To bring you up to date....we left town Thursday night (well, actually morning) at 4am. The girls and I followed Chris in the Toad (tow car) since it had been a while since Chris had actually driven the bus. Nothing like a crash course in double clutching over the Donner Pass! We made it to Reno in a little over two hours. I noticed as we were coming into Reno that the right rear brakes of the were overheating (the smell and the smoke were a good clue!) We ended up hanging out in the Home Depot parking lot for two days, getting the bus organized, trying make the second story watertight (as it did start to rain!), and putting locks on the bays (among other things.) We did head to Wal-mart one of the nights, but security saw us coming and got to us as we were stepping out. Apparently it's against the city ordinance to stay overnight in a parking lot in Reno. I think they thought we were coming from Burning Man - the bus fit the profile! So we did our shopping, cooked dinner, and then trekked back to Home Depot as they were a little bit more secluded (and no security guards!) - it was just too late to go try to find a campground. Before we left town, we took the bus over to a Travel Center (fancy name for a truck stop) and had the brakes checked. Our friendly mechanic, Jason, adjusted the brakes (they weren't releasing completely - thus the smoke!), adjusted the clutch, and gave Chris some helpful pointers on braking and shifting.

We rolled out of Reno Saturday afternoon and arrived in Elko, Nevada several hours later. We pulled up next to a large group of RV'ers in the Wal Mart parking lot and called it an day. The next morning we got up to take showers and all we had was cold water. After Chris tinkered with the water heater for awhile - he concluded he needed a Home Depot. Elko's Home Depot is still weeks from opening - so we hit the road again towards Salt Lake City!
It was Sunday - so we were under a time crunch to get to Home Depot before it closed. We got into town with an hour to spare. Unfortunately, Home Depot did not have what Chris was looking for - so we drove around trying to figure out Salt Lake City to find a Lowe's. We finally found it (1/2 hour before it closed!) - they had what we were looking for - but it was $500! So Chris decided to take another look at the water heater...well as you would have it, the Propane was turned off. (Chris thinks the mechanic turned it off when he was working on the bus - we didn't think to check it as Chris hadn't touched the tank.) So four warm showers later we bunked down in the local Flying J (truck stop).

Finally on Monday we were able to get out and do some site-seeing. Since we were in Salt Lake City, we figured we'd best get the flavor of the city by heading to Temple Square. It is an amazing place. There were friendly tour guides in every building. We had a private tour of the Joseph Smith Memorial Building - which used to be an upscale hotel. It was beautiful. Julia was trying to figure out just how she was going to describe this to Grandma. We then received a group tour of some of the grounds from two very friendly young ladies who are serving their Mormon mission in Salt Lake City. (One was from the Netherlands and the other from American Samoa - we had fun talking about Jess' Polynesian dance!) Finally we went and toured the LDS Convention Center. Luckily we missed the big LDS convention by two weeks - it would have been insane around the city then! The building was huge and had four acres of paths and landscaping on the roof. The Mormon Tabernacle Choir practices and performs here while the actual Tabernacle is being renovated. Unfortunately, our visit didn't coincide with hearing them.

That evening, my mom's cousin Bill, stopped by the bus for a quick visit before he went to work. He is usually in Sacramento visiting us this time each year (he loves Apple Hill - so September is his favorite time to visit.) So it was fun coming to see him for a change.

That brings us to Tuesday - we woke up to dead batteries on the bus (two days without driving to charge the batteries is not a great idea!) - So Chris fired up the generator for awhile, took care of some necessary RV business (dumping the tanks, filling up our water supply, etc.), ran a couple of errands, then we left town towards Mt. Rushmore. Driving at night has it's pros and cons - but we realized that one of the cons is missing out on a lot of scenery. Chris drove through half of Wyoming last night and realized we couldn't see so much of the beauty around us. We're getting ready to head out again - this time during the day so we can see more. They are waiting on me - so I better wrap this up. I will try to post more often so these entries won't be so long! We now have an official subscription to Flying J's Wi-Fi Hot Spots - so I should be able to get on-line easier. I will attempt to post some pictures in a Yahoo photo album. If you would like to see the pictures and didn't receive an e-mail with the link, send me a note at shmerd@yahoo.com
--Pam

P.S. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!