June 14th, 2025
The flight from Buffalo via Las Vegas to Reno went smoothly and our bags arrived safe and sound. On Southwest there are no monitors to watch anything, no USB ports and no food served; just soft drinks and the usual free snacks BUT you get two free checked bags. We were quite hungry when we arrived in Vegas and got some lunch during two hour layover.
We called an Uber in Reno after getting our bags to the AirBNB Fran booked and where we have paid $240 for 3 nights. We have a queen sized bedroom with private bath, AC and Wi-Fi and a full kitchen with dining room.
The price of GAS here in Reno runs around $4 USD a gallon; it’s always pricier here than much of the rest of the state.
We went for a walk to get some beverages and then Serena came over after work and we gave her the hat from the fellow who bought Matilda who works for the Royal SPCA! (Serena works for the SPCA here in Nevada.)
We ordered dinner in and watched the sad Game 5 of the playoffs. The Oilers HAVE to win the next two games, one of which is back in Florida and the final game, if needed, will be back in Edmonton. Sadly they lost.
Sunday morning after exercising, Serena and Kurt picked us up and went to the Farmer’s Market off the River Walk. It was bigger than expected and we picked up some nice bread, and such. We then stopped by a grocery store to pick up a few more items before going to their place for lunch. They have a pleasant backyard with a lot of shade to sit in.
Later in the afternoon, we went to check out a place call the “Glass Die”. Here you can choose from hundreds, really, hundreds, of board games and sit a play for a $6 cover each. They have a bar with beer and wine and we spent a couple of hours playing a few different trivia type games. It was quite enjoyable.
We returned to their house and had leftovers from lunch and cheesy nachos for dinner. We borrowed Serena’s car to return to our rental. We brought over the suitcases we’d had shipped from Australia and the next morning spent time going through them to see what we needed now. The large suitcase was missing 2 wheels and one of the corners with a remaining wheel was about to break off (at least that suitcase had been free!). The smaller one was just fine. Inside everything was safe and sound with a couple of plastic cases cracked but the contents were okay.
Afterwards we drove back to Serena’s and she treated Fran to late Mother’s Day gifts: trip to a spa for some preening and then a nice lunch. It was wonderful to have one-on-one time with her.
That afternoon, Kurt had to go for to a work related thing so the three of us went out to Donner Pass near Truckee, California to do a hike that he’d done before with his family. It was about a 5 km / 3mi roundtrip hike through some abandoned rail tunnels. It was a great day for a hike and up here high in the mountains the temperature was more comfortable for walking outside.
The Donner Pass train tunnels, constructed in the 1860s by Chinese laborers as part of the Transcontinental Railroad, represent a significant feat of 19th-century engineering and a testament to the grit and determination of the workers. These tunnels, particularly Tunnel #6, were crucial for traversing the Sierra Nevada mountains, overcoming harsh conditions and challenging terrain.
Thousands of Chinese laborers, working under difficult and dangerous conditions, hand-drilled and blasted through granite to create the tunnels. The longest of the tunnels (#6), presented a particularly significant challenge due to its length (1,659 feet) and the hard rock. They were dug from four points:
The tunnels were instrumental in completing the Transcontinental Railroad, drastically reducing travel time between the East and West coasts. While no longer in active use, the tunnels remain as a historic landmark and a reminder of the immense effort and ingenuity involved in their construction. The tunnels stand as a monument to the Chinese railroad workers, whose contributions were not fully recognized for many years.
This was about an hour’s drive away and we walked for about an hour out and back.
Inside first tunnel
We returned “home” and Serena fired up the grill for veggies burgers and corn. We again borrowed her car and went back to our place for a quiet night. We returned it Tuesday morning before she had to go to work and after picking up a rental car so we could go get our truck from the storage place in nearby Fallon. We borrowed a cooler as well as we had no idea how long it would take to get the truck ready to drive, if it would start and how long it would take to sort through the stuff we’d brought back from Australia to go back in the truck or trailer.
The drive to Fallon takes about an hour and we were at the Mini Storage around 9:30 to this sight:
Doug hauled the battery out of one of the boxes locked away in the truck bed and Fran took care of taking tire and window coverings down, removing the chain from the tires and to our surprise and delight – it started up first try!
The only damage on the outside we could see was the headlights are fogging up from sun damage and a piece of molding on the trailer is coming off.
