Tahoe to Colorado

It was a long day of driving yesterday as we headed from Tahoe to Vail, Colorado.  We drove Hwy 50, the "Loneliest Highway" and it sure does live up to it's name.  We encountered pretty much every type of weather possible, from sun, wind, snow, whiteouts, fog, and pouring rain.  Luckily it was uneventful though and took us exactly 14 hours to make the trip. Plus Dave was a trooper and drove the entire time while I stayed awake (except for a quick 20min nap) and kept him company.

We kept ourselves busy by Googling some of the following items:

* How long would it take via train to get from Reno to Denver?  -- Answer: 25+ hours

* What is the US Navy Centroid Facility? -- Answer: Still unknown... not much on google about this.

* Is this a new wind farm off Hwy 50? -- Answer: Yes, the Spring Valley Wind Farm was not there when we last drove this route 2 years ago.


We also learned a very important lesson about having enough music actually loaded on to our phones to "survive" the periods without cell service.  We're so used to just streaming our music or listening to internet radio that when we hit a dead spot for service, and there were quite a few of them, we were left with a very quiet car. Or, if we were able to find a radio station that came in, we'd give that a listen and learned quite a bit about gardening from a 2hr Garden Show on an AM station.

We were greeted in Vail with some homemade tortilla soup courtesy of my awesome mom, Peggy.  Nothing quite like having a hot home cooked meal after a long day of driving!

Here are some photos of the scenery along the drive. Even though Hwy 50 is so remote and lonely, it does have some pretty stunning views where you can see for miles and miles...