Whenever we travel to/through the state of Nevada I can’t help but relive a few childhood memories.  I grew up in a blink of a town known as Gardnerville, which is about 45 minutes south of Reno.

El Cardonal. Just over 1,000 miles south of the U.S./Mexico border is the town of Cabo San Lucas and just about an hour north of Cabo is the town of Los Barriles. And if you drive another hour or so beyond that, you’ll arrive in El Cardonal.

Greetings from Ashland.  Ashland, is just 15 miles north of the California/Oregon border.  A town of about 22,000 residents, Ashland is home to the world renowned Oregon Shakespeare Festival, Southern Oregon University, Lithia Park (a 93-acre park in the heart of town), the Ashland Independent Film Festival, the awesome Rogue River, over 60 wineries and the list goes on.

Remember?  I am a lover of history, especially American history and the settling of the American west, so you’ll understand why today’s (Saturday, May 21) history tour was a HUGELY happy day for me.

East to Wyoming.  Once we settled in to our rental house, in Ashland, we had about six weeks to call our own before we had to get down to business.  What to do?!  What to do?!  Road Trip!

Way back in another lifetime when we were much (much) younger, we were married in Honolulu, HI.  Just the two of us, a judge, and the judges’ clerks who served as our witnesses.  It wasn’t a formal wedding by any stretch of the imagination, but it was our wedding and it stuck!

Yosemite has been a big huge significant influential part of our lives.  I’ve lost track of how many times we’ve visited Yosemite, long before the days of digital, that’s for certain.  Many, many years ago we took to traveling for the 4-day Thanksgiving weekend, almost always to the Sierra’s, the CA gold country and many visits to Yosemite.

October 8 & 9, 2004 – Abi and I rented a car and quickly learned to drive on the “wrong” side of the road.  Actually, it wasn’t the driving that was the hard part, it was turning on the blinker when you wanted the windshield wiper!  Everything is opposite of what you know, that’s the challenge!  Oh, and driving round-abouts when you’re on the wrong side of the road, those are tough.  We drove our rental to the Tongariro National Park, the land of the Lord of the Rings.