We took it over to a mechanic that had been recommended to Doug by the storage owner. We wanted an oil change, tire rotation and general overall check done. They said come back at 2 pm and Doug left his number in case they found something unusual to tell us about before returning.
We returned to the trailer in our rental car to empty the three suitcases of things, putting some in either of the truck, trailer or our storage unit. Doug added water to the trailer batteries, cleaned the solar panels and searched through the various boxes in the cubbies or truck for a few items. Fran did the same sort of search in the trailer for a few things and basically checked to be sure everything was still in good shape. The only issue inside was the CO² alarm was beeping every 30 seconds or so – turns out after Doug examining it, it was dead so we’ll order a new one before we take the trailer out in September. Not bad for two years in storage; no mice or bugs, just a lot of dust!
The storage unit itself is quite dusty/sandy – the wind blows sand and dirt via the ever so narrow crack under the door so when we go to empty it, it’s going to need a great deal of cleaning up!
We were done by about one and we’d not heard from Tedford Auto but decided to head over and see if by chance it was done early. No such luck – they hadn’t even taken it in yet! So we sat in the air conditioned waiting room till until about 3:30 when it was complete. They said the only issues were the battery needed some charge and would need replacing in the near future and that the tires were close to needing replacing as well. Neither of these issues were urgent and we’ll leave them for the summer to be dealt with in September.
Doug had booked us a local hotel and we went over and checked in, emptied the truck into our room and showered. Game 6 of the playoffs came on and while watching that, Fran did some reorganizing of her two bags and one duffle to cull it down to just two suitcases and Doug ordered us some pizza for dinner. Unfortunately, The Oilers lot this game too and the Panthers have won the Stanley Cup. Boo hoo.
After a not so great night’s sleep we were both awake early and decided to organize the truck bed better and returned to the storage unit to drop off 3 bins that were in the truck bed that we didn’t need to carry with us all summer as well as a few items that are trailer related that we won’t need either. Fran also dropped off a bunch of clothes and we searched again for an item we knew we had but didn’t find yesterday: trailer molding . We found it inside a bag inside one of the bins so we won’t need to order any in the fall.
We returned to Reno and Doug took the rental car back. Serena had advised that our mail had arrived yesterday, so we went to get that and then had until 3 before we could check into the hotel that Fran had booked for the next two nights. We left the house and found a shady spot to park in a park nearby and Doug went through all the bins in the bed of the truck adding things from Australia and sorting out what we did and didn’t need to take with us up to Vancouver. Fran attempted to work on the headlights with white toothpaste but didn’t get very far. We will drop the newly sorted bins that we don’t need at the trailer when we leave Reno on Friday as we have to pass through Fallon anyway.
It was now about 10 so we decided to head to the downtown library to spend sometime online which we haven’t had a lot of recently. There is free good Wi-Fi and there is a quiet floor with tables and outlets.
In our mail that arrived at Serena’s this week, Fran received a notice of Jury Duty – first time ever for either of us. However, it’s for a undetermined two week period sometime in August/September of this year. During neither of these months will we be in South Dakota so she filled in the requested Questionnaire online about eligibility and added in two places that we will not be in the US or at least not in SD for that time period – we’ll see if that gets her out of it.
We did notice that the parking brake on the Tundra is not really working so Doug will investigate that and see if he can tighten it himself.
We both went for walks and got some lunch and returned to the library until it was close to check in time at 3pm. Parking is free in the hotel parkade but it was bit scary going in; there is 7’ height limit and our Tundra just makes it in! Check in was online and then you go to a kiosk in the lobby to get your room keys. We are at the Silver Legacy Casino in a king room for $227 including the stupid “resort fee” for two nights. It offers a pool and hot tub on the four floor outside, free parking, Wi-Fi, fridge and a lovely view from our 17th floor room:
The weather here in Reno has been quite nice, up into the high 20’s C / 80’s F during the day and down into the teens C / 50’s F at night with pretty much constant sunshine. It’s very dry and we can feel it in our noses and on our skin.
We went down in the casino to find dinner and play a few slots but there are few of the “cheaper” slots we like and those were not very lucky. The “good old days” of penny lots are pretty much gone so we will have to reconsider our gambling strategies. We are still not sleeping great since we got to the west coast – waking up often and unable to sleep past 5:30.
Thursday, was Juneteenth and as Serena’s job at the SPCA gives her most federal holidays off, (but not Kurt) she did not have to work.
Juneteenth is a federal holiday celebrated annually on June 19th to commemorate the end of slavery. The holiday’s name, first used in the 1890s, is a combination of the words June and nineteenth, referring to June 19, 1865, the day when Major General Granger ordered the final enforcement of the Emancipation Proclamation in Texas at the end of the American Civil War. In the Civil War period, slavery came to an end in various areas of the United States at different times.
Serena planned a picnic and hike for us to do near Graeagle, CA so we picked her up in the truck and took a lovely drive back into the Sierra Nevada mountains. We had lunch at the Mill pond in the village:
Then we drove out to check out Gold Lake where it was super, super windy, so we didn’t stay long (see pic above of the three of us):
Our final stop was the short hike out to Frazier Falls which was all paved, easy and a nice walk.
The drive out here was over an hour and when we finished the hike we drove Serena home. Kurt was napping after his shift and at 5 they joined us at the hotel for a hot tub and we went for walk to find some dinner.
We said our goodbyes to Kurt as we will not see him again until September.
We met up with Serena Friday morning as she was taking her car in for service at Toyota (she has a 2024 Corolla Cross) and needed a lift to work which we provided. We said our goodbyes (until September) and began our drive towards Las Vegas. Before going over to pick her up, Fran went to Walmart to get a few items for the road and Doug went to a clinic for some blood work where he actually bumped into an overlanding friend of ours, KP, at the clinic – small world! They chatted for a bit while waiting and caught up. He’s the only other person we know in this city besides Serena and Kurt.
We learned in the mail we received recently that our Tundra may have a recall notice on the headlights wiring. Their website says as yet there is not a solution for it so when Fran was at the dealership before picking up Serena, she went inside to ask about it. They claimed there was no notice about headlamp wiring but there was a notice on the fuel line. WTH?
So we’ll look into that while in Vegas.
This is the link to more photos of our time in Reno.
After dropping off Serena at work in North Reno, we headed east stopping at the trailer in Fallon before driving to the Berlin Ichthyosaur State Park to see the dinosaur remains and the ghost town that used to be a mining town like so many other ghost towns in this state. The ghost town was not too impressive itself.
Pics of the drive:
Berlin was established in 1897 as part of the Union Mining District mining gold and silver. It experienced a boom period, with a population estimated at 300 was largely abandoned by 1911 after a major decline in 1907; it had never prospered to the same extent as other boom towns. The name is a transfer from Berlin, in Germany, the native land of a share of the local prospectors. The site was acquired by the state of Nevada as part of state park system in 1970.
We drove the 2 miles further into the part to the fossil site and it turns out the building housing the one they’ve left in the ground to observe the remains is only open for tours at 10 and 2 – it wasn’t even one when we got here. Fortunately, there are windows and info boards at each end of the building and we could see inside.
Ichthyosaurs (derived from Greek “ichthys” meaning ‘fish’ and “sauros” meaning ‘lizard’) are marine reptiles. Most other specimens were found in Europe but they were first discovered in Nevada in 1928. These massive marine reptiles, resembling dolphins or whales, lived in the warm, shallow seas that once covered Nevada during the Triassic period, approximately 215 million years ago. The ones found here were among the largest Ichthyosaurs, with some specimens reaching lengths of up to 15 m / 50’. Ichthyosaurs had a streamlined body, four flippers, a long snout, and a tail. While they had teeth, they were likely not the fierce predators one might imagine. They likely fed on softer prey like squid.
After this stop it was a straight shot drive to Tonopah where Doug had booked a hotel for the night.
After parking and getting our things into our room, Fran went out to the truck to work on the headlights again; this time was lemons and baking soda. (You take a half of a lemon, pour baking soda on and it rub the glass.) This was working but ever so slowly. Then she tried baking soda with toothpaste and that was grittier and seemed to work better but she didn’t want to use the rest of our only tub of toothpaste. A job for another day or we buy a kit.
We had a quiet night in Tonopah – it’s up a bit higher than Reno so it was a bit cooler but not much. Next morning we had our monthly KEGS meeting and after some brunch, drove further south to Pahrump about an hour from Las Vegas. Our overlanding friend, Kirsi, now lives here and she invited us to spend the night.
We arrived at Kirsi’s just after 3 and had a pleasant chat with her on her plot. The weather is super windy with a high of 32C / 90F today – the wind keeps it quite bearable.
