WANDERING WITH THE WRIGHTS

SEPTEMBER 24, 2017

The last blog found us arriving at the Reno Air Show.  Something Jerry had wanted to do for 50 years!.  We spent an entire week in Reno and he got to see everything.  The beginning of the week is mainly pilots checking out their planes and getting used to the course.  They start at 6:00am some mornings but having lived on Naval Air Stations many for many years I got used to it pretty quickly.  It is a lot like a raceway on the ground but up in the air.  They fly around pylons and have to stay outside of them or they are docked points.  The entire week builds up to the final race on Sunday afternoon.

Nancy & Jeff Jeffreys - friends that we met almost two years ago on the road and our paths keep crossing!!  It was great to have them as neighbors at the air show.  We ate several meals at the local ELKS Club.  Both meals were excellent - as a matter of fact the first night we were there they treated us to dinner!!

Leaving the ELKS one night we say a double rainbow

Even though Jerry was having his dream of 50 year come true things still need to be maintained - so here he is working on the dishwasher.

Besides the races they also had some acrobatic shows 

Our seats were perfect - the pylon that was the finish line was right in front of us.

Us up in the bleachers

  

The planes are old military planes from WWII that have been modified.  During the war they would have flown at about  350 miles per hour and at the races they were going over 500 miles an hour!  The engines have been souped up from about 1500 horse power to 3000 horse power.

Jerry was able to spend a morning in the pits and talk to the pilots and the crew.  

Jerry's son and daughter-in-law gave him this shirt for his birthday.  It is SO true!!

These three couples have been coming to the air races for many years and welcomed us into their parking area.  We spent a lot of time in the evening talking and getting to know each other.

This couple was instrumental in getting us the great parking spot we had and was part of the group above.  We are so appreciative of all they did to help us newbies figure out everything.

Wow exciting race!.. Strega lead Voodoo all week by a wide margin. In the Gold race Voodoo took the lead going into the first turn. Voodoo and Strega fought for 1st and 2nd until the end when Strega took it back from Voodoo to win the Gold race.

 We left Reno on Monday morning and headed to South Lake Tahoe for 3 days.  The drive there was beautiful but also a little stressful - lots of tight curves and long drops(remember I am from the Midwest where things are flat).  I really thanked God for giving Jerry such awesome driving skills.  You will see a little later in the blog some of the turns he made in the motorhome!!

Lake Tahoe is breathtaking

The water is so blue and clear

We visited a beautiful estate called Sugar Pine Point

We got a laugh at this sign - many many people ride bikes in Lake Tahoe and this sign was asking people not to use this fence as a bike rack.

Loved the beautiful wood work on this guest cottage

A boat they used on the lake at the mansion.  At one time a boat was the only way to get into the mansions built along the west shore of the lake.

One of the turns.  We were in the car here going up but came down it in the motorhome - be still my heart

Tahoe is beautiful - God did some awesome work here

If you look a little left of center you will see a mansion.  To visit you had to walk down and back up a very steep road.  We were going to try it but three times the parking lot was full and we couldn't get in.  Maybe God was telling us hiking up the steep hill wasn't for us.

Loved the fact that many of the drinking fountains also had dog bowls available.

The dining room at Sugar Pine Point

The walls and ceiling look like wallpaper but it is actually thin strip of bark from the trees.

Extremely Cold

The pine cones laying all over were huge.

The pine trees were so pretty and smelled so good.

Scott & Beverly, NOMAD friends, drove 3 hours to come visit us!!  We had a great visit and loved seeing them.

The last afternoon and evening we were in Tahoe it snowed.  Didn't stick on the ground but did in the trees and it was beautiful as we drove back down the mountain.  Lake Tahoe is at about 6,225 feet.  When we left there to head to Coarsegold, CA we went up to about 7,800 feet before starting our decent.  Once we got down to about 6,500 feet the snow was gone.

A small town we drove through - by the time you read the sign you were out of town

Jerry and I love our life on the road and most days are wonderful but some can be very stressful.  Which is what we experienced last Friday heading from Tahoe to Coarsegold.  The roads were fine but after 7,500 feet of steep winding roads this Midwesterner had had enough of mountains. We got just west of Sacramento which is pretty much down to sea level and we made a wrong turn, shouldn't always listen to your GPS in the mountains, and ended up on another windy road though not as steep but very bumpy for 25 miles!!! So bumpy that the bikes came lose from the bike rack and we had to try and pull off the road so Jerry could fix(I lost a tire could have been much worse). Finally get to our campground and it is where one of their employees helps you park. Well the man directed Jerry right into his golf cart so we have a pretty good scratch on the front bumper of the Motorhome(will have to talk to management tomorrow). So the good news is we arrived and are safe but what a day!! Glad we aren't moving for a week and then it is only 20 miles!! 

We arrived in Coarsegold at an ESCAPEE PARK.  ESCAPEES are some of the friendliest people you can meet and we love to stay at there parks.  Another awesome thing about arriving here is we were meeting up with our dear friends from home Gary & Steph Vogel and spending the week with them.  And after that ride down the mountain it was awesome to see their smiling faces and to receive nice warm hugs!!  We arrived Friday night and went to a welcome get together at the club house.  Everyone was friendly and made sure we were with people and having a good time.  Yesterday morning they took us in a golf cart our of the park which was totally built by ESCAPEE volunteers.

Had to chuckle the we say this sign on the tour - the park is very hilly

At a wine tasting and snack time Saturday night

This morning we attended church with the Vogel's and then went to a small local supermarket for hamburgers - yep they fix the burgers right in the supermarket.  It was recommended to us and they were delicious.  At 2:30 we were back at the clubhouse for 50 cent a scoop ice cream and then over to Vogel's to play cards.

We have lots of plans of places to visit next week but you will have to wait for the next blog to learn about them :-)