Day 1 - 7/24/12 - On the road - Reno, NV to Glenns Ferry, ID

I am very excited about blogging our trip, but this was a much larger undertaking than I had assumed. Apparently our gypsy traveler lifestyle does not lend itself to the power, internets and or time to blog quite as often as I had hoped. Plus I am incredibly wordy (I take the promise to no be wordy back) and I like to describe every last detail. So I have come to the conclusion that I can't blog everyday, but I will be sure to update all of our adventures as often as I can.


Travel day 1 - 520 Miles.
Redtail hawk sightings - 1

Katelyn and the hounds about to hit the road

The “plan” was to be up by 4:30am and on the road by 5:00. Somehow we also thought that we would be able to keep Katelyn asleep this entire time, get her strapped in her car seat and on the road without her waking up. That plan was dead on arrival; apparently the sounds of a sonic care tooth brush can wake a nine month old and apparently those sounds are very upsetting. Oh well, she got to spend cuddle time with her Grammie and Gramps while we loaded up. We do our very sad goodbyes with Grammie and Gramps, these are the moments you are glad your children are so young and you know this isn’t as painful to them as it is to you, that would be so much harder. Jump into the truck and we are ready to hit the road. But of course things can’t go that smoothly, we suddenly realize we don’t have the GPS. Frantically digging through the truck and the trailer it’s finally found (Where I said it would be in the first place, but we won’t discuss this)

Lovely goodbye gift from the Northern Nevada Sky

Rest stop break 

Finally on the road we head east on I80, I realize very quickly that I still cannot read in the car. We make it to Winnemucca, Nevada and I am overjoyed with excitement because there is a sign for a Taco Time! Sadly it’s about 8 in the morning, I would eat Taco Time at 8am; I was just sure it was closed. I do spend the next few minutes trying to find the next closest Taco Time, 200 miles away in Salt Lake. We stop at the rest stop just past Winnemucca, where Katelyn enjoys her very first rest stop pants change and a lovely breakfast on top of a bird poop covered picnic table. The dogs get to stretch their legs as well. We hit the road again and not five minutes after leaving the rest stop, Katelyn gets her watery red-eyed look, which only means one thing. Find the next stop and she enjoys yet another rest stop pants change, I also spot a lucky penny and grab it as I have been told they may actually bring some good, as well as gross highway rest stop germs; Hopefully more of one than the other.

"Here I am!"

Katelyn playing "Where's Katleyn?"

Wild Horse Reservoir, Nevada 

We notice on the highway there are huge trucks covered in graphics and banners heading west and we realized these are the drag race teams heading to Sonoma for the National drag races this weekend. We have some close friends, Mike and Matty who head to those races each year. Katelyn is being such a trooper this entire time; it was well after ten before I had to break out the cheerios. About 40 miles south of Elko, Nevada Oliver, aka the Godfather, decided he needed a better view and used the arm rest to look out the window (he is short in stature). The arm rests contain the window controls. Suddenly the window is completely rolled down and Oliver has half his body hanging out the window as we travel at about 65 mph down the highway, he was quickly flung back into the truck and we are utilizing the window locks now.

We head into Elko, Nevada and see the stunning Ruby Mountains. Had I known how beautiful this area was I may have just made this our first stop. We grab some Taco Bell, as it’s the only place we can pull our rig into and head off to find a place to stop, eat and let dogs and babies get some exercise. We find a lovely church with a large lawn and figured it’s a church they are supposed to welcome everyone. We quickly realize with all the restriction signs it’s a Mormon church and they have lots of rules as to who can eat a Mexican Pizza on their lawn, we do not qualify. I am glad we didn’t as we decided to head north and stopped at the Wild Horse Reservoir. We had a lovely picnic lunch on the boat launch parking lot. Got a little exercise and then hit the road pretty quickly to avoid the thunderstorm that was fast approaching.

Parking lot picnic

Heading north from the reservoir we travel along the Humbolt river in the Humbolt-Toiyabe national forest, off to our left standing in the river is a gorgeous in-velvet buck. He gave us a glance and went back to his business. Some of the few drawbacks to traveling with the trailer is that you can’t just pull over to take pictures.  As we traveled into the Owyhee Indian reservation we see our very first Redtail Hawk. It is a Warren family tradition to count the Redtails, we were actually shocked that we had made it almost into southern Idaho and just had one Redtail sighting. We crossed into the lovely state of Idaho, I was informed it is also known as “The Gem State” just into the Duck Valley area we spotted a Coyote crossing into a canyon. That was about the extent of our wildlife sightings, other than what was “sleeping” on the side of the road.

Idaho grapes, they taste like potaoes    

Katelyn doing "piggy face" and making a mess

Not far into Idaho was our destination, Glenn’s Ferry. Somehow we managed to find a campground with a winery, totally Scott’s idea. We pulled into town and it’s a lovely farming community, Scott spotted the variety of tractors as if we were looking for Antelope, which we also were looking for but saw none.  We got settled in, with the help of Stan, 60-ish thinks he’s 30-ish, but gave us vouchers for free wine with dinner and we liked Stan. We headed over to the winery, which actually had some nice wines, who knew Idaho produced wine? All of the wines were from Idaho vines; nothing was imported from other areas. +We enjoyed our tasting then went to the restaurant were Katelyn entertained herself with bread, cheerios and pulling the waitresses shirt each time she came by. Dinner was ok, it wasn't a burrito supreme in a parking lot so we were happy. Stan had informed us that the pond on the golf course ++36 – (Katelyn just helped me type, seemed like I should leave it) was stocked with fish and open for fishing after 8. Scott was sure Katelyn would love that and we happened to have packed Grandpa Warren’s poles and tackle box in the trailer. We ventured to the pond, Dad and baby tried fishing for about 15 minutes and were unsuccessful. Fishing trip was over and we went back to the trailer for much needed sleep.