California At Last!

We continued across beautiful northern Nevada, through Sparks and Reno and Lake Tahoe. What amazing views, especially over Donner Pass, high in the Sierras. It was getting dark as we drove through this area, following I-80 along the Truckee River. Ominous clouds had been streaming across the Nevada sky all day and we heard rumors of a coming storm. High in the Sierras, it looked like it would snow any minute and we gazed cautiously at the "add chains here" signs that appeared frequently along the mountain roadside. Then we careened down the steep western slopes toward Sacramento, dropping 7,000 feet over the 40 mile descent. It was a pretty scary drive, many curves, a lot of big rigs and a little too much speed. (Picture above is approaching Reno from the east; didn't get any "careening" shots, sorry)

We ran into our first city rush hour traffic of the whole trip in Sacramento, but it wasn't bad by east coast standards. After leaving the city, we drove north along San Francisco Bay through San Rafael. Our hunger forced us into Wendy's for some semi-edible nourishment. We jumped back on the road and headed to Paul and Georgia's place in Cotati, CA. Paul was the caretaker of the RV which Joost so generously donated to the project.

We finally reached Cotati around 8:30 PM. We were graciously received by Paul and Georgia and had a wonderful conversation with them. One of the great pleasures of this trip has been meeting so many kind, generous and interesting people, and Paul and Georgia were no exception. We spent a very comfortable night in a beautiful sleigh bed and awoke refreshed and excited - today we were picking up the RV!

Paul and Georgia drove us to the farm in Windsor, CA where the RV was parked. Although the weather was dreary and a steady rain was falling, our excitement was not damped in the least. We jumped out of the car to see the RV and it was BEAUTIFUL! A 1991 Winnebago Warrior!

More about the RV and our maiden voyage tomorrow! Stay tuned.......