Road Trip!

 

 This was at the Brothers rest stop.  (which was awful!! all rest stops i stopped at were horrid, unheated pit toilets.)See those little black birds? There were two places where there were hundreds on the road, and they waited until the very last minute to MOVE and i hit bunches of them!!!! Bamm.. bamm-bamm, bamm. over and over, it was horrifying... and the road was horrid from here all the way to Burns.  Then bad off and on and heavy fog all the way to Winnemuca... then bare all the rest of the way, snow and rain and crap spit up by the freight trucks.. But the cloud formations were stunning

My car is a mess outside

And Bend had more snow than any of these other places..

Yep made it to Nevada.  Friend Carol H and i ,one time i flew to Iowa then we drove me back home to Oregon, but the looonnng way, took us 9 days and a part of that was on hwy 50 cited as " the loneliest road in America" and they were right, not much traffic or people or trees. and that is East to West.  this time i went north to south right down the middle. and let me tell you this was even worse and what is there is run down, shacky stuff, unpainted, weathered, lots of cars about, things just dropped and left where they fell. Everything closed and abandoned.  Of course there were big ranches off next to the mountains and could not tell what they were like.  Lots of cattle. but not much traffic at all.. and boy when i hit I-80 it was totally deserted, never have seen it that way, suppose it was because of all the snow in the sierras and they can't get thru, so were re directed. and why in the world do they have to put those work things out MILES from where the work is being done and then there are only a couple guys watching one guy doing something? so all the traffic has to drive slow for a long time single file with no passing...

This last picture was Great Smokey Valley in NV. past Austin on hwy on 376 and there was a UPS guy coming from the base of the mtns, some rancher back in there, in the canyons... now where was his warehouse? there is nothing big anywhere near there!!! It was a wonder.

Also along this road in Carters there was a HUGE gold mine and entrance and the tailings went on for miles and miles, all piles up and terraced and must have been 30 stories high!!! taller than Pilot Butte in Bend and there were many mtns of the stuff, all ground up/dirt?? rocks??? I mean the land has a beauty in its own way, but sure there is probably no use except to run cattle or sheep on it, but to just tear it up like that? then throw the stuff.... they are neat piles.... not like the rock strewn about in Sumpter in the river.. no pictures as no place to pull over and hard to get the immensity of it... And i am in a cheap little Travel Inn, But the bed and pillows are great and it is spic and span clean, even smelling clean going to try to let GPS lady guide me thru Las Vegas as  can't figure how to cleanly get around it and still go over that new Hoover Dam bridge... still trying to figure a way back home, that evades  395 snow and the way i just came and still not have to drive more than one night stay..

And that Austin is down in the bottom of a windy, narrow road going in and out and it sure was deserted, maybe just like that in winter and summer different, or COVID did them really bad.. it looked like only a small bar, was open, no open sign but trucks all parked out front, maybe just locals.. i remember all those little towns as bustling with little stores and antiques... but that was 9 years ago too. 

Had an oatmeal for dinner, hot water from coffee maker :) orange... i'm happy

Take Care All and God Bless