Davis to Winnemucca

Boo-urns! I really didn't want to leave Davis. But, alas, I need to go back to work someday, and I still have a lot of driving ahead of me. We lingered around until about 1:00 pm before I finally had to leave. Davis was amazing, an awesome little city with a lot of culture. Leaving Pete was the hard part though. We plan on seeing each other again soon, but without any plans in place it makes me incredibly sad to say goodbye. I was driving down the I-80 listening to the Amos Lee CD he gave me and crying.

I listened to the Amos Lee CD 3 times through, then popped in my book on CD of On the Road by Jack Kerouak. What a fitting book for my journey! It was really cool to hear him describe the same places I had traveled through, and his reasons for traveling.

I passed into the Sierra Nevadas, which were beautiful. The rock were exposed everywhere, contrasting with the yellow grasslands and big evergreens. I crossed the Truckee River a few times and drove past the town of Truckee... another ski Mecca. Oh, how I would love to hit the slopes at Lake Tahoe (which is only about a 2.5 hour drive from San Fran...)

I crossed over the border and said goodbye to California once again (tear). Back into the desert of Nevada. I am now going to take back all the negative things I had previously said about Nevada. I still don't like the place, but it's not as dingy as I had first said. I think I had just been on a really nasty stretch of highway before. Pete had warned me that Reno has a way of sucking people in so I tried to take it easy, only took in a couple sex shows and a buffet, lost my life's savings on the roulette wheel... you know, the usual.

Actually, I just drove right through until I hit a town called Winnemucca. I checked out the map and it didn't look like I'd get too many other places to stop for the night so I checked into the local campground. My site had a little grill so I went and got some groceries and some charcoal. I had a fantastic steak with mushrooms and onions for supper! Jam!

The campground had wi-fi so I was doing some blogging. As I was sitting there, this guy came over and told me that if I had a fly for my tent I should put it on, it was supposed to rain. I hadn't noticed so I was grateful for the advice. He introduced himself... Wolf was his name. What a character! When I told him where I was from he told me that he had been there before, elk hunting. "whooo-weee! It was great!" He actually said "whooo-weee!" I didn't know people actually said that in real life. He then told me that his friend lived in Alberta and had been watching this black bear grow from a cub to an enormous six-year-old, and told Wolf he should come up to "harvest" it. Well, I tell you what, Wolf was just my type! I forgot all about Pete immediately.

Actually, I had a hard time getting rid of him. He meant well, but wasn't picking up on the fact that I really didn't want to talk to him. I even went down the campground to the tap and did my dishes but he just followed, I couldn't ditch him. Eventually I just said, thanