Lesson #17 ~ Super Heros Are Super Cute

Lesson #17 ~ Super Heros are Super Cute!

“A-wimoweh.  A-wimoweh...”  We sang our way through the Sierra Nevadas toward Lake Tahoe.  (Swiss Family Robinson, right?!)  Thanks to the San Diego Zoo’s Little Critters show and a cute hippo and dog video on YouTube, we have been singing ‘The Lion Sleeps Tonight’ for a week.  It entertained us for quite some time along the drive Saturday.  I promise our rendition will never go public.  

Our resident Wikipedia (Travis) interrupted our songs a few times to introduce us to the sandstone and granite surrounding us along the drive.  He pointed out the various pine trees and shared with us his experience with sugar pine cones.  We learned about the tree line - the noticeable difference where you’ll find an abundance of trees compared to where the lack of water or the elements stunt the growth of the vegetation.  We drove through a few passes.  Yuba Pass’ 2009 fire was started by a hawk hitting a power line.  Still today we could see the black bark, fallen trees, and pine trees with a bare bottom half showing us the remnant of the forest fire.  Snow tubing was a popular sport up high in the mountains.  We reached a peak elevation of 7,252 feet.  Our ears were popping!  

Tahoe is a place to which I’ve never been, but have desired to go.  I can see why Mark Twain says it’s the second best lake in the world next to Lake Como in Italy.  Lake Tahoe was clear blue.  Beautiful pine trees surrounded the area.  Quaint towns were scattered around the lake.  The clear water reminded me of being at Rum Point in the Cayman Islands.  You could see through the blue water down to the sand on the very bottom.  Lake Tahoe was much clearer than our own Prior Lake.  Taite wanted to touch the water.  

We found a roadside stop and pulled over to get a closer look.  Snowy, icy, slippery.  The walkway to the water had me nervous.  It was 40+ degrees out - so our Minnesota kids went without hats and mittens, Calla even went without a jacket!  Everyone landed on their bottoms at least once.  We got as far as I was willing to let the kids go, then Taite wanted to go farther.  Ten more feet brought you to the water, but you had to maneuver snowy, slippery rocks to get there.  I told Taite he could proceed, warning him that I would be staying with the other kids.  Visions of a freezing, soaked Taite danced in my head.  He carefully balanced his way, reached down to feel the water and see it close-up, and took a moment to enjoy it.  Thankfully he returned to us dry.  We walked back to Travis and the Flyer (where Travis stayed to protect the rig as we were not parked in an official parking spot).  Our friend Sarah Fierro encouraged us to look for pogonip in the mountains, we think we found some at Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe rests on the border of California and Nevada.  There was no question where the Nevada border was!  There was a giant lighted sign flashing “Casino” right at the border - it seemed to be in place of a “Welcome to Nevada” sign. ;-)  The commerce might have changed, but the beauty of the area didn’t.  I was so glad we took the time to drive around the northern half of the lake.  Beauty etched into my memory.

My memories of Cash Fierro are of his passion for super heros.  “Do you want to be Spiderman?” was one of the first things we heard when we arrived in Reno.  We’ve known the Fierro’s for over a decade, Travis works with John, Sarah has become a great friend of mine, and our kids get along very well.  Saturday they welcomed us with open arms, warm hearts, and a delicious meal.  Pasole soup and chicken enchiladas - YUM!  I had never even heard of pasole soup.  It just became a new favorite.  We all attended their church service Saturday night.  It was nice to change things up from the Nautica Flyer Community Church to Hope Community Church.  We were grateful to share that with them.  Sunday was a Spiderman birthday party at the Discovery Museum, football, haircuts (Sarah is a trained stylist), the Lorax, games, and lots of chatting.  

We hadn't yet had our fill of fun and learning so we stayed in Reno for more.  Nevada currently mines 79% of all the gold in the United States, which is why I wanted to visit a gold mine while we were there.  I found one (just one) that was open this time of year and available for tours.  While John went to work Monday, Sarah and the boys joined our family in the Flyer.  We drove to Virginia City to relish in the remains of the Comstock Lode.  The Ponderosa Saloon and Mine gave us that glimpse.  (Yes, we’ve now brought our children to a winery in Los Gatos, bar in Vegas, and Saloon in Virginia City - yikes!).  Today the Ponderosa is a saloon, but it started as the Bank of California before anyone attempted to mine for gold.  The tour was fun.  Our toothless tour guide was very informative.  It was great to see how it all worked.  The Gold Rush is one of our upcoming school units.  How fabulous to have real-life visuals for it.

“Look at those snow popsicles!” Lincoln says as we are walking down the street of Virginia City.  The snow was melting in the mountains.  Lots of icicles had formed - to the point of having to post signs to beware of icicles!   Lincoln is a very observant child.  He is also very vocal - about everything.

“Cash!  Look at that puddle!  Step in it!” says Lincoln.  Normally he would say such a thing to Parker, but she happened to be riding in a backpack and unavailable to participate in his schemes.  I can’t decide if he purposely tries to get other kids in trouble or not.  Thankfully I had Travis to help me keep Lincoln in line.  After a couple of hours in Virginia City the parents had had enough.  Time to head home.

It was perfect timing for us to leave so Cash could get to his karate class on time.  Once Cash returned from karate we ate another scrumptious dinner - lasagna.  The kids ate and ate and talked and ate.  “Whose favorite number is 1,012?” yells Lincoln out of nowhere.    Five people raised their hands!?!  

