Thursday in Reno

view of "friends" out our windshield this morning

Lots of Quail running around the campground this morning.  Its so good to see and hear them again.  No mistaking their chatter, once you've heard it.  I wish the blog had sound so you could hear what we woke up to this morning.

After a small "directional" issue this morning, we set off from Susanville, CA. heading towards Reno, NV.  We identified a Freightliner shop there (in Sparks, really) and made a campground reservation for what I hoped would only be one night.  (Meaning I hoped we wouldn't be stuck there til Monday waiting for parts to arrive)  The drive was beautiful, following the eastern slope of the Sierra's through a wide, flat valley.

We drove along a large honey colored totally flat area for quite a while.  Not a tree, fence, house, not a single thing to break up the golden color.  After consulting the Gazetteer I discovered it was a huge dry lake, named - Honey Lake!

Honey Lake through the driver's side window

We stopped at a wide spot in the road for a quick lunch before descending into the Reno/Sparks area.  We thought it would be a very busy place, and we were right - lots of traffic.  The directions to Sierra Freightliner were easy to follow and we pulled into their lot around 1 p.m.  Dave unhooked the car in anticipation of needing somewhere to sit while Beluga was in the shop.  The dogs and I stayed inside and waited for Dave and the service guys to decide on a plan of action.
  
Dave took everything apart and together they found that our alternator problem was a broken wire.  They made a new one for us - no charge - and Dave installed it and put everything back together again.  I used the time to have a nice long phone call with Cindy Kraft.  She doesn't have a computer available to her, so the only contact we have is by occasional phone calls.

again I say, is there no end to this man's talents?

By 5:30 we were on our way to the Victorian RV Park just a few minutes
from Freightliner.  All the Campgrounds around here are very "urban", right in the thick of things and not our usual cup of tea.   The sites are small and our neighbors are close, but all in all this isn't a bad place for the few things we want to check out in the area.  We were going to leave first thing in the morning for a State Park south of here, but I think we may just stay and take advantage of our central location to drive up to Pyramid Lake and down to Virginia City.    Then we'll move south toward Mammoth.