Monday, 5-26-97 ... Memorial Day

We got up at a reasonable time and headed out across the Nevada desert. The drive across northern Nevada was uneventful and frankly, a little boring. This is another place where the miles seem to be longer than normal. We found entertainment by listening to the truckers on the CB radio. One driver went on at length about how he used to own a chain of fast food restaurants. We also learned more about the trucker's vocabulary. The desert is green for the most part. Many of the mountains along the way are still snow capped. So it is a pleasant time to drive across the desert, especially with the cool air temperatures.

After leaving Wendover, we proceeded up a series of upgrades until we finally reached the summit of the first pass. As we started down the other side, the view that appeared was that of green wall to wall carpeting or better yet, mountain range to mountain range carpeting. As we got closer to the "carpet," it was revealed to be closely spaced, round shaped bushes. From a distance it looked like sculptured, green carpeting. As a backdrop, the distant mountains were still dusted with snow. Of course I took photos.

The distant valley appears to be covered with a dark green carpet

I wasn't paying close attention; but somewhere in the Nevada desert, the odometer on our motorhome rolled over 10,000 miles. Alas, our home on wheels is no longer new. With our now seasoned vehicle, we continued on to Reno. As we came into Reno, I was struck by the high prices for gasoline. They were the highest I had seen on the entire trip.

We arrived at the Reno Hilton RV campground fairly early. It was about 6PM, so we had time to get something to eat and take a shower before hitting the casino. We entered the gaming room at about 8PM and continued to pay our "Nevada taxes" until almost midnight. When we left I was feeling low because of the heavy, smoke laden atmosphere in the casino. I did enjoy the live band, but from where Kay was situated, she thought it sounded like noise. I have to admit, where she was located among the slot machines, the music did seem to add to the noise level of the one-armed bandits.

When we finally left the hotel to go back to the campground, the distance back seemed to be twice as far as it took to get to the casino. The Hilton doesn’t provide a shuttle service, so we had to hoof it both ways. I was very tired when we got "home."