Travel time and arriving in California

This sign says it all.  We started out yesterday in Colorado, drove through Utah and Nevada and ended up in California.  I didn't post yesterday because all we had to show for the day was a bunch of photos of the beautiful scenery.  At one point we passed sleeping dinosaurs.  We then entered the arctic, only to be closely followed by the surface of the moon. The country truly is a beautiful space.  For two days we lost ourselves in a Ken Follett classic and the beauty of the world around us.  

I saw tumbleweeds roll across the road, we saw wild horses, we saw fields of cattle grazing.  Our route was US50 and while it was a very good road, at times it was four lane, and others it was only two.  It is dubbed the loneliest road in America and I believe it.  We saw very few cars. There is a booklet that you can get stamps on all the way across, and when you collect 5 the parks service will send you a certificate. Sadly, I only managed 3. The places that have hte stamps were mostly museums and closed when we arrived.  No matter, it was fun all the same. When crossing the Sierras if the sign said slow down to 50, I quickly learned it really meant 30.  There were numerous times that we just didn't know how we would get across the mountain only to be taken on a windy road through a pass.  

I've had friends tease me about how in awe I am of this place, but as a child vacations didn't exist for our family.  I've traveled I80 across from Illinois to California, but never had i gone this route.  If we don't travel any further on this trip, these past three days have been worth it.  

We were to go into Nevada and see George's old friend Wally Lee, but sadly his health took a turn for the worse and we had to pass.  It all worked out in the end because we got to make a few extra visits that we hadn't planned on, but more of that over the next few days.

Since we missed Wally, George decided we should go to Giga Nevada.  We've seen Freemont and Shanghai so why not?  We didn't get as close as we would have liked, and while I was sitting on the side of the road looking up the next address, the Tesla police came and shoed me away.  You can bet we will go to Giga Texas in a few more weeks.

We arrived in Livermore at around 6:30 at night.  The mountains are beautiful, but I didn't like driving through them.  George will drive when necessary, but prefers not to and so far it has all been me.  I'll admit, last night I was a lot grumpy.  It was dark, I was tired, my back ached from driving so rigidly.  We were driving due west so the sun was in my eyes while we had it and the tension was just too much for me.  We ended up staying at some suites place. The bed was soft and inviting, but they really didn't have a restaurant, but just a little bistro. Now I've been trying to stay away from gluten, and sadly, that was really all they had on the menu. In the end I ordered some buffalo wings with the batter removed and the worst tasting olives I've ever had.  

We awoke around 8 the next morning, had breakfast and drove over to see Harry Nelson. For my non-puzzling friends, he had a hand in producing a boatload of puzzles.  A rather brilliant man.  We arrived at 11:15 and spent quite a few hours chatting about puzzles and people we all know.  He was probably as happy to see us as we were to see him.  After a while his son came in and we all spoke for a while longer. We made a nice lunch as Harry is unable to really go out much.  

Very kindly he let me go upstairs and rummage through a rom full of duplicate puzzles.  I filled up 4 boxes to take along for the museum with the promise of more to come in future.  The entire time we were there, I kept handing him puzzles and was surprised to hear that he had a hand in the design, or the invention, or the bringing it to market.  I guess my 'old puzzle people' knowledge isn't as good as I thought.  George and Harry reminisced about when they used to visit each other in the past.  It was a very nice way to spend the morning.

Our next stop was the lego store so I could purchase a gift for a friends daughter.  I also bought myself a monkey set. From here we drove to see our friend Dave Litwin, but my GPS took me to a different friends house. We got back on our way and the GPS told me I could save 5 minutes by taking a different route.  Sure.  Why not?  It took us down the most amazing road.  

We saw the giant redwoods, we saw a family of wild turkeys, we drove through the wiggliest road I've ever been on. The canyon to the right was so deep I couldn't see the bottom.

Eventually we got to Daves and he showed us his puzzle collection and his razor collection before we headed out for dinner.

 It was a great way to end a wonderful day. 

