Disaster Strikes
Driving a car that is over 30 years old almost guarantees that something is going to go wrong.
Tag United States of America
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This Is More Like It
Finally, a day that is not completely on the road. After front loading a large amount of our travels yesterday, we enjoy a light travel day from Columbia to St. Louis.
Going With The Wind
Look, earthquakes I grew up with. I get that. Even hurricanes I've learned to live with. But tornados? Thats something different that I do not understand. I think they have sharks in them and they take you to Oz?
Cowboys and Engines
Day 2 in Wyoming was just a continuation of delightful traveling from Rock Springs, on down highway 80. There continued to be new and exciting rock formations interspersed with grazing cows. For all the boot shops and references to cowboys, Wyoming can be quite refined.
Wyoming, From Highway 80
WE LOVE WYOMING. This has been (aside from highway 1) our favorite stretch to ride. Rock formations flank highway 80, making scenery watching of greater interest than getting from point A to point B. Also in Wyoming's favor is that it isn't as mind meltingly hot as California, Nevada, and Utah. Still, we were in a rush. We stayed in Rock Springs for little other reason than we were too tired to make it to Lincoln.
Utah
I'll be frank, we rushed through Utah. When we left Elko in the morning, we had nothing but visions of Park City dancing in our head—home to the 2002 Winter Olympics and at an elevation that it must provide some respite from the summer heat. Little did we think of the salt flats between us and Park City. Like the Fellowship of the Ring on their way to Mt. Doom (except a nice Mt. Doom with trees and flowers and ski lifts) we faced overwhelming trials. Lacking air conditioning, we rolled down our windows and were treated to what I can only imagine a chicken must experience in a convection oven. Fortunately, growing up in a family that did not believe in air conditioning, I knew the drill. We had bought a spray bottle during our stay at Walmart and now I let the convection heat evaporate misted water from our skin. It's like sweating but ten times more effective.
Camping In Elko
Elko is the center of a current gold rush. Billboards specifically target miners, wether they promote shops, hotels, or casinos. Most any establishment has "gold," "bonanza," "mine," or some other term associated with gold wealth. We had hoped to get a tour of one of the active mines, but, alas, we were there on a day where there were no tours.
If You’re Going To Winnemucca
Oh, I know. I know. You are so jealous. And yes, Winnemucca was everything I could have hoped and dreamed of. Its our first day back on the road, and our first order of business was to play Johnny Cash's rendition of "I've Been Everywhere" on loop. For those not in the know, the song begins:
Restocking
We had to loop back to Grass Valley to pick up a few last items we had left with friends. With a few lessons learned, we laid out the back of the van in a more thoughtful way with rugs, a mattress on the floor, plastic storage drawers as dressers, and a cooler, easily accessible in the back. I guess the means we are ready for the first leg of our real trip...
Los Angeles
I know some people might baulk if I were to say that we were "trapped" in Los Angeles. Maybe I'll say that we were detained? There was a small matter of a broken break light and air conditioner that led us to entrust our beloved Dodgy to one of the few mechanics in LA that would even touch a car from the 80s. Good man that he was, finding replacement parts for an '86 van is no small feat and what we had anticipated as a stay of a few days in LA turned out to be two weeks. In the end, while there was still more work to do on the air conditioning, we liberated the van from the shop so that we could continue our trip...with the windows down.