First real trip

We left Utah yesterday on a 10 day trip to a bluegrass festival in Grass Valley, CA, about an hour east of Sacramento. We left home around 2:30 on Thursday after spending about two hours longer than anticipated getting last minute stuff aboard. DW: "Did you think of .....?" Me: "No! Where did you put .....?" DW: "Can't remember if I packed that or not. Look around!" And so on. As it turned out we got most everything we needed except that around one hour into the trip, I remembered that we didn't bring the Direct TV box, so I guess we won't be using the dish.

The Tundra is well matched to the 3124kb as long as you don't plan on going 75 mph up a grade. We set the cruise control to 65 mph and locked out overdrive. Drove all the way to Elko before filling up. Looks like we're getting around 12 mpg which isn't quite as good as I had hoped but given all the passes we climbed, I'm not too surprised. I had hoped for 14.

We've driven I-80 across Nevada many times (without a trailer). We were surprised at the much smaller number RVs and even cars than we usually see. I attribute it to the price of gas. Good news is that it was us and the semis that had the highway to ourselves.

Spent the night at the Double Dice RV park. Got set up without any glitches. Several people came by to ask, "What is THAT?" It was quite windy but we remembered to get some pool noodles as suggested on this forum. Worked like a charm.

Drove to Truckee, CA today. We had steady 30 mph headwinds which I thought would adversely affect our mpg but when I filled up at Lovelock we again hit 12 mpg. This stretch is much less up and down than the first leg but the wind was really strong.

We did have one humorous incident. A guy in a camper drove past us, honked his horn, and raised a clenched fist in the air with a smile on his face. I thought maybe this was some signal known to all RVers except me. So we pulled off at the next exit, checked everything out but found nothing wrong. Then it hit me. I'm a member of E Clampus Vitus, a fraternal organization founded during the gold rush to mock the Masons, Oddfellows, etc. Today the members are mostly people with an interest in the history of the American West. But we preserve all the absurdity and tomfoolery of the original organization. This guy was a fellow "Clamper" who saw my ECV sticker on my truck and was giving me the "Sign of the Well Jackass", a sign of recognition between Clampers. And I took it to mean my wheels were falling off or something. We had a good laugh.

We're staying at Coachland RV park. Nice place just north of Lake Tahoe but I'm surprised how many large RVs here have permanent structures (like snow roofs) built around them. Apparently it is a cheaper way to "have a place at Tahoe." We'll be here two nights, then off to the Bluegrass Festival. That's a short climb up Donner Pass, then it's all down hill. I certainly hope we get more than 12 mpg!!!

Not sure if I'll have WiFi at the festival. If not we'll report when we get home on the 16th.