Beautiful Highway 49 - Snowmygoodness!

We took the long way home from Bullards Bar by driving down Highway 49.  It was a beautiful drive!  The rivers are full and the snow is still piled up.  Here are a few pictures we took on the side of the road.  That is a whole lot of snow for mid-April.

 

Bullards Bar!

After visiting Nevada City on Saturday we headed down highway 49 towards Bullards Bar Reservoir.  Bullards Bar is my favorite lake.  It was built in the 1970s when a dam was built on the North Fork of the Yuba River.   Bullards Bar is the perfect place for wakeboarding and fun in the sun.  During the summer the lake’s beautiful emerald green water is right around 70 degrees.  The water was pretty high yesterday but I imagine it will get higher once the snow melts more.  We sat at the Emerald Cove Marina and had a drink before getting back in the car to head home.  Can’t wait to wakeboard there this summer!

Love love love the emerald water!

Fire damage from last year.

 

Wish I was sponsored by Emerald Cove and Diet Coke

Mission to Return Nevada City Mementos

Back in 2008 I bought my first house.  Richard, who owned the house before me, was older and had passed away, so his sister Gail was selling the house and handling the estate.  After closing escrow Gail left me a lot of Richard’s property that she didn’t want.  She told me I could keep what I wanted and donate the rest to charity.  Gail was very kind and this was a big break for me.  Since I was a first time homebuyer I didn’t have any furniture, washer, dryer or refrigerator, so it helped me out big time to inherit an almost completely furnished house.  Over the last few years I have gone through the items left with the estate, I kept some stuff and donated the rest to charity.

National Hotel

When going through everything I came upon a framed program and an article about Richard and his family and I could tell it was from a very important moment in his life.  Richard’s family used to own the National Hotel in Nevada City.  I could tell that the framed program and article were very important to Richard so I decided I needed to take them back to the National Hotel in Nevada City.  On Saturday my mother and I decided to take a road trip to Nevada City to finally return these mementos to the National Hotel.

When we got to Nevada City we checked in at the Chamber of Commerce visitor center.  The lady there was very nice and she told us to go to the National Hotel and ask for Tom.  We were on a mission so she pointed us in the right direction and we were on our way.  I didn’t expect anyone at the hotel to know Richard and I thought they may not want these mementos but I felt it was worth a shot.  I am so glad I went on this mission because it turned out that Tom at the hotel was great friends with Richard before he passed away.  He was thankful that I brought him the frames and he told me a few stories about Nevada City and Richard.  It was so surreal because Tom had actually been to my house when Richard owned it and Tom was listed on the framed program that honored Richard that I was returning to the hotel.   It was fun to meet someone that knew Richard since he was one of those people that I never met yet he has helped me a great deal.

Inside the National Hotel

It felt very rewarding to do a good deed by returning the National Hotel keepsakes to the rightful owner.  I felt like I was finally able to show my appreciation to Richard by returning the keepsakes to Nevada City. 

My mom and I had a great day trip.  The sun was out and it was very warm.  Nevada City is a beautiful place and all the flowers are starting to bloom so it finally feels like Spring has arrived.  This is a lovely town to visit with lots of nice friendly people.  The architecture is stunning and the buildings and homes have been well preserved.  Here are some pictures I took along the way…   

 

Atlas Shrugged Movie Review

Review – Fantastic!  Go see it and read the book!  5 out of 5 stars!

Tonight I saw "Atlas Shrugged Part 1" at the Riverside Theater in downtown Reno.  It was a fantastic movie and stayed very true to the book which I finished reading about a month ago.  The movie takes place in the United States during 2016 and stars Taylor Schilling as Dagny Taggart and Grant Bowler as Hank Rearden.  The movie is based on the best-selling book by Ayn Rand, "Atlas Shrugged."  According to the Ayn Rand Institute over 7.5 million books have been sold since 2009.  Not too shabby for a book written in 1957.

My mother read "Atlas Shrugged" in 2009 while we were on a family vacation.  All throughout the vacation she would tell me “you need to read this book” but then she would follow up with “but not right now because it will depress you.”  I produce a political television show so I am involved in politics and I follow the political scene on a local and national level which often frustrates me.  She knew the book would upset me because so much of the book is similar to what is happening in our country politically right now. 



Book Cover



In the fall of 2010 I finally started reading the book.  It was about 1,200 pages and took me several months.  I had to stop reading the book numerous times because it made me mad and I started to stress out because it is so much like what we face right now in our country that I would start to wonder if we are heading towards total collapse like in the book.  I also started having thoughts that maybe I should become a “striker” because I am tired of supporting the “looters” that abuse the system.  I finally finished the book a month ago just in time to see the movie released today April 15, 2011.

The movie was almost sold out tonight, which is funny because we had to demand via email that it be shown in Reno.  Originally they had no intention of opening the movie at any of our theaters.  I think there were maybe 5 or 6 open seats in the whole theater at the 6:55pm showing.  My mom and I went to dinner and then got to the theater an hour early so we could visit and make sure we had good seats.  We were glad we got there early since the place was packed.  It was a unique crowd, everyone was very nice and polite and it felt like we were watching the movie with a highly educated group because they got the jokes that not everyone would get unless they were well educated.  A gentleman and his wife and friends came and sat next to us, it turned out he  was one of our state Senators.  I didn’t recognize him until he said his name because it was so dark in the theater.  I also saw a coworker and one of the co-hosts from the show I produce.   You’ve got to love Nevada because it is such a small state that you often run into people you know and it is common to run into legislators randomly.

I highly recommend "Atlas Shrugged Part 1."  The movie was very well written and stayed surprisingly true to the book, which I imagine was a real challenge since it is such a complex, detailed and lengthy book.  There were of course things missing and some of the developments in the book were left out but they did a great job making the movie.  I thought the cast was perfect for the characters, especially Hank Rearden and Dagny Taggart, they were just like I pictured them while reading the book.  I pictured Francisco d’Anconia having a thicker accent but the actor still did a great job.  The scenes of the launch of the John Galt Line and the fire at Ellis Wyatt’s Oil Field were well captured.



Movie Poster



I read today that they only spent $10 million making the movie which was surprising because it looked just like some of the big budget films I have seen.  They saved a lot of money by casting people that were not big A-list stars which was also a benefit because the star power wasn’t a distraction from the message of the movie.  This was a very high quality film that was made with a small budget.   

The movie is the first out of a 3 part series.  The second part comes out on April 15, 2012 and then the third part on April 15, 2013.  I can’t wait to see the next part of the movie and I highly recommend the book and the movie because they are both very thought provoking.