Year: 2019

Its a Small World After All

On our last day of driving we went 283 miles from Carson City to Klamath Falls, 211 of those miles were in California and for the most part were on very rural forested roads. The biggest town we passed through was Susanville with a population of around 18,000. The rest were small little places, I hesitate to call them actual towns they were so small, named Hackamore, Newell, Ambrose and Buntingville.

Just outside one of these kinds of places, Adin, population 272, we stopped at a little gas station called Juniper Junction for a nature break. There was one other vehicle there too, getting gas, but we didn’t really pay attention to it. We both went inside and Donna asked the clerk if they have a restroom and was given the key, attached to a small plunger so it wouldn’t wonder off in a pocket, and pointed around outside to the other end of the building. As we were leaving the store we could hear another individual ask about a restroom as well, so I turned and said, “Follow us.”

As we walked by the car gassing up I noticed a familiar looking license plate. Donna went into the bathroom leaving me and the guy outside, where upon I asked him, “Is that SUV yours?” He replied, “Yes.” So I pointed at the back end of our Mini and said, “Small world.”

I launched into our story of selling our house and moving to Klamath Falls and that it has been a long and scenic trip, but were happy to be near the end. He told me that it sure is a pretty drive, but all his family and friends said he was crazy to drive all this way instead of flying. He lives in Duncan, South Carolina and was returning there from Klamath Falls. He was in K Falls because he had just attended the funeral of his father, who was a lifelong resident there.

I apologize for the earworm, if in fact the title of this post effected you like it did me.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #9

Carson City, NV to Klamath Falls, OR. Carson City was on our short list of new home towns, it was a bit on the large side population wise and a little more expensive than we wanted, but the real negatives were the existence of legal brothels and casinos on most any street corner. Not that either of one of us would remotely consider patronizing either one of those types of establishments, but the possible criminal elements they could attract were not welcome.

The one thing that Carson City had going for it, which we discovered this morning, was a place called the The Cracker Box Diner. This is the kind of place that Guy Fieri should cover, but probably won’t, because nothing here is over the top enough. What you get here is plain great diner food. The eggs at breakfast tasted like they were pried from the fingers of chickens in the back room. Their take on homes fries was thin sliced potatoes with fresh chopped tomatoes and chives. Both Donna’s sourdough and my rye toast came from the Truckee Sourdough Company and was delicious. The coffee tasted even better than what I had yesterday at a place called The Coffee Cup in Boulder City. The pièce de résistance was the orange juice…it was fresh squeezed right there in house. Not only was this the best breakfast of the trip, it was the best meal period.

We are here now in our new hometown and looking forward to finding a new home in it. Maybe Tuesday we’ll start looking at some of the houses we have zeroed in on as possibles. But first, tomorrow is find a bank, get a post office box and finish some more grocery shopping.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #8

Boulder City, NV to Carson City, NV. Started in the very southeastern Nevada and end in the middle western Nevada. And it was a whole lot, about 450 miles, of barren desert landscape interupted by small dinky towns and even smaller clusters of abandoned buildings the state map named, but called ‘(sites)’.

The Lady Bug flew through the 37,000 mile mark on I-515 in Sin City, AKA, Vegas Baby!

On The Oregon Trail – Day #7

Gallup, NM to Boulder City, NV. Started in western New Mexico and ended in very eastern Nevada with 359 miles of Arizona in the middle. And it was a whole lot of barren desert landscape. The only bright spot was the town of Flagstaff. It had a young, hip, vibrant, outdoorsy feel that made us start looking for houses we could afford. In the end it was a little too expensive, a little too wintry and a little too large a town for us to seriously consider stopping and staying there.

Breakfast in Gallup at Earl’s Family Restaurant was a whole lot better than the fare we had in Amarillo. Lunch was a bagel in Flagstaff and dinner was a treat in Boulder City at the Little City Grille.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #6

Amarillo, TX to Gallup, NM. Pretty much all Interstate travel today, but we did travel a few sections of Old Rte. 66. One 9-mile stretch of very primitive roadway between exits when we got off to get gas and really didn’t like the looks of the station and its antiquated pumps. And another nice little section through the town of Grants, NM just to get this photo.

Because we are not really doing much walking during the travel days we decided to walk 3/4 of mile to get breakfast this morning. It was full dark still both there and back as we walked along the shoulder (no sidewalks) along Business 40 to a place called Hud’s. This was not a real good idea on two counts. First the food was sub par and second we almost got run over by a car turning into a parking lot.

On The Oregon Trail – Day #5

Paris, TX to Amarillo, TX. Pretty much traffic and Interstate free day. It took us a while to get out of Paris, but then it was US-82 to US-287 to about 30 miles of I-40. Amazing how fast you can travel 400 miles when you get to go 80 MPH. We had time to do a little Roadside America sight-seeing: Lady Bug VWs in St. Jo, World’s Smallest Skyscraper in Wichita Falls and the Slug Bug Ranch in Conway. A Holiday Inn Express breakfast in Paris where the highlight was the cinnamon bun, and that wasn’t very good. Lunch was terrific at Gidgets Sandwich Shack in Wichita Falls near the skyscraper. We finished the day with a “gourmet” dinner at the Food Court at the Westgate Mall.

Somewhere just before rolling in to the Slug Bug Ranch the Mini rolled past 36,000 miles.