Nevada: Boulder City, Summer 2018

Boulder city is a very small little town outside of Las Vegas, where gambling is illegal within the city limits, and there's only a handful of traffic lights (if that). It's a quiet place, where families that tire of the excitement (and crime) rampant in Vegas proper can go to escape the city, while still benefitting from the predictably arid, sunny climate and close proximity to all the entertainments of the city. I actually spent a few years living in Boulder City when I was younger, and was exceptionally bored by the quaint, quiet little town as an energetic teen. Now that I'm older, and presumably wiser, I suppose I can see the allure to moving out of Vegas for Boulder City, if you're 60. It's a great place to retire, and if you can afford one of the homes on the slope towards Lake Mead you'll have an excellent view of the dwindling resources at the bottom of the hill. Of course, the ongoing drought has impacted some of the landscape choices in the area, but there are still plenty of open, green areas where the Big Horn sheep of the area will congregate to graze and get their fill of grasses. In a town as small, and quiet, as Boulder City, it should come as no surprise that the cops get stuck playing sheep-herder when the stubborn sheep begin to wonder perhaps a bit too close to the nearby residences. 

If you like outdoorsy or water-bound activities, having Lake Mead in your backyard is certainly a boon, despite it's drying out. As bored as I was throughout much of my angsty youth, I have to admit certain gratitude for the friends I made in that little town, the experiences and mischief we shared in that safe little burb, and the opportunity to explore. I'm certainly not going to be moving back any time soon, but for old time's sake it was fun to breeze through. We didn't stop for lunch, like we normally would, as we'd had plenty of snacks out at the Lake and had been driving for a while by this point. We were more eager to get home and grab a shower than to get down on some grub. Given as much, the photos are going to be a bit scattered. Still, I hope you enjoy!

Driving: Portland, Oregon, to Seattle, Washington

If I had to summarise the city of Portland, Oregon, with one phrase, I think it would have to be; 

"Does this city have enough freaking bridges?!"

This isn't necessarily a negative thing! I'm not saying it's a bad thing Portland has 12 different bridges over the Willamette River, it's just a very noticeable aspect of the city as you drive into it. Reno has a bunch of bridges, too, though I guess they're considered some of Nevada's worst, so take from that what you want.  Portland is a cool town, full of hipsters, good food, tasty beer, giant bookstores, mild climate, and all sorts of other aspects that make it a popular destination for my peers when visiting the Pacific Northwest. It's hip, it's happening, and supposedly it's a lot friendlier than Seattle! My experience in either place is too limited to really make a judgment call there, but people in Seattle have generally seemed quite a bit nicer than those in Vegas, so if they're even nicer in Portland I'm not sure I'd know how to handle it. Maybe I've been lucky, or maybe I'm such a hermit by nature that the lack of external invites for socialization hasn't phased me. Whatever the case, this visit through Portland didn't even see us come to a full stop. We weren't here for sightseeing, I'm afraid (and Antho was disappointed), we had places to be. 

Still, we definitely intend to make a trek back down to spend some time in Portland, proper like. After all, I've had the luxury of visiting the city before, even dipping into Powell's bookstore and sipping on some locally brewed coffee, but Antho has yet to enjoy the pleasures Portland has to offer. We will, and I'm excited for that time, but it's not today. Not this trip. Sorry!

 

Oregon: Upper Klamath Lake

Believe it or not, there's a lot of water out on this part of the country! Coming from a drought-stricken desert where the better part of my lifespan has been spent conserving water and watching our most precious resource dwindle and wither away, it's kind of mind-blowing to drive for hours and pass one body of water after the next. From one river to a boat launch at the end of a neighborhood street, to endless lakes, there's so much water in this area! This, of course, facilitates the explosion of greenery that you'll see as you drive along. Coincidentally, there's quite a lot of farmland proliferating throughout the region, perhaps due to this abundant foliage and potential grazing lands. Like I said, coming from a desert, this all seems a bit weird. Everything is so green, and there's so much life springing from every nook and cranny, any location where a fortuitous foothold might be struck and dug into. The tracts of mankind's interjections can be seen stripping the land in bland, blase streaks of nudity, but even with our tireless efforts nature, uhh...finds a way... 

