Tufa and Other Items of Consequence ...

Rollin’ up the 395 from Mammoth Lakes to Reno and Reno Life …
August 15-16,2014

    Y’all know what tufa is? Well, tufa is limestone and towers of it stick upward from the surface of Mono Lake, which is about 25 miles up the road from Mammoth. The curious thing is that tufa has to be formed underwater ! So … how did all this tufa get so exposed? Starting back in 1941, the Los Angeles District of Water and Power started to draw water from Mono Lake. The lake level dropped several feet and the tufa towers were thus exposed. They have held up well over the years and now there is a cool state visitor’s center at the site. We visited the place and gazed in awe over the silent lake, which has a far higher salt concentration than the oceans. A wonderfully peaceful place to visit! We even scored a geocache in the nearby teensy village of Lee Vining.

 

Mono Lake, California  -- Elevation 6,000 Feet

 

 

Tufa Towers in Mono Lake

 

 

Mono Lake Vista with Volcanic Island

 

 

        Our drive north of Mammoth exposed us to some spectacular scenery. We drove over 8,000-foot Deadman Summit with the massive bulk of Mammoth Mountain on our left. The air was crystalline and the pines were tall and green. Dropping rapidly to Mono Lake, we then climbed another 8,000-foot summit before descending sharply into the lovely valley where the pretty town of Bridgeport is located. I would NOT like to make this drive in winter! It’s REMOTE up here … a long way from California’s population centers! We ate a sturdy lunch with the locals at the Sportsman’s Grill …

 

                                Bridgeport Main Street Scene

        Oh, by the way …remember that cautionary note I gave y’all on gas prices in Mammoth Lakes? Prices are worse up here above Bridgeport -- $5.19 a gallon! Up the road in Nevada, prices suddenly drop to $3.87 a gallon! Now, that is ODD, ain’t it?

 

Yes, I KNOW this is forbidden territory for "A California Journey"

 

      In the late afternoon, we roll up the 395 to our new "home " --- Room 2438 in John Ascuagas' Nugget Casino and Resort Hotel! A SANCTUARY where I can watch long-distance Union Pacific trains pass in serene silence below our room on the 24th floor!

 

 We have passed into a parallel universe, vastly different than the one we just left behind...

 

 

Lobby "Selfie" at the Nugget in Sparks, NV

 

The Nugget Resort and Casino, Sparks NV

 

            We found that the parallel universe of Reno has many layers. At first glance, the Nugget appeared as another imposing chamber in the incredibly vast Realm of the Eternal Slot Machine … a place where cigarette smoking is much in evidence as is beer consumption at 6 a.m. Forget the eager hard-bodies of Mammoth … this is the place of the sad or indifferent sodden figure at a slot machine. Barbara watched a video to learn about playing slots … the message was “don’t play them”! The odds are not with y’all!"

            There is more to the local story. Life here is interesting! Passionate folks with pedigreed show dogs swamped the hotel in order to compete in a 1,000-entry dog show hereabouts! Indeed, the only sound we could hear in our sanctuary on the24^th floor was the yip-yip of some small dog show contestant in the room next to us! The Blind Veterans Association was at the Nugget for a major convention. The hotel staff was genuinely helpful!

                                               Eager Dog Show Contestants

                                                       More Show Contestants!

           Reno is, in fact, a lovely university town with a leafy green walkway along the Truckee River. We hunted geocaches there with both success and failure. Eastern style brick house with well-tended grass lawns line the streets near the river. We enjoyed a cappuccino at the mellow Hub Coffee Grinder, full of young students and business types...

 

Mural on Overpass dedicated to Reconciliation with Past

 

A Haven of Civilization in Reno!

                                                       An Afternoon Delight!

Gilley’s is fun! It’s a rousing country/western bar at the Nugget, with great BBQ dinners! We ate good food there and listened to Buck Ford’s live band in a sea of cowboy hats. The Gilley Girls in skimpy black outfits were not only attractive, but hard-working, friendly and helpful! They looked like college students making some extra money. Barb went down to Gilley’s to hear the band while I did my blog writing and watching big Union Pacific trains in the Sparks yard being made ready for passage over the High Sierra.

 

                                              Barbara is training to be a Gilley Girl!
!

One Last Loving Look at the Sparks Rail Yard -- A Big Intermodal Train Heads Eastbound!

 

       Tomorrow, we enter yet another universe as we head up to McCloud, near Mount Shasta!

Affectionately,

Captain Baldy

P.S. Goldilocks has sternly warned me against using so many pictures of HER in this blog! Oh, Well ... I really like the one below which I took at Java Joint, before leaving Mammoth!

 

Y'all will have to deal with it! Stick with us, beloveds!