Travel

Okay, I might as well tell everyone about the great road trip. I guess we have to look at it as our first official act as a retired person. Okay, let’s set the stage: We have two graduations, two birthday parties and an anniversary celebration – all in the month of May. In four states, including Florida. Of course, one could always fly to all those events, but hey, we’re poor retired folk now, so we drive. Then of course, there is only one car – a Mazda Miata. Ride like a go kart, trunk the size of a band aid box, and well, small. But hey, where’s the adventure in driving a Lincoln Continental across country? Anyone could do that. As I type this, we are at the end of the first day. We are enjoying the hospitality of a Holiday Inn Express in beautiful Winnemucca, Nevada. Weinnemucca is famous for exactly nothing as far as we can tell, but the name seems to indicate some sort of Native American roots. We should hang out in town tomorrow and discover all the history that I’m sure oozes from this place, but alas, we are off again tomorrow. Perhaps another day. Aside from our eventful ending, the trip out was pretty un-eventful. We stopped at friends in Danville to pick up Liz’s cell phone. Left there yesterday during a very nice dinner which turned out to be a retirement party. We also stopped in Rocklin, a couple of hours down the road, to have lunch with a friend. Then, it was hell bent for leather down the road for Winnemucca (in case you are wondering, I’m getting my spelling from the excellent 1/4¨ thick phone book). One big discovery: Highway 80 over Donner Pass is ROUGH, presumably due to all the tire chains that go over that route during winter. When you are riding in a sheet steel and aluminum tin can on wheels, it is also LOUD. Anyway, it’s that way over the pass, then it’s all downhill, literally, through Reno and on to the middle of Nevada. Windy, flat and interesting, in a dry lake sort of way. Lot’s of small little villages off the side of the road. You wonder what people do who live there, aside from drink beer and adjust the height of their 4x4s. Little casinos. Billboards advertising the latest housing developments of cheap houses where you can live the good life in the middle of nowhere. Going 80 miles per hour and having huge pickup trucks blow by carrying dirt bikes and snowmobiles. So, that is the entire eventful day. Lot’s of driving and staring down a long straight road. It was marvellous.