West Wendover, NV
Great trip across the state of Nevada. The roofers arrived this morning and were busy working on the roof when we left around noon. Figured they didn't need us to make sure they did a good job, so we headed out on the road. Made a detour to Fallon NAS to pick up a prescription and then took US 95 north to intersect I-80. Not much decision-making when you travel on I-80 - it's the ideal road for automated driving capability. Speed limit varies from 75 to 80 mph.
Nevertheless, it's a beautiful drive through the valleys and over the mountains along the way. I know I have written before about the route I-80 takes through Nevada. Started as the Indian trail which followed the Humboldt River, then the wagon trains followed the same route, then came the railroads, and Rte 40 which was overcome by I-80. It doesn't take a straight line across the state, but rather follows the path of least resistance as did the Humboldt River. The Humboldt River ends in a sink (call it what you will, it's the end of the line for the river). There's about a forty-mile gap between the Humboldt Sink and the Truckee River which gave a name to the Forty-mile Desert. It was a tough road between the two rivers and a lot of the pioneers didn't make it across that section. Those that did continued on across the Sierra Nevada into California. We won't talk about the Donner Party which made some bad decisions crossing the state and got caught in an early winter storm which doomed their progress.
As I mentioned earlier, it's a beautiful drive through the valleys with snow-covered mountains on the horizon (see below)
It is said that Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state, perhaps because there are so many individual mountain ranges interspersed with valleys - each range has a separate name.
We arrived in West Wendover which is on the border with Utah. Can you believe they have casinos out here in the middle of nowhere?. We drove across miles and miles of wide open spaces and then you cross the last ridge in Nevada and there's Wendover in all its' neon glory. We're staying at the Rainbow which is part of the Peppermill corporation. Nice suite, too bad we're here for only one night.
As we were checking in, we noticed there was a TV screen announcing the various flights from Wendover to Bellingham, Corpus Christi, and Fargo. We could catch a flight tomorrow morning from Wendover to Fargo and be there in three hours. Have to explore that possibility sometime.
Tomorrow, we'll have breakfast outside of Salt Lake City and decide which way we're heading to Fargo - either east on I-80 or north on I-15 to I-90.
Nevertheless, it's a beautiful drive through the valleys and over the mountains along the way. I know I have written before about the route I-80 takes through Nevada. Started as the Indian trail which followed the Humboldt River, then the wagon trains followed the same route, then came the railroads, and Rte 40 which was overcome by I-80. It doesn't take a straight line across the state, but rather follows the path of least resistance as did the Humboldt River. The Humboldt River ends in a sink (call it what you will, it's the end of the line for the river). There's about a forty-mile gap between the Humboldt Sink and the Truckee River which gave a name to the Forty-mile Desert. It was a tough road between the two rivers and a lot of the pioneers didn't make it across that section. Those that did continued on across the Sierra Nevada into California. We won't talk about the Donner Party which made some bad decisions crossing the state and got caught in an early winter storm which doomed their progress.
As I mentioned earlier, it's a beautiful drive through the valleys with snow-covered mountains on the horizon (see below)
It is said that Nevada has more mountain ranges than any other state, perhaps because there are so many individual mountain ranges interspersed with valleys - each range has a separate name.
We arrived in West Wendover which is on the border with Utah. Can you believe they have casinos out here in the middle of nowhere?. We drove across miles and miles of wide open spaces and then you cross the last ridge in Nevada and there's Wendover in all its' neon glory. We're staying at the Rainbow which is part of the Peppermill corporation. Nice suite, too bad we're here for only one night.
As we were checking in, we noticed there was a TV screen announcing the various flights from Wendover to Bellingham, Corpus Christi, and Fargo. We could catch a flight tomorrow morning from Wendover to Fargo and be there in three hours. Have to explore that possibility sometime.
Tomorrow, we'll have breakfast outside of Salt Lake City and decide which way we're heading to Fargo - either east on I-80 or north on I-15 to I-90.
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