Upper Klamath Lake is one of these bodies of water you may find yourself driving by, should you follow a similar path to ours. There's something poetic in the blue sky touching the tippy-tops of purple mountains before a horizon of pallid water stretches out below. It's majestic, one could say. Inspiring. It can be difficult at times to quantify just how large these United States actually are...in the span of three days we'd driven over 1,000 miles (1,609 Km)! And we still had some miles yet to traverse before reaching our destination, too. We drove more than the entire length of the country of Italy (1,185Km or 736 miles)! We'd safely traversed the Extra-terrestrial highway in South-Central Nevada, visited Reno without getting divorced, spent the night and troubleshot some vehicular difficulties in the town of Merrill, in Southern Oregon...and now? Now we'd made it here, to Upper Klamath Lake, a beautiful expanse of blue where the earth and the sky blow kisses at each other. I recommend pulling over to take a moment and appreciate all the beauty surrounding you because if there's one thing you can say about nature it's that she's an absolutely inimitable genius. I mean, humans do some cool stuff- like the Cavendish banana is tasty enough, though it's potentially going to go extinct in our lifetime due it's simplistic genetics. Again, leave it to nature, she'll, uh, find a way.

Oregon: Jefferson

Hours spent rolling down the road and we found ourselves pulling over to stop at a small grocery store in the town of Jefferson, Oregon. We'd gotten stuck in a bit of traffic a bit further back and upon finding a safe and amicable place to pull over for a minute, I opted to so we could rest our cars and grab some refreshments. We'd made pretty good distance and were nearing the Northern edge of Oregon, though there was still some miles left yet. Even so, when I found myself at the edge of a street that ran directly into a riverway while searching for a public bathroom, I knew we had to at least check it out!

Of course, no idyllic river scene is complete without a noose? Oh my! Initially I wanted to take this as a bad omen, a spooky sign that the beauty of the Pacific Northwest was really a thin, oily veneer obscuring or obfuscating a nasty propensity towards Shanghai'ing the unfortunate and spiriting them away, whether in a Missing 411 type scenario or simply into old-fashioned human trafficking... but Antho was quick to note that it looked more like a climbing point used by the local graffiti artists to get to higher ground. I'm going to hope it's the second and try to roll with that, because life is full of creepy awfulness and I'd rather cling to the ideal....or I just don't want to let superstition cast a shadow over my otherwise upbeat adventure. Onward and up! Let's go!

And after a long drive, it really is nice to stretch your legs next to the water. The gentle trickle of the flow as it winds its meandering way on to whatever destination this particular branch of hydration hopes to reach. It always kind of boggles my mind that people grow up next to these, casually dipping down to the water's edge to be alone or get up to the standard teenaged mischief. Sure, desert kids can traipse off into the wasteland to build a scrubby fire and dance around a dry lakebed, but the environment is so austere, so unwelcoming. Thick belches of bushes covered in thorns aren't exactly welcoming, not to humans, per se, but they do foster life in other forms by giving rabbits and raccoons a place to hide and forage. 

And while I was enjoying our stroll alongside the stream, Antho was quick to remind me that the grocery store we'd been parked at had ample signs warning against loitering or parking in their lot for extended periods. Better to play it safe than sorry, especially when it comes to the possibility of having your vehicle towed during a multi-state road trip...besides, we had places to be and miles to go, so as much as I'd have liked to linger we packed it in and headed back to the vehicles.

Oregon: Driving North into Eugene

After the initial hiccups and mechanical mischief that delayed our morning a bit, we made good time heading north. As I'd mentioned already, there was a fair bit of forest to make our way through before we fully escaped the clutches of the Deschutes National Forest, but the drive was beautiful so we weren't exactly upset at this predicament. It was a bit difficult to make time to pull over for every stop, so we weren't able to make that happen, but we did try to stop and make time to enjoy the scenery every few hundred miles or so. You might think that over time, the forest would simply become more forest, stretching off into the distant horizon, but in reality, it's more nuanced than that. Shades of green and blue blend together, offset by puffs of white or sharp interjections of yellow or brown. 

The timing for our road trip worked out extremely well, too. Initially, I had wanted to leave earlier and get out of Vegas before the fall settled in, but timing simply didn't pan out with various vehicular issues popping up, work arrangements and gigs that cropped up. We only had to delay by a month or so, though, so it wasn't the worst of situations despite my melodramatically losing faith sporadically along the way. There's a lot of talking and planning involved before actually taking the leap, and with each new hurdle, there were more possibilities for cold feet to settle in and squander our chances. Leaving when we did, at the very beginning of October, however, meant we caught verdant green expanses of forest with some bright shocks of color thrown in as the leaves just began to take on their changing for the season. Pops of yellow and little flashes of orange cut through the foliage to make the drive all the more exciting. I'm glad that we were able to make the majority of the drive under the sunlight, as the days grow shorter going into the cooler months. 

Onward and upward, away we go. Off to the forests of the Northwest!

