One point Twenty-one Jiggawatts

Not one to waste time, I hit the road with a vengeance this morning. I managed to get everything loaded up and ready to go by 9:30 pacific and I was on my way.

Things went fairly smoothly until I got to Sacramento for lunch. The lunch itself was fine, but when I got back out onto I-80 the traffic had ground to a halt. A few miles up I finally passed the burnt-out husk of what was once a very nice Class-A RV, sitting rather sadly charred at the side of the road.

The traffic didn't ease for long, though. Things slowed down again pretty quickly as I got toward the mountains, and this time I passed a wrecked box-van that had ran over what looked like a good 1 ton boulder that had fallen onto the road, and to make matters worse the van then collected a car with its rear-end.

So that's 3 people so far who have had a rather upsetting start to their weekend.

Luckily things went much better for me, and after I passed Reno the traffic pretty much disappeared. I set the cruise control for 88 miles an hour, and arrived at Twin Falls at about 10pm pacific (11 local), in the year 1958. ;)

I kid, of course, but there actually is a pretty fancy looking olde-tyme hotrod parked at the Motel 6 I'm staying at.

I should take a moment to digress; there's a few things one should know about Nevada that make it quite distinct from the Californian experience I've been getting used to all summer.

First, it's full of bugs. I must have got over 100 huge bug-splats on my windshield crossing the state. It was disgusting! By the time I got into Idaho I could barely see, and that was after scrubbing the windshield clean in Elko.

Second, the sky really is full of little fluffy clouds, and the sunsets are gorgeous. The little fluffy clouds also rain every now and then, which makes for the first precipitation I've seen since my trip out in April.

Third, Nevada knows how to make interstates. They really do. Best roads around to rack up the miles.

And lastly: Nevada has insufficient air density for my poor little jellybean. Really saps the power.

Hopefully I'll make it to Glendive tomorrow. We'll see what the day brings.

I'll paste a map in here later, Google Maps is being a pain in the ass.