Reno Birthday

Going north out of South Lake Tahoe, we drove through Cave Rock and down to the east to Carson City.  Very pretty drive and good for engine braking going down the hills to Carson City.

We made some new boondocker friends in Reno, they have great sunsets here too, and nice views out across the valley too.

We stayed there outside Reno for a few days, and caught up on shopping and errands again.

A fun errand was getting an ID form for Elliot notarized.  His updated passport card got lost in the mail, and he needs a picture ID for his math test coming up.  We tried a few places first (our bank, 'no, we just do our own bank forms',  a postal service place, 'no, his old passport card is expired, you need a valid picture ID to notarize his signature', "exactly, that's why we're here....")  and the last place said, 'try the divorce lawyer two doors down, they may have different standards'

Sure enough, no problem.  We didn't point out that his card from when he was 5 is out of date, and they didn't mention it.  But they wouldn't let Elliot and Alice divorce each other.

On Alice's birthday, we spent the afternoon at the hands-on science center in downtown Reno.

assembling carbon nanotubes

 It's a nice science museum, and even big kids can climb up in the clouds.  The climber is part of an interactive model of the water system for Truckee / Reno, with the water flowing down from Lake Tahoe through reservoirs and rivers to the treatment system for the city.

the Cloud Climber

 

I joked that we were going to Reno so the kids could gamble, and we did explore more of downtown too.  But we were all tired after playing at the science center, so we didn't get to walk around or meet a one-armed bandit.  At the grocery stores though we did get to see slot machines....

Our hosts had us over for a great dinner that night, and we brought Alice's birthday cake.  One slice was like three servings of desert:  it was a vanilla layer cake with chocolate frosting, surrounded by a wall of KitKat bars on the outside, and a layer of chocolate Whoppers on top (over the icing).

The next day we packed up the wagon, heading west.  Everything we own in the wagon or on the backs of our 285 GMC horses, and headed west over Donner Pass.   It was cold and snowing up through the pass too, not sticking though.   So we fared better than the Donner party, up and down the other side in just an hour or so;  To 60 degrees and lush green hills outside of Colfax, at the Bear River Campground, a great rustic county park along a river where you're allowed to pan or dig for gold in the river.

is there a care in the world?