We stayed in a Motel 6 just down the road from dinner. It was the first hotel off the interstate.  OMG! The room was fine.  Cheap and it had hot water and a bed.  But around midnight, Johnny Walker and Peg-Leg-Pete took up occupancy in the room above us.  First they moved all the furniture around, then they stomped back and forth across the floor for an hour.  At 4 am I heard them wake up again from a shout sent by someone in a neighboring room.  Stomp Stomp Stomp.  George and I are convinced it was a traveling meth lab.  I turned the noisy room heater on to try and drown out that noise.  Oh what a night.  

A day with Wayne Daniel and a short drive

We spent a night in Delta Colorado after I crossed the Rockys.  What a disaster.  We got to the motel at 6pm and the main office was closed!  There was a sign that said to call and they would get us a key. No answer so then we saw another sign that basically told us to drive across town to a different motel and they would give us the keys. Sigh.  An hour later, we were in the room with an Arby's sandwich, some vegan muffins, a bottle of wine and a can of beer. Did I mention that the restaurants in town all close at 8pm? No matter, the water was hot and the bed was comfortable.  

The next morning we woke up and headed out again early. First stop was the post office to drop off some postcards for my nephews.  Ah!  Anyone who is wanting to make the day of a few children, please consider posting a post card to one of the teachers on the list below. My nephews school is doing a thing and they sure would appreciate the cards.

We drove about 20 minutes to Wayne Daniel's house and met with him, his wife, son and daughter-in-law.  We spent a few hours at their house. George and Peggy talked about our trip and mutual friends we will meet.  They are now pushing the high 90's and won't be doing much visiting so Peggy was all ears about this.  We even promised to send quite a few photos to her along the way.

After a brief tour of the house (what a beautiful kitchen!) We went into the puzzle room.  Here I took photos a plenty, and then Wayne and I disassembled a puzzle or two.  My first of course was the all 5. He had 8 of them in the room!  Beautiful pieces. 

The next puzzle we disassembled was unknown to me and boy I didn't want to but he said go for it.  An hour later George and Wayne had it put back together.  A round of applause and a big cheer went up when that happened.  I saw them do the jiggle technique to finish it though.

We then went out into the workshop where we saw his much reduced space.  Even so, it's quite impressive.  

George took a short video of Wayne talking about his former life and we saw the wonderful train set he and his son Brian were working on over the winter.  

After a nice chat, we went to lunch with everyone and had a little bit longer chat.  Sadly, I wanted to get moving and (again) across the mountain passes before dark (do you see a pattern here?). When we left Wayne gave us 2 puzzles for the museum (which of course are in the car and at 21 degrees, I'm not going to go get them). Again, it was a wonderful visit with some great people. We spent about 3 hours with them, and given aging and nap times (George's, no one else's) it was just enough. As always though, I would have liked to have had more time.

The drive again was wonderful.  We drove on I 50 to Selena where we stopped at a Super 8 for the night.  $61 with breakfast.  You can't go wrong with that.  No hot water, and the heater doesn't really heat up, but hey.  The beds are comfortable and the internet works well enough for me to post this.  What more can we ask for? At dinner, we went to a Mexican restaurant near the hotel.  It really was a good meal.

No alcohol. Well duh Roxanne, you are in Utah. Thank goodness for that bottle of wine I bought last night. 

The drive over was amazing!  Yet again.  When I think of Utah, I think of ... nothing.  I had no idea it was this beautiful.  I pulled over on every lookout area to stop and take in the views.  I do hope my nephews classes are following this because the photos are stunning.  I never knew how beautiful this country was until this trip.  I've driven across I 80 and all over the south, but I guess I just never saw it before.  On this trip I finally opened my eyes.  I was constantly pointing out rock formations that reminded me of something else.  Again, I overload you with photos. 

The reef fascinated me, but I just couldn't get a good photo of it.

The changes in the colors and textures of the rocks just amazes me.  I add a few of the signs from the stops here to peak the boys interest I hope. 

The next 2 days will find us driving across Utah, Nevada, and into California. Next stop?  Just outside of Giga Nevada! We've visited Shanghai and Freemont, might as well do Nevada because you know we are going to see the one in Texas.  That just leaves Berlin!  Yep.  It's on the list as well.