US395

Yesterday's travels started us out on a course going north on the east side of the Sierra Nevada mountain range.  Once you start on this course in the winter, there is no way to get back across the mountains to the Central Valley, and Interstate 5, the main north/south route.  But this route east of the mountains on US395 is so much more scenic and pleasant than fighting the awful traffic and boring scenery of Interstate 5, through hundreds and hundreds of miles of farm fields.  This photo shows the sights today, with puffy low clouds hanging over the Sierra Nevadas, and deep blue sky elsewhere.  Pretty good for a day they were forecasting rain!

The last picture showed the view towards the west and the Sierra Nevadas.  This photo is the opposite side of the highway looking east where there is another mountain range.  And this type of scenery lasted for at least half of the day's journey.

 Here we are again, looking west towards the Sierra Nevadas.

And looking east across the other side of the valley through which US395 runs.

So why would anyone give up this beautiful route and travel up the central California valley on Interstate 5?  Elevation!  US395 is high.  Today, we travelled up above 8000 feet in places, and averaged about 6000 feet.  The central California valley is just a few hundred feet above sea level.  That makes all the difference to the climate, and in the winter when we travel,  US385 will more than likely be under snow if the weather is at all bad.  But this time the weather forecast was great, above normal temperatures and although there was forecast for some rain today which never materialized, it should be sunny for the duration.  Another consideration is the price of gas.  Prices in California range from about $3.50 to well over $5 per gallon.  Prices in the other states we've travelled through average $2.75 to $3.  Going up US385, we dip into Nevada before going back through Northern California, so we can fill up on cheaper gas.

Speaking of 8000 feet elevation, here's what that looks like:  Ponderosa Pine forrests.

It was a long travel day today, over 6 hours, almost unheard of for us.  But we finally pulled in to a ritzy RV resort in Reno, called the Sparks Marina RV Park (N39 32 18.5, W119 43 28.8).  This is a huge park, with all the amenities, and the huge price to go along with it.  We were hoping the park we stayed in last night would be better, but it was a bit of a dump, and didn't even have such things as showers and washrooms.

Miss Travelaire is parked in the cheaper back-in sites.  The other side of this lane has the pull-through sites with expensive big rigs with double axels as you can see.  The elevation here is about 4500 feet, so it is a little chilly, and we had snacks and supper inside🙁.