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Trip to Reno

September 29, 2013

We are on another road trip to attend NV OES Grand Chapter in Reno. We left San Pedro at about 0900 on Saturday. There are three main north south routes from LA to Northern California.

The quickest by far is I5 that starts in San Diego and continues through LA and then up through California’s Central Valley. There are huge farms that produce much of the vegetables that everyone consumes in the USA. Without stopping, we could potentially make it from San Pedro to Reno in a little over 8 hours. However, the ride is oh so very boring.

The second route is up US99 a bit east of I5. A little bit longer and just as boring. One goes through the major farming towns of Bakersfield, Fresno, and Stockton. Eventually you reach Sacramento and then head east on I80 to Reno.

The most visually interesting trip is on US395 that runs between the Sierras on your left and the CAL-NV border on your right. Lots of mountains, lakes and streams.

That was what we had intended to take. Best case should take 9 hours without factoring bathroom stops, gas stops, etc. But i screwed up in loading the GPS and we headed up I5. By the time we figured out my mistake, we were almost to Bakersfield. So we headed east to pick up US395.

Not so simple though. We ended up on SR14 that took us on a twisty windy road through Kern County and the Kern river canyon. We stopped at a place called Walker Pass to stretch and take a couple of pictures. This is some of the most desolate parts of California. It was also super clear on Saturday. The blue sky in those pictures was not photo-shopped.


So we eventually got on to US395 and continued our journey north. We were way behind schedule. Driving this road when dark is very challenging. Paula had me stop for a few seconds so that she could smell the ponderosa pines. She said she could actually see stars. You don’t see many stars (the astronomy kind) in LA. Of course I didn’t see stars, I was trying to see which way the road was going.

We eventually arrived in Reno at about 10PM. We got checked in and luggage up to our room. We had a gin and tonic and went to bed.

Next post will be about our experience at the Peppermill Resort and Casino.

Later…

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:S Virginia St,Reno,United States

Categories: California, Travel
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More on Hotels

August 5, 2013

During our trip last week we stopped at several different hotels. All of the hotels were mostly mediocre. We generally paid about $100 per night.

The worst hotel was the Primm Valley Resort and Casino (see my previous post on the subject.) We also stayed in two La Quinta hotels and one Best Western.

I made reservation for the La Quinta directly on their web site. The reservations for the Best Western and Primm Valley using Hotels.com and Travelocity.com. Hotels.com and Travelocity.com are both aggregators. This means that they take the reservation and payment from you and deliver it to the hotel. Down side is you pay for your hotel stay when you make the reservation. They then pay the hotel when you check in. So if say, you make the reservation 30 days ahead, hotels.com has your money for thirty days.

When you make a reservation directly (ala La Quinta), you don’t get charged until you check in.

Of course, (as we found out) that dealing with an aggregator, there is more chance for a screw up. ie. more people involved in the transaction.

La Quinta seemed to do pretty good on the basics. Both rooms were clean. Beds were comfortable. The free breakfast was rather meager. Though nothing would compare with the breakfast at the hotel we stayed in Memphis last year. Breakfast consisted of Krispy Kreme donuts (Max 2 to a customer) and coffee.

Breakfast at LQ consisted of cold cereal, toast, waffles, yogurt, juice and coffee. The Best Western had all of the above plus scrambled eggs, bacon and biscuits & Gravy.

All of the hotels we visited had WiFi, but the speed was generally putridly slow. Never exceeded 1Mb download speed. Most of the time it was about .5Mbps.

Of course, Primm Valley didn’t have WiFi. They don’t want you playing on the internet. They want you playing in the casino.

Later…

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Categories: Reviews, Travel
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HotelCasino is a dirty word

August 2, 2013

Remind me never to stay in a HotelCasino in Nevada ever again. What a massive Fxxxup. More about that later.

First, we drove 450 miles today from Salt Lake City to Primm, Nevada. Straight shot down I-15. We got off at about 10:00am. Took some doing to get Mary K loaded with her luggage. Off we went.

We stopped for a break at about 100 miles. Then stopped for lunch at Cedar City. We went into a Denny’s. Denny’s is usually dependably average. We sat down. The waitress asked “One check or separate?”. Paula and i said one check, but Mary K says “put mine on a separate check” Mary K had yet to pick up a meal tab during the trip. So she decides to pay only for her meal. Not the whole check. Grrrr. This particular Denny’s was particularly bad. Several menu items were unavailable because they were waiting for the delivery truck.

So we take off on down the highway. We stopped for gas north of Las Vegas. It was an ARCO station the wouldn’t take my credit card because I didn’t have a PIN. So had to use my ATM card.

So we finally pulled into the Primm Resort & Casino. I had reserved two rooms with Travelocity. Primm only had reservation for one room. I would have let it go seeing as they had available rooms. But the rooms were prepaid through Travelocity, so I would have been out $45.

So the lady at the reservation desk at Primm says call Travelocity and have them fax the reservation again to 702-679-5159. So I get on the phone to Travelocity. Finally get through to them. Explain the situation. Give them all of the trip codes and reservation codes. I give them the FAX number. Only the Primm lady gave me the wrong fax no. It should have been 702-679-5195.

So after 25 minutes on hold the first time and 25 minutes on hold the second time we finally get it straightened out. Almost.

We get the second room. We asked for it to be close to the original room. He says sure. We ask for location on the room map. It couldn’t have been further apart. Well it was on the same floor. I asked him do you think these two rooms are close together? huh? I was out of fight.

So we have a sandwich at the sandwich shop. At off to the room to go to bed. We gave Mary K instructions on when we would meet for breakfast.

So tomorrow we have another 250 miles to get home. We will be happy to get home. Paula and I have sworn to each other that we will NEVER, NEVER, EVER travel with her again.

I truly hate hotel casinos. You have to go through the casino to find the check in counter. The noise is deafening. HotelCasino NEVER NEVER NEVER again.

So bottom line. Travelocity sucks and Primm Resort sucks too.

There I feel better already.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Primm, NV

Categories: Reviews, Travel
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Thursday

July 31, 2013

Rough start to the day. My phone rang at 0700. Of course, it was on the desk. By the time I got to it, the call had gone to voice mail. The call was from Paula’s Mom across the hall. She wanted to tell us that she was ready for breakfast and she wanted to go with us to Denny’s. Argggh. That couldn’t wait until 0830? Ten minutes goes by and she knocks on the door. This time Paula answers. We’ll do breakfast at 0900.

So we had a decent breakfast at the Denny’s next door. Mediocre, but better than the free breakfast at LaQuinta. Makes me long for the breakfast at either the Pacific Diner or the Gaffey Street Diner. Eggs were okay. Hash browns were right out of the freezer bag. Only two slices of bacon. Coffee was good though. Waiter kept filling it up.

So off we go at 1000 to the Grand Lodge of Utah. Tours are supposed to be only on Fridays. But we managed to find someone who was probably board at doing his day job and wanted to do a tour. We joined a nice young couple from Idaho who wanted to visit.

I will do a more complete post on the Grand Lodge this weekend when I have more time. Here are a couple of pictures to whet your appetite. Quite a beautiful building.


This brought us to noon. Mary K wanted to drive by the University of Utah. So we did. Then we started getting texts from Neil. So I said to Paula, I would stop for a few minutes. I just happened to pull in to a Starbucks. I have been told by Neil that SLC now has Dunkin Donuts. I didn’t fine one. So I checked my texts and answered then got an iced coffee from Starbucks and used their bathroom.

Then we were off north to Hill AFB. Hill AFB is about 30 miles north of SLC. They have an excellent aerospace museum that is free admission. Once again, I will do a more complete post later. Wide variety of aircraft on display. Some inside, some outside.

Here are a few pictures.


Left at 1600 headed for Neil’s place for dinner. Had hotdogs and burgers (or as my friend Vicky would call them “Wienies”).

Tomorrow, we are headed home. South on I-15 to Nevada. Stop in Primm over night and then straight on to morning.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Cypress St,Midvale,United States

Categories: Travel

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Tuesday

July 30, 2013

Late start today. Neil is working nights and gets home about 8-9am. So Neil and the gang came over to our hotel around noon. We decided that lunch ought to be the first order of business. We decided to go to Ruth’s Diner up in Emigration Canyon. We first found out about Ruth’s Diner from the Diners, Drive-ins and Dives TV show on the Food Network. Also check out the free app on the iTunes Appstore. Excellent food.


We had a table outside. Beautiful location. They have biscuits to die for.

Next, we headed up the hill to Park City. Park City is resort area. Skiing in the winter, camping, biking in the summer. Beautiful condos and real estate all around. None of which any one of us could afford.

We then went up to the Olympic Village. The Olympic Village was the site for the 2002 Winter Olympics. The site continues to be used for olympic training for ski jumping, luge, bobsled, etc. We didn’t do the tour this time. We did that last year when we visited. See my blog post from last year,

Here are the pictures.


Paula, Mary and I watched some videos on the 2002 Olympics. Then we went out to watch the kids practice ski jumping into the pool. The big structure in the back ground is a climbing wall. Lose your grip you fall into the pool.


Here’s a video of one the more talented ski jumpers.

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Categories: Travel
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Monday

July 30, 2013

Posting a little late today. iPad battery dead last night. Had to wait to get it charged. Yesterday we traveled from Elko, NV across the Nevada high dessert to Salt Lake City, UT. Long, straight road with desert as far as the eyes can see.

At the NV-UT state line we start seeing salt flats. It looks somewhat like snow, but you know that it’s not.

Here are a few pictures that I took at the rest area at Wendover, UT. This is where the famous Bonneville Salt flats are located.


We checked into our hotel and then did some grocery shopping for dinner. Then we met up with Mary K. and then left for Neil and Dawn’s house. We had a loverly steak dinner with Neil and his family.

Drive on Monday was relatively short. We only did about 250 miles. So we arrived at 4pm which included change in time zone to MDT.

Today we are off to visit Park City.

