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Enjoyment of the whispering winds, the zephyrs, the airstreams of the Sierra Nevada and Great Basin areas of the United States in a recreational vehicle.

Sierra Nevada Unit

SNU Rallies at Sweetwater Summit

July 2008 Rally Review

4 SNU, 2 guests - Total Rally Participation

Diane Leipper

What a great place, especially for viewing sunsets and moon risings. Wow! We were glad to welcome Larry and Oonagh Cameron, their 10 yr old son, Forest and 5 yr old daughter Brook. They have a 1970 Trade Wind. Larry and Forest have done a lot of work restoring and fixing the inside. A lot of little maintenance projects got done at this rally. The float on the Jeppson's generator got fixed and their winch got tied down. The Thornburg's satellite TV system got straightened out and functioning. The Leipper's fold out step got fixed so that it works for the first time in years. The Cameron's got a lesson on the use of sway bars and also a short course on awing purchasing, installation, and maintenance. This was also a great rally to test out generators. During the heat of the day we all retreated to our Airstreams and used generators to run the air conditioners so we could stay cool. The mornings and evenings were fantastic. Most of the rally we spent catching up on Jerry and Dyann's stories of their trip to Bozeman and visiting relatives in Montana and South Dakota. Jerry almost brought home a new pet, a huge Hereford bull. It wouldn't fit in the Airstream though (it weighed near two tons) so they left it on the ranch. We also heard about Janet Jeppson's recent trip to Germany and Austria with a choral group. Between concerts and performances, they also participated in a local parade in one town. Sweetwater was near where they were searching for Steve Fossett who disappeared in his plane last fall. We had search planes fly over us several times over the weekend. We had pot luck dinners Friday and Saturday. Saturday we were on alert though as a nice thunderstorm started to build up and we weren't sure if we'd have to make a dash for cover or not. Some nice thunder and some lightning but we ended up with only a few sprinkles as the storm passed to the south of us. The storm made for a most amazing sunset. Clouds with the sun for back lighting, shadows on the mountains, really spectacular. Sunday morning we got an unexpected treat. We had seen some horse trailers come into the area the night before. As we were enjoying our morning coffee here comes a horse and cart up the road. Two women going for a morning outing with their Belgian draft horse named Alex. He was a huge but very friendly horse and he had a very deep and loud whinny. His owner has had him since he was six years old, he is now 19, and he has participated in several parades and shows. Alex will be at a Bodie Ghost Town celebration later this summer. Looks like we picked the perfect time for this rally. We just barely got out in time on Sunday because the weather service issued a flash flood warning for Sweetwater Summit on Monday evening. I think we all look forward to a return visit to Sweetwater in 2009.

2008 Sweetwater Participants

June 2009 - Sweetwater Rally

8 SNU, 1 guest - Total Rally Participation

Diane Leipper

The June rally at Sweetwater Summit was a great success. We had a total of eight rigs. The main activity for this rally was amateur radio field day. We had four ham radio stations set up with five active operators. KD6UVT Don, KA7VLL Dave, KF6LOP Frank, KE7UVC Jerry, and K1CD Bryan. We also had one visiting ham, AD7RS George, who set up his station nearby. In addition we had visitors come up on Saturday and spend most of the afternoon with us. Ron and Linda Ott are not only Airstream owners, Ron is also a ham (W6XY). They live in Minden and just happened across our website with information on the rally and decided it was a great opportunity for a visit. Of the eight rigs at the rally, we were delighted to have Frank and Carol Colligan join us. They live near Grass Valley and were excited to find out about our Field Day rally at Sweetwater in the Blue Beret. SNU members at this rally included Jerry and Dyann, Roger and Janet, Scott and Icyl, Don and Gail and grandson Brandon, Dave, Anita, Bryan, and Diane. It has been about a year since we have seen Don and Gail and Icyl and Scott. We had a good time catching up on their news and adventures. Other than Field Day activities much of our time was spend just relaxing, swapping stories, hiking the nearby hills, and of course our shared meals on Friday and Saturday evenings. We were also able to have a campfire since there are no fire restrictions – yet. Another highlight of this rally was what happened to Jerry on his way back to camp after going to Yerington to get a new battery. Turned out to be a pretty expensive battery since between the store and the highway back to Sweetwater, he and Bryan spied an Airstream motorhome. They just had to stop and take a look. Jerry got back and told Dyann. The next day Jerry, Dyann and Roger went back for another look. Roger was supposed to help resist the temptation but he thought it was a pretty neat rig and a good deal too. So to make a long story short, it looks like Jerry and Dyann have added another Airstream to their fleet. On the way home Sunday, Jerry and Dyann, Bryan and Diane, and Dave stopped by for another look. Kind of looked liked the rally had just moved to town with three Airstreams parked near the motorhome. It was great having Frank and Carol and Ron and Linda visit with us at this rally. We hope to see all of them at a rally again sometime soon. All in all just about perfect weather, great company, beautiful rally site, good food made for a great weekend.

