Day 1: Monterey to Reno

This is a quickie post as we don't have free wifi in this hotel. More to come on today's adventures later.

So after a long morning of running around packing, cleaning, and bidding folks farewell we hit the road at 10:15AM Monterey time. We had hoped to catch Geevee's nap time and succeeded in doing so, but only after losing about half the time packing. So it looked as though things were off on a very bad foot when Geeves started squawking in Marina, a mere 10 miles or so from home. She fought like only our kids would, but fortunately for us, she passed out again.

We took full advantage of our portable DVD player and got Tessa wired for a bit (it's only for the trip, I swear). She munched a few graham crackers and passed out herself. Aside from some serious butt cramps we had a very good drive out for the first 4 hours. Things were a little scary in the Sacrammento area, but we made it in one piece to Auburn, at the base of the Sierras.

We survived Donner pass without having to eat anyone, but had to make an emergency pit stop just before it for Tessa. We took advantage of the opportunity to walk a short trail where we saw piles of snow in the middle of 90+ degree heat. It's just one of those oddities of mountains and deserts. We pulled into Reno at about 6:00. The smoke from the California fires had drifted all the way up there and was making it a little rough on the breathing.

More later...

Update: Now that I have a moment (an free wifi) I wanted to finish the post for the 25th.

In Reno we met up with our friends Lisa and Jeremy and hit the pool. The Nugget Hotel in Reno has a fabulous pool with little bubble tubs on the side and a big waterfall along one edge, both of which Tessa loved. Geevee went swimming for the first time, which amounted to dipping her toes followed by a lot of screaming. She did, however, take a nap in the lounge chair by the pool.
That's all for now.