In fairness to Reno I guess I have to say it was slightly better in the morning light after putting the action packed previous day behind us... But in reality, it wasn't that much better, and still generally came across as all the rejects from Vegas in one spot... In fact Nevada as a whole really just seems to be a big empty space that happens to have Vegas in it... Sorry Nevada... I am sure the snow is good.
On the bright side though, we did decide to swing by the National Auto Museum before we left Reno, and while we didn't really expect that much, we were pretty darn pleasantly surprised. The cars are mostly from the once-ridiculous private collection of Bill Harrah, of Harrah's casinos... I believe he had something like 1400 cars at once stage including some of the rarest and most valuable in the world... When he died Harrah's started to sell them off but after a major outcry by collectors and the public a couple of hundred were donated for a museum, and they are pretty cool. Ok some are downright incredible. I went camera-nuts again...
Plus about 400 others... I have to say on this trip I have gotten to take photos of some of the most awesome cars on the planet, it has been pretty amazing... Cords, Dusenbergs, Auburns, Cobras, GT40s, one-off Rolls's, Delahayes, a Tucker, awesome rods, vintage Euros and Americana...
The quick trip the museum ended up taking nearly four hours, cutting into our driving day somewhat... Then on the way out of town I decided we also needed to stop at Cabelas before we left Nevada... Cabelas being a huge outdoors, hunting and fishing and camping and... Well, everything outdoors ever... Store... Where we were once again captured for quite some time marvelling at how cheap everything was and how much we got ripped off at home. I struggled to resist just buying a huge bag full of stuff just cause... as it was, what I did buy was about as third of the price of at home. Oh so many hundreds and hundreds of nice guns... And everything to do with guns.... And much other cool stuff. All I can say is - 30 round M4 magazines - $14.... They had literally a pallet of them... 250 shotgun rounds $60... Etc. I will discuss how much we get ripped off for everything later... Or now... yeah, a tank of gas costs $60 here... A pack of smokes costs $6... A six pack of beer costs $6... Two gallons of milk is $8... A pair of good jeans is $30... Fruit is measured in cents per kilo not dollars... And explain this to me... A Powerade, which is MADE at home, not imported, is like $4... I saw a special here at the supermarket... Powerade... $8... For TWO PACKS OF EIGHT BOTTLES.
Anyway, rant aside, Cabelas was good... We ate in their cafe, I had a smoked bison sandwich, it was damn good. On leaving there we bailed to the border and into California, and turned north again from Truckee, taking a majorly scenic back road to Redding, which was nice, through much forest and what is a major winter playground when the snow is down... Lots of scenic valleys, farms, cute towns, creeks and trees, etc etc... So pretty much the opposite of Nevada. On the downside the road was often steep and windy, and getting anywhere took some time...
At one point we were up in the snow a bit and had the choice to take the more scenic route over the very top of the volcano or turn and head around the side and down. Gas was going to be tight, it was getting a bit late, and the weather was not looking flash... Uncharacteristically (after the disasters of the day before) I decided to be sensible and turned back and took the shorter easier route down. Within ten minutes we were getting hammered by hail and freezing rain, meaning that if we had continued up the other route we would most likely have been caught in a massive dumping of snow at the peak of the mountain, on an empty road, at dusk... So I do make the occasional good call. The road was also something like 250 miles long as it was... So we arrived tired and pretty late. Happily we found a motel with no drama this time, and then swung by Taco Bell for a feed... Which I approved of. Taco Bell can actually be good, if the staff actually give a crap...
So that was Sunday (I think? Was it Sunday?), well that's all that comes to mind right now anyway... and now I will have to leave today for tomorrow. If that makes sense...
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