2009 Sweetwater Participants

June 2011 – Rally Review

5 SNU - Total Rally Participation

Diane Leipper

Our June rally at Sweetwater Summit was great as usual. By Friday we had five rigs at the rally, six counting the Bvan. Jerry says since Bryan was using it as a ham shack it could be counted as an independent rig. Rally participants included Jerry & Dyann, Bryan, Diane, Randy & Vicki, Roger & Janet, and Wes & Roy. Bryan had just gotten some radio equipment from Gary so this Field Day rally was the perfect time to test things out. Over the weekend, we finally figured out why most WBCCI Units schedule at least some activities for their rallies. People get into too much mischief sitting around brainstorming, swapping stories, and throwing out ideas. That's how the SNU ended up with inspirational naps, hap-hazzard parallel parking and, at this rally ideas about tatoos among other things. The highlight of the rally was Sunday morning when Bruce Rhymes flew down in his Cessna to visit us. He's the guy Randy and Vicki met at Ft Sage. We saw Bruce circle over us and we thought he was landing, then we noticed him circling again. Jerry drove over to pick him up. What had happened was there were cows on the landing strip and Bruce had to try and shoo them off, then had to wait for one who was walking down the center of the airstrip to move before he could land. Bruce's wife Kathy wasn't able to make this trip but we hope to meet her soon. Bruce is also a ham radio operator so he has a lot in common with the SNU. Also, as usual, we enjoyed our morning coffee and goodies and we had some great shared meals for dinner. Roger cooked a roast on his Cobb Cooker. It was the highlight of Saturday's dinner. Sunday it was time to head home and get ready for the next rally.

2011 Sweetwater Participants

June 2014 - Rally at Sweetwater Summit

4 SNU, 1 guests - Total Rally Participation

Diane Leipper

A Great rally at Sweetwater Summit. Five SNU members participated - Jerry & Dyann, Randy & Vicki, Warren & Merna, Baxter & Marlene and Bryan & Diane. Friday turned out to be a great day for kite flying. Randy finally got his $5 Winco kite airborne. Not only did he get it in the air, it stayed up and he was able to put it on auto-pilot. He tethered the kite to a rock then sat back in his chair enjoying his well earned success. Friday also saw the initiation of Jerry and Dyann's new oven. It is a propane powered camp oven with a stove top. The oven in their Airstream has never worked right so this provides an alternative. Lasagna was the test dish and I think we all agreed, the oven did a great job. One nice advantage of the camp oven is that since it is outside, you don't heat up the trailer when you use it. Saturday was field day for amateur radio. Since Don and Frank weren't able to make this rally, Bryan did his best to represent the SNU. He worked the bands in his mobile ham shack, the B-Van. Although he says band conditions were not real good, he did make several contacts. It appears that Sweetwater may not be a secret of the SNU and a few other groups much longer. For the first time, we had another group of RV'rs share the spot with us. The were surprised to find us up there and we were surprised to see them. They were scouting the area out for future rallies. In addition, a couple of men who had seen the SNU rally announcement in a local newspaper and contacted us, came up to check the site out for rallies of their own. Both are off road groups and although we'd hate to see that place get crowded it is a very good place for off road adventures. Our solar lights had a hard time competing with the clear night sky full of stars and good views of the milky way. Can't say we didn't try though. Randy has added a new string of lights to his collection and another one on top of "the thing". Jerry has a great collection of lights that change colors. Diane has a couple of strings of pink flamingo lights and a new flamingo solar light mobile that changes color. Baxter & Marlene have a free standing flamingo solar light. Warren & Merna's Airstream was the only one in the dark. They are new though so we didn't harass them too much. We know that will be remedied soon. It was quite a weekend for Randy. In addition to success with kites he said "the amazing thing about this rally for me is that I ended up with not a single squawk item. Nothing broke or malfunctioned. This is truly a first." Randy also thinks "that Sweetwater should be an annual for us just as Obsidian is. " Pretty good recommendation. Although Wheels and Doris were still on the road, we did discuss a little business. One discussion item was the draft of the 2015 rally schedule. We got some good comments and suggestions. Another was that 2015 dues are now being collected. Everyone at the rally renewed. All in all, a very nice weekend. Beautiful scenery, good friends, good food, and good times enjoyed by all.

2014 Sweetwater Participants

June 2015 - Rally at Sweetwater

4 SNU - Total Rally Participation

Diane Leipper

We had a little trepidation about what we would find at the Sweetwater rally site because of flash foods in the area the day before. Gary went in first since he has a 4wd truck. The only problem was a crevasse in the road. We all made it to the rally site, including Jerry and Dyann's MoHo, with no problems. The rally site was dry and solid. Jerry took on the crevasse as his community service project for the weekend with some assistance from Randy. Jerry discovered he couldn't fill the hole so he cleared and leveled the other side for easier access. Another rally activity was kite flying. Randy brought his kite and although the wind was a little sporadic, he did get it airborne. The temperature at Sweetwater, which is almost 7,000 ft, was about 10 degrees cooler than lower elevations which made for a very pleasant weekend. We did have a little system move through on Saturday just about dinnertime. Lots of thunder, a little rain, and even a little mushy hail. It cleared out quickly. Participants at this rally were Jerry & Dyann, Gary & Anita, Randy & Vicki and Bryan & Diane. This was a great weekend for relaxing with friends, taking walks here and there, starting the day with a nice campfire, enjoying some beautiful scenery, sharing some great meals, and being thankful for having some great locations for rallies. Check out the photo gallery of the Sweetwater rally.

2015 Sweetwater Participants

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