Snowshoeing in Truckee, CA

After spending Thursday and Friday killing time in a conference room at DeMartini RV while we waited for news about the progress of the repairs to our motorhome, Saturday we were ready to take a drive.  We chose to go to Truckee, in the Sierra Nevada mountains near the Nevada border.

Viewpoint from Highway 20 on the way to Truckee

We took our snowshoes with us, and we found lots of snow in Truckee.  After lunch at a interestingly named place called "Coffee And", we visited Donner Memorial State Park.   Most everyone knows the story of the infamous Donner party of emigrants who took a "shorter" route and ended up being stranded without food during the winter. 

Donner Lake

The small Emigrant Museum at the park features exhibits about the Truckee Basin, local Native American life, the overland immigration of the Donner party in 1840, construction of the transcontinental railroad, and lumbering and ice harvesting.

Emigrant Trail Museum at Donner Memorial State Park, Truckee, CA 

Truckee is at an altitude of over 6000 feet and is full of natural beauty, especially when the area is full of snow.  We strapped on our snowshoes and went for a walk on the nature trail at the state park, following a marked guide written for winter viewing.

Dave snowshoeing on the nature trail

A winter scene along the trail

Donner Creek (next three pictures)

We didn't mind spending the weekend in this area and now we are refreshed and ready to spend another day hanging out in the conference room at DeMartini.   Hopefully the motorhome repairs will be finished on Monday and we will then head on to our next adventure!

Empty Spot

Our motorhome parked at home It’s a sad day.  Our motorhome is not in its usual spot in our back yard.  We took it to Camping World this morning for some warranty work.  The main issue is a problem with the bedroom slide.  A part needs to be replaced and since the part needs to be ordered, it could take up to ten days for the part to arrive .  A few other minor things need to be worked on, also.

Waiting to be checked in for service at Camping World

Our next RV trip is planned for August 20, so we hope the motorhome will be ready by then.  In the meantime, we are thinking about taking the car and staying in a motel (horrors!) and possibly going to the Family Motor Coach Association (FMCA) conference in Redmond, Oregon. 

I didn’t even know that FMCA was holding their convention in Redmond this year.  Roberta and Wayne of Our RV Travels mentioned in their blog that they are going to the convention and planning to attend one of the Picasa seminars taught by Chris and Jim Guld of Geeks on Tour.  Roberta introduced me to Geeks on Tour and I recently joined their site, which offers video tutorials on many topics, not just Picasa.

We can’t go for the whole conference (August 11-14) so we have see if it makes sense to pay the high daily rate ($65 each per day for non-members but includes seminars and entertainment) as well as making the four hour drive each way from home, and besides all that, paying to stay in Redmond/Bend.  Have any of you ever attended one of the FMCA conferences?

The temporarily empty spot in our back yard.  How sad!

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