I woke up in Elko Nevada. I was in a Super 8. It was kind of a shithole. Paper thin walls and just generally dumpy. The people had been nice though. Both checking in and out. It was early again. I was out the door by 8am. Still on east coast time I suppose. I got some road coffee and set off. I have been on I-80 west a bunch of times (like is said in the previous post). So I was not really expecting much from this stretch of interstate between Elko and Winnemucca. What a lovely surprise though. The usually tan coloured high desert dotted with deep dull green sagebrush sprawling in front of greyish brown mountains had been lightly dusted with a coating of snow. I had never seen out here look like this. Foggy steam was coming off of the snow in a field that the morning sun was shining down on. It was gorgeous.
I exited in Winnemucca and was once again surprised by the difference. I had stopped here many a times on my way to Burning Man back in the late 90's and early 00's. Now there was a great new coffee shop, hairdressers, and bars. It looked like the little old town was on the up and up. I met some lovely ladies working at Cafe 345. I drank some more coffee before heading north on US Route 95. From there I took a smaller road called Nevada 140. It was amazing. It stretched through the high plains desert and for the first hour or so I never saw another car. I set the cruise control for 72 and drove. I don't usually listen to a whole lot of music when I drive but this seemed like the perfect exception. There were no shoulders so I drove in the middle of the road and took in all that sprawling landscape.
So, I've been using Google Maps to plot my trip. From my living room in Hudson Quebec a few months back to the mornings before I hit the road in whatever hotel room I wake up in. If you look at the map it says you take 140 to a fork in the road and go straight on 205 up into Oregon. Well, I came to a fork in the road and there was no 205. Just a 292. So I stopped and went into a weird, kind of creepy, old building and asked the two girls who were working (one was about 8 and the other 16) if they knew where 205 was. They didn't. I asked how to get to Burns and the older one said either road would take me there. So I thanked them and got back in the car. I figured I should keep going on 140 and I would run across the 205 sooner or later. Well, I was wrong. Later, when I looked at Google Maps from the hotel room where I am now and zoomed way in and lo and behold! The tiny stretch from that fork in the road to the Oregon border is called 292. I fucked up.
I fucked up because after about an hour I realized that I was on the 140 west now. And once I crossed into Oregon there was no turning back. Once I crossed into Oregon is when the drive took a rough turn. They apparently don't have salt trucks or snow plows. The roads where covered in snow and ice. The sun was shining but it was below freezing. So the top layer of the road had snow that was melting from the sun but was then refreezing because of the cold and wind. This make driving on a small windy backroad with no shoulder a terrifying experience. Especially when you hit a 4 mile long downgrade of 7% that has no guardrails at the side of road and there is a 200 foot drop. It was a white knuckle ride. Now I was pissed at myself for this huge cock up. There were also no signs for any towns anywhere and I had about 1/4 tank of gas left. It took hours and hours to get as far as a "town" called Adel. There was a weird building with a gas pump and a bunch of pickup trucks. I went in to find out about gas because the pump had no prices and black markered "out" written on it. I walked into a place that was like a taxidermy. A place that hipster bars in Brooklyn tried to look like but were just cozy little places to have a drink. This shit was more like something from The Hills Have Eyes or the Texas Chainsaw Massacre. There were hunters with guns and liquor everywhere. There was a woman in the kitchen cooking some kind of meat on a griddle. The place stunk. There were mismatched chairs around old broken tables and a sad looking dog wandering aimlessly. One hunter told me that she had to turn the pumps on and she'd be with me in a minute. After about 10 minutes I left. Without gas. I went on up into some chain up mountainous ares covered in even more snow and ice. Slowly. Slowly. Finally I made it to the end of 140 and drove into Lakeview for some gas.
In oregon you can't pump your own gas. Just like New Jersey. The guy pumping the gas informed me that they had been blinded by this storm. No one saw it coming so everything was a mess. I took 395 north. It was still covered in ice and snow but it at least had a shoulder on both sides. Since there were no cars I just drove in the middle of the road allowing me to drive about 60. At Oregon 31 I stopped at another roadside building. I went in and was in half a convenience store and half someones living room. A nice bearded fellow told me that 31 and 395 are about the same but 31 is an hour shorter. I had stopped and asked because I was worried that 31 might be a nightmare like 140.
So on I went. It was still icy but a lot straighter. It was really beautiful. My favourite part of the trip happened here. I saw a bunch of... stuff on the road ahead. I wasn't sure what it was so I slowed down and when I got closer it was a herd of antelope crossing the road. It was beautiful. I pressed on. I was hungry as hell now and heading for Bend. I hadn't eaten at all. I was supposed to grab lunch in Burns but I messed that up. The roads were ok and I made a little time. Until I hit US Route 97. It was covered in thick ice and slow ass drivers. People were going about 25 in a 55. Cars were crashed all over. I pressed on. Hungry, pissed at myself, and ready to get the hell out of the car. Even downtown Bend was thick with ice. I made it though. Found parking. Climbed snowbanks and made my way to the D&D bar.
I had done a little online research the night before and found a place that sounded like a place I would like to have a drink and grab a burger in. It was called the D&D bar and it was perfect inside. I had a few pints of cheap beer. Ordered a burger with tater tots. Had another beer. Made friends with a great guy named Steve who was a construction worker turned yoga instructor. Oregon, innit?
