on the road to Reno

Me and Frank surfing the couch at Kate's

last weekend i drove from Tonopah up to Reno to visit an old friend of mine whom i hadn't seen in twenty years!  i stayed with her and her husband (and 4 year-old and 5 month-old!) for three days, and promptly acquired a stomach flu, so i ended up surfing her couch instead of skiing the 6 feet of new snow up at Mt. Rose :( but with the high winds, the lift got knocked out, so i was thankful that i was not stranded for several hours on a broken lift like 50+ other people were.  major bummer.

Kate and little Max

after twenty years (we went to junior high and high school together) despite the fact that Kate is married with a couple of little ones and i with my two furry little ones, i feel like we really haven't changed all that much.  although we are both "grown-up professionals", our memories of childhood are so vivid, i swear we still feel like we are kids at times.  it's a really good feeling to have that you can still connect with someone after all those years.

Frank searching for spirits

on the way up to Reno, the dogs and i stopped to stretch our legs at historic Fort Churchill.  it was built in 1860 as a territorial outpost to promote peaceful relations between the western white settlers and the Paiute Native Americans.  the buildings were made of adobe brick, and the timbers and hardware were brought in from Sacramento.

Artie cruising the Fort Churchill trails

a large Inn nearby, Buckland Station, was a stage stop along the Pony Express route, which ran from 1860 to 1861 to carry mail and messages before the telegraph lines were complete.  the Fort was an eerie place to visit, out in the sage and with quiet snow falling.  i could feel the shadowy spirits and hear the whispers of ghosts as we walked among the buildings.

Buckland Station