Saturday - Today's agenda was a driving trip outside of Reno, first to Donner Pass State Park, and then a drive down to Squaw Valley. Inside the museum at Donner Pass was a nice exhibit of the animals in the area, including an excellent bear.
We watched a film about the historic Donner Party, viewed the exhibits, walked out to the Monument, and walked the trail.
This is a list of the entire Donner Party on this monument.
We had to cross this creek (twice) on our trail walk.
Before we left, Joe drove us through the state park, down to pretty Donner Lake.
People were really enjoying the lake, the outdoors (it was 85 degrees, and I think this might have been their first weekend of summer here). I picked up a pine cone for Brenda, and a couple for myself, as did Mazie. Wasn't sure if it was allowed or not, otherwise, I would have filled a bag, there were some very nice ones here.
We saw one family setting up with 5 hammocks between two trees, they were having trouble with the top one though. Joe wanted to know who had to climb up to that one. Joe called it a condo, for Paul and Natalie in North Carolina.
Still a lot of snow on these mountaintops. Our Arizona friends can think of this next week when it hits 121.
From here, we headed down 89 about 11 miles to the old Olympic Village. In case you have forgotten,"the 1960 Winter Olympics were the first Games held in the Western United States and the first to be televised. Nearly one-half million spectators watched the Games. Lodging costs were $5 to $10 per night per person. Daily admission, which allowed a spectator to see five major events, cost $7.50. An 11-day pass for all skiing events was $60, and a reserved seat at Blyth Arena was $200." Seems like a really long time ago, doesn't it?
The Olympic Village Inn was built to house more than 750 athletes; it allowed all athletes to be housed under one roof for the first and only time in modern Olympic history."And, "at the height of the Cold War, with the whole world watching, the U.S. defeated the Russian Hockey Team in a heart pounding, down to the wire, 3-2 victory." The U.S. won its first Gold Medal in Hockey that year.
This has become quite the ski resort, and surprisingly, some of the ski slopes were still running -- in fact, they are supposed to run until July 4! We talked to one skier in the parking lot. He had just come home from college in Chicago and was very surprised to find out he could still get some skiing in. I asked him if this was his first time to ski in shorts, and he said it was. We saw quite a few odd outfits up here.
Business was booming, and we could see the gondolas going up and down on the cables. We were going to take a ride up, but it would have cost almost $100 for the 2 of us, so we decided it wasn't worth it.
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In addition to skiing, there was a dog splash event going on, so there were lots of people with their dogs. We watched a few of them launch into the pool.
We wandered through the area, checked out some of the ski stuff and pet stuff on sale in the tents, then headed out.
There was an interesting statue of Snowshoe Thompson here, who delivered mail from Placerville, California to Genoa, Nevada from 1856 to 1976.
We got back to the campground about 3:30, for a little rest. Then I cajoled Joe into a casino night. A lady I talked to yesterday at the Planetarium recommended the El Dorado (she said it was not smoky and had "active" slots). It is just up the street from the campground, maybe 2-3 miles, so we attempted to go there. But there is a "BBQ, Brews and Blues" festival going on right in that area, and they have the street closed. We worked our way around the blocks to the parking garage, and went round and round up all 10 stories and could not find a single empty parking space. So we abandoned that idea and drove out of town to the Boomtown Casino that we had passed coming back in from our drive today. Joe had better luck tonight, but I had no luck. No big winnings, but his winnings helped cover some of my losses.
I forgot to mention that yesterday, when we were at the Automobile Museum, Mazie bought 8 chances to win a 1998 Corvette. The drawing isn't until November, but I imagine she will keep her fingers crossed for the next 5 months. She's already planning to buy a plane ticket to fly up here to claim her prize.
We move on tomorrow, into California to Canyon Dam. We are not sure if we will have phone or internet service at the campground, so I may have to save my blogs for a few days. They are supposed to have WiFi, but many times campgrounds advertise that but it turns out they only have it at the office or laundry. The heat spell heading to Phoenix on Tuesday is supposed to hit up here tomorrow and Monday, so we may not do too much anyway.
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