Hitting the road, within about 15 minutes we started getting a bit of a dusting of light snow flakes... How nice, we thought, a little snow...
On we travelled... Not wanting to get stuck in Kanab for days if the snow set in... We can get through a little snow we thought... Then a little more snow... Then a little more snow... Then...
And than we quickly got to the point that there was too much snow to turn back, or in fact go anywhere but in the wheel tracks ahead of us... And things got very slow...
And trucks were stopped on hills because they could not make it to the top... And traffic got thinner and thinner... And there were cars in ditches... Fortunately when we finally got to the top of the range we had to go over, when we were pondering if in fact attempting to go down was a good idea, we came upon a snow plough coming the other way who turned around and helped clear the path... And yes, below is a cop checking on a car covered in snow that must have got stuck trying to get up the other side... Some time ago...
Eventually we were out and underway proper... Once in Nevada I for some reason elected to make our day even more interesting... On discovering the town of Ely was over 100 miles away and our gas was getting down, rather than turning back to the last gas station we passed, I summarily decided we had enough to get there... And spent the next hour and a half blasting along endless straight bits of road, slowly getting increasingly nervous as the needle dropped and dropped... And with literally no cars passing the other way. Or going in our direction. And passing about one farm house every 15 miles... The fuel light came on as we passed a sign saying the next junction (not town, just junction) was 23 miles away... So I decided there must be a gas station at the junction, because they always have warnings if it is THAT far between gas stations... We got there with the needle square on 'E'... No gas station. And over 20 miles to town... Hmm... At that point I had to bite the bullet... I pulled in to the only building for miles, a run down little roadhouse bar, and went and asked for gas... Sure enough they had some... But the guy said his boss only let him sell gas in 5 gallon amounts... And only for more than twice as much as the gas stations... With other choice, I bought 5 gals of gas for forty bucks... Which did seem a lot, til we realised that is probably still cheaper than at home from a legitimate thieving gas station. I asked if they had many people stopping asking for gas... "Oh yeah, probably a couple of hundred a year... Most days..." Nice little racket being a black market gas station.
And what we then discovered, once fuelled and cracking along again, was that in Nevada there is a lot of really not very much... A couple of semi ok and mildly interesting little towns... But mostly, just a whole heap of prairies, plains, and then mountains, and then plains, and then mountains... Seriously... All day...
Note to self, when looking out for cops, do not look for white Utah Highway Patrol cars after you have crossed into Nevada... Their cars are black... Ok, so I can't really feel too bad for getting a speeding ticket while driving a white Challenger down the longest straight piece of road I have ever driven on in my life. I had, not long before, been thinking about how I could and should really be doing at least 100mph to do the car and the road any justice, because the speed limits are just stupidly low for huge, empty roads. Fortunately I was not doing 100mph... Annoyingly though, while I was slowing down a bit for most oncoming cars, which we could see from miles away on the flats, the Highway Patrol got me as I came over a rise, and I was so busy thinking about something else I didn't slow down like I usually would have, or even register him until his lights came on... He was nice enough though... He reduced the mph on the ticket, and after issuing it gave some handy advice about acceptable levels of speeding in Nevada. I am sure he has no shortage of customers as most Americans seem to regard the limits as optional
After that, endless more ten and fifteen mile straights linked by minor bends, on and on, and over more mountains... With little to see or do we forged ahead, not really intending to reach Reno, but with no reason to stop, until sure enough there we were, six hundred miles later, and still in daylight thanks to my heavy foot. Finding a motel or hotel proved nigh on impossible though, with a huge volleyball tournament and various other things taking up most of the hotels, and some of the places we did check out proving to be entirely too scummy even for us. Eventually after some frustration, we found a spot with one room left due to a cancellation... Not flash... Not at all... Smelling of smoke, next to the freeway.. But not quite so full of drug dealers and such, which is nice. Reno, great first impression.
Anyways, too lazy to write much more and too tired to write it even vaguely well, so will stop being boring and end your suffering... Hi to all, and thanks for all the emails and such to says you are reading, hard to believe so many people keep coming back for some reason! Til next time...
No comments:
Post a Comment