"Keep your friendships in repair."
~ Samuel Butler
"The road to a friend's house is never long."
~ Danish Proverb
One of my early ideas when I created my Updated Bucket List for YEAR 77 was to select a few "long-distance" friends and arrange a trip (Harley ride, or car if Bonnie elected to go) to visit them. I did a Harley ride to Monroe, Oregon to visit Dennie & Alison in September, Bonnie and I traveled to Mesquite in late March where we visited with Linda, Quent & Barbara, Walt & Bev, and Paul R & Geneal.
It had been a long time (over two years) since we had visited with Jon & Maridee, so we planned a June trip to Reno to visit with them. As it turned out, other of our good friends were able to drive to Reno and join us; Grant & Finch from Yuba City and Quent & Barbara from Logan. The main agenda for this trip, like the earlier trips, was simply visiting and catching up on everyone's family. This group, and others, are truly long-term friends. Some have known each other since high school and others since college. Even though we all live in different parts of the country, we have kept in touch all these years. All are members of the Sigma Zonk Fratority. Among other things, we have Zonk gatherings every 5 years, and Mini-Zonks every year. This gathering in Reno might be called a Mini-Mini-Zonk.
Travel to Reno - Bonnie & I left Monrovia about 8:00 am on Sunday, June 10th and drove to Reno using Highways CA-14 out to the Palmdale area, then onto US-395 around Ridgecrest, and onto I-580 when we were about 35 miles from our hotel, the Atlantis Casino Resort. It was 475 miles and a little over a 9-hour trip including a stop for lunch in Lone Pine. We checked into the hotel about 5:00 pm and they asked if we wanted a high floor. We said we would rather be on a low floor, and after searching her files the clerk said she could get us on the seventh floor, room 703. I've shown an image of the Atlantis Hotel below. I can tell I'm getting old because the hotel is very large, and finding a place to park and getting our luggage to the room was initially frustrating to me. However, the rooms are very nice, the casino, restaurants, etc. are well-organized and clean, and the food and service are excellent. Below the image of the hotel is
an image of the famous "Biggest Little City in the World" sign.
We called Jon & Maridee after unloading our luggage, and then drove to their home - just about 10 minutes from the hotel (Google Maps actually said it was a 7 minute drive). After some hellos and hugs, they gave us a tour of their lovely home. It has a really nice layout with 3 bedrooms (giving Jon an office and still leaving a guest room). It has a great patio and an impressive, well-maintained yard. Quent & Barbara and Dave P & Kathy arrived a little after us and we all sat out on the back patio for cocktails and a chicken dinner (with trimmings) that had been prepared by Jon & Maridee. Kathy contributed deviled eggs and a birthday cake for her dad (she had taken him golfing on the prior Friday for his birthday). Millie joined in the photo below with Jon, but I never got a photo of Mollie.
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Monday - We met Quent & Barbara in the Purple Parrot at the hotel for a light breakfast, then met Jon & Maridee. We were able to squeeze all six of us into Barbara's car and Jon drove us downtown Reno. We walked through a park where there was a large art presentation of a whale, and had a great lunch at the Wild River Grille.
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After lunch we visited the National Automobile Museum to view the Harrah Collection. The first photo below is Maridee filling out a bunch of raffle tickets she purchased (she bought one for each of us) hoping to win the 1993 Corvette shown in the other photo.
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The museum had a wonderful collection of cars, including probably every manufacturer from the early 1900s, all in extremely fine condition and shown in a very well-organized display. I had a model car collection as a youngster and my favorite was a Stutz Bearcat. The first photo in the 2nd row is a Mercer, a strong competitor to Stutz, and the second photo is me standing by a red 1913 Stuz Bearcat. The last photo in the 2nd row was an unbelievable car to see. It is a 1921 Rolls-Royce Silver Ghost with the body assembled using full sheets of solid copper.
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After our tour of the auto museum, Barbara and Maridee went shopping for some special deals at the Total Wine store and the rest of us went back for naps and other exciting activities. Early evening we met back at Jon & Maridee's home for cocktails, and then went to the Casa Grande Mexican Restaurant for a good dinner. By this time we were getting pretty-well caught up with everyone's current aches, pains, other ailments, and current medications - one of the main topics of conversation these days.
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Tuesday - Again this morning we met the Coverts at the Purple Parrot for a breakfast fruit dish. The Fulkersons came to the hotel about 10:00 am and the six of us rode up to Lake Tahoe with Jon as the chauffeur. Lake Tahoe, and the surrounding area, is beautiful and a fun place to visit. I've been to the Lake on many occasions for relay runs with the Foothill Flasher Running Team and on a couple of Harley trips. The photos in the 2nd row below were taken at Emerald Bay in 2014 on my Harley trip to the Lake.
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While viewing some of the great Lake Tahoe scenery, we stopped for a beer at the Lone Eagle Grill at Incline Village. We got a table lakeside and enjoyed the nice weather and the view of the Lake. See the first two photos below. Then we drove to South Lake Tahoe and went in the Riva Grill for a nice lunch - the third photo below.
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Tuesday evening Bonnie & I and Quent & Barbara went to Jon & Maridee's home about 6:00 pm. Grant & Finch arrived at the hotel around 7:00 pm and after checking in were at the Fulkerson's by about 7:30. We had new input to our visiting now that Grant & Finch had arrived and we told stories and had some good laughs. The first photo below is Grant at the bench on the up-slope in the Fulkerson's back yard giving us all a blessing. The other photos are before and during a great turkey-burger dinner prepared by Jon & Maridee.
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Wednesday - Grant & Finch joined Bonnie & I and Barbara & Quent at the Purple Parrot for breakfast (the Parrot became a breakfast habit). Next there was shopping at Total Wine (gifts to take home) and then a little gambling back at the Atlantis; as serious as they look, I don't think the gamblers beat the system (maybe Barbara did alright). I couldn't find Grant so he may have been winning. After contributing to the Atlantis coffers, the girls went shopping at Macy's.
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One of Kathy & Dave's favorite restaurants is the Gas Light, not far from Jon & Maridee's home, and Kathy made dinner reservations for all 10 of us Wednesday evening. The food was great and the atmosphere perfect for visiting with a bunch of friends. We noticed that the restaurant sign included a reference to Friends.
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What a fun evening and a great visit with friends. Overall it was a wonderful trip to Reno and we thank Jon & Maridee for their hospitality - and it was neat to see Kathy & Dave and that they could join us on a couple of the evenings.
Travel to Big Bear - Bonnie & I left the Atlantis a little after 7:00 am on Thursday morning and headed for Big Bear Lake. We left Reno on I-580, merged into Highway 395 for the longest section of our trip. At about 380 miles we turned onto CA-58 and drove to the I-15 and CA-247 junction. It's 60 miles on CA-247 to our cabin in Big Bear, where we arrived a little after 4:00 pm. Despite going to Big Bear rather than home in Monrovia, the trip mirrored our earlier drive; it was about 9 hours and 470 miles. Our group texted later to confirm that everyone had completed their trip safely.
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Below are those of this year's Reno group, but the photos are from the 50th Sigma Zonk Fratority Reunion held in Logan in 2012. First photo is of our Reno hosts, Jon & Maridee.
The remainder of the Reno group - Barbara & Quent, Bonnie & Ron, Finch and Grant.
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