Moved to Truckee, California

We packed up and moved to Truckee, California yesterday - if you know your American history - this is the place where the Donner Emigrant party got stranded in the winter of 1846 in the Sierra Nevada's with no food and shelter, resulted in cannibalism to survive.  Pretty gruesome.  But, that's not why we are here to see that place.  Instead, we are camping right off of Interstate 80, west of Reno, in order to see Lake Tahoe (something I have wanted to see for many years) and to visit Virginia City.

Couple notes on our stay at Hat Creek Resort.  We had slow if none internet service there due to the fact that there is a radio observatory in this small little town, originally was set up back in the late 1950s to monitor and record radio transmissions from deep space.  ET where are you?  Because of this operation which is still in existence for other space monitoring functions, digital transmissions which are Wifi type for internet, are not allowed.  Only analog (the old dial up kind, slow, slow, slow).  And because I tried to send out some emails with attachments, got spammed. I gave up.

This is supposed to be a lake!

Second:  if you want to stay in the forest, be prepared for spiders, sap leaking on your RV and truck, and at a moments notice to be able to pack up and go if there is a wildfire.  Amazing thing was, with the heightened risk of fires, the campground allowed RVers to have fires, and many had fires every night.  Our neighbor was from Carson City, near Reno, and they said the smoke from the Yosemite fire was so great they escaped to that campground only to have them build a smoky smelly campfire every day and night.  They would fish in the creek, gut the fish caught, then smoke it over the fire.  Andy they were escaping the smoke only to smell up the campground?  What?

The ride to Truckee was uneventful.  We traveled through Lassen National Forest into a fairly large town called Susanville, then moved further south into Reno.  Very desolate.  Weird to drive along a lake and there was no water.  Not just one, but many.  Dry as a bone.  Callifornia is going to burn up big time if they don't get some rain/snow this winter.  Parched.  Had the Sierra Nevada Mountain range on our right all along, and now here in Truckee, we are in the midst of the mountains.

Another dry lake - more like mud

Got into Reno and traveled westbound to this campground, seems there is an Ironman sports function going on which is why I couldn't find an available campground to come to.  We are camping at our second highest elevation - 5970 feet - the first was Ely, Nevada which is parallel with us here, about 320 miles due east.  Days are getting cooler and nights just above freezing.  As much as we are loving this trip, the coolness will get to us by the end of the week and we will be ready to move further south.

Leaves are turning - Lassen NF