My body always takes awhile to make the change from one timezone to another. So when I awoke at 4.15 am, which would have been a more reasonable 5.15 in yesterday's time zone, I tried to go back to sleep, but failed. I got up at 4.45 and made coffee. I updated the blog and loaded yesterday's photos. I then caught some of the local (Reno) news. Essentially the day will start foggy and then the fog will be blown away by thunderstorms! Perhaps I'd have done better not knowing!
We went down to Breakfast at 7.00 am, the Best Western Plus breakfast was lovely; eggs and sausage for both of us, with Drew finishing off with a chocolate chip muffin and me having a cinnamon bagel.
We left Winnemucca at 8 am, today the route is again a simple one, until right at the end when there are some twists and turns in the centre of San Francisco. It looks like this:
Click here for full details
Well the weather forecaster was half right, when we left the fog was all around, thankfully it was not enough to make driving dangerous, you could see for at least 1/2 mile at all times, but it does mean there was no chance to take photos at the start of the last leg of the Nevada journey, as the only thing in the photo would be the fog. As you can see it brightened up by 9.15 as we continued our way through the Nevada desert. Thankfully there was no sign of the thunderstorm.
At 9.50 we stopped for some petrol and a coffee (Starbucks) in a town called Fernley. As I had at the last Starbucks I asked for two Venti Americanos to stay. This didn't raise an eyebrow in Minnesota, but here in Nevada she had to check that I meant, as she put it, 'out of china cups'. Well the huge mugs wouldn't meet my description of china cups, but I understood what she meant. She smiled and had to move some delivery boxes to get to the cups, I'd have had it in polystyrene if it would have been easier, but by now it was too late. She was really proud to have found the cups, so the coffee was made, and it was strong flavoured and delicious.
We left there at 10.40 and at 10.47 Drew drive us over the 5,000 mile point of our journey this holiday. I hear people who don't know me asking how we knew, we have a spreadsheet of course!! People who do know me would not even have thought of asking :-)
<<co-pilot's note - I am toying with the idea of writing an entire app to do holiday calculations incorporating graphs and wot nots, including XML output - for the nerdy ones amongst you.>>
From Fernley we continued past Reno to the California State line, our 21st and last state of the holiday.
We then came into lovely hill country with trees everywhere, after so much flat desert it is nice to be back in a National Forest. As ever when entering California we had to stop for the Agricultural Inspection Area, Drew was also driving the last time we travelled into California, like then the 'inspection' is just a matter of stopping and going again, so it did not delay the journey.
At 12.32 Drew passed the milestone of having driven 3,000 miles this holiday.
The route through Tahoe National Forest is also a route up and then down Mount Donner so we passed Donner Summit. Some of the views here were exceptional, but with Drew not liking drops, we didn't get close enough to the edge to take any photos :-)
Once Drew had managed his 3,000 miles we stopped for lunch and a change of driver. We pulled off the interstate and found a nice diner called the Dine and Dash outside the town of Colfax. This was a nice, friendly place with great food.
I opted for a sandwich called The Nava, it included Roast beef, bacon, jalapenos, bbq sauce, tomatoes red onions and cream cheese and served with sweet potato fries. It was a huge sandwich, would it fit into my mouth, well yes of course. Drew opted for a chorizo and scrambled egg which had cheese, salsa, sour cream and avocado on top and which was served with home fries and wheat toast. It was very tasty and filling.
Once we rejoined the I-80 at Colfax it got busy as we passed Auburn and Sacramento. We particularly liked the sign near Sacramento which said 'take the five left lanes for San Francisco' the other three lanes went to Sacramento. I can't think of any equivalent driving experience in the UK.
We continued on the I-80 until coming to the Bay Bridge, it will be our last time on this double decker bridge as a new bridge is being put in place between the 28th of August and the 3rd of September. We left the bridge and went down the Fremont Street exit and after three turns were in Grant Avenue and arrived outside the Hotel Triton at 3.40. Drew got out and took the luggage into the hotel while I drove off to take the car back to the Hertz office in O'Farrell Street, this involves driving through the Chinatown Gate and some great up and down hill driving along Pine Street, then down Powell with Cable Cars all around. I arrived at Hertz at 3.55 and then walked back to the hotel by 4.20 pm. Drew had checked in, so I went up to the room, room 516.
Somehow the idea of holiday-by-spreadsheet doesn't surprise me.
ReplyDeleteKnew you would understand, as will my sister. Even Drew's been trained up by now :-)
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