Our stay in the great “Silver State” of Nevada continues.
The temperatures have stayed static during this last week—mid 90s during the
day and dipping to the high 40s or low 50s at night. Smoke from Washington,
Idaho and California fires settled in the Carson Valley, where we’re parked, obscurring the surrounding mountains and Lake Tahoe vistas. We continue to
uphold the firefighters and families affected by the fires in prayer.
Monday was a quiet day for us, as we ran errands and stayed
around the camper for the day.
Tuesday morning we rode our bikes around the park for about
20 minutes. The mornings are more clear of smoke and cooler than later in the
day so that makes for better riding conditions. That evening we joined friends
Ray and Libby for dinner at the Carson Valley Inn Casino. So yummy! Dinner
started with warm sour dough bread and sweet butter, followed by salads tossed
table-side. Dick dined on beef stroganoff, while Ray, Libby and I had salmon.
The baked potato on Ray’s plate was large enough to feed a small family! Libby
had twice baked, and I had the chef’s signature au gratin potatoes. Dessert was
black cherry ice cream, crème brulee and chocolate mousse. A feast for royalty!
Of course, sharing meals with special friends makes for special memories.
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| Dinner with Ray and Libby at Carson Valley Inn. |
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| Volkswagon's answer to the Toyota MR2 Spider??? |
As we continued our drive to Virginia City we saw 3 wild
horses off in the distance, and about a dozen wild horses trotting within 50
feet of the road. Because the road was so windy and narrow we didn’t stop for
photos.
Arriving in Virginia City about 1:30, we parked on the north
side of downtown, and walked through the old city while waiting for Hollee,
David and Anastasia to arrive. We just had to take a snap of the old miner and
his donkey, a standard fixture in the town.
The rest of our party arrived at 2:00. They had never been
to Virginia City, so it was a new experience for them, seeing the historic
buildings rebuilt after the great fire of 1875 that destroyed the town,
leaving over 2,000 homeless. The buildings now house shops, restaurants and saloons.
Wood planks still line the streets rather than concrete sidewalks, and as you
walk through the places of business you’ll notice the bricks and wood used to
rebuild after the fire. Pretty cool! Hollee and David wanted to have an “old-time” photo taken
with all of us, so we donned the old-time apparel, and staged this shot. |
| Just a few shots of mainstreet Virginia City. Anastasia wasn't too happy about wearing her hat, though. |
At 3:00 we decided to take in a western shootout. 3 local
guys played the parts of sheriff, miner and outlaw. This 30-minute vignette took
place in a closed set right on main street. Here are photos and a video link of
the show.
We were treated to dinner at The Paradise, a restaurant on main
street in Virginia City. A burger, grilled chicken sandwich, nachos, and a
Caesar salad were the fare. Yum-yum!
A short walk later, after seeing the suicide table in the
Delta Saloon, we decided to call it a day. It was a long day for little
Anastasia, who insisted on walking all the time, dissing the stroller. As Dick
and I pulled out of the parking lot we saw this wonderful site across the
road—right in town! Wild horses!
As we continued our drive south through town we saw 3 more
wild horses in a driveway—these were right in downtown too! So cool!
Thursday afternoon was lunch from Subway at Hollee and
David’s followed by a day at Incline Beach on Lake Tahoe’s north shore in Incline
Village, NV. (David was on vacation this week so we were happy to be able to
spend quite a bit of time with him.) Anastasia loves the water, but doesn’t go in much higher than her ankles. So
cute. Enjoy the photos and video.
Arriving back at our RV park we picked up our shipment from
Amazon, that delivered our latest technology gear: a new ASUS computer for me
(it’s little and light!) and a Fire HD 6 tablet for Dick. And…a Bluetooth
wireless speaker cube. Sweet!
After riding our bikes around the park Friday morning, while
Dick set up my computer I did laundry. It’s always so good to get that out of
the way. That afternoon Hollee and Anastasia came for a visit. Anastasia
certainly is a busy little girl, and she loves anything with buttons—like
remotes. (David had taken the afternoon to do some target shooting, so he
wasn’t with us.) We enjoyed an early dinner in Minden at the Pizza Factory (“We
toss ‘em—they’re awesome!”) Really good pizza with homemade crust “thrown” to
order. A cheese pizza for Anastasia; chicken with feta cheese and sun-dried
tomatoes for Hollee; and the Minden Special with mozzarella, pepperoni, ham,
mushrooms, green bell peppers, onion and bacon for us. YUM-YUM!
We had purchased tickets for the 5th Annual Minden
Aviation Roundup air show held on the 22nd and 23rd; we
opted for Sunday the 23rd, as Saturday was so smoky it would’ve been difficult
to see much. So, after riding our bikes around the park Saturday morning we
chilled for a while then ran some errands (Walmart and Bed, Bath, and Beyond).
Dinner was sloppy joes and potato salad. (Thank you Carol Eckel for the
wonderful sloppy joe recipe; I’ve been using it for years and it’s always a big
hit.)
Sunday morning: Minden Aviation Roundup. We headed to the Minden
Airport at about 11:00, arriving at 11:30; the opening ceremonies began at
noon, and the first performance was at 1:00. We had to bring our own chairs,
and all bags were searched at the entrance to the field. The day was
hot-Hot-HOT, with temps in the high 90s. No shade, but we brought plenty of
water, snacks, and sunscreen. The wind gusted occasionally, stirring up dust
which whirled around us making us look like Charles Shultz’s “Pigpen” in the
Peanuts comic strip by the end of the day. (Dust clings to sunscreen!)
Here are some photos taken at the Minden Aviation Roundup. We don't know what most of them were, but they were fun to see nevertheless.
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| These shots are taken of the C130, both inside and out. And, we met the captain (photo #3). |
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| We were pretty impressed with this plane. It's a Cirrus, built in Duluth, MN! |
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| Minden appears to be "glder capital of the world!" from the look of the glider hangars! |
What a spectacular show! The show featured Team Rocket
(Canada); Bill Stein; Kyle Franklin; Manfred Radius; Matt Younkin; Dan Buchanan;
the US Air Force Thunderbirds; an F18 Super Hornet fighter jet; and the Misty
Blues, an all-woman skydiving team that parachuted in with the Nevada, Canadian
and US flags for the opening ceremonies. Here are some interesting facts about
the performers and their aircraft.
Team Rocket is a
2-ship formation aerobatic performance featuring the F-1 Rocket and the Harmon
Rocket II. The F-1 Rocket is a high-performance, kit-built airplane capable of
climbing at 3,500 fpm. Wow! The Harmon Rocket II is a high-performing 1,146 lb.
aircraft allowing it to provide excellent high-speed aerobatic performance and
awesome vertical performance, outperforming all similar aircraft going
vertical. They did some amazing stunts, flying so close together, then separating to a
choreographed routine.
choreographed routine.
We were mightily impressed with Bill Stein, who has logged over 5,000 hours of aerobatic and
formation flight. His passion for precision flying is evident in his crazy
routine, training every day to keep his skills razor sharp. For years he flew
on the world famous Red Baron Stearman Squadron.
Then there was Kyle
Franklin. A member of the legendary Franklin Flying Circus, Kyle delivered
a mix of flying and entertainment. Continuing in the family legacy (began in
1965); it’s obvious that Kyle continues to raise the bar for the rest of the
air show industry. He brought his infamous “Ben Whabnoski” character to this
show, who is a drunken pilot wannabe. Flying sideways, dipping his wings to the
ground, dipping and soaring over the airstrip he had us all watching with
open-mouth wonder. Pretty neat.
Perhaps the most awe-inspiring display was that of Manfred Radius, who performs in a fully
aerobatic sailplane, or glider. Immigrating to Canada from Germany in 1967,
he’s been a pilot for more than 20 years, he performs a graceful and elegant
“air ballet” choreographed to classical music, beginning at over 34,000 feet. Manfred
began his flying career in 1961 in Hamburg, Germany, at the age of 17. Since
then he has been mesmerizing audiences all over the world with his skill and
professionalism. The grand finale of his performance was to be the spectacular
“inverted ribbon cut” where he flies his sailplane upside down over the
airstrip, cutting a ribbon in half with his tail rudder. However, due to gusty
winds he aborted this maneuver at the last minute. Manfred has logged in excess
of 5,000 flights and accumulated over 2,000 hours in at least 60 types of
sailplanes.
