No Bobsled

To recap yesterday's travels, driving went pretty well and the mountains were so beautiful in the late afternoon light that I had a moment of euphoria in which I felt so good I thought maybe I could drive straight through to Indiana.  Naturally that didn't last.  My Campin' Fun Buddies will be glad to hear there was no evidence of the bobsled on the downhill side of I80, for which I was very grateful, as they can imagine.

Wandering around Cabela's I started to feel weird and noticed my tongue was sticking to the roof of my mouth.  Then I remembered that always happens when first getting into Nevada from the Sierra.  The elevation is a considerable change for people who live close to sea level (it's over 4000 feet even after you come down into Reno), and the lack of humidity starts sucking the moisture out of you quickly.  Fluids and taking it gently for a couple of days are usually all that's required.

Had a nice conversation with a gentleman in Cabela's gun library.  Told him about Kenny's shotgun, and asked him if there was database I could look through to identify it, but he said there wasn't.  Asked him about where to get some gun instruction, and he gave me his card and promised to set me up with a instructor based out of Reno.  A little impractical given where I live, but I might make a trip out of it for a session or two.  If I bought a gun, it would just have to be from Cabela's!

Night driving through the desert is so surreal.  It's a space apart from everything else, an other-worldly flying through darkness that is somehow disconnected from everything familiar and everything troubling.  I had toyed with the idea of spending the night at Fernley, but I really wanted to get some more miles in, and it turned out that pushing on to Winnemucca was just about the right amount of driving.  Blew past Imlay, where I'd hoped to stop and check out

Thunder Mountain Park, but it was too late and too dark.  I tried to see it from the highway and caught just the tiniest, dim glimpse as it flew by in the darkness. 

My words about only having to move a couple of bags to get ready for bed might have been a little over-confident.  The Thermarest Dreamtime mattress was hard as a rock.  I might as well have been laying on the bare floor of the Goose.  I'd forgotten that the just-right squishiness of sea level turns into an over-inflated cement slab at higher elevations.  Let some air out and it was better.  Had an ok night.  Wish I had curtains, though.  They are a pain to make and mount, but you are sure glad to have them when those sodium vapor lights are glaring down on you all night and the early morning shoppers are peering in at the hippie sleeping in the back of her truck.

Now having breakfast and availing myself of the free WiFi at a little Winnemucca coffee place called Java Town.  GPS led me right past it, and frankly maybe it was trying to do me a favor.  I found it when I turned around to route to another place and saw it, so I pulled in.  It's a cozy little space, and they have nice, comfortable tables and free WiFi.  But no toaster for their bagels, which are displayed in Ziploc quart-sized freezer bags which leave them with a stiff, waxy texture, and the latte is a bit, um, different.  I was so desperate for coffee that I didn't care too much, but I'm afraid this will not be my go-to place for coffee the next time I pass through Winnemucca.

It's a sweet little desert town, though.  Much nicer than I remember it from the last time I blew through on a road trip.  They have a beautiful cemetery in town, and there is a big "W" on a nearby mountain.  I'll try to catch a picture of it before I leave.

I really should be on the road by now, but I'm such a slow starter in the morning, especially without hot water.  I'll find somewhere (probably a fast food joint, not here) to brush my teeth, and then hit the road again.  Headed for Salt Lake City to visit Kirkham's Outdoor Products, home of the Springbar Tent!