Oregon: Deschutes National Forest

Onward and upward, away we went. Oregon is one of my favorite states to visit, probably because I've only ever spent a brief interim in the state on the long journey South or North. When some of my friends lived in the state, I was happy to spend a night in Portland, and another further South near Corvallis in a small farming town. The property my friends further south were occupying backed up onto a river and had expansive fields of wildflowers that would bloom during the right time of year. And once, upon a long ago time, my friend Christina and I made a trek down to Portland area from Seattle for some hiking and waterfalls, even stopping to grab some Voodoo Donuts along the way. This time, however, was more for getting to our destination rather than idle enjoyment of the scenery, unfortunately, as the Deschutes National forest is absolutely stunning! Most of the drive, whether you're going up towards Seattle or South towards California and Nevada, however, is going to be beautiful scenic routes through the forest, generally, two lane winding routes that made us clench our cheeks at times. Not only is it massive (like, huge, as in 1.8 Million acres HUGE) but the scenery evolves as you wind your way along, from mountain lakes to dense forests, burnt plains to tunnels. And did I mention it's massive?! Yes, 1.8 MILLION acres of forest are included here in the national forest, which meant there were multiple points along our drive where I'd see signs for entering the forest, again, and balk at the fact we were still driving through it hours into our journey. No wonder the mystery of Sasquatch lingers on, unsolved. With this much terrain, in mild temperate climate, there's ample room for some fuzzy hominid with exceptionally large flippers to nest and scurry undetected. 

Sometimes the drive would see us entering small towns, forcibly slowing the traffic with their traffic lights and stop-signs, before inevitably finding our way back to the forested wilderness. When we were still in Merrill, sweet young Diana had warned us not to stop too long among the mountain ranges, as there are supposedly hungry mountains lions that linger known to have an appetite for human flesh, or so she claims. We still had to stop and take in the scenery at least once or twice during the drive, if not solely for the excuse to shake our legs out and get some stretches in. We were making pretty good time, all things considered, and we thoroughly enjoyed the densely terpene-laden air streaming into our windows as we drove. Even the squeakers would poke their snoots up for a sniff from time to time, curious about the cool evergreen scented air. 

On and on, away we go!

Oregon: Morning in Merril

After another night curled up in our vehicles, this time the two of us shivering a little in my Volvo, we unfurled ourselves in the warming sunlight to a bright, fresh new morning in Merrill, Oregon. Mount Hood glistened in the distance, and the bright green leaves were practically glowing in the early morning dew. We couldn't help but explore the area and scope out a nearby grassy field full of mushrooms! I know, mushrooms might not be that big of a deal to most people, after all, they're generally harbingers of rot and decay, right? But for us, they're absolutely fascinating! I've long been intrigued by mushrooms and the field of mycology, but the desert isn't exactly an environment prone to fostering a plethora of fungal varietals.  We found several different fungi popping up in the field, but we're not educated enough to identify them in the wild like that, plus the sheer variety and volume of fungal forms makes it a daunting task even for the well-educated shroom-hunter. 

After whetting our curiosity in the field, and growing more awkwardly uncomfortable as we gained the awareness that we may have been exploring in an actively watched school field, we headed back to the vehicles. Antho ended up making friends with a woman who, quite literally, popped up out of the bushes while he was taking photos. When a local patrol officer rolled into the same parking lot, our mystery friend laughed and greeted him, informing us that there were only two cops for the entire town, and this one was Brian. Our single serving friendly eagerly told us we needed to swing on down to Medford to take advantage of some of those legendary cheap weed deals that legal weed had brought to Oregon before venturing off. As enticing as that offer was, we were more concerned with making it from Southern Oregon to North-Western Washington, ideally before the day was done. That meant a lot of roads to cover yet! I made a quick jaunt to the local market, where I encountered our mysterious friend enthusiastically discussing pregnancy (and a failing bladder caused by pregnancy) with a very-far-along and visably uncomfortable shop-girl, as I paid for our brunches and coffee. 

Freshly stretched, caffeinated, with snacks and rodents packed and ready, we started to hit the road. Started to, anyway. I didn't make it far at all- literally a block or two at most- before I had to call it and pull over. Despite taking my old grumpy girl to a shop in Vegas and throwing more than $600 at repairs, they hadn't actually addressed the transmission problems (refusal to reverse, on-going leak, etc) I had specifically taken her in for. Given her leak, and the fact the shop had happily informed me "she was just low on fluids", we figured the best option was to check her levels, top her off, and try her out. Since we ended up pulling over in a residential neighborhood, we had to park in front of a home... We were quite surprised when within moments of killing our engines a slight young woman popped out of the house nearest us to inquire if we were alright and ask if we needed help. After talking, we learned her name was Diana, and Diana was such a sweetheart! She called up her roommate, who coincidentally works on big trucks, to see if he could help us any but he was still several hours away yet. We thanked her for her concern, and politely declined her offers to feed us, not wanting to be any trouble. I had transmission fluid I'd picked up at one of our previous stops in Reno, but given how quickly I'd needed it after leaving Vegas, I made sure to make it a priority to get more as soon as we hit Eugene, just to be safe. 

