Tuesday, October 14,2025
We spend a peaceful night get up with the sun and get ready to go home. I had gone into town and purchased a battery charger- just in case. The next morning the engine fired right up and we were off. It’s very cloudy today and we are expecting some rain. We jump on Interstate 80- traffic is very light. Around 8:30 or 9:00 all the truckers wake up and truck traffic gets fairly heavy. Wind is mild and not much of a factor.
Those are all padlocks hanging between the posts
We stop in Lovelock for several minutes to stretch. A rest stop is up ahead but it’s pretty sparse and not a good place for dogs. Lovelock has a small park where we like to stop. The park has collected thousands of padlocks , er, lovelocks, The dogs ignore the locks in favor of the grass.
Continuing on we pass the Rye Patch Recreation area and the infamous 40 mile desert that caused so much angst to the pioneers. Thousands of years ago the Rye Patch area’s climate was colder and wetter than it is now. A much larger Humboldt River fed ancient Lake Lahontan, a body of water covering most of the Great Basin.
About 23,000 years ago when the elevation of the ancient lake was lower than the present reservoir, large animals such as camels, horses, mammoths and bison, as well as small rodents, came to drink from springs in the river bank. Some animals perished there, and their partially fossilized bones have been discovered at numerous locations on the reservoir’s shoreline.
In a short time we pass Fernley (22,895 souls) and join the Truckee River as it flows down this canyon from Lake Tahoe to Lake Pyramid. We follow the canyon for quite a ways until it opens up into the city of Sparks.
Sparks and Reno have grown together so it’s hard to determine the border of the two. The population of both cities combined is around 500,000 souls. We pass the familiar buildings of downtown Reno- 10 miles to go.
We arrive at our turnoff and head up the hill to our home. My back is killing me so I do what I can to help unload the RV and set up a power source for it. I unhook the Subaru and put it in the garage. Jil, Blesss her heart, takes a big load off of me and unpacks the coach- empty refer, empty pantry, remove clothing. Its a big job and appreciate her picking the slack that my bad back has created.
So that’s the end of our 2025 trip. How many miles? 2824 miles going to Goodlettsville, Tennessee and 2247 home for a grand total of 5071 miles not counting side trips in the Subaru. We had a good time despite a suspension hiccup in Minot ND and starting problems in Elko. We visited family in Idaho, Montana, and Tennessee. We visited friends in Idaho, North Dakota and Wisconsin. We visited 13 states and enjoyed every one of them.
We hope you enjoyed following our journey as much as we enjoyed our adventure. Until the next time Via con Dios!
Travel With Jil and Mike 