With my mystifying Mapquest instructions, I got confused in the end. It was late enough and I was tired enough that I stopped to ask for directions at a gas station. The guy sees the papers in my hand and exclaims "Mapquest!" I get the feeling he's got an endless stream of people stumbling in after botching an attempt at Mapquesting. He gives me instructions that are so simple I repeat them three times to get absolute assurance I'd heard right. I've driven nearly 1000 miles, you understand, and am just about as fried as you imagine me. But not quite. I hold up to 16 hours of driving better than you might think. I spent the last hour or so listening to an XM Satellite radio interview with Carlos Mencia, which helped immensely.
Back at my car, a young man in a buzz cut and tattoos started telling me of a better route into town. It had more steps, so I demurred. He seemed disappointed, and I had it together enough to express appreciation: "I'm sure that would work too."
In town, some festival was ending, and the streets I wanted to use were blocked, but I kept rolling down the window and talking to the police, and they were nice enough to let me through the blockades and give me directions to my hotel, which is not the hotel where the conference is. I'm a weary traveler, but one who planned on being weary, and booked a room in a posher hotel.
Let me leave you with the photo I took impulsively, while stopped at one of the few lights that broke up the long glide across Route 50, through Nevada. Town: Eureka. I have found it. Silver, presumably. Or: I have found the manliest icon in Nevada.
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And if you had walked the sidewalk in front of the Nevada Hotel you'd have seen evidence of Pat Nixon in the cement...which isn't to imply that she stumbled out of the hotel bar on a campaign swing.
Also, the San Jose Grand Prix is set to happen this weekend in downtown SJ. Not too late to enter.
Glad you are okay - I woke up this morning (in the UK) to find NO POSTINGS, and I have to admit that I worried a little as I walked to work...
S'funny how reading a blog each day has that effect - the blogger becomes a bit like a favourite character in a soap; except that the soap gossip happens online instead of over coffee at work.
I'm curious: What's the biggest gas fill-up bill you've had?
I gotta' take my hat off to your marathon driving. I know you've said that C-sections and the house-sell-prep were physically hard, but I would put driving 1k miles twice in three days right up there.
I hope your hotel has a spa. You deserve some pampering after the long drive. Well done!
As Sigmund Freud would say, "Sometimes an ax is only an ax." But this guy ...
Hmm, the best time I made to Vegas from Iowa City was left Wed morning, got there Friday Night. Man, that sucks. Bet your car was more comfortable than mine, though!
I lived in Nevada for 5 years. It really is a neat state. Except for the gambling meccas, Nevada is essentially a failed mining state. But it is sooooo pretty.
And as you've seen, the locals can be very nice. CSI may lead you to believe that crime is horrible in Nevada, but quite the oppociste is true (probably has a lot to do with the number of police/privatre but armed security EVERYWHERE due to the amount of cash money floating around).
If you can stay away from the gaming tables, it is a really, really cheap place to visit/live. Enjoy!
My husband and I have driven Highway 50 through Nevada together twice, and he's done it without me as well. It's one of our favorite drives. Last month we drove from Ely to Reno on a day with marvelous puffy clouds, which made my pictures all the more interesting.
We've never sufficiently explored Eureka, though--I certainly missed that guy. And he seems like he'd be hard to miss.
That guy is so totally gay.
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