to spend a lot of time working on a post, BUT we had such a nice weekend I couldn’t resist just a little break from my packing chores to share some pictures! (Big surprise there, eh?)
Do you know anything about Nevada City and the surrounding area? This area was first settled as part of the California Gold Rush in 1849. So of course, it only seemed proper that we should visit one of those mines – the Empire Mine State Historic Park. There were gardens to explore, “cottages” to wander around, and of course, the mine yard complete with a working (that day anyway) blacksmith.
Here’s a little taste of it for your viewing pleasure:



(you wanted to see that bark close up, right?)

There were fountains-

and “waterfalls”

falling into a “pond” – might have been a swimming pool at one time I guess.

Behind the “cottage” were more gardens -


And then there was the mine yard -

We were lucky enough to catch the blacksmith shop in action -


Next on our fun filled Saturday was a wonderful wildflower hike along the South Yuba River -

The river is beautiful there – coming or going!


We just caught a glimpse of some folks REALLY having a good time on the river….

Maybe we’ll “do” the river that way next time (I’m sure!), but for this day I was busy oo-ing and ah-ing over the wildflowers along our way.




Like I said, it was a beautiful walk!
Oh – and this state park is also home to the longest covered bridge in the country.

Really, that’s what the sign said.
Since we had a little time before our dinner reservations (I know you are stunned that we had actually planned ahead!), we decided to explore a little bit of downtown Nevada City. Galleries, shops, cafe’s, historic hotels….it’s a great little town!

Quaint, quaint, quaint. The guys hung out at the Java Joe’s – but we ladies enjoyed a beautiful gallery and some great window shopping. As a bonus, the rain held off!
And to put a wonderful finish on an already wonderful day -

Dinner at the local steakhouse.
Yummmmm.
Great sights, great food, great friends! The best part of the day was that we got to spend it with fellow SOWERs and good friends, Jo and Roy -

What a blessing the day was!

But what, you may ask, am I packing for?
Tomorrow morning I’m flying to Vermont for a week and a half. It’s my traditional Girls’ Week – with a couple of extra days and girls of various shapes and sizes thrown in. It’s been almost two years since I’ve seen my sisters or spent time at the cabin, so I’m very excited about the days to come.

Cabin…..sigh….

Sisters…..double sigh.

Sometimes I do do more than push the button for the slides.
Thank you, Jo, for the documentation!

Before I get too deep into our Saturday chores – laundry, vacuuming, dusting, toilets (blech), etc.- I wanted to share our “Saturday One”. After our two week “Rock Tour”, Gary has just about had it with the entire sightseeing venue. However, persuasive female that I am, I manage to convince him that we did need to get to Lake Tahoe. I mean, really, we might never come this way again.
So off to Tahoe we went!

And my goodness, what a beautiful lake/area that is!

We drove around the lake counter-clockwise, coming down on 89 and going back up 267 to I80. All along the map were those little green dots. You know, the “this is a scenic drive” green dots. We love them. Especially when we’re NOT driving the RV. (We like them in the RV too, but sometimes it’s a little more hair-raising in the house!). Poor Dear Gary stopped every time I asked him too – scenic overlooks, state parks, waterfalls, any little whim. Not only was the lake beautiful, but the crowds were nil. Ah, the blessing of being a tourist during the “shoulder season”!
Take, for example, Sugar Pines Point State Park. Look at this place -




Can you imagine how full of people this would be in the summer?
This park is also home to the Hellman-Ehrman Mansion- built in 1905, and restored to its 1920 splendor.

The tours weren’t running yet (remember, it’s the “shoulder season”), but we could peek in the windows-

I love old houses!

After our lovely walk through the park and around the grounds of the house, we continued on around the lake.
Next stop – Emerald Bay, with it’s beautiful Fannette Island!

They say this is one of the most photographed views in America. Believe me, I did my part!
There’s a walk down to the shoreline and another mansion, but we opted to stay top-side and just enjoy the view!
And while not all the shops were open yet, we managed to find a great lunch in South Tahoe before we started up the Nevada side of the lake.

Our final official stop was at Memorial Point in Lake Tahoe Nevada State Park -

And there a sweet couple offered to take our picture, eliminating the need to find a rock or stump to balance the camera on (or do the out-stretched arm shot – boy, are we bad with that!).

It was an all together lovely day. And unless you actually want to go IN the water, or perhaps enjoy some of the amazing snow sports that this area is famous for, I’d highly recommend the “Shoulder Season”.

I mean really, ONE boat?