The price of GAS here in Pahrump runs around $2.19 USD a gallon so much cheaper than the $4+ in Reno.
Kirsi is in an RV park which has a club house with a fitness room, craft room, kitchen, library and shared community space. There is even a tools shed where you can borrow tools to do a job. She started with just a lot and shed (which she redid the inside of and added AC) where she parked her campervan and then found a small mobile home to put on it and lives in that. She has enough room for two vehicles to park and has set up a nice garden area, a covered veranda and is all set.
We went out for a Thai dinner and then we set up the hide a bed for us to sleep on. Her and her dog, Jack, live here quite comfortably with a nice community.
If you click here you will find more photos of the drive from Reno and our visit to the dinosaur park.
We left Sunday morning for Vegas stopping first at our booked condo to see about check in and then drove around Henderson looking at neighbourhoods to possibly settle down in next year. This could be a spring/fall location for us and maybe even winter. We checked out a 55+ centre but it was more for “old” people and saw a few nice neighbourhoods with golf courses that are senior living and a 55+ mobile home park that was quite nice but it seems you can only buy not rent and as we went to first try a winter in Henderson, we don’t want to buy just yet. We are still considering Yuma at least for the coldest months.
The price of GAS here in Vegas runs around $3.35 USD a gallon – more expensive than Pahrump but not as pricey as Reno.
The BlueGreen Vacations Club told us our room was, of course, not ready yet as it was still late morning but they checked us in and advised we’d get a text when suite was ready. They sent us over to the “Welcome Centre” where they tried to get us to listen to a time share con which we turned down. We’ve done this far to often and they always take longer than the time they say, besides which we are not going to purchase one (the one we bought back in Thailand is not even fully functioning these days but at least we are not paying maintenance fees for it anymore) and the “gifts” they are offering are not of interest to us.
As we were finishing up our scouting drive, Doug received a text that our condo was ready, so we had a bite to eat in the truck with the few items we already had on hand and then went grocery shopping for the week before checking in around 3.
We had a nice healthy salad dinner that night and enjoyed some down time. Much to our major dismay the pool/hot tub is closed here at the BlueGreen right now! They do offer the use of the facilities at the Sahara way up the strip if we want – not very convenient and their shuttle does not take you up there. They do have a shuttle to the Strip that runs every 30 minutes and takes you to Planet Hollywood so that’s helpful.
The weather here is a little warmer than Pahrump today but the wind is supposed to die down tomorrow and get around 34C / 94F today and warmer as the week goes on as high as 43C / 108F by the weekend!
Here at the BlueGreen we have a one bedroom condo, with a hide a bed, Wi-Fi, AC (of course in Vegas!) and a small kitchen complete with a stove, microwave, full size fridge, mini dishwasher, in suite laundry, king bed and a huge bathroom with a large tub, separate large shower, and two vanity areas. We paid $409 for this bonus week. The BlueGreen is on Tropicana Avenue about two “Vegas blocks” off the strip near the MGM. We like it here and have stayed several times; it’s off strip and has no casino with free outdoor parking so not as noisy, no marathon walk to get to the hotel lobby and no parkade to deal with. There are a few places to eat right here and access is easy.
Monday it was sunny (no surprise) and the wind had died some. Doug went out to look a the parking brake issue. When Fran drove it later, the truck seemed to be dragging a bit while coasting so it’s not quite right.
Fran had a couple of medical appointments today now that she has Medicare and we are back in the US. She went for a mammogram at one place and a PAP test at another so she took care of that before heading over to Toyota to see if they can clear up the confusion about recalls on our Tundra. Fran’s appointments were both delayed but got done; now she awaits results. Toyota confirmed there is a recall and Doug arranged an appointment for us on Thursday. We’ll have them look at the parking brake as well.
Tuesday morning, Fran received an email that she’s been excused from jury duty so no trip to our “residence” is needed – that’s a relief although it would have be nice to do it once in her lifetime. After our brunch, we took the shuttle to the strip and spent some time wandering the Strip and the casinos between Planet Hollywood and the Venetian (still our favourite), enjoying some slot play, got a Fat Tuesday slushy (they still no longer seem to have our fave flavour: Mudslide) but we found a decent flavour. It’s not as hot as expected today as it clouded over in the early afternoon. We caught the 3:30 shuttle back.
