California: Eagle Lake

Once we finally wrapped up all of our errands in Reno, we headed North and a wee bit west which found us striking out into Northern California in our pursuit onwards and up. Naturally, upon entering California, we hit some of the worst traffic throughout the entire duration of our trip thus far, leading to the necessary "California traffic" jokes we more or less feel obligated to make after being their neighbors for way too long. There's nothing inherently wrong with California- it's a beautiful state with a lot of coastlines and a lot of people. Like, a lot of people. In 2016 there were an estimated 252 residents per square mile, whereas Nevada has an average of about 26 people per square mile...quite a contrast there, right? This is going to change in time, however, especially now that the Raiders are moving to Las Vegas and bringing the state their first professional football team, ever. For now, the cost of living in Las Vegas is a fair bit below anything you're likely going to find in any part of California, but as people begin to relocate this may change. 

All that population density, though, seems to fall away when you're in a natural park like this. Most of our drive through northern Nevada into Northern California and Southern Oregon lead us through winding national park trails, past many lakes and water bodies, and most of it felt quite secluded. Sure, we'd get the occasional long-haul trucker pulling out from a rest stop  in some small town and trailing us for a while, or the impatient SUV driver who takes the first opportunity to swerve around us at break-neck speeds, but for the vast majority of the drive it felt like just the two of us making our way through these lost lands. When we found our way to Eagle lake and saw all the cows milling around by the water, we couldn't help but to stop and take a moment to absorb it all. There may or may not have been some shouts of love and "aren't you a pretty moo-cow", too. 

After catching our breathes and sufficiently satisfying ourselves with our adoration of the distant cows, we resumed our trek. You've got to stop and smell the flowers, or in this case admire the bovine, every once in a while, right?

Road Tripping: Riverside, Nevada

Sometimes you take a detour in life and you're rewarded with random cows. This little experience in our timeline of life, happened to occur because we were trying to see the goats from Glendale again. Antho misjudged where we'd encountered them, pulling off the freeway on the exit for Riverside. The goats, as it were, are located in Glendale, not Riverside. That being what it was, we cruised along the two lane road in the hope that it would eventually route us towards Glendale, or at least the freeway. What we found instead was that it grew more rural and rapidly ended in the driveway to a beautiful farm with a very large front gate. Along the way, we encountered a couple of cows out for a stroll, which was extremely entertaining for us as a couple of city kids from Vegas. These particular bovines were ambling along the road, so we tried to go slowly and cautiously so as not to spook them or cause them to run in front of the vehicle out of startlement. We love cows, after all, and certainly wouldn't want to harm someone's pets. I know there's probably some vegans out there taking deep breaths preparing for an epic argument, and I assure you guys, I get it. I do. But I'm still going to eat the occasional hamburger. I know there may be a degree of cognitive dissonance that occurs when you dwell on it, but it is what it is. Lab grown meat is showing promising advances day after day, so maybe in the not-too-distant future soylent beef will be our burgers. 

Given the spontaneous cow encounter, we weren't too upset about losing some time to this detour. Once we reached the end of the line, quite literally, we turned around as best we could in the narrow lane and made our way back to the freeway. It was a nice side trip and we saw some beautiful fields full of lush crops that I certainly wouldn't have expected to find in this climate, but it always gives me hope to see people overcoming the odds and thriving. I know we have several farmers markets in Vegas and the farmers have to grow their produce somewhere, but I typically assume the majority of it is coming in from the cooler hills of California. Glad to see some places thriving in Nevada! We saw several other farms during our drive, too, which again was quite pleasing for me. There were plenty of photos taken along the way, so those lie ahead. Enjoy!

Moos in Glendale, NV

Don't get me wrong; I love all animals. While I'm not currently a vegetarian (as you might have noticed from posts about eating live shrimp in Noryangjin and making bossam at home) I have been in the past, and even tried veganism for a while. I absolutely understand the reasons for not eating meat, and when I encounter cows out in the real world I always get excited and the car is almost always inevitably pulled over so I can run over and try to forcibly project my adorations on to the cows standing there, minding their own business. Most of the time, the cows could udderly care less about this silly human female flopping about and gesticulating wildly at them while making strange cooing baby-talk noises. They're busy doing cow stuff. Understandable, right? Since most cows you're liable to encounter along the roadside like this are going to be working farm cows,  they likely have a working relationship with the humans they know- and unfortunately, a lot of times that may involve some level of primordial fear in the instinctual awareness that their human's endgame involves eating them, forcibly inseminating them, or stealing their milk. I mean, that's life- I get it. I've been to dairy farms and giggled as the calves eagerly licked and sucked at my thumb in search of milk, but these sweet beasts are often viewed as a resource, a trade good, not a cogent and affectionate animal with intelligence similar to a dog. It bums me out to think about the conditions that most grocery store meat cattle are raised in, as I know a lot of it is far from the idyllic pastural scenes here... In a perfect world, I would buy my meat directly from the farmer who raised that cow, and the bovine would have the most pampered lifestyle of luxury and relaxation up until it's final moment, which would be swift and painless... but until we get to a point where we can bioengineer a sentient source of meat who provides their bodies willingly (as in The Restaurant at the end of the Universe by Douglas Adams) , it's always going to be a bad proposition for the cute little cows. Personally, I don't eat much beef. I will, every once in a blue moon, and a bit of liver and onions is a major power meal for me when I find myself lagging, but I'd much rather have fish or chicken any day.  I don't know the fate of these particular cuties, but they were pretty unenthusiastic about my excitement at their existing here. There was even a little bubba! So cute. Goodness.