“Cash, what would happen if there was syrup on this yazasta (lasagna)?” asks Lincoln.  The rest of us gave Lincoln that look of “What?!?”  But not Cash.

“No!  What if there was bugs in it?!” was Cash’s immediate response.  Lincoln and Cash get along very well.  They seem to often think alike.  This conversation went on.

Tuesday morning came quickly.  Cash and the kids were sad to part.  We said our goodbye’s and started traveling east once again.  We stopped in Winnemucca to have lunch with John at Chihuahua's.  John is a ‘foodie,’ so we were not at all surprised that our lunch was incredible even though Winnemucca is a rinky-dink town off Interstate 80.  He'd recommend the chicken soup if ever going through.  Exceptional!

Just east of Winnemucca we finally spotted some wild horses.  Sarah has mentioned her experiences with wild horses.  I was determined to spot a mustang since we were in one of only four states where you could encounter them.  There are over 30,000 mustangs living in the mountain plains of Nevada (more than all the wild horses in the other U.S. states combined).  It was fun to see them in the wild.  We also saw more pogonip - when stopped at a gas station we saw the ice crystals gleaming in the sun.

We drove and drove and drove Tuesday - eight hours entirely through mountains.  We saw only mountains and snow.  Even though we saw the same terrain for eight hours somehow it’s more interesting than the cornfields we typically see.   We stopped in Utah for the night.  It’s cold...like Minnesota cold.  Single digits.  "It's so cold my ears are going to pop off!" said Lincoln.  I think he's confusing the cold with the pressure of driving through the mountains, but cold just the same.  We must use our generator to keep our furnace running all day or our water will freeze and we won’t be able to use the bathroom.  We learned the cold weather in northern Utah is due to a phenomenon called inversion.  Cold temperatures, snow, and the encircling mountains cause the areas warmer air to move to higher elevations.  The result is a great haze or fog hanging in the valley trapping pollutants.  It made it hard to see and not pretty.  Normal for SLC in January.

The border was very distinct between Nevada and Utah.  Not just because of the casinos on the Nevada side.  The moment we crossed over the Utah border we saw the salt flats.  Another wonder of nature.  And again, so different.  

We chose to have something different for dinner...Rudy’s Roundup BBQ.  Another winner from urbanspoon.com.  Taite enjoyed an entire 1/3 pound burger called the Button Buster.  True to it’s name, Taite about busted his pants at the end of our meal.  Our eight-year-old eats more than an adult.  Our monthly food bill is already a mortgage payment!  After dinner we plopped ourselves just west of Salt Lake City in order to see the Great Salt Lake before moving on to Wyoming.  

Travis and I have been to Salt Lake City and Park City before.  Both incredibly beautiful.  We were disappointed we couldn’t share that with the kids.  It was just too foggy.  We could barely see the car in front of us.  The Great Salt Lake was calling our names, though.  The Salt Lake Marina was nearby so we parked and got out of the RV in this 16 degree weather.  Calla got out without zipping her jacket.  

"Calla.  Please zip your jacket.  It's only 16 degrees out here," I said.   

"Sixteen degrees!  It feels like...20!" reasoned Calla.  Maybe the fog clouds our senses too.

Despite the cold, we put our hand in the water.  Chili, but warmer than Lake Tahoe according to Taite.  Travis said it was really soft water.  His hand felt soft and looked white once the water dried on it.  As we all went down to touch the water, Travis said, “Don’t taste it.”  Immediately we heard spitting noises from Lincoln. ;-)  Of course he had put his hand in his mouth right away.  He didn’t like the salty taste.

We had time for one more SLC activity - either the Mormon temple (which you can’t go in unless you are Mormon) or the MonaVie corporate headquarters.  MonaVie won and Christina, the front desk receptionist, led us on a tour.  It was fun to see where everything happens.  At the end of our tour, an incredibly kind executive support representative named Tim offered to buy lunch for us.  While we didn’t need lunch, we chose to share a hot chocolate with him and got to pick his brain about the inner workings of MonaVie.  He brought out Lindsey, our dedicated executive support representative, so we could meet her and he brought out the View - the antioxidant tester.

In early September and again in October I scanned yellow - putting me at average health.  Not what I had hoped for, but I’ve learned “That which is measured can be improved.”  I increased my MonaVie dosage, removed wheat from my diet, decreased the amount of sugar I ate, increased my intake of sunshine, and added more sleep each night.  This time I scanned blue - having moved up two colors on the health scale and very close to optimal health!  Yea!  I’m headed in the right direction.  Travis and Lincoln scanned green, Calla scanned blue, and Taite was purple.  Parker was afraid of the pencil-sharpener-looking machine and chose not to get scanned but claims that she is purple because that’s her favorite color, “well, pink and purple.”  

We brought our green, blue, and purpleness back to the RV so we could return to Interstate 80.  We cracked open the school books.  Every once in awhile we stopped to enjoy the view, but Wyoming didn’t have much of a variety for us.  The things we have liked about Wyoming so far are the temperatures - above 32 so our water lines are useful - and gas prices.  In California we paid just over $4.00 per gallon.  Here (only one week later) we are paying $2.89.  When you are buying 50 to 100 gallons of gas in a day that adds up.

Tonight we are enjoying our Flying J ‘boondocking’ experience (as Travis calls it).  We took a spot in the RV section of the parking lot hoping all of our batteries work tomorrow.  Hoping for sweet dreams, too.