Caldwell to Ely, Nevada

Today was a loooong day in the car.  Southern Idaho and northern Nevada have to be one of the most unattractive places anywhere.  The day started off like this.  It did clear up earlier than yesterday.

This is what there was to look at most of the day.  Jim and I are thinking that maybe we don't like this route.  It's really boring, and there is a long stretch on 93 that is two lanes.  The road surface is good, but there are a lot of trucks, many miles of no cell service, and you must plan ahead about personal liquid consumption and fuel status.  I think the way we went last year was more scenic, so perhaps we'll go back to that.

There was some scenic beauty in the form of low mountains, or tall hills.

We're in a Holiday Inn Express and Suites.  It's fairly new.  They've switched to the bulk dispensers of soap, body wash and shampoo, it's the Dove brand and it is so scented as to be unusable.  Most hotel toiletries are bad, but this takes it to a new level.  What particularly pisses me off is that they slap a $250 charge on your credit card at check in so that if you smoke or vape, or damage anything in the room they can keep the money.  Damage is a pretty vague term.  The coffee pot in the room this morning didn't work, did we "damage' it?  Their withholding was $100 which is bad enough, but $250 feels like usury. House keeping decides if there were damages.  I don't like this. 

Here is the view from the room.  Does it not look cold and bleak out there?

Linda Sue asked in yesterday's comments how long we thought we could do this.  I think until the inevitable health calamity side lines one or both of us.  My bigger question is how long will we be willing to make this drive?  This year's route is visually desiccated with long days.  We could do shorter days, but that adds a hotel stay and three extra meals on the road, or we could go via Missoula, which provides more things to look at, but that's four hotel days.  I'm not opposed to buying a vehicle and leaving it in Tucson and flying down, but there are the issues of keeping the pack rats out of the engine if it's in the carport, or keeping the battery charged if it's in an enclosed storage unit.  It would be cheaper and less taxing to UPS our things to the park model and fly down.  I'm weighing the risks involved of being in an airport and then on a plane vs. being in a hotel.  It really is always something.

Here is humor. Dean Phillips is trying to primary President Biden.  It's an odd thing to primary a sitting president.  Rick Wilson has thoughts.

 

That's it!  That's all I've got.