Reno!

Nothing pretty about this town - in the desert- lots of Casinos -very hot!!  Went to Ihop for breakfast and then checked out the nearest mall. In between the supermarket and the Muffin shop (where they have Monday Muffin Madness on a Tuesday) was a line of poker machines. Crazy!! We went to the huge Atlantis Casino and found you could lose $20 even quicker in Reno than in Australia :)  Hit the road heading north and saw squirrels and deer...the latter leaping across the road. Beats kangaroos. We went to Lassen National Park and you guessed it - more long hilly windy roads but nothing like those ones leading to Tahoe thank God! There was heaps of snow up there and magnificent views. We are  now in Redding after covering  240 miles (386 kms). This doesn't sound much but doing 55 to 60 mph in this bus feels like you are doing 100 mph and the wind gusts are incredible so it is a bit of a fight to stay on the road in places.Also the mountain climbs slow us way down as the speed limit is 25 mph in some places. Bugs#197   As a footnote another person died after falling off a cliff in Yosemite National Park yesterday. Apparently they average 15 deaths a year and have already had15 so far this year.