GRASS VALLEY TO BOOMTOWN

The only thing on the agenda for our last morning at the Grass Valley Fairgrounds, was a tour of the narrow gauge model railroad, located in one of the fairgrounds buildings. The exhibit is a representation of the railroad that existed in Nevada County until 1942.  It was indeed an impressive layout, taking up most of the entire building.  The amount of time it took to build something like that is beyond mind boggling!

Since we only had a short distance to travel yesterday, and we were waiting for a storm cell to pass to the north, we didn't pull out of the fairgrounds until 11am.  We traveled east on Hwy 20, then connected with I80, before passing over Donner Summit.  The rain showers were hit and miss, with several stretches of dry roadway.

The drive over the mountain was pretty routine except for the false readings I keep getting on the Tire Traker tire monitoring system I purchased at the FMCA rally last January in Indio.  I had the pressure pro system, and due to age, the batteries in the individual tire monitors were starting to die.  With an individual tire monitor replacement cost of about $350 ($35 ea. x 10 tires), I decided to get the Tire Traker system for about $100 more.  It has a few more bells & whistles, and the tire monitor batteries are replaceable.  It wasn't a hard decision to change systems, but it's kind of become the little boy who cried wolf.  There are so many false readings, I almost don't pay attention any more.  I did pay attention to the right front monitor yesterday, as the alarm went off, and I watched the pressure reduce from 110 to 90, then down to 81.  At the first pull out, I got out, checked the pressure which was 112.  When I unscrew the monitor, then put it back on, the system usually returns to near the correct pressure.  I need to find out if this is happening to other Tire Traker systems, or if mine is just a lemon.

We stopped just inside Nevada at Boomtown Casino, where they have a nice RV park, that's now part of the KOA system.  We don't usually stay at KOA's, but this particular KOA gives discounts to retired military, police, and firefighters.  We had to walk up to the Casino, since the shuttle wasn't available, but in retrospect, after all of the eating at the rally, we needed a little exercise.  We had a late lunch in the Casino, then walked over to Cabellas.  The collection of dead animals in these stores is always pretty impressive.  It's worth a visit for that feature alone.

From here,  this morning we're heading a little farther east on I80 into Reno, then north on Hwy 395.  Driving the motor home, or my Harley on the east side of the Sierras, is always a treat, as I've always liked the high desert, sagebrush country.

Grass Valley Fairgrounds RV park - $30  Cumulative $140
Total miles - 82  Cumulative - 1,060