Day 18

Day 18 – Friday – July 12, 2013

0700 Wake up

0825 Loaded and leaving the house

Stop at McD’s for breakfast. Is this my first McD’s iced coffee of the trip? It might be.  Stop at the ATM.

1001 Leave Mountain Home.

1009 Train. First one we’ve seen in awhile.  This one has a lot of double-stacked cars.

1019 Sunny. Clear blue skies. 80 degrees.

1037 BOB96.1 is a good station for driving music.

1055 Gas, $3.77/gallon. The car in front of us has a SLO/Cal Poly Alum license frame.

1113 Leaving. That was a long break. I updated the blog and our Facebook status while we were stopped.

1125 Chicken Dinner Road

1132 Where am I?  While we are stopped at a construction zone I check my phone map to get a better idea.

1134 Still waiting for our turn to go.  Might as well put on some sunscreen.  Lots of sun coming in the windows today.

1138 Finally moving again.

1143 Snake River

1145 Sign at the laundromat says “Will work for quarters”. Marsing, ID

1150 Cows

1154 US Ecology Idaho Waste site. I wonder what they have there.  (Google tells me it is LowLevelWaste – a category of miscellaneous nuclear waste)

12:10 p.m. Oregon state line.  We are greeted by 55 mph zone and a sign warning that this is a ticket zone.  In the middle of nowhere!

12:11 p.m. Open Range next 122 miles

12:18 p.m. 4,643 ft elevation

12:21 p.m. Cow Creek

12:32 p.m. Next gas in 100 miles. Jordan Valley

12:34 p.m. Map shows that we are barely into Oregon.  At 55 mph we might never make it out again!

12:49 p.m. Lewis Clark Trail  Historic Site

12:51 p.m. Snow-topped mountain on the horizon gives me hope that the desert will end eventually.

12:52 p.m. Rock Creek.  No water, just rocks.

12:59 p.m. We’re losing our BOB radio with the good driving music. L

1:02 p.m. Police car headed the other way with its back lights flashing.

1:03 p.m. Snow zone

1:06 p.m. Owyhee River

1:07 p.m. Turn my MP3 player to “Hazy Shade of Winter” to help mentally cool us off.

1:31 p.m. Turn the GPS off.  It’s hot up in the window and I’m pretty sure we won’t get lost since this is the only road around.

12:32 p.m. Pacific Time Zone.  Now our ETA feels even farther off.

12:50 p.m. Dust devil

12:51 p.m. Grandma Duffield calls to check in.

12:52 p.m. Blue Mountain Pass, elevation 5,293 feet

1:15 p.m. Nevada state line and town of McDermitt.  Not much here but the token state-line casino.

1:16 p.m. 70 mph now.  Yay!

1:18 p.m. Paiute and Shoshone Indian Reservation. Driving through reservations always makes me sad.  They are so poor and lacking in natural resources.

1:35 p.m. Humboldt/Santa Rosa Mountain area looks interesting.  And it’s only 87 degrees here which is surprisingly cool.

1:46 p.m. Checking for a radio station. Nothing yet.

1:57 p.m. Paradise Summit, elevation 4,987 feet

2:11 p.m. Wind monster

2:21 p.m. Poke and Peek Hospital Auxiliary

2:28 p.m. Stop for gas at the Flying J. $3.69/gallon.  There is a Burger King here also.

3:04 p.m. Whoppers are hard to eat while driving.

3:09 p.m. Road is very bumpy and Rocco is being very grumpy.

3:14 p.m. End of the construction zone. Phew!

3:18 p.m. Rest area is closed.  The next rest area is not for another 76 miles! And there are no bushes to hide behind out here.  What are you supposed to do if you need a pit stop?!

3:22 p.m. Gold Corporation is hiring miners to work at Marigold Mine.

3:28 p.m. Some sort of crazy structure at exit 145.  What is it made of?  Rocks?  Giant antlers?

3:35 p.m. Pass 3 trucks full of livestock.  Were they pigs or blond cows?

3:40 p.m. Lost our radio again.

3:42 p.m. Rye Patch Recreation Area is a total desert.  Good thing we’re not planning on camping here tonight.

4:32 p.m. Fog may make roads icy.  Well, that would spice up this boring drive a bit.  No fog around though today.

4:36 p.m. Small dust devil crossing the highway

4:38 p.m. I have been seeing messages written with rocks alongside the road. I wonder if it’s for the pilots flying out of Fallon.

5:14 p.m. Arrive at Holiday Inn in Sparks.

6:50 p.m. Out to Barnes and Noble, dinner, and Petco.