Washoe Lake

Now we start our southward stretch down the eastern Sierras and along Highway 395. Our first stop was a special one because we got to reconnect with Linda, our Alto BFF. We haven’t seen her in way too long, which is weird, because she moved from farther south to much closer to us. The trouble has been the mountain range in between us, and the fact that it gets snowed in. July was a good time to visit and see her new neighborhood. 

Washoe Lake was a place we actually briefly stopped at many years ago when Richard needed to join a work meeting. I remember exiting the highway, pulling into an empty site, and setting up the booster until his call was done. We pushed past this place back then, but I’m happy we got to check it out this time. In fact, I’ve been very happy with our smaller, closer to home, mostly California loop this summer. It has made for shorter travel days and less anxiousness on my part. Like, if something breaks, or if there are fires, or something goes really haywire, we could make it home in a day. I like that.

We set up in our site, nosing Dory into the wind. Linda warned us about the wind, and boy, she was not kidding. Starting around 2 or 3, there is a constant wind coming off the mountain passes, flowing right through the whole Carson City valley. She says every new homeowner she asks in her development mentions that they ‘missed the memo’ on the wind. 

It was not too windy to drive up to Carson City for a fun dinner out at a potato place. Richard found Hot Potato Pie online and it was really good! They are kind of like smooshed flat baked potatoes with all kinds of toppings to choose from. We split a Buffalo Chicken potato and Linda had one with beef and chiles. After dinner we, obviously, needed to go find ice cream. This was achieved at Scoups Ice Cream and Soup Bar in downtown Carson City. It’s a funny combination of hard scooped ice cream and a rotating menu of soups. They have awards mounted showing how they won first place in the Soup and Ice Cream competition. I have so many questions about that. Downtown Cason City is really cute, by the way. There are historic old buildings in the downtown area, plus the state capitol building and governor’s mansion. Lots of fun restaurants and stores, all with a cool neighborhood feel. 

The next day we grabbed Linda for a full day out on bikes. She has an Aventon e-bike too, so we dragged her all around Washoe Lake. That’s what you get for agreeing to meet up with the Levenbergs: bicycling and ice cream. Our first stop along the way was Anneke Schat’s Bakery. We had delicious pastries and Richard chatted up the owner. We found out that this is a family chain and the owner’s mother has a bakery in Mammoth. We noted that for the future.

On we rode to the next stop, which was the Chocolate Nugget Candy Factory. We sampled a couple of chocolates and I considered stocking up for xmas gifts, but then decided no way would a bunch of chocolate bars survive in the car until home. 

We made one last stop at Bower’s Mansion and learned about the sad history of the widow who ended up dying penniless in Oakland after trying to make it as a fortune teller.

That was a big riding day, Linda’s longest ride! We celebrated by heading over to her ’new’ home (she’s been there a year now) where she let us do our laundry. Camping BFFs are an essential part of a good life. It was great to see the doggos, especially Taz and Rocket. Since Richard had not yet worked up an appetite yet, he and I walked over to the somewhat nearby Costco, where we got one of their amazing chocolate chip cookies. If you have never had a hot Costco chocolate chip cookie, you are missing out. They serve them hot from the food court for $2.49; warm and gooey on the inside, crisp on the outside, and loaded with so much chocolate. OMG

After a windy walk back, we had earned dinner at The Basil Thai Cuisine, again in downtown Carson City. We split chicken satay, drunken noodles, and shrimp fried rice; all very good. Again, we walked over to Scoups for dessert.

For our last day, I drove and Richard rode his bike over to Reno to do some city things. As is his way, Richard found a donut place en route called Dough Boys Donuts. It wasn’t his plan to get donuts that morning, but the sign looks like a bicycle, so you can’t really pass that by. He said we’ve had others better, so I didn’t need to have donut FOMO. 

He also found that the National Automobile Museum happened to have free entry that day, and that there was a bike path that went right by it. I can highly recommend the museum, even if you pay the $16 entry fee. It has a huge collection of pristinely maintained classic old cars. Some date back to the early 1900s. There were cars from movies, like the Blues Brothers car, and cars from just about every period in history. So very cool. I texted pictures to Randy and he knew exactly the type of engines they had.

We then grabbed some lunch from a taco truck – very delicious – and rode the Tahoe-Pyramid Trail as far as it went, through Sparks. The trail goes up to Lake Tahoe too, but we went east until it dead ended after about seven miles. It’s a nice paved path that runs along the Truckee River. If you only look toward the river, and if you don’t mind riding past some unhoused locals, it is a nice trail. On the other side there are mostly industrial lots and waste water treatment plants, so that’s not exactly scenic. But it sure is convenient to bike through a metropolis without having to use surface streets. Before leaving Reno, we did a big shopping trip at Safeway to stock up, and then got in one last visit with Linda. 

We expect to return to Washoe Lake, if for no other reason than to hang with our buddy. That alone is worth it. The campground is nice and chill, but yeah, WINDY in the afternoons. The dump station was closed, but there was a free dump in a Mavericks back in Carson City, so no problem. This location is close enough to both Carson City and Reno to make easy day trips. There are also wild horses around, and we got to see one on our last night. 

Total miles from Cedar Lodge: 151.0, 17.5, 4 hours 22 min. Electric and water hookups. Dump temporarily closed. Dumped in Carson City Mavericks for free. Good dump with rinse water. Great cell service for both of us. Excellent solar but had hookups. WINDY in the afternoons. Nosed Dory into the southwest and that reduced buffeting.