Olliver, my co-pilot, was only bothered by the intensity of the sunlight infiltrating his cage, interrupting his nap. Once we had poured a bunch of fluid back into my thirsty old girl, checked her levels again, and let her run for a minute, we tentatively decided to go for it. We'd made it this far, after all, so why quit now? We were on the final leg of our cross-country run, and if we could make it to Seattle we'd be home. Home at last.  

And wouldn't you know it... it worked. Freshly hydrated, Svetty roared back onto the road with all the fury of a Valkyrie.  Onward and upward!

To Valhalla!!!!

Oregon: Night in Merrill

Hours behind the wheel, rolling down the road, and we managed to find our way to the very little (no, really, it's quite small) town of Merrill, Oregon, home to only about 800 people. The entire town could be walked pretty easily as the main road itself is only about a half mile long, so you blink and you'd miss it. We stopped to get gas, then found our way to the Polar Bear snack shack parking lot to sort out our selves and our belongings, tend to our squeaks, and inevitably end up spending the night. We initially only planned to stop briefly and then keep heading on towards Eugene, but after surveying our surroundings we realized we'd coincidentally stumbled into a parking lot where they 100% allowed overnight parking! There's no easy guarantee that we'd be able to find an inconspicuous place to pull over and sleep after driving another 3-4 hour stretch where we'd be allowed to stay, so we figured we'd take the synchronicity and roll with it. It worked out well, as Antho realized that he was already having issues with his credit cards due to the transactions being out-of-Nevada, so he was able to get that sorted while waiting for an order of what ended up being very tasty fried gizzards from the above shack.  

Once we were fed, our finances sorted out, and our rodents secured and safely locked away from the hungry birds swirling above, we decided to take a walk through town to see if we could grab a drink. 

We managed to find our way to the local cafe/bar/restaurant, which was a fun joint with a lively and friendly crowd! The bartender was awesome, and she blew Antho's mind when she offered him the option to choose the vodka used in his White Russian. We went with dealer's choice, which ended up being very good! One of the local barflies approached and asked my permission to touch Antho's dreads, which we both found amusing. Don't get me wrong here- we absolutely and 100% appreciate that she asked before getting handsy! It's just not an everyday occurrence that someone comes up to us and asks to touch Antho's hair. After our first drink, the jukebox started pumping and things started to pep up a bit. We were pretty tired and didn't want to get swept into any rowdiness, so we took an Irish exit and returned to the vehicles to conk out for the night. I definitely couldn't resist trying my luck on the archaic coin-machine in the bathroom! I got "Pandora's Box", which I'm pretty sure is really just a condom. 

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?

Reno: Surreal suburbia

Come along and join me for a bite of my favorite muffin, won't you?

All jokes aside, there's a surreal sort of nature to Reno that we discovered during our stay. There's the familiarity, of a city being somewhat akin-to-but-not-quite like our hometown, yet there's the weird throwbacks to the 80's and 90's that linger, giving an age to the city not unlike the crow's feet cracking through the thickly caked on makeup of your diner waitress clinging to decades past. We weren't finished with the city, not yet, as we still had a couple of errands to run while we were still surrounded by some vestige of civilization. On top of the usual things, like getting some snacks, vehicular fluids and checks, there was the shuffling of finances and additional fluids to purchase. Rather than try to keep driving through the dense forest of traffic cones that seemed to crop up once we left the downtown touristy area, we opted to walk to our next destinations. This allowed us the opportunity to appraise an area outside of the main drag, which is always a good idea for getting the true feel of a city beyond its neon-spackled traps.  I suppose I can see why many of my peers opted to go north and settle in Reno, but it's still a little too-close to Vegas for me to feel like I've truly escaped the vortex-like nature of the city...but for those who find this affinity appealing for nostalgic purposes, it's quite the nice touch, I suppose. 

Reno, like many cities favored by millennials, is growing. There are more little artsy-fartsy coffee shops popping up, along with multi-megaplex apartments that offer everything you could ever want or need in a residence, from gyms to pet parks. It's still a little city trying very much to feel like a bigger one, so for people who want that, it's got it in bounds. Reno isn't a bad place, not at all, and there's a lot of things to be said for consistent sunshine and cheap food and booze. Once we'd stretched our legs and tended to our various errands, however, we returned to our vehicles to strive outward and onward. While Reno certainly made for a nice pitstop, we weren't planning to settle here any time soon.