Needless to say I did not sleep very well. I guess along with the alcohol, I was worried about the weather getting worse & me being snowed in. That would be truely awful as there would be nothing for me to do. Skiing alone is not an option for me and with the weather due to really worsen on the weekend, I had no choice but to get out.

When having breakie, there was no snow, but as soon as I finished packing up, it started. Only tiny droplets, but there had been a fair amount overnight already. Dear lordie I would have to drive in it. The lady at reception was so helpful & phoned to get the weather reports for me... chains were required. Ugh! I bought some at Longs Drugstore, but they could/would not fit them for me. The road (28) was bearable until I got to the north rim, around Crystal Bay area & then I had to stop & pay someone to fit the bloody chains. I was going so slowly, barely reaching 25mph in some places, and there were queues behind me. Tough!

Well I managed to make it to the 50 going east to Carson City. Here the roads were clear and I had to stop & remove the chains. I think I may become an expert at this during the remainder of the holiday.

I can imagine that Vegas will look like this, only on a much larger scale obviously. It is a widespread city, set in a valley between huge, snow filled mountains. The mist was hugging the mountains earlier and you could not see the peaks. The tourist info lady was helpful in advising me the best route to Vegas and the Grand Canyon.

I decided to take a trip 18 miles south to Gardenerville to see if I could look up Francis (uncle's ex wife). The road was good, and fairly busy & there were great views of the surrounding mountains. The weather was clear & very warm & sunny. I did not expect Gardenerville to be quite so large and after visiting the library to check the phone book, I realised there was no way to look up Francis without address or phone number.

I drove approx 10 miles north of Carson City to Virginia City which is an old gold mining town. It was pretty cool & some of the buildings & the church were rather lovely.

I had dinner at Reds which was across the car park. My server was Ryan who kept saying how wonderful my accent was and then that it was such a very, very great pleasure to serve me. Funny!!