We have to say we definitely notice the lack of people here in Vegas – here’s a photo of the Strip from an overhead pedestrian – usually there is traffic along the Strip:
Even the casinos we’ve been to are way emptier and waitresses for free drinks are very hard to come by.
After brunch on Wednesday we walked over to check out the Virgin casino (it’s the building where the Hard Rock used to be as they purchased the old Mirage property and that is under construction) but were not impressed. It was pretty empty and while we did play some slots for a while and saw a waitress, we were never served so we left as we weren’t winning.
We walked over to the Strip and played slots in the MGM, New York New York and the Excalibur (the latter we did manage to get a drink in) and then went for a walk looking for a place to sit and listen to music. We ended up at the Hard Rock Cafe for about an hour having a drink and a late afternoon snack (which spoiled our dinner so we only had a light dinner). The weather is definitely warmer today and the sun was hot on our backs as we walked back to the BlueGreen.
Thursday morning Doug took the Tundra over to the Henderson Toyota and they said no fuel line issue but that the headlight wiring harness does have a solution so he had them Uber him back to the BlueGreen and we waited to be told they would Uber us back to pick it up. Around 12:30 we got the call that the Tundra was ready; after paying for the brake adjustment (the recall notice on the headlight wiring was free), Doug tested the parking brake but was not happy. They took it back and 1.5 hours later they said it was done again. We had planned to go to the Sahara for the afternoon to enjoy the pool but was past 2:30 and by the time we would get there, park, find the pool and hopefully get a lounger with an umbrella, it would be past 3:30, later than we like.
We opted instead to drive up to Fremont Street since it’s not easily accessible on foot and we had our wheels. We have saved in our GPS a location for free street parking, about two blocks away from there and it’s still free, so we parked and walked over. It too was pretty empty.
We spent a couple of hours, walking Fremont, playing slot machines and getting a couple of free drinks before heading back to our condo for dinner.
After much pestering by the front desk downstairs we agreed to go on a timeshare presentation once the “offers” reached what we were happy with. They offered us another night’s stay here which we can do time wise and a week in any of their other resorts which we are happy with. So at 8:45 we went downstairs to register and were taken over to the Polo Towers by mini bus for the one hour presentation and the one hour hard sell. This program is with Hilton so different from the one we bought years ago and the program is different but not for us. The prices were ridiculous and the annual maintenance was super high and there was no way we were going to get sucked in. Doug was showing them his numbers compared to theirs, and they gave up on us. Upon being taken back to the BlueGreen by mini bus, we got our extra night sorted and Doug began dealing with the rep who told us one week and that differed from the two 3/2 night stays we were given at the presentation. Nothing is ever straightforward.
Doug did a hard long run the next morning after a terrible night but Fran wasn’t up until 8:30 having been awake for a few hours in the middle of the night, just before he got back. After lunch we decided to try out a few off strip, local casinos and in the truck we check out at few “Station” Casinos. We did alright. Finding actual penny machines is almost impossible now so our go to now is the 30¢ for line 30 lines Quick Hits and we’re doing okay at them.
Pic of us in front of the fountain outside the Forum Shops at Caesar’s Palace:
That night we had tickets to go see the Canadian comedian, Russell Peters, at the Encore so after dinner, we headed over there in the truck (too far to walk from here and the shuttle doesn’t really get much close). You can park for three hours free at the Encore/Wynn. We arrived early enough to do park, find the theatre, wanted to play slots but there was nothing at our “cheap” level.
The show was quite good; the opening act was a female comedian from Victoria who was not that great but Russell Peters (also Canadian from Brampton but now living in the US) was very good. We did a lot of belly laughing and were thoroughly entertained. Naturally you cannot take photos during the show but here’s the stage before it began:
Night shot of the Linq Rollercoaster on our way back:
Sunday was a leisurely day; we decided to go over to the pool at the Sahara after lunch:
We were glad to get there that early as we got the last two loungers in the shade. As you can see from the photo, there are large screens showing sports above the pool and during the latter half of our stay we watched the Canadian men’s soccer team play Guatemala only to lose in a sudden death shoot out.
We had another quiet evening in our condo getting ready to leave tomorrow: laundry, packing and sorting. We really had a good 8 nights here, having fun, relaxing, planning and chilling.
We checked out Monday by 8:30 and began our road trip to Canada for the next two months.
(As we didn’t take all that many photos in Vegas, they are all included in this blog post and there is no album.)
