RENO

The weather continued to cooperate with clear skies, hot sun and cool breeze. We took advantage of it with a trip to downtown Reno. It is a beautiful, clean city with lots of new or refurbished buildings. Virginia Street, the main street of Reno

Interesting structures

We spent some time cruising a couple of the casinos, then walked 4 or 5 blocks to the Truckee River. We walked a couple more blocks along the river to the Riverfest. The festival was relatively small with the usual assortment of food booths, kids jumping things, vendors of various objects and services, and live entertainment. The festival also offered kayak races. These are some shots of the slalom course. From where we were standing on the bridge, each gate with the readable number was entered backward (upstream), while each with the crossed out number was entered forward (downstream).

The water was very swift and choppy. Each pole touched with body or paddle lost 2 seconds. Each gate missed lost 50 seconds.

Next to the steps is someone catching some rays. The pic shows how high the water is.

confluence of the two branches of the Truckee

These kayakers are practicing for another contest called Run Amuck, a freestyle competition. They are practicing somersaults. See what they're wearing? That water is COLD!

After watching for a while, we wandered through the festival on our way back to Virginia St. We stopped at a Subway for a bottle of water and bought a paper. Duane tried his luck at the El Dorado poker table and I sat outside with the water and the paper. (The casino won.) Back at the truck we found our way out of downtown and into the outskirts in search of lunch and a WalMart, then home.

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane