get a chance to process them.
Today we traveled from NAS Fallon to Nellis Air Force Base just north of Las Vegas. Travel distance was 377 miles, taking seven hours including stops. When we initially saw lots of smoke, we thought it was blowing over the mountains from California. After looking online, we found there were lots of wildfires near Carson City NV, and that was the source of the smoke. It cleared after a few hours traveling east. We drove through the valleys of the Great Basin, which covers most of Nevada and some of surrounding states. Look it up! We passed Walker Lake, made alkaline by fertilizer run off, just like the Salton Sea some distance south. We saw many HUGE dry lake beds with the characteristic white color of alkali. We drove past many mountain ranges, set in desert populated by creosote bushes and sage brush. Other than crows, the only wildlife we saw was one coyote that ran across the road. We have no idea how people crossed the deserts without barrels of water. We saw one desert rain storm that was awesome. Deb said the scenery was both stark but beautiful.
There are a couple of long stretches (on the order of 100 miles) without fuel stops. I tried to stretch our fuel from Hawthorne (home to a huge Army munitions depot) to Tonopah, successfully, but did make the “get fuel now” warning go on. Part of the problem was wind, which was either cross, ahead or following (sailor talk) depending on the angle of the road. Also, our elevation changed from 4000 ft to 6000 ft to 4000 ft and so on. We had two instances where we sat still 20 minutes for road work.
Tonopah was good to see, since I’ve always like the name since hearing the Little Feat song “Willin‘” (particularly the Linda Ronstadt version). It’s on a rise above the surrounding desert. We drove through light rain (no flooding) and had lunch/ refueled. The Mispah Hotel is a main attraction, as are the mining exhibits covering the very large strike of silver-bearing ore.
Las Vegas has a similar characteristic to most large cities: road construction. We were able to get verbal directions from the staff at Desert Eagle RV Park (inside Nellis AFB), and only made one wrong turn in the final miles. The RV Park is very beautiful, with 226 shaded sites, and the ability to stay up to six months. Right now, as Deb cooks our dinner (I drove all day!), we are being serenaded by the sound of Freedom: Air Force fighter jets flying overhead.
A smokey ride
Text only until I get a chance to process photos.
We woke about 7am, broke camp and returned the rental car to the Sacramento airport. We got onto I-80 eastbound. The Mosquito fire had expanded overnight and moved a bit northeast due to SFO Bay onshore winds. The ride uphill (to 7227 ft at Donner Pass) was very smokey. We ended up wearing N95 masks inside the Goose’s cabin, even with the AC on recirc. Steep downhill from Truckee down to Reno. We stopped for fuel in Reno, had lunch at El Pollo Loco. I used to eat at EPL all the time when in San Diego in the 90s, and the menu has changed only a very little. We headed farther east on I-80, then shifted to the roads leading to Naval Air Station (NAS) Fallon in Fallon NV.
NAS Fallon is the aviation base where the Navy’s Top Gun school is now. When Tom Cruise was filming Top Gun, the school was at NAS Miramar CA, which has since been put under care of the Marine Corp (MCAS Miramar now). NAS Fallon is in the Nevada desert on very flat land that stretches for miles in every direction. Big sky country. On a Sunday, it was very quiet. After getting into our RV site, we did laundry and made dinner. Big traveling day tomorrow.
Napa and Sonoma
Photos later after I have a chance to process them.
Wine tasting in Napa and Sonoma must have gotten much more crowded since we last did so in the 1990s. COVID probably had an effect, too. Going to any winery now involves making a tasting reservation. We wanted to go to the Robert Sinskey winery, but they were fully booked for Saturday, 9/10. I had planned to go to the tasting bar and say the following:
“I’ve always wondered if pinot noir was really wine. Everybody tells me it is, but I haven’t tasted the evidence. One of our friends is a wine club member (at Sinskey), and he filled us full of pinot noir one night. I decided to validate that experience by a wine cellar visit. Whatcha got?”
Alas, no Sinskey. However, we found the Laird Family Estate (Deb’s mom’s side of the family are Lairds). They had availability, so we went. Their better chardonnay was very good, so we bought four bottles and two of their Syrah. A cheese plate was a great accompaniment.
We left the winery and crossed the mountains over very twisty roads into the Sonoma valley. Sonoma seems much more laid back and less touristy, at least until you get into the city. With wine in the car and another hot day, we didn’t stop, but drove back to camp.
Visiting friends
On Friday, we drove to Roseville to visit Jim’s high school friend, Tracy, and her hubby, Steve. There are lots of Steve’s in our lives! We had a lovely chat in their beautiful back yard, under the shade of a couple of redwoods and a sequoia. Tracy and Steve hope none of these very tall trees fall on their house. Steve then drove us up US50 to Lake Tahoe. The road was Oregon-like: scant shoulders and very few guard rails. Jim was glad Steve drove! Smoke from the Mosquito fire obscured the views, preventing vertigo for Jim! We had lunch at the Bridgetender Tavern in Tahoe City, then visited the Donner Memorial (see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donner_Party ). Snow sometimes accumulates to 25 feet in winter, which is what happened to the party Then we drove back I-80, twisty and downhill, to Roseville. We left Steve and Tracy, having had a wonderful time!
Muir Woods
Pictures after I’ve had a chance to process them.
We’ve both always wanted to see redwoods. The Muir Woods, just north of the Golden Gate bridge, were the most accessible to us from Vacaville. Sometime, we’d like to visit the Jedediah Smith redwood forest where part of Return of the Jedi was filmed. We made a parking reservation, then used our America the Beautiful Senior Pass to pay the entry fee. We walked the Redwood Creek trail, then the Hillside trail back to the entrance. Had to buy our gew-gaws at the camp store, including a sticker for the RV and a pin for Jim’s hiking stick. Even found a spoon for our collection!
Be warned! The entry road to the Muir Woods improves the gene pool if you’re not careful. It is perhaps the most twisty road we’ve ever been on, with sheer drops off the unguarded, shoulder-less edges. On our way out, we avoided that road, heading toward Muir Beach. CA-1 is still twisty, but not as bad. Most of our travel in and out of the Muir Woods was done at 10-15 mph.
Scallops for dinner after we did some fishing at Safeway.
On our way (slowly) home
On Sept 5th, we decided to leave The Dalles a day early. There were wildfires in northern California that lay squarely on our route, and their containment was proceeding quite slowly. We plotted a route to Klamath Falls, then to Susanville CA and thence to Vacaville CA. That route swings quite wide and east around the fires.
We visited the Newberry volcanic monument in mid Oregon. This is a cinder cone surrounded by a huge lava flow, all quite cold right now. We didn’t stay long, just had a quick look. It’s worth a stop if you are in mid Oregon. Next time we will take the shuttle bus to the top of the cinder cone. An interesting aspect is that no vegetation grows on the south side of the cone due to sun and wind drying things out. There are many trees on the north side.
We got to Klamath Falls and stayed the night at the county fairgrounds, quite a nice RV stop. No scent of previous animals (see Oregon Wine Experience), even though there was straw and horse manure on the ground.
The next day we checked the fire forecast and found our route (US 97 from Klamath Falls to Weed CA) had reopened. Also, one of the people we encountered at the fairgrounds had friends who had just come up that way and said there was no trouble on the route. We called the campground in Vacaville where we were scheduled to stay and added on a day at the front end. We went down US97, through the CA agricultural check point, past Weed and down I-5 through the Trinity Mountains and past Mt Shasta. Beautiful scenery, but a very twisty interstate with a lot of up and down.
The ag checkpoint was interesting. We’d been alerted to its existence by a friend, so we dumped all remaining fruit and veg before leaving Klamath Falls. However, the inspector was quite interested in our origin point: NC. They inspected their list for Chatham County and decided we were not a gypsy moth threat. Once in Vacaville, we restocked fresh fruit and veg.
Passing through Weed was sobering. We were used to seeing burnt forests, having seen them in various places in the West and in Australia. However, the Mill Fire burned through neighborhoods in Weed, leaving nothing but char and ashes.
After that, we drove through the Sacramento valley past millions of fruit and nut trees. The lines of trees in the fields were literally miles long. This, folks, is one of the bread baskets of our huge country.
The heat in the west has been stunning. We were driving through temps of 116 F (46 C), planning to get around our stay in Vacaville by motorcycle. We re-thunk that idea! Rented a car at the Sacramento airport (SMF) and convoyed to the RV park We are in a shady spot, but temps remain hot. Only 110 F today! We stayed in air conditioning.
The Bargeway Pub
Probably my favorite place to have lunch in The Dalles is the Bargeway Pub. Situated right on the Columbia River near a grain loading facility, the Pub serves fantastic fish tacos, burgers and calamari, to mention only the items we’ve eaten. They feature live music and great vistas. Me and fellow golfers frequently come here for lunch after walking 18 holes. And Deb likes it, too!
The Pub has about thirty tipples on tap. I like the Sunriver Vicious Mosquito IPA. Deb found the CiderBoys honeycrisp expression very much to her taste!
Washougal loop
There’s a Pendleton woolen mill in the city of Washougal, Washington, so we decided to visit. We got there by crossing The Bridge of the Gods at Cascade Locks, then heading west on WA-14, a twisty riverside road. Deb’s work schedule didn’t let us go when the mill was giving tours, but we wandered through the mill store and enjoyed all the beautiful things for sale. Didn’t buy anything, though.
After that, we went to the 54-40 Brewery (click the link for an explanation) for great burgers and drinks. Deb had the saison, and I drank the Half-cocked IPA.
Afterward, we returned home mostly on east WA-14, passing by very big scree fields and through the towns of White Salmon and Lyle. The road has many tunnels cut through the mountains, and active railroad tracks.
We crossed back to Oregon at The Dalles dam bridge.
Crater Lake
We decided to cut across Oregon on our way back to The Dalles to see Crater Lake. It’s a collapsed caldera and the deepest lake in the USA (1900 feet or so). There are no streams in or out, so evaporation is counterbalanced by snowfall, which was still on the ground in a couple of places. Like many things in Oregon, there aren’t safety fences to keep people from sliding into the lake and dying, so stand back!
On the way out, we went clockwise around the rim to exit the park in the north. The scenery is stunning, and the roads are narrow with steep falloffs. Seems Oregon doesn’t go in for things like road shoulders and safety rails.
Oregon Wine Experience
The OWE is a charity event of the Asante Foundation, which helps out in the domain of medical care. OWE features many Oregon wineries, some so small that only a few hundred cases a year are produced. They taste the wine in a big tent with some bites supplied by local chefs. This year we really only saw southwest Oregon wineries, with a couple of exceptions.
We drove to the OWE from Eugene to Medford, with the road becoming much hillier as we went through Grants Pass. Once there, we parked in a huge field and went under some tents that clearly had livestock in them a week or so ago. We could still smell the evidence of that, but it didn’t detract from our tastings. Deb chased chardonnay and rose, whereas I was almost exclusively tasting Tempranillo and Syrah. It was a hot day, over 100 degrees, so the shade and the electric fans were welcome.
