Really, Nevada?

July 8

Unaccustomed to the time change (we entered Pacific Time when we reached Nevada), we each woke up at 7am but laid in bed for another hour not wanting to wake anyone else up. It was possible that we were just spoiled from spending a night in real beds after only two nights of camping. When we finally got up, we rotated taking showers, watching TV (a true luxury) and stealing extra food from the “continental breakfast” downstairs. (Breakfast basically consisted of boxed cereal, fruit, and mini muffins – which turned out to be good for road snacks!) As K was taking a turn in front of the telly, she called a TV yellow car which was debated at first but finally accepted by B & C. However, K didn’t stop her yellow car attacks there. As C brought our overnight bags out to K who was packing up the car, K shouted from the parking lot, “Hey C! Yellow Car!” This streak led to K’s record high in yellow car calls for one day (so far).

Unfortunately, yellow cars seemed to be the only thing Nevada was good for. When people talk about long, straight, boring roads, it’s route 80 through this state that they’re speaking of. If there wasn’t desert on the side of the road, there was a shady casino or some sort of roadwork. We were absolutely convinced that we were going to be abducted by aliens at any moment and K frequently locked the doors to ensure our safety. Another thing that prompted the door locking were the numerous signs that said “Prison Area: Picking up Hitchhikers Prohibited.” This even turned B off of picking up an extra passenger. (There were literally four of these signs within 200 miles – how many prison breaks does Nevada have?!)

As 3 o’clock rolled around, B & C were getting the lunchtime crabbies (K was fine since she hadn’t stopped snacking since we left Elko). We pulled into an AM/PM gas station within the city limits to fill up quickly before getting some food. K pumped the gas and filled it so it clicked but as she pulled out the nozzle, gasoline came spilling out as well. Not knowing what to do, K & B blew on the gas and poked at it with their fingers. When it looked like it was dying down, K went inside and told the AM/PM clerk that the gas pump had failed her. He said they’d “take care of it” and gave her napkins for cleanup. Thanks, Nevada. More lows from Carson City: their taxis are yellow Scions that were called as yellow cars on three separate occasions. Bonus from Carson City: 3 yellow Hummers. Yesss.

After the gas pump fiasco and the lunchtime crabbies had been amended, we headed out to crow into our next and most western state. Unfortunately for us, the road we were on was so small that it wasn’t even suited for a “Welcome to California” sign. Our only clue that we had entered into the Sunshine State was that we began climbing the great Sierra Nevada Mountain range. They were the twistiest roads so far on our trip with little to no shoulder. Even though the fear factor was high, the view was well worth it. Actually, C was in the backseat and starting to feel the turns in her tummy so she wasn’t really a happy camper.

When we finally got closer we found a little campsite (and by little we mean 10 sites in the whole campground!) to pitch our tent. The site was set about 20 minutes outside of Yosemite’s West Entrance in the Stanislaus National Forest with pit toilets and mountain water from a pump that needed to be boiled before we could use it. This is definitely the most intense camping we have encountered thus far. Here’s hopin’ we make it to our next blog post!

Mileage to date: 3,809

Yellow car count:

C – 100

B – 119

K – 126