We drove the journey: 860 miles one-way. On the way there we spent the night the Sparks, Nevada. Sparks is just east of Reno. We stayed in a little inn just a few blocks away from where my wife lived with her family for quite a few years, when her Dad taught at the University of Nevada.
On the way back, we stayed in Carlin, Nevada, a little town about 20 miles west of Elko. We had good weather all the way and while we were there. I hope to post a few pictures in the coming days.
We prayed a decade of the rosary every 100 miles, which was nice and mercifully easy to get the children to do with us. We even spent discussing the meaning of the Luminous mysteries. We also talked about a fundamental theological matter. My oldest son asked if identical twins, who start out as the same fertilized egg before splitting in two, and who are always the same gender, as opposed to fraternal twins, also share a soul before the split? The answer, of course, is "No," but it was a surprising question and an interesting discussion.
My four year-old had the quote of the trip. He was in the very back of the van with his older brother, when suddenly I hear him ask, "Why don't you want to see my utters!?" He was also concerned as we went into California and we were being asked about produce we had in the car. Being a sometimes cucumber (like Larry), he thought he might be in for a bit of trouble. He also took to calling everyone "my precious" for the better part of a day after listening to an audio book of The Hobbit.
Veni Sancti Spiritus, veni per Mariam.