Susanville, CA to Ridgecrest, CA

 So how did today go?  Well...not too bad.  We were up early at 6:30 am and had breakfast at the motel.  There was a real chatty owner/manager talking to Eric about the area, logging etc.  He said there was no frost on the windows because it is so dry. By 7:30 we were on the road and it was cold.  Got down to -10C at one point but the road wasn't icy because it was dry. Elevation here was 4136 ft. but the rest of the morning was spent at much higher elevations.

 Beautiful morning.

 Lovely.

 Sorry about the window but when it's so cold it's hard to clean it.  Eric is sick and he filled up the truck so I hoped I could clean it at the next fuel stop.  Here we are coming down into Reno which is actually at 4500 ft.  We've never been on this route but Manny said we'd just shoot right through the middle on the freeway.  He was right!  Seemed a bit like going through Boise and there aren't all the ramps like Las Vegas.

 Lots of lanes with cars bobbing and weaving back and forth.  As usual we hold our speed and stay in the middle lane.

 Housing right next to the freeway...not for me!

 Wow....that's a nice bridge.

 Large Eagle at the edge of the freeway as you leave Reno.

 Minden...just another town along the way.

 I love all the old houses along the way.  Eric is doing all the driving as we are towing the Jeep.  I never drove when we pulled the RV and I likely won't drive pulling the Jeep.  Better that way!

 Another reservoir type lake.

 I wonder if these are cottonwoods or ash trees.

 We've come up and are now at about 7000 ft where we stayed until about 1pm in the afternoon.

 Up ahead road work.  We had to wait about ten minutes and then were led through.  There did not appear to be anything going on!

 Lots of high mountain travel today and at one point we were at 8138 ft. which is the highest point along US 395 and the highest point along a US highway in California.  We would NOT be towing the RV along this route. 

 Heading down but not that far yet.   Big fire here.

 Another small town.  I just love all the old buildings.

 Now we are really descending.

 Hmmm.....is that California smoke up ahead?

 So we saw diesel as low as 3.09 per gallon in Nevada and as high as 5.50 on our route in California today.  We needed fuel and had to pay 5.19 and...they didn't have any window cleaning stuff so the window is still dirty.

 Lots of trees here as we head down.

 Hey...it's up to 11C.

 Wide open and not much traffic here. 

 We could have stayed in Bishop tonight but that would have meant we couldn't make it to Yuma tomorrow.

 Brake check and we are going down for about six miles.  Everyone only did 50mph down the hill.

 Down to 5000 feet.

 Down to 3.87 a gallon here but we'd have been out of fuel if we'd waited.  We are getting anywhere from 14 to 20 miles per gallon towing the Jeep.  The RV got around 9 with a low of 7 and a high of 12 if we had a tail wind and were on the flat according to the trucks computer. 

 Isn't that a beautiful building. 

 I wonder who lives there|? 

The last of the small towns before we turned off to head into Ridgecrest for the night. 

The only bad experience today was from an older guy in a pick-up.  We were going by him in the passing lane and he started to drift over and got really close so Eric hit the horn.  The guy went ballistic and laid on his horn steady.  Eric pulled in front of him and then the guy went blasting around us on the paved shoulder, cut in front and then roared into the passing lane.  What the heck...were we supposed to let him hit us.  Could have been a huge wreck on the highway. 

So today we had temps from -10C to 22C, elevations from 8138 ft. to 2290 ft here and a journey of 427 miles.  A full day. 

We are in the Econolodge in Rivercrest in a lovely large room for $85. US.  The temp when we got here was about 22C but it is supposed to go down to 1C tonight.  The nice Mexican lady on the desk recommended a Mexican restaurant close by and that's where we'll go.  Turns out she's from Hermosillo and we had a good chat.  She hopes to return to Mexico when she retires although she thought she'd like to come with us to Mazatlan!  Tomorrow on to Yuma.