On The Road Again: First Day, Truckee, the Truckee, and Reno
We began the day in Fremont, with an easy drive to Reno. Now I should explain that this is an area, Lake Tahoe and Reno, that resonates for me, going back to my youth, and for Sharon and me from 1971. My parents began going up to Tahoe in the mid-1960s and Sharon and I were married in Reno and honeymooned in Tahoe in 1971.
I can’t drive through here without floods of memories overtaking me. And the Truckee is my river more than any other. I’ve walked along the Arno, driven along the Rhine, but the Truckee was my first. And when Sharon and I drove Anna to college in 2004, we stayed in Truckee which diverted us from our disorientation at having left our only child in Colorado.
One of my oldest associations with the area was expressed in a “folk” song composed by Steve Gillette and Tom Campbell entitled Darcy Farrow as sung by the Canadian folk duo, Ian and Sylvia. One of my favorite pieces of music to this day.
After a few hours in the Sierra, cresting from the Western to Eastern slope, we stopped for the day in Reno, wandering the city and a very different portion of the Truckee, now an urban river in the afternoon, and then had a fine dinner at the Sierra Street Kitchen. And, the day even yielded me a pen, a humble Sheaffer’s set from my only antiques stop of the day. Interestingly, one of my early pens, a Waterman’s 452, came to me here more than thirty years ago.
So here are a few images from the first day of our 2018 road trip, which will take us to the Grand Tetons, Glacier, and Yellowstone National Parks.
Downtown Truckee, from logging town to tourist attraction we've seen it happen
Alfa-Romeo Spider
Cobra replica, in purple?
Driving East from Truckee, the river below a railroad trestle
The mountains looking west from the crest
The river
Sharon and Rosa wait patiently while I play. Rocinante has now carried us for more than 90,000 miles, crossing the continent twice.
Another view of the river
Reno, from a western gambling town to a major center
On Sunday we left Edinburgh, headed for Northumberland and (we thought) York. Now, if someone says England and tourism, your first thoughts do not turn to Newcastle Upon Tyne, which formerly was the county’s largest city, or for that matter to any place in Northumberland. But for many English folk we have talked to, this area is a great treat, as it has become for us. Jim Marshall first put us onto the area, marking out Alnwick, Holy Island and Bamborough on our maps. We took it from there and spent three days prowling the backroads and coming to love the area, enough so that we delayed our trip to York until after our return from Germany, in order to get a bit more time in that corner of England. So, what have we seen and done to warrant such enthusiasm? Our first stop Sunday afternoon was, in truth, still in Scotland, at Preston Mill and Dovecote or as they put it Phantassie Doocot. The mill, which seems to be a locally popular stopping and walking place, was located an easy half m
Mostly Pelikans, vintage and modern, with a fine assortment of others. Most pens are in near mint to excellent condition. I have not yet priced them, but see the attached spreadsheet and, as always feel free to contact me at rickpropas@comcast.net
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