Road trip to Boise

It is the season for weddings.  This weekend I drove to Idaho for the wedding of Daniel Coombs and his beautiful bride Rachel Davis.  I drove for several reasons, the main being that there is no longer a direct flight from Reno to Boise and it was faster to drive than fly.  But a significant motivator is that I like to drive and I love taking road trips, even if it was a short trip.  Whenever I drive to Idaho I can't help but think back on my childhood and I seemed to have all kinds of reminders so prepare for a load of nostalgia.  But first I think Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Coombs. 

 I didn't notice that I was taking a picture right into the window, which made a great silhouette but didn't let you see the beautiful couple.  So I tried a few photo tricks so you can see their faces a little more. Actually this looks a little spooky.

Back to the road trip.  Everything looked green and blooming on the drive and I kept seeing things I wanted to photograph so stopped and took pictures with my phone, not the best photos, but they all have a story. I have no idea what is growing here, but I thought it was pretty

I drove through the Snake River Valley Wine country, which was just a few fruit farms when I was growing up.  For a few summers I worked in the fruit orchards.  They are still in business, but they have added wine to the business.  Symms and Robison were a couple of the orchards where I worked with my friends.

 I'm not sure how old when we worked in the orchards, but our parents drove us out to work, so we were probably about 12 years old.  We only worked for a couple of weeks, picking cherries when they came on.  We got paid about 2 cents a pound for the cherries we picked, which wasn't much but more than it seems today.  You could buy a candy bar for 10 cents back then.  We loaded the cherries onto a flatbed pulled through the orchard on a tractor like this.  I had an advantage over my friends because I wasn't tempted to eat any of the cherries I picked.

I also saw some wheel lines still in use.  Most of them have been replaced by the larger pivot lines now, but this one looked good in the field.  I spent a college summer building these wheels.  It was a great summer.

I had sudden rainstorms for most of the drive.  No thunder and lightning, but beautiful stormy skylines and very few signs of the hand of man to be seen.

I stopped for a a Coke at the McDonalds in Winnemucca.  Even McDonalds looks good with a rainbow.

I had so much fun I think I'll do it again next weekend.

Rachel and Peter 4-4-13

The big wedding festivities are over.  Peter and Roque are settling down to domestic bliss in Denver and I have some time not committed to cleaning the house or gardening.  It is a cold and blustery day in Reno, so I thought it was time to share a few shots from the Smith camera.

Friday night at the family dinner

 Coming out of the temple

 Classic temple photo

The First Dance

The Band

The Alpine Slide Finale

Adorable grandkids

The get away car

Random shots from the Reno Open House

Love the shoes!

The last day...arrival in Santa Barbara

Saturday morning and the last day of the ride.  Calvin and Jim rode from Arroyo Grande into Santa Barbara, which might have been a scenic ride, but mostly they cranked out a speedy 91 miles along Highway 1. It was a little chilly in the morning.

Here they are headed off on Highway 1

I didn't see them again until they reached the pool at our hotel. That is Calvin's "happy it is over" face.

I think they were very satisfied with the ride.  Here they are, out of spandex, at the final destination.  Rosie and Jay's house.

While Calvin was cranking out the miles, Rosie and Jay and I had a lovely afternoon at the pool.  Then  Rosie prepared a delicious dinner and we took pictures of ourselves.

 I love their house, although it seems to be a little crooked in this picture it really isn't.

We finished the evening climbing around boulders and watching the sun set over Santa Barbara.  It was a great trip and a great destination.

Leaving the desert and heading for the coast

There is not really a lot of difference between days on a six day bike ride.  Get up, eat breakfast, ride the bike, check into the hotel, eat dinner and go to sleep. The only real difference is the scenery passing by.  Today they left the desert of Coalinga and crossed over to the coastal foothills. Notice the palm trees at today's start as opposed to the snow a few days ago.

The eastern side of the coastal range is really dry this year.  It looks like August not April. This was the first leg of today's ride.  They are out there on the road somewhere, not in camera range.

The second leg of the ride was on a delightful bike road.  A small twisting road with no trucks allowed.

And after a few loops at the start for photographs ...

the riders are off to Santa Margarita for a lunch stop.

They rode after lunch, but the ride photographer got lost in the outlet mall and they had to finish the ride without photos.  Seventy four miles and they are still smiling.

Brothers on Bikes

Last night Calvin's brother Jim Smith joined the ride. They rode 97 beautiful sunny central valley miles and ended up in Coalinga...more or less.

(Actual un-staged footage)

San Andreas to Los Banos

Today Calvin left winter and cycled into spring.  He traveled 98 miles.  The first 13 were rolling Gold Country miles, but at about mile 30 he pick up a pretty good tail wind, which added an element of happiness to a long day on the road.

We started the day with a lovely breakfast at the Robins Nest B&B.  Fresh fruit followed by papaya soup and eggs florentine. I generously shared my fruit with Calvin knowing he would need a little extra boost for the road.  We tend to travel like gypsies, living out of the car.  It is good thing we have a big car.

The Robins Nest is a nice B&B if you like B&Bs.  I tend to prefer the less personal chain hotels, which is good because that is where we will be the rest of the trip.

While Calvin was riding I went to Sonora to check out a cemetery.  Disappointing results at the cemetery, but the drive through the foothills was beautiful.

I caught up with Calvin on the road between Oakdale and Turlock.  Notice the big smile, he had a tailwind through this stretch.

This is a stage picture to show the road he was riding. As a general rule Calvin does not ride on the wrong side of the road.

Bike ride to Santa Barbara

Calvin has been planning to ride his bike from Reno to Santa Barbara for many years and decided this was the year to go. We have had a fairly mild spring, which has allowed him to get in bike shape early this year and yesterday he embarked on the trip.

 It was a cool but sunny day in Reno when he left, but by the time he reached Genoa he had cycled 60 miles into a head wind and was looking at white out conditions over Kingsbury grade, so he hitched a ride the last couple of miles to South Lake Tahoe.

The temperature at South Lake Tahoe when we arrived was in the mid twenties and it didn't warm up over night.  We woke up to several inches of fresh snow.

Fresh powder is great for a skiing vacation, but not so great for bike riding. The ride director decided to sag the riders forward until we were out of the chain control zone.

It was pretty drive with everything covered with about six inches of fresh snow.  We stopped at Ham's Station for lunch and had a "Ham's Burger" which was not the best burger I have ever eaten and then Calvin bravely got on his bike and hit the road.

A little downhill and a little tail wind and Calvin arrived at our second night destination, San Andreas, in good form.