[Michael C Henry]

Are you planning on a straight through drive ? I5 down to shasta or all back roads. I've made the drive several times .Two gas stops makes it an 12 hour drive using I5 from Tacoma.My perferred route is leave mid morning to midday. stop in Roseburg Motel 6 ,nice parking lot easy access, then down I5 to Shasta ,over through the woods to Susanville, then into Reno from the north. We've stayed in Susanville and Shasta .The worst part is Portland traffic at rush hour, try to avoid it.This way is all paved roads some scenery.The woods between Shasta and Susanville is great for mid day drive when warm. Stay clear of woods at night ,wildlife crossing roads. Straight trhough is a hard day of driving .not much conversation at either end.Any kind of a group would want some conversating and curousing, food and such and usually in a crowd law of averages ,something will happen to somebody in the group.There is a certain security in a group, but large groups clogg resturants and servive stations and no two cars can drive the same distance on a tank of gas. I have a twenty five gallon tank and only hope I can get the mileage I got when I drove the car home from Reno in 99. Gasoline gets higher in Oregon higher yet in California and redidiculus off I5.Susanville is a larger small town enough stations to get gas prices back to reality.
Once in Reno we have stayed many times at the Best Western south on Virginia ,South of the convention center.They have a pool in the center courtyard and only two floors.Nice and calm.Not like a casino.I like to go to a casino for a while but get tired of it quickly.Can only reccamend one casino buffet and not on the weekend. My experience comes from three Hot August nights and several drives to LasVegas.
Just how big of a deal is this turning into? How much driving ?socializing ? parking? How structured is it sofar? What kind of time and money are we anticapating spending?