Topaz Lake

And so we begin our once in a lifetime adventure. Again. Essentially the same once in a lifetime adventure from three years ago. But what can you do when Safari Condo, the maker of your beloved Alto, throws a gigantic shindig to commemorate their 20th anniversary? You can’t just not go, right? So here we are, making tracks toward Quebec, Dory’s birthplace, once again. At this point, Richard is starting to ask questions about how many once in a lifetime trips we are going to have to take to Quebec.

My last day of school was Friday and I’ve kept very busy with projects, like washing, waxing, UV protecting, vacuuming, and hosing things down. Richard still had to work, and in fact still has to work for much of the time we will be on the road. Nevertheless, he was coercible and helped with the pre-departure preparations. I’m just going to note that this is probably the first time we’ve left our home in a semi-reasonable state. Like, I don’t think anyone would report us for gross negligence or something. #adultingishard

We launched Wednesday morning and were both pretty darn giddy. The kids have asked multiple times over the last few days when we were leaving. No idea why. The last time I began this journey, I was an emotional mess. I guess I feel more seasoned now, though not without some fear connected to being so far from home. It’s definitely good to have Richard with me for the whole journey. (I noticed being afraid of typing that though, like I’m jinxing it)

We don’t have firm plans for a lot of this trip, but we do have sporadic reservations and a general sense of our route. For this first day, it was pretty loose. Richard, however, needed to be somewhere stationary for about an hour with good service, for a work call. We pulled into a campground at Washoe Lake, a little south of Reno, and found an empty site. At the time, we didn’t really know if we’d be staying or moving on, but it did make for a perfect location for the call. And it was a good opportunity to practice our antenna booster setup. Really, it was a very nice place, with nature trails and water access, it was just a little too hot to hang out with no hookups and lots of daylight hours left.

By 3:30, he was done and I felt like I had more miles in me, so we pushed on a little bit further. We ended up at Topaz Lake, a beautiful ending to our first day out. Tomorrow we continue south on 395.

On a side note: I really miss Jim Gunn and still notice the urge to post pictures of obscure highway rest stops. 🙁

Total miles: 286.4, 16.7 mpg, 6 hours 6 min. There are hookup and non-hookup sites. The ones by the water do not have hookups. The bathroom is being renovated and will be nice eventually. Portapotties in the meantime. Good service for both ATT and Verizon.