Reno, NV to Chowchilla, CA

We took I80 to CA99S.  The route goes right through Sacramento.  Thankfully we drove it on a Saturday and traffic in our direction was not bad.  The east bounders had to suffer through a couple of stupendous backups, but our luck was better.  I will say that some of the Californians drive stupid.  We're 13 feet tall, 41 feet long and we're green.  When you're coming down an on ramp how do you not see us?  More than one driver reached the point of the merge, looked up and saw us, and then dove into the shoulder.  It just seems like a failure to plan ahead and apply reason to your actions.

When you leave Reno, it's still desert.  Within five minutes of leaving Reno, the hills turned green.  There were trees again.  This is an old aqueduct, carrying water to Reno.  

Donner Pass, the scene of the terrible tragedy, is at 7,000 feet.  Over the next 40 miles, one descends about 6,000 feet.  The road is good, they warn you about everything and there are level stretches between the steep down hills.  Jim kept it to 50 mph and the passenger suffered no stress at all.

It's rocky out there.

There are scenic vistas.

Eventually you reach the Central Valley.  Welcome to hell.  This is an old abandoned, partially demolished shopping center. 

Once you reach Stockton, the road surface on CA99 becomes abysmal.  There are holes in the pavement, the road is just terrible.  It wasn't great in Sacramento, but the further south you go, the worse it gets.

It's the harvest season.  We had been seeing potato trucks in Oregon.  In California we saw tomatoes.  We always wonder what the tomatoes on the bottom of the pile look like.  I guess they'll be making sauce.

This was taken at the Love's in Fernley, which is a good truck plaza.  They have several of these structures with the yellow hoses.  They're air conditioners.  Look at the guy on the far left, he's got his plugged in to his cab so there is cooling.

We're now in Chowchilla.  Today we got the dead bugs off the front of the bus, went grocery shopping and did laundry.  The prices at the SaveMart were just brutal.  Food in California is always expensive.  It seems like they should not be charging $3 for an avocado since they're from here.  It is really hot here, close to 90 degrees.  Tomorrow we're off to Yosemite, where hopefully it will be cooler.