9/13/24 Leaving Prosser Lake, Truckee, Wilber D. May Museum, 9/14/24Rye Patch res.

9/13/24 Bill – Katie’s birthday at Prosser, the day we left.

Texted Katie happy birthday. Did a facetime while eating our breakfast. We packed up and left for Lovelock, NV and onto the Rye Patch Recreation Area.

Drove about 40 minutes to Truckee for propane (next to the railroad tracks where several questionable characters were walking down the track cracking big bull whips), 

Helen checked the Roadside America app and found the Wilber D. May museum. His father started the department store chain May Company so he had a privileged upbringing which he made the most of.

For me, highlights of his life include selling all his shares in the May Company in early 1929 and buying government bonds, only to avoid the crash and buy 20x shares back when he returned a year later after the first of 40 or so big game hunts in Africa and trips around the world. A few of the rooms that were part of his ranch were recreated at the museum including his big game trophy room.

Proof Bigfoot Exists!

(don't let the hat fool you, he's on the right)

Wilbur May was an aviator in WWII, raised prized race horses and angus beef, and was a passenger on the first commercial China Clipper that flew from San Francisco to Hong Kong.

A remarkable guy… at least that’s how he was portrayed at the museum honoring his life.

While we were at the museum we saw workers assembling and placing hundreds of lighted animal figures in the arboretum and botanical gardens adjoining the museum for an event called Dragon Lights. It will run from Sept. 27 - Nov. 30 in Reno.

I’m sure it would be quite a site when done.

Ate the rest of H’s great chicken crust pizza for lunch in the museum parking lot, then back on the road.

Crossed into Nevada passing miles of dry landscape.  Stopped in Lovelock for H to mail a letter and get some nasal spray for me.

We were trying to get to Rye Patch Rec area by a scheduled 5:00 Facetime with Katie and Emily for Katie’s birthday, and even after it was rescheduled to 5:30 we missed it..  The campgrounds at Rye Patch rec area aren’t marked very well so it took quite awhile to find ours, and when we finally did, there wasn’t cell service. 

The only place we could get cell service was the "internet cafe" at the end of  one of the peninsulas near our camp site. It was strange to not have access to email, phone, and internet for three days... (seems I' might be a bit too addicted to my screen time.) I did read a book though... Beyond the Band of Brothers, by Major Richard Winters.

We got set up and settled in, took a walk down to the reservoir and enjoyed another gourmet meal of pasta, zoodles, and marinara sauce with garlic and mushrooms… and beer.  My current favorite: Athletic Brewing Co. Upside Dawn Golden non-alcoholic.

Bird calls heard today: Common Raven

 

Helen 9/14/24 (Day 5) - Rye Patch Recreation Area

Woke up this morning to completely dead batteries which means almost nothing in the trailer will work!  Bill jumped into troubleshooting action and I, went back to sleep!  Note: Below Bill tells his version of the story!

As part of this trip, I’ve been keeping track of how long we use the generator to charge our batteries, how fast we go through our fresh water, and how quickly we fill our holding tanks.

I use a CPAP machine while sleeping (it keeps me from snoring and helps to keep me married). It needs 120VAC (residential house current) that is supplied by our batteries and our inverter that changes the 12Volt DC battery power to 120Volt AC.  From what I’ve seen so far, I use about 25% of our battery power overnight while powering the CPAP machine.  For some reason, that I need to figure out, I drained the batteries last night after starting with 58% capacity.  By 3:30am, battery capacity was 0.9% and the CPAP machine, along with all other electronics, were not working.  After a bit of wrangling this morning, I was able to get the batteries charging again off the generator.  Fingers crossed I only use 25% tonight. 

We carried the kayak down to the nearby reservoir and launched.  

Very quiet, only one person fishing and a couple paddle boarders on the lake. Saw a Great Blue Heron standing very still on a  rock by the shoreline. We approached quietly from the water and were able to float nearby for a closer look.  Bill downloaded an app that ID's birds when they are singing - there are apparently 208 bird species in this area.

Did some pleasure reading and later took a shower and scraped off layers of mosquito repellent and sunscreen, both of which were wonderful.  Mosquitos and gnats are out with a vengeance at dusk.

Bird calls heard today: House Finch