On The Road Again

We just couldn't get enough of the 20 hour drive from Loveland, CO to Monterey, CA so we decided to do it again. This time we took Nanook with us. He is a 10 year old husky. How many more chances will he get to visit the ocean? He was an excellent rider, especially when he realized that we weren't going to dump him off at someone's house for a long period of time. Lucy was also a super traveller. I think she has it in her blood. She is already an expert plane traveller. She didn't complain once having to sit for 13 hours straight. She doesn't need to be entertained by movies and she only made the occasional request for Dan Zanes and The Alphabet of Nations by They Might Be Giants, but who wouldn't?
All she really needed to keep her entertained for many, many hours was her bike helmet and a stuffed cat named Mary Poppins, whose last name is Bubbles.

This time we decided to to take the I-80 route through Wyoming, Utah and Nevada. Not the most exciting stretch of America. We saw some bison and antelopes in Wyoming and a lot of wind farms but many more petroleum plants. We saw about 20 deer carcasses on the road in Utah, stopped at Echo Canyon that had no echo and much to my chagrin, Bell bypassed the only rest area located on the Bonneville Salt Flats.
Lucy at Echo Canyon with Mary Poppins Bubbles


Morton Salt Mines


Bonneville Salt Flats

Why I get all excited about salt flats and not, say, the Sierra Nevadas, I will never know. And Nevada, what can I possibly say about Nevada except, see ya. The only interesting blip in this state is Deeth Starr Valley.
Sadly, I come to find out that it is not a commune of overzealous Star Wars fans who were shunned from normal society for their fanatical need to dress up as Princess Leia and Chewbaca. No, all it is is a small town called Deeth located in Starr Valley. But seriously, what a coincidence, right? Or maybe Bell and I are the only people who get a chuckle out of this? Anywho... Instead of blazing through the night we made the decision to stop at a motel for the night. Bell said this made him feel very old. Spending the night in a somewhat clean motel with the family because there was just not enough mojo to push on until dawn--this is what Bell finds emasculating. It's better than hitting a deer at night. The bustling town of Elko, Nevada had little to offer us except video poker and $4.50 a gallon gas. That may have been the cheap stuff.

Finally we make it to California, in the throes of a heat wave, yay! First we had to make the prerequisite stop at the summit of Donner Pass where Bell had to tastefully (pardon the pun) reenact the tribulations of the Donner Party.
It was 86 degrees on the summit. By the time we made it to Sacramento it was touching 100. The drive through the Salinas Valley topped at 108. Then we made the blessed turn down Highway 101. The temps began to quickly fall and the scent of eucalyptus was in the air. When we finally reached Monterey it was sunny and 58 degrees.
It's good to be back.