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Published: October 12th 2016
RENO
The biggest little town!Having a wonderful time exploring some places we have not been before. Mark is with us and we are very privileged he is our driver for this trip!! Had a long flight from Melbourne, having to go to Sydney and then direct to San Francisco - got into San Fran around 9.30a.m. on the 5/10 and then caught the sky train around to the rental car area and picked up our 300C Chrysler which is a perfect car for long range driving - we then drove out to Reno in Nevada which was 220 miles around 3 1/12 hrs driving which got us out of San Fran and well on our way on our trip. Were last in Reno in 1992, not a lot has changed, but there are quite a few new places in outer lying areas, we stayed at the Atlantis Casino and Spa Resort which was fantastic with great bars and restaurants and plenty of parking. Apart from the sleeze of casinos and the homeless, Reno is quite a nice place and we did a long walk along the Truckee River which was so, so pretty! Along the way we found a great coffee roaster shop amid a
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Trump mania residential area - stopped off for a great coffee and then completed our along the picturesque river. Also did the mandatory Costco shop ....stocked up on water, snacks, other stuff!!! Gee we get ripped with water in Aus, 2.97 for a pack of 40 bottles 500mls. Really just popped into Reno for a couple of nights to recover from jetlag and relax for a couple of days. Atlantis was great and we found that in the Napa Bistro they have all their drinks and tapas plates half price each day from 4-6pm - we were there!!! Great food and wine, the biggest pour we have ever had anywhere 1/3 bottle in each glass at $7 glass - bargain!!! Our day of arrival John was on cloud 9, Donald Trump convention in the convention centre next door to Atlantis! Sadly all sold out!
7&8th October - Headed from Reno early morning for the 518 mile journey (7 1/2 hrs) to Salt Lake City. Drove through some magnificent countryside love the desert, through open plains and mountain ranges, easy driving with great scenery, dry and dusty! As we crossed the border of Nevada into Utah we were met with the Great
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Napa Bistro Trump supporters Salt Lake Desert which is a fantastic sight, so huge! Then passed by the Bonneville Racing Track where the land speed records were held and just reminded us of the movie "The Fastest Indian" was shot, what a great movie that was, and that record still holds today. Had no expectations of Salt Lake other than I knew it is a huge mormon community. We bookeda Marriott Hotel which was close to city centre etc within walking distance to everything, great spot. We noticed pretty quick that for a mormon town there was such a huge collection of bars, breweries, taphouses etc had our first night at the Squatters Bar which was a three story old brick building housing lots of different beers and great food! It just so happened that the two days we were here was the anniversary 100th of their Capitol Building (Government and Law) so had a great tour of this magnificent building and then returned later that night for a fireworks show which was fantastic. Also headed out to Little Cottonwood Canyon which is probably the closest ski fields to Salt Lake about a 25 min drive out and during summer they have summer sports
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Napa Bistro - after Trump rally at Snowbird, so we rode the air train up to the peak and had a fabulous view over all the snow fields and runs, then returned down to the lodge area where they were holding Octoberfest celebrations where sampled a beer or two, big event with bands and loads of different breweries and pubs showcasing their beers, great day had by all!
9&10th October - 320 miles (4 hrs 40mins) Lovely countryside enroute to Montana with huge irrigation areas with crops, beef, sheep etc. to West Yellowstone which is situated only a 100 metres off the border of Wyoming, which suited us to enter Yellowstone from the West entrance as its the closest entrance to most of the sites inside Yellowstone, the lodges were just far too expensive, so had a great hotel in the township of West Yellowstone. We spent two days in Yellowstone Park doing all the sites, there is a lower loop and upper loop which both take approx 5-6 hours each without mucking around. We covered everything we wanted to see but you could spend a few more days there if you wanted to do lots of hikes. Yellowstone is thousands of acres and landscape
is just magic, so many changes as you enter valleys and mountains, from sulphur geysers to mud bubbling ponds to Grand Canyon of Yellowstone there is something different at every turn. We saw lots of wildlife especially Bison, considering they were nearly extinct a few years ago they are multiplying beautifully, also saw bear and baby, deer, wolf and huge array of birdlife. The weather has been very kind to us so far all in the 20'sC. Last day at West Yellowstone bit concerned bad weather predicted to come in, will wait and see!
11th October - to Buffalo Wyoming 395 miles around 6 hours. Woke up this morning no snow and left West Yellowstone around 8.45a.m. and drove right through the middle of Yellowstone across to Cody in Wyoming - lots of snow lying around on the way but did not hit snow until we were a short way out of Buffalo and the temperature dropped to minus 5...John not impressed with this! We had coffee and brunch in Cody and it really is like one of those wild west towns, lots of cowboy shops and Buffalo Bill referred to everywhere, we had a stroll around town but
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Pegs Glorified eggs very cold and breezy! Notice big ranches around these areas and nearly every town had an arena for a Stampede or buckjumping etc. After crossing the Rockies we then had to navigate the Bighorn Mountains where we ran into a lot of snow and were very relieved to arrive in Buffalo in one piece. I had prebooked Winchester Steakhouse for John's 60th dinner which happened to be only a block or so from where we were staying, had a wonderful night, nice and warm inside and the steaks were magnificent. We were so surprised that there was a beautiful bottle of red wine waiting for John sent by our beautiful cousin Kaz, you are such a gem Kaz and Reg, you made John's day! Tomorrow heading West to Rapid City to do the Mount Rushmore thing.
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Lee
non-member comment
Birthday greetings
Big ( somewhat belated ) happy birthday wishes ! Just as well we were birthday card in credit eh ? Obviously you had a wonderful day, and some very massive steak....life doesn't get better. How wonderful of reg and kaz to organise the wine for you, they are very good people. We will have to recreate a birthday night when you get home. Work has been horrendous with the weather being so crap, so you are fortunate to not have been here . Missing your faces Big kiss for mark ! Travel safe xxxxxxxx