Day 1 -- Carson City to Winnemucca, Nevada -- 200 Miles

Well we’re off and running. The Happy Wanderers have FINALLY broken free of the Government’s Covid Containment and have hit the road in our beloved home on wheels. We managed to get everything on board and leave town about 10:00 a.m. this morning. Then it only took us to the far side of town to determine we’d forgotten something important, and back we went the way we had come. All things eventually put right, we left home again at 11:00 a.m. headed for our favorite truck-wash facility in Sparks where we hoped to find a very short line of dirty trucks waiting to be washed.

Wonder of wonders, we arrived at the truck wash just in time to be first in the wash bay and the crew got right to work washing the two years’ worth of Nevada dust and grime from the exterior so we could hit the road looking professional and sparkly.

By the time the truck was washed, Concetta had lunch ready to put on the table. So our first meal of the day took place amidst a veritable “sea” of parked 18-wheelers sporting every conceivable cab color, manufacturer’s name plate, and state of origin. We felt like a tiny silver minnow in a very large lake of giant rainbow trout.

Ordinarily we always try and avoid the Interstate Highways, those ubiquitous blue ones on the map atlas pages. But there isn’t any other type of highway leaving Sparks for points east, so we soon found ourselves merging into a solid, and very daunting stream of traffic headed in our direction and spent the rest of the day trying to maintain our travel lane as the 18-wheelers blew by us in a buffeting whirlwind.

After stopping in the town of Fernley to do a bit of banking, we continued on east until we made a stop at the Trinty rest stop where we could park and do a bit of walking to stretch our legs and get some fresh air. We were surprised that the wind had come up while we drove. Off to the northwest, as well as directly to the north of us, it was raining and the storm appeared to be moving toward us, or at least paralleling us. Still, right where we were standing, it was mostly sunny and clear and we did our walk and read up a bit about the immigrant trail that passed beneath our feet 150 years ago on some nearby historic markers.

Quite near Trinty is where the overland pioneers had to decide whether to head south toward what is today’s Fallon, Nevada, or to continue on west toward the Truckee Meadows that one day would be known as Reno. No matter which choice the wagon trains chose, it meant that they had a good forty miles of waterless desert to navigate before they reached water again. Many of these pioneers perished in the attempt no matter what their choice.

After a couple more stops to stretch our legs and get some exercise, we finally pulled into our intended camp for the night in the town of Winnemucca, about 200 miles from our home in Carson City. Once there, we discovered to our dismay that all of the spaces were full and the camp had no room left because of Winnemucca's annual rodeo.

So, our first choice being a no go we moved on. Fortunately, another camp just down the road – the Silver State RV Camp -- agreed to squeeze us in even though they also had a stack of reservations a half inch high on the check-in desk and the desk clerk had a pretty hard time finding a vacant spot.

So far the threatened rain has not appeared and that’s fine with us. But the sky was certainly beautiful today with its dark swirling clouds and streaks of light on the distant peaks.