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Categories: Travel
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And a few more things…

July 29, 2013

Just a few more things to add that I forgot to write in yesterday’s post.

We’re staying at a Best Western in Elko. Decent room but one problem. There’s no coffee maker. What is wrong with these people. I expect a few things in a hotel room. They are free wifi, tv, plugs for my ipad and iphone and a COFFEE POT. So this morning I had to walk down to the front desk to get two cups of coffee. What a PITA.

We had a light dinner at a local restaurant last night. Actually it was a restaurant/casino/hotel. The one armed bandits are everywhere. you can’t seem to avoid them. And you have to walk through the casino part to get to the restaurant part. They encourage you to stop and drop a few quarters. The noise is truly annoying. But the food was good. We shared a salad and a small pizza. I had a martini, Paula had a gin & tonic.

So we have about 250 miles to do today. We ought to arrive around 4pm including the time zone change (lose an hour). More desert today. Long straight hiway with 75 mph speed limit. I always struggle with spelling of the words desert and dessert. Spellcheck doesn’t help. So I will have dessert in the desert.

I am way behind on my crossword puzzles. They are piling up in my crossword app inbox.

We will find out how Mary K did on her flight from LAX to SLC. Big attaboys to Mike and Neil for doing the airport shuttle duties.

Later…

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Location:Sharps Access Rd,Elko,United States

Categories: Travel
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And the Adventure Continues…

July 29, 2013

Much to tell. Yesterday started with OES Reception for the Grand Organist. That was in Rancho Cordova (East of Sacramento), That lasted until 4pm. Then off to Chico for reception for Grand Ruth. Ninety miles up and ninety miles back, We got back to our hotel at 12:30am.

So up today at 7:00 am and off at 10am. Heading east on I80 towards NV. First stop was at Donner Pass. Elev 7056′

The Donner pass is named for the Donner Party who perished in November 1846 after getting snow bound by early winter storm. Read the Wiki entry for more detail than you ever needed. See link above.


West side of the Sierras are verdant and the east side is arid. All of the moisture from the Pacific stays to the west of the Sierras. We stopped for lunch and then stopped at a rest area at Button Point in NV.

Bathrooms were the worst we’ve seen in all of our travels. Took a a few pictures. Notice all of the green is gone. All you see is sand, salt flats, and sage brush.


Button Point is part of the Humboldt River basin. Here’s the Wikipedia entry.

Finally after driving 435 miles today we arrived at our hotel in Elko, NV.

By the way, Mary safely made it to LAX to fly to SLC. Mike took her to LAX and Neil picked her up. We will be in SLC tomorrow to visit with Neil and his family.

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Location:Elko, NV

Categories: California, Travel
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California Dreaming

July 27, 2013

Today we are up in the Sacramento area to visit friends and attend some OES receptions.

Yesterday, we drove up north from LA on Interstate 5. Once we get through the Grapevine we get into California’s great Central Valley. Perhaps you remember a post I did a few months ago on the Grapevine. The Grapevine is the pass that goes through the Angeles National Forest.

Once you get out of the Grapevine you see this great vista of farmland as far as the eye can see. Here is a picture that I took from a vista turnout about 100 miles south of Stockton.


The green is cultivated farmland, the brown is what the land looks like without water. The water is provided by the California Aqueduct. I-5 is a long straight boring drive.

Okay, enough about the Central Valley. Now for my California gripes. First is speed bumps. It seems that every shopping center lot is loaded with speed bumps. I know they are necessary to keep speed in check. Nevertheless, a PITA.

Second, is four way stop signs. It seems to me that California is the land of four-way stops. They are everywhere.

We visited Davis today. My lovely wife went to school at UC Davis. We visited with old friends and drove around campus. We had lunch at the “Burger & Brew“. I had a Jalapeño/Bacon Cheeseburger and a pint of Guiness. Very Tasty.

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Location:Folsom Blvd,Rancho Cordova,United States

Categories: California, Travel
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Independence Day

July 5, 2013

Dinner with Mike & Theresa yesterday afternoon. Too much good food to eat. Jonathan was as cute as ever.

After dinner we headed over to Muller House (San Pedro Historical Society) to watch the fireworks at Cabrillo beach. Muller House is ideally suited for fireworks viewing. Excellent view of LA Harbor and surrounding area. It was a good show, but not as good as Boston’s Esplanade show.

Esplanade_1600x1200

Unfortunately, CBS decided not to broadcast the show this year, so you only see it local to Boston. Such a pity. Here’s a youtube clip of fireworks with the finale to the 1812 Overture.

Finally, here’s a few pictures from the US Dept of the Interior.

Vietnam Vet MemorialVietnam Veterans’ Memorial

Grand Teton Wyoming

Grand Teton Wyoming

Statue of LibertyStatue of Liberty

St Marks National Wildlife Refuge FloridaSt Marks National Wildlife Refuge Florida

Organ Pipes National Monument ArizonaOrgan Pipes Arizona

Golden GateGolden Gate Bridge San Francisco

Categories: California, Family, Travel
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