Got a Full tank of Unleaded

Oct. 3, 2013

After a pretty sleepless night, we got the heck out of Crumville and on the road around 7:30am. We got gas and I got a coffee on our way out of town and we ate snacks we picked up a couple days ago for breakfast. Today was pretty much just a driving day, although we did stop and take pictures at a few different lookouts and at another really salty lake that had big mineralized rocks and smelled like sulphur. It was actually pretty cool, Ben said it looked like another planet. There were a couple of guys in their early to mid twenties that had stopped as well and were headed down the trail to be beach just ahead of us. But once you got closer to the lake you could start to smell it (and honestly it really wasn’t that smelly, kinda salty and sulphur-y, and mineral-y); these pansies turned around and left.

Anyways, before we ended up stopping for lunch, I once again fell asleep during the drive. Apparently while I was sleeping we went through a section of highway next to a hillside recently ravaged by forest fire. Ben informed me of this when he woke me up to tell me we were at the Ross just outside of Carson City, NV. I picked up a cute pair of moccasins and we ended up having lunch nearby at the Chili’s.

Part of the reason we took the route north that we did was because Ben wanted to go through Reno because he had never been there (I hadn’t either). All I can say is don’t bother, there is nothing there. We didn’t even get off the interstate. It was very spread out, with large hotel/casinos randomly dotted throughout the city. There was one “strip”-like area we could see, but the hotels didn’t look interesting and it was too far off the interstate to bother checking out.

From Reno we continued north back into California and went through this checkpoint (although there wasn’t actually anyone manning it so we didn’t have to stop). Apparently California doesn’t like produce to enter the state from Nevada, or so Ben told me. I’m thinking “Whaaaat??”, it’s the same country so who cares, but apparently the state of California cares. At some point during our drive (I can’t quite remember exactly where we were…), there was this total d-bag BMW that was passing vehicles very recklessly and just driving like a jerk in general. Maybe 10 minutes after he passed us we saw a highway patrol car coming toward us and then less than a mile down the road we saw another patrol car with the BMW pulled over. It was literally a high-5 moment for us. I love it when you see stupid jerk drivers get pulled over, not just because they are speeding and passing cars, but also because we had also been speeding and he had the highway patrol otherwise occupied.

Meanwhile, Ben likes to wait until the last possible moment to refuel, and with towns on the highway we were on being few and far between, we almost had a run-out-of-gas scare before we rolled into Doyle, CA on fumes. Once we again had a full tank of gas (every time we fill up Ben feels the need to sing this rap song from the 90’s…something about having “a full tank of unleaded”, I don’t recognize the song at all but it could just be his singing…), and we continued north, through Susanville (shout out to my mom), and onto a very quiet little highway through the mountains, past a lake, cow fields, and pretty much no other cars. It had some nice twisty parts for Ben to practice being a rally driver, and some nice scenery.

Once we got through the fun part and into a long straightaway, I felt I should offer to drive again until we got to Klamath Falls, OR, especially since I hadn’t driven at all since we were in Northern California (which we were again, just a different area). All went well and I pulled over on the outskirts of Klamath Falls so Ben could navigate us through town, especially since there was construction and the sun was going down right in our eyes. We hunted down a McDonald’s and callously used them for their free wifi to book a hotel, then left without so much as a thank-you. Because of our horrible experience at the Motel 6 last night, we were much more willing to pay a few extra bucks for a decent hotel.

We ended up at the Shilo Inn, which according to reviews has a really good breakfast. Upon arrival, we got a free upgrade to a king suite, 2 free drink coupons and a $5 off coupon for anything at the restaurant. We also enjoyed the indoor pool, hot tub, sauna, and steam room, although the steam room and sauna weren’t on when we got to the pool, and the sauna was taking too long to warm up so we didn’t end up using it. But we did go down to the restaurant and redeem our free drinks and shared a small meal. We are definitely looking forward to a good night’s sleep tonight.