Hello Everyone,

Well, I made it to Reno today and Camp 9, which is Mindee’s nice, Monet and her husband Eric’s, home. I will be staying here for two nights so I can pick up additional food and supplies tomorrow. It will hopefully give me a little rest too, especially my feet.

Today I trekked 16.28 miles, which was a little closer to here than I had originally thought. I did forget to mention that I trekked 11.65 miles yesterday, Day 8, and 14.09 miles on Day 7.

My day went fairly well starting at the great place I camped last night, the fire station. I did make the mistake of not placing the tent in a more sheltered area last night because I had forgotten who bad the winds can be as I learned on my first trek. The fire captain, Rob, did tell me as I was setting up that the winds tend to pick up at night, and they did. This is a new tent and I wasn’t sure how it would hold up to the wind and it started to blow hard about ten and it held up well.

Everyone at the station was up early since they were changing crews. I was introduced to the new captain and the crew like I was an old friend. I was offered coffee, breakfast, and fruit, and remembering to stick to my vow of thankfully accepting and saying yes, I took the fruit.

It was a warm day, as most have been, and with only a few steep hills. I continued on the 395 Alternate which is a wide two lane road and is nice because it is not heavily traveled since it parallels the freeway. I really enjoyed the Alternate because it goes through many of the small towns like Washoe City that were the boom towns during the 1800s and also with too many road markers to mention. I was amazed when I saw an old abandon house with an old orchard loaded with apple and pear trees. That was definitely a bonus for my fruit craving. The pears were great and unfortunately too large to take many. The scenery was actually quite picturesque until just before entering Reno and made fir a pleasant trek.

I am looking forward to my stay here and will enjoy the little bit of down time. Monet asked me if I wanted to have dinner with them tomorrow, which is special cooked meal by a private chef, and I started to say no, when I realized my vow of thankfully saying yes and accepting.

I will be back on the road Thursday morning. My plan is to continue on 395 towards Susanville, CA, and then into Oregon. I was fortunate to find out that the captain this morning is from that part of Northern California and gave me some options on a possible route.

I will update my blog tomorrow. As always, please continue to send you positive thoughts and prayers. And as always, please excuse the typos, grammar, and spelling, etc.

Ted