Reno to San Mateo to see Ben

I got bored, so I decided to drive to San Mateo to see my friend Ben. The drive is really easy and it takes no time at all (about 3.5 hours).


View Larger Map

I forget how beautiful Northern California is. After spending the afternoon being yuppie (we had to do some shopping for Ben's house as he is planning on decorating it. We ended up in IKEA, Bed Bath and Beyond, Costco and Target drinking our Starbucks) we drove down to Half Moon Bay and into the Santa Cruz Mountains. The ocean is so beautiful and in Ben's Subaru Outback, we cruised all the winding roads in the mountains...SWEET!


View Larger Map

Unfortunately, I didn't take any pictures.


I would really like to thank Ben for letting me crash at his apartment and spending some time catching up. I hadn't seen Ben for 3 years and I can never have a trip to Reno and not see him.

A funky loop to the Mono Basin

I love the Mono Basin. I know almost every inch of it from when I was working with the Forest Service in 2004.

I went on a funky loop down HWY 395 to Mono Lake and then back up HWY 95. For the most part I am boycotting California because of it's gas prices (is $5.50 really necessary when you can get gas in Nevada for $3.95?), but I had to go see the lake again.



View Larger Map

At the end of my trip I accidentally ended up in Virginia City. I have been meaning to go there, now I know I HAVE to go there...even if just to see the cemetery. Here is a cool site where you can see all the buildings: http://www.ghosttowns.com/states/nv/virginiacity.html

Road Trip no 2- I-80 West to CA-49 N to Hwy 395 South

So I went on a little road trip yesterday, just a little loop through the Tahoe National Forest. You know, going over the California border is like going into another country. You have to go through "customs". They used to just ask if you had any fruit, now they ask where you are coming from and how long you are staying...just like going into Canada...it was so weird.

I went to this neat little cemetery that looked quite new, however, many of the headstones had dates that were old. I decided that this cemetery must have been moved. What I really liked about many of the headstones was the pictures that some of them had.

Tahoe and HWY 49