The Road Trip I've Always Meant to Take

I'm a good traveler.

Part of what this means is that I like going to new and/or exotic locales, eat weird foods, talk with strangers and not know 100% where I'm going to sleep. But this also means that I'm good at the traveling part. This is the 8-hour-flight part, the legs-tucked-up-on-your-luggage part, the waiting-at-the-bus-station part. I'm good at hunkering down, entering my own headspace and getting through the actual process of travel.

This has made me terrible at road trips. Because for all I want to see the remarkable things passing me by at 70 miles-per-hour, I also just want to hold my pee, eat a granola bar and finally get there. It's hard for me to stop my flow and get out to look around, but this time, this drive from California to Utah, solo, I was going to have the road trip I kept meaning to have. I needed to take one sister's car from the other sister's house to our parents and there was no deadline of when I has to be there.

 So I cranked up my tunes and took the scenic route, the 88 through California and then the 5, the "Loneliness Highway in America."
So I stopped at a California fruitstand and got cheap seconds...

And pulled over at scenic overlooks with historical/ecological plaques....

And took a break to take my shoes off in a lake...

And ate lunch at a quirky locales place where the two employees told me about the time Calvin (8-yr-old son of the owner) came in with a garter snake and scared off the lady customers

This sandwich was named for the owner, but his wife and son have their own sandwiches, too (the "Calvinator")

Did I mention the locals thing? This is where the regulars keep their own mugs. One employee was looking for a to rent a room to someone who was female, but also have 4-wheel-drive, so the other employee recommended she put a sign at the Harley shop, because "those are strong women."

And in Nevada I stopped at historical sites like Genoa.
And saw creepy antique displays


And creepy dioramas
and creepy jail recreations.


And I got to meet up with my friend Dana, who not only let me sleep on her couch, but went hiking with me...

To a beautiful, freezing cold lake.

And I stopped at Austin NV's cemetary.

I thought I'd be all cool and Billion Grave the place, but someone beat me to it!

And I went through sweet little towns and got pulled over for going too fast, but was given a kindly lecture about arriving alive and looking out for small towns and animals as I drive.
All in all, I'm going to claim this trip as a win, although there was a dull stretch in East Nevada, but that would have been the point that, had I a companion, we would have moved on to discussing Deep Things. Hint. Hint. Hint.

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