Friday, July 21, 2006

SHOCKING NEWS!!!

Yes! I have left our fair City by the Bay for the othercoast....Ach.
We need Osky to meet his Papa and he wont come to us, so we are going to him. And sweet Nana, who would visit us if Papa would just come along too...I think. I hope his cuteness can persuade a west coast visit...
It is also true that every time I get on an airplane something falls off, needs to be replaced, doesn't work or some other life threatening situation..So we are driving.
don't gasp too loudly.
It is sweet for a few reasons:
A) I grew up in Hawaii and I am fascinated with how BIG this USA is.
and B) We have successfully invented air conditioning. Which of course allows for my frail SF body temperature remain somewhat reasonable.
Also C) Hellllooooo!!! I love the sideroads and avoid the highways and biways if at all possible, thus being able to visit some pretty amazing locations. Like Deadwood kinda towns and towns that have no people. And towns that earned like 6 Million Dollars in a few years and then just poof disappear.
So we set out. (After I thought for sure it wouldn't happen as Clinton always has some work pop up and cancel big ideas)...
We are driving along the 50 from west to east if anyone wants to follow us on their own map.
California is home, so we didn't really take any photos through Sacramento or Strawberry or Tahoe. Also, we were on the big highway so there really isn't anything interesting to take photos of.
Until we hit Nevada. And the Loneliest Road. Which is kinda lonely but mostly a bunch of old mining towns, Pony Express stops and a lot of nada. And by nada I mean how did those riders do it? and wow thank goodness for wifi and email and no more having to do that anymore!!!! .
So the first real "oh wow we gotta turn around and take a photo of that" moment was when we saw this:

Pretty neat-o huh?
But the best part was taking the side street to make a u-turn and seeing the sign for this place:

I know, I know.
It is a whore house.
But a famous whore house.
So we took photos.

And we had to have Aussie in there, well, cause..she's cool.
And the whores loved her. And the one sticking her head through the window invited her in. In fact, you can see the door ajar in the second photo. Waiting for me and Aussie to go in. For turkey. And to meet the "girls".
Really.

Oh wow. I was in there. With Aussie. Clinton stayed outside with Osky cause he was taking a napski.
And the girls fed Aussie turkey. Right nest to the stripper pole.
And then she wanted to show her off to the other girls. Who were lined up, right past the "ATM for sex money", waiting to be seen by the house doctor. I swear. Aussie ran right back there, I heard the giggles and screams. I was standing back by the ATM staring agog at all the naked lady paintings.

What a hoot. Really nice ladies. And they said Aussie was the best visitor they had. All day.
We stayed last night in Fallon. Another large, desolate town. We stayed at a Super8 and enjoyed the beautiful sunset.

Today, alot.
I think I remember seeing the loneliest phone, but not stopping. Too lonely if you know what I mean.
We did hit the cool mining towns.
We went on to Austin. There is no mining anymore, but there is a coffee shop. I don't recommend it. But the town was awesome. They had more bars than churches and even those were falling apart.

We were going to lunch in Eureka, a town that still has a functioning gold mine and all the buildings serve their original purpose. But some local thought we cut them off (which we didn't) and had the sheriff pull us over. ACK! The sheriff took one look at Clintons drivers license and started chatting with us about SF (he was born & raised) and then went back to the yokels. I mean locals. Here's us: well behaved dog, non-crying baby. Us. Them: 2 barking dogs, unshaven man, dirty woman, trailer with crap...I don't want to sound funny but really. They said we were coming from the north, we were coming from the west. All wrong. And the sheriff sent them on their way before coming back to us and saying don't worry about it, abide the towns speed limit (25 mph for a quarter mile length town) and see you in SF( he was most likely transferring back).
So, no lunch there.
So during the drive between Eureka and Ely we saw this oversize load. Usually they are houses, or doublewides. But this, this was really an oversized load. They had an escort of about five sheriffs and a few of their own trucks. And if you click on the photo you can see what it is: a reallly big shovel head. I wonder what it belongs too.

These photos are from the towns we drove through. Just fun old signs.

So nice!!!

I think this is Ely:

And I am pretty sure this is Salina. Say it like this: Sah-LINE-ah. It is in Utah.

I didn't take photos of the amazing landscape between Salina and Green River because Osky was not having a good time. He really was over the long days drive.
But the cliffs were stunning. I will look for a postcard of them. They looked like they were shoved out of the earth at an angle. But when we drove thru them and came through the other side, they were smooth and almost looked like large river rocks. Or smooshed up fluffy pancakes.
Just amazing landscape.
More to come when we get to Denver.
Also, I am crafting on the road. Lots of warshrags. I will take photos of them and show you. One a day is the goal. Maybe two.
If I can find some of the elusive yarn everyone will be getting warshrags for years.
Oh and my SP got her second gift. I think I may have outdone myself. I now have no idea what to do for my last gift. ACK!
Looks like I really have to dig deep into my creative self. DIG WOMAN DIG!!!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I L-O-V-E road trips! Never attemped any really long ones with the kiddos and the dogs. We went from Seattle to Disneyland for our honeymoon and that was FUUUUUNNNN!

Zillah!

Anonymous said...

OMG! That is so funny!!!

If you come through AR/MO stop by me!!!

Your a hoot.

PS: I have got to figure out why you can't comment on my stupid blog.

Anonymous said...

Too much fun!!! Hope you're enjoying the crystal coast! So good to see you dudes. Seriosuly- our house is put together now so stop on through, homies. All my love-
Melissa
p.s. the house and car are still for sale, but lots of people have been checking it out, so....