Caldwell, Idaho

Holy cats for the second day in a row.  We awakened to six inches of snow, which was not in the forecast.  Our desired route was under a winter storm warning.  The hotel was quickly filling to capacity with people wanting to stay and wait it out.  Nevada has an excellent set of cameras and information on the roads.  After waffling on the internet for awhile, and going out to the car for the warm clothing, wool socks, and boots, we decided to launch.  Wells, Nevada is just not a place you want to stay, plus the Hampton Inn was extraordinarily expensive for what it was.  Nice, but not that nice.

We decided to head west towards Winnemucca, to pick up US 95.  It was the long way around, but we were driving away from the storm system.  After heading north, we cut back east to arrive in Caldwell, Idaho.  When US 95 enters Oregon, there is a horrible stretch of road for about 25 miles.  After awhile, it got better.  Oregon is a poor state, Nevada has gambling money and their roads are better.  US 95 goes through the Mahogany Mountains range, which has some up down to it.  It's not the Rockies, but there is climbing and descending.

Here are pictures.  As seen from the hotel parking lot.

Low mountains with snow.  It's not a great picture, taken out of a side window.

Here we are, heading out into the great wide open, where there are few gas stations and little cell service.

This was taken from a brake check area just before a descent in the Mahogany Mountains.  It's hard to see, but there is a gorge out there in the distance.

More scenery.  The skies were epic today.  The wind was also epic.  We had a head wind most of the day, and the gas mileage to prove it. 

Tonight we're in Caldwell, Idaho (we did not make it to Baker City).  It's a part of the greater Boise megalopolis.  We're here because I84 is here.  We're west of actual Boise and their fairly awful traffic.  We're staying in an old La Quinta Inn, with modern day prices.  The hotel is showing its age, the beds are awful.  We would not stay here again, and hopefully we will not ever have to do this route again, either.  Going up US 93 to I84 to Baker City would have been way better.  The internet here is good, however. (After the fact, we have ruled out Baker City and La Grande as places to stay.)

That's it!  That's all I've got, there is a pizza to be eaten.  Pizza Hut delivered it; we ordered a veggie pizza and it was not terrible.