Reno

About a week ago, we visited good friends, Cheryl and Gerry, in "The Biggest Little City in the World" or Reno, NV, as it is otherwise known. I thought Reno had lots to offer beyond its gambling and quickee divorce reputation. The casinos and shows are fun, of course, but the region is beautiful and is close to lots of historic and scenic sites. So there is plenty to do.

Cheryl and Gerry moved there about 2-1/2 years ago into a beautiful retirement community just outside of the city in an area known as the Truckee Meadow. Here is a view from the community lodge looking to the south. The weather was wonderful while we were there. Temperatures were near 80º the first two days of our visit. They said that the weather is relatively moderate all year round in this high desert region of the country.

In nearly all directions from their home, you can see mountains, which are foothills of the Sierra Nevada range. The homes are very nice, and the residents seem to be seriously involved with each other in recreational, hobby, and numerous group activities. For example, while we were there, a Johnny Cash/Patsy Kline tribute band played a concert for all of us at the community lodge--that was lots of fun (Anders would have loved it).

On Friday, we drove up to Donner State Park in the mountains just west of Reno. This was only about 35 miles away. Of course, this is the site of the famous Donner Party, which became trapped there in the 1840s while trying to emigrate to California. The park is just alongside Interstate 80, which now allows travel over the mountains (via Donner Pass) nearly all year round. This year there was a total of 68 feet of snowfall at Donner Pass, and we saw huge amounts of not-yet-melted snow near the park and around Donner Lake, where the snow reached the roofs of two-story homes there.

This monument was dedicated around 1914 to honor the many emigrants who passed this way, especially those in the Donner Party. It is said that the snow at the time of their entrapment was as deep as the base of the monument. Three of the children who were part of that unfortunate incident were still alive at the time of the dedication and were present. It is a sad, though interesting, story. Three good books that I have read about the incident, if you are interested, are: Desperate Passage: The Donner Party's Perilous Journey West, Ordeal by Hunger, and Impatient With Desire. The latter is an imagined journal of one of the women in the party, a journal known to have existed but which was lost. The first book listed is a very recent publication.

Gerry and I also visited the Nevada State Railroad Museum in Carson City, also about 35 miles from Reno to the south. They have lots of equipment dating back to the 1800s with some of the nicer units having been restored and used by the Hollywood movie industry for westerns and other period films. Below is a Baldwin 4-4-0 engine, followed by a McKeen interurban unit (the only one still in existence).

We did a little gambling, of course, and enjoyed the historic downtown area. The Truckee River rushes and tumbles right through the town and is a favorite place for kayakers, one of whom is transporting his dog to the opposite bank of the river, if you look closely below.

Mostly, we had a wonderful time catching up with our friends.