Nevada Terrain~8 hours worth!It is 11 or 12 hours to the kids' houses from where we live depending on your stops. This time we decided to split up the trip and stay over night in Winnemucca. Not much is happening in Winnemucca, NV as anyone who has ever passed through knows. We haven't been on a car trip in quite awhile where overnight was a possibility to get to our destination. We thought a little quiet before the storm of activity would be good.
Jim built this cool rack for the top of our car to carry his bike and our spare tire. We were planning to pick up a car carrier for the top of the van when we arrived in SLC. Putting these item up on top of the car freed a lot of interior space for other items we wanted to bring up for the kids from our warehouse liquidation.
Nevada is not known to be the most beautiful state in the Union but there are some pretty moments and this was one of them. Nevada has a big sky and it is often filled with gorgeous cloud formations.
The few places that are irrigated are really
the prettiest
we have ever seen them this year.
All the long winter months
have been kind to Nevada.
the prettiest
we have ever seen them this year.
All the long winter months
have been kind to Nevada.
I had booked our hotel online and had difficulty getting a place due to a bunch of celebrations going on in The Silver State. When we arrived to discovered it was a Hotel and Casino we were not overly thrilled. Casino is another word for a loud, noisy, dirty, smokey joint. But we were located on the other side of the complex and everything was full so we decided to grin and bear it. Going over to the room we had a little mishap. Jim totally forgot about the bike and spare tire on the roof and got the car wedged under a section of the hotel pass through that was lower that the bike. First surprise and then frustration, but we finally got the car out of the predicament as Jim removed the bike seat from the bike. Fortunately, there was very little damage to the bike seat..it looked a lot better than the ceiling we hit.
We were not the first people to hit the buildingcheck out the crash site on the front of the building.
Ours was much smaller and inside the space.
As you can see there is a room above this area so it wasn't going anywhere! When we were done with all that we went to the room and our keys cards would not work. Another big bunch of stuff and then they finally re-keyed them and gave us a free dinner to make amends. We landed up having a good dinner on them at 10:00 pm.
We found some weird things in the room which incidentally was very nice, much to our surprise. First of all I brought my pillow and they had the same pillow cases as we have at home. Then as we looked around the room...
We have the same picture in our house that they had by the TV and the mirror on the other side is like one Jim's grandparents gave us years ago. That has never happened to us in any place we have ever stayed before. It was odd but did make it feel a bit like a home away from home. We were wrong on every count about the Winnemucca Inn, the accommodations were great and the food was good too, but we did have to pass through the casino (ick!) to get to the restaurant.
The next day we headed to see the kids and ran into this Mc D's barrier when we wanted to stop for an ice cream! Geesh! Jim needs a big sticker on the window to remind us we are tall now!
Some more adventures at the rest stopjust into Utah!
I DID NOT GET OUT OF THE CAR!!
We picked up our car top carrier in SLC and Jim was happy to install it and to discover they had a sticker to put on the inside of the windshield to remind him that we have tall stuff on the roof now! Yay!
We need to take more car trips...we are a little rusty!
6 comments:
We know many hotel rooms in Winnemuca. In fact we love the town so much (it's so boring on that road that to see a McDonalds is bliss)that we made up a poem - we would add a new verse every time we drove through - here are a few:
Winnemuca, winnemuca buy a car or buy a trucka,
give a lollypop a sucka,
hear a hen go clucka clucka,
give a dollar get a bucka,
let's all go to Winnemuca!
When we travel through we always feel like we're half way through when we reach Winnemuca! I like staying in Elko better - no idea why except it does have a hospital and after one memorable trip I don't stop or stay anywhere on the drive out without a hospital in the area for the boys.
Love the post. I have a love/hate relationship with Winnemucca, NV, as that is where the Craven branch spent their reunion time and money a few years ago. We were on our way to Santa Cruz to stay with my family but ended up needing a new fuel pump (which had to be shipped in) just 30 miles west of Winnemucca! We spent three awful days there and I swear it was at the very same motel. I love Lanette's poem and would love to see more of that!
Jim having a too-tall vehicle reminds me of a few mishaps we've had too. Once was just after we were married and it involved moving to Connecticutt with a U-haul attached and driving into a dead end in the end behind the hotel we were staying in one night. Kent ended up having to unhitch the somewhat small trailer and pushing it back down the alley by hand, all the time in front of a plate glass window that ran the length of the hotel's restaurant, which seemed to be full that night at that particular time. We provided a goo half hour of entertainment for everyone. The other time involved trying to park a minivan with a car topper in an underground parking lot in SLC. Need I say more. Funny post because mostly I can relate.
We were pulling a U-Haul with our daughter's "stuff" when our car overheaded outside of Winnemucca as we headed west. Two very kind gentlemen who had been up in the hills digging for gold, hitched the U-Haul to their truck and said they would drop it off at a certain gas station where we could pick it up. So Winnemucca has a soft spot in our hearts. We never saw the gentlemen again and were never able to repay them for their kindness. So that and the delicious fresh strawberry milkshakes at the Dairy Queen are our memories of Winnemucca.
I love it that Your Jim is still smiling even with the bike on the top of the car causing you some grief!
--Dorothy--
Loved the post and all the comments! We are too cheap to ever stop on our way to Utah--we just go all the way every time...oh, my....that sounded kind of scandalous, but you know what I mean. ;) We actually drove all the way from Colorado yesterday/today with only a nap stop in between.....ugh.....!!!! I need the Hopkins to write a poem about that! :)
Dear Bonnie--Your trip to Utah sounded very adventurous; now I am wondering if the past 2 weeks have been a continuation of that. The ramps are beautiful--please tell Jim. Sorry we missed you Thursday but it was a short stop--we were anxious to get home and prepare for some teaching we had to do. I loved the song words you put on your blog--my parents used to sing this song as well! Thanks. MJ
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