Still Making Our Way West...

July 14, 2010

This morning I woke up in Utah and ended up in Oregon. I drove 9 1/2 hours but it felt like at least 12 hours. I-80 (Eisenhower Highway) wasn't bad. I saw a Hendrickson truck and finally snapped a photo. Some day I'm going to figure out how I'm related to the owner...who is based out of Sacramento, CA. After a couple hundred miles on I-80 we headed North at Winnemucca, NV. We then drove 208 miles though open wilderness. There wasn't much to look at and it seemed never ending. I've been on roads like this before, they all look the same, open wilderness with nothing in sight. We were lucky that there was one rest area! It was a welcome sight and it was nice to get out of the truck and stretch a little. Can you imagine 208 miles of looking at the picture below? Yeah, it does get old after about 30 minutes.

We finally made it to the Oregon / Nevada border and we got out to get a quick photo of the signs. The geologist in me quickly surfaced. I looked down at the sided of the road and saw black rock...could I really be seeing this! I looked around and it was every where...obsidian! It was really cool. It was a nice surprise and I wanted to spend the rest of the day looking for cool rocks.
The drive was far from over so back in the truck we went only to realize that since we were now in Oregon the speed limit was only 55mph! Uhhhh! A long drive just got longer. The last hour and 1/2 were pretty slow going. The scenery did get better with trees, farms and some small lakes here and there. We finally made it to Klamath Falls, OR and it was a very welcome sight. I was trying to remember how many times I've stayed in this town...I think this is at least my 4th time. If all goes well at Redwood National Park (yep we are going back) I'll be back in this town again in a couple of days when we collect Lava Beds...