Monday May 8th 2017

The temperature made it to the mid 70s today. A gentle breeze arrived in the afternoon to keep things interesting. I spent a slow day at home.

Paving crew working on the campground roads.

After extending my stay here in Reno yesterday, I spread out the ideas I had for today over the next few days. Instead I did some tasks around the RV and watched the paving crews work in the campground. The little boy in me came out as I became fascinated with the work to repair some of the campground roads. A little after eight this morning the paving crews started grinding out various areas of the campground roadways. The grinder stripped about three inches of pavement off and loaded it into a truck. There were twenty or more spots that had been identified by red paint last week that needed to be repaired. They ranged in size from about 6 by 4 feet to around 20 by 30 feet. What the criteria they used to determine what to repair is a mystery. To my untrained eye other areas were worse than some of the selected areas. Shortly after the lunch hour they started filling in the areas with new pavement. Around six thirty this evening they stopped for the day. It looks like they will be back in the morning.

I could have gotten out of the campground by cutting through empty sites and going the wrong way on some of the roads, but I choose to get my entertainment by watching the crew work. I got a few chores done around the RV. One task was replacing the water filter. A filter usually lasts from three to six months depending on the area of the country. The desert areas are particularly notorious for needing to replace filters frequently. I put a new filter in last February and waited until I was out of the desert area to replace it. The old filter looks bad, but not as bad as I feared. The new one should get me another three months or more.

New water filter on the left and old one on the right.

Tomorrow I plan to head toward the old mining town of Virginia City. I know that many of the tourist attractions don’t open until Memorial Day, but I will get a feel for the area. As with many northern tourist destinations, Memorial day is the magic start to the summer tourist season in this area. I need to come back sometime during the season to experience more of the area. In addition to the tours in Virginia City, the boat rides on Lake Tahoe and the summer gondola rides up the mountains all get going Memorial day weekend.