Geezer VI, Driggs, Idaho - On the Road

The time to get on the road finally arrived; we left home around eleven and we in Sacramento around four.  We actually like to stay in El Dorado Hills which is a little east of Sacramento at the beginning of Sierra foothills.  After a good dinner and a good nights sleep we were off to Lake Tahoe and arrived there just before noon.  We were pleasantly surprised to find not only that our room was ready, but we had been upgraded to a suite, a good way to start the trip.  We spent our afternoon and early evening losing our money in the casino (actually Val has some success) then had a good Mexican dinner at Cabo Wabo before calling it a night.

Saturday morning we had hoped to get an early start out of Tahoe as we had a longer drive, but it didn't work out that way and we didn't get going until just before ten.  The plan for the day was to follow US 50 east to Austin, Nevada where we would turn north and head to Elko, Nevada where we would spend the night.  From South Lake Tahoe we followed US 50 east through Carson City and then turned northeast and through the town of Fallon, Nevada.  East of Fallon is where US 50 is called the "Loneliest Road in America" and it is quite lonely, but we have been on much less traveled roads.  Nevada is made up of a series of basins and ranges with most of the ranges running North / South so a journey traveling east consists of going up and down through a series of mountains and basins.  We find it pretty interesting as the desert although somewhat monotnous has a unique beauty.

The Loneliest Road in America

Towns are few and far between on US 50 in Eastern Nevada and most of them are old mining towns that have seen better days, but are pretty interesting and have a lot history.  The town of Austin is one of these and we decided to stop for lunch at the International Cafe and Saloon before we turned north.  The building is very old and you feel like you've stepped back in time when you enter.  The food is pretty good and the atmosphere better with a mixture of tourists passing through and locals.  The attached saloon looks like it's frozen in a time warp and you feel liked you've just stepped into the old west.  If you ever have any reason to travel on US 50 across Nevada, Austin is worth a stop.

The International Cafe and Saloon

The town of Austin.

After lunch we turned north on Nevada 305 and made the 90 mile drive to Battle Mountain where we caught Interstate 80.  305 is designated a scenic highway and it was a scenic drive, but again it was desert terrain.  We took I80 on to Elko, Nevada where we spent the night.

We woke up Sunday morning to overcast skies and spent the day driving in and out of light showers and high winds.  We left Elko and followed I80 east to Wells where we turned north on US 93 and drove on to Twin Falls, Idaho.  From Twin Falls we followed Interstate 84 and 86 to Idaho Falls where we are tonight.  Tomorrow we will meet our friends Jack and Steph and make the final leg of our journey to Driggs and our rental house where John and Greg will join the group.  It is less than a two hour drive to Driggs so we won't be in any hurry to get started in the morning.  We will also do our grocery shopping here in Idaho Falls before we leave.

Before we left home several people asked us where we were going and we told them we were driving to Idaho and they thought that was entirely too far to drive.  For us it has been a great trip so far as we like to drive and really enjoy road trips, so I guess it's to each their own choice.  We are almost at the end of our journey north and the next entry into the blog will be from the Geezer house near Driggs.

Geezer VI, Driggs, Idaho - Ready to Leave

It's that time of the year again for a "Gathering of Geezers".  This is an annual event for a group of our close friends who all turned 60 the same year.  For the full story behind our Geezer Gathering you can look at last years blog for Geezer V .  

This year Val and I are taking it easy and allowing four days to get there.  We will leave tomorrow (Thursday) and drive to Sacramento and then on Friday we take the the short drive to Lake Tahoe (surprise, surprise) where we will be staying as usual at Harrah's.  After a night in Tahoe we will be staying off the interstate and taking US Highway 50 to Elko, Nevada.  From there it's on to Idaho Falls on Sunday and then a short drive to Driggs on Monday where we'll meet up with our friends (or should I say fellow geezers).  

Unfortunately we couldn't get the same house we stayed in last year, but we did get a very similar one in the same area overlooking the Teton River.  We will be there five days before returning home.  Originally Val and I were going on to the Grand Tetons, Yellowstone and Flaming Gorge, but Val's bad knee would make it too limiting for her.  We'll save that trip for next year.

There is wi-fi in the house so I will be updating as I have time.  That's it for now, see you in Driggs.