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| The inverted ribbon cut shown in the 2nd photo was aborted due to wind gusts. This photo was taken from his web site. |
Another spectacular performance was that of Matt Younkin who wowed the spectators
in his Beech 18 huge transport. Even
though never designed for aerobatic flight, with Matt in the cockpit it is
capable of doing just that. His flight began with a roll on takeoff followed by
a series of what’s called Cuban eights, point-rolls, and a loop. The conclusion
was a dirty pass dubbed the “Elephant Waltz” in which Matt rocks the overly
obese transport’s wings more than 90 degrees with the landing gear and flaps
extended!
One of the most inspiring performances was that of Dan Buchanan, a paraplegic who flew
over the air field in a hang glider with special effects coming off the fabric
wings. (He’s a Federally and State licensed pyrotechnician, so he installs all
that himself.) Dan was a home builder in New York and Connecticut, and then
moved to Lake Tahoe, CA where he continued his love of flying off mountain
tops. Unfortunately, in 1981 when he was flying and landing a hang glider in bad weather (pursuing his private pilot license), he suffered a spinal injury
causing him to lose his ability to walk. That didn’t deter Dan from flying; 6
months after his accident he returned to the sky. Dan has completed his private
and commercial pilot license as a wheelchair user; his “motorless” recreational
flights are typically 3-6 hours long, soaring as high as 18,000 feet above the
earth. (FYI, during the show, Team Rocket came within feet of the hang glider
when they buzzed Dan’s tail feathers as he made his decent to the runway!).
The U.S. Navy F18
Super Hornet made an appearance, too, flown by the Flying Eagles VFA-122! (Remember “Top Gun”?) It’s
a twin-engine, supersonic, all weather multirole fighter jet that’s capable of
landing and taking off from an aircraft carrier. This special piece of
equipment can carry air-to-air missiles, as well as air-to-surface weapons.
Additional fuel can be carried in up to 5 external fuel tanks; it can also be
configured as an airborne tanker by adding an external air refueling system.
First ordered by the U.S. Navy in 1992, it was to replace the F-14 Tomcat. The
Hornet and Super Hornet share many characteristics, including avionics,
ejection seats, radar, armament, mission computer software, and
maintenance/operating procedures. We were wowed by its ability to reach speeds up to 600 mph and as slow as 100 mph (looked like it was crawling!). The abrupt change in direction was amazing, as he flew a perfect square with 90 degree turns. The maneuvers were awesome to see. What a thrill it must be to fly one of these things!
I’m thinking not much needs to be said about the U.S. Air Force Thunderbirds. A bit of
history might be interesting to you, though. In 1947, while the jet age was
still in its infancy, military aviation was hurtled into the future with the
creation of the US. Air Force as a separate service. Just 6 years later, the
Air Force's official air demonstration team was activated at Luke Air Force
Base, AZ. The unit adopted the name “Thunderbirds,” influenced in part by the
strong Native American culture and folklore from the southwestern U.S. where
Luke Air Force Base is located. The Thunderbirds proudly represent those who
deserve the most credit: the everyday, hard-working Airmen who voluntarily
serve America and defend our freedom. Here are a couple of videos of the Thunderbirds we thought you'd enjoy:Minden Air Show 8/23/15
We
lasted until about 3:00, when wilted and dusty we headed to our truck and a
drive over the mountain to Incline Village for dinner with Hollee, David and
Anastasia. Thankfully, there were buses that carted us to the show from the
parking lot (about a mile away).
Temps
in Incline Village were about 20 degrees cooler than in the Carson Valley at
the airfield. Boy, did those temps feel good! Dinner was Asian chicken with
fresh pineapple and cashews. YUMMY! Thanks, guys, for a wonderful dinner. We so
enjoy our time with you! Of course, Anastasia was the performer there. I taught
her a few little ditties from my childhood, and she says, “Please, creepy
crawly,” or “Please, patty cake” for more, and more, and more… Ha!
By
the time we had returned to the RV park at 7:30 the temps had dropped to a
reasonable 78°. When the sun goes behind the mountains it cools off quite
nicely—most of the time.
That’s
it for this week. Now we begin our last week here before starting our
meandering journey back to Texas for the winter. Until next week,
Hugs
‘n’ blessings,
RJ
and Gail
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