One final shot from the day –
We often see dogs hanging out the windows (or standing in the back of the pick-up) enjoying the breeze in their faces. Especially on back roads. But I think this is the first time I’ve seen a horse catching the breeze while zipping down the INTERSTATE!

Have a great Saturday – it’s way past when I should be getting some chores done!

Can I please speak to either Gary or Stephanie Conrad?
-This is Stephanie
*Hello! I have some questions about your location from your census form.
-Yes?
*Well, can you tell me exactly where you were on April 1st?
-Let’s see….April 1st we were parked in a Wal-Mart parking lot in Prescott, AZ
*A Wal-Mart Parking lot in Arizona? Well, it says here on your form that your address is in Lake City, FL.
-Well, it is. But we live full time in our motorhome and on April 1st. we were in Arizona. But I figured you really wanted to know where we got our mail, and registered our vehicles – that kind of stuff.
*But we really need to know where you were physically on April 1st.
-The Wal-Mart in Prescott, AZ.
*Well, where were you going from the parking lot.
-On April 2nd, we went into a conference center outside of town and stayed there for about three weeks. And before that we were in Palmdale, CA.
***confused pause*** Actually I called because we were having trouble locating your Lake City, FL address. Could you give me the closest crossroads for that address.
-I’m sorry, but I’ve never been there.
*But it’s your address.
-I know, but it’s actually a mail-forwarding company and we just have a manila folder there. I’m pretty sure it does exist, though.
*Do you know anything about where it’s located.
-Nope.
*Well, thanks for your help. I think.

It’s probably a good thing I didn’t tell her we actually were “moving” to South Dakota on April 1st.

When you travel about the country in a big ol’ RV, with a cute orange truck tagging along, you have to be careful about planning your road choices. Pretty much we try to avoid large cities (we can’t always do that, but at least we try to avoid them around rush hour!) and toll roads, and when possible we like to stay off interstate unless we just plain have to get somewhere and don’t care so much about checking out interesting sights along the way. So, when we were planning our drive from the Bryce Canyon area of Utah to Nevada City, CA (near Lake Tahoe), we looked at the map carefully. I80 was far to the north, but to be quite honest, there wasn’t much that went across the state of Nevada except Hwy 50, and to get to that we had to travel on what looked like an even smaller road, Hwy 21 in Utah. Another trick we have learned is to check with some “locals” about road conditions – is it “good road”, and is it OK for big rigs. (Believe me, our trusty GPS does not take into account the “big rig” factor at all!). When I asked about the 21, the answer I got from girl was that it was an OK road, but man, there’s not much out that way. Her final comment was – “It’s a lonely road”. Gary checked with a fellow by the fuel pumps about Hwy 50 – and he got pretty much the same answer. The towns (and I use the term lightly) are between 50 -100 miles apart, but it’s good road and not much traffic.
So as we set out on “the 21″ we kept commenting that yes indeed, this was a lonely road.


What we didn’t realize was that we were about to embark on a trip across Nevada on the “Loneliest Road in America“, so named by Life Magazine in 1986. And what we also didn’t realize was that we were traveling through the Great Basin. Now put on your 5th grade US geography hats and see if you can remember what the Great Basin is. Has it come to you yet? Here’s a little help -

Pretty much it’s long (10 miles or so) flat arid valleys followed by a mountain range, followed by long flat arid valleys followed by a mountain range, followed by a long flat arid valley followed by…….



Here are just some of the summit signs I managed to capture as we crested the different hills -

And looking out the side window really drove home the “we are alone” feeling -

But don’t think this road wasn’t without some POIs along the way. When I noticed a tree close to the road in the distance I figured it would be a good photo op (you know, contrasting the tree with the otherwise stark roadside).

As we got closer, there seemed to be some sort of moss hanging from the branches.

Some strange desert/mountain growth?

Nope. Sneakers. Of course.
Then there was Sand Mountain

Looked like God had just decided that HERE would be a good place to dump a humongous pile of sand.
There were also the salt flats, that stretched on for a couple of miles -

Along much of the shoulder folks had been writing their names or messages with stone -

We did not stop to add our names – looked to us like finding the rocks would have been a lot of work!
We discovered Hwy 50 loosely followed the Pony Express route and there were several ruins along the way with historical markers, but unfortunately we didn’t stop at any of them. And now we know we could have picked up a Loneliest Road Survival Kit before we set out. Even our road atlas has Hwy 50 marked as the Loneliest Road.

All I know

is that it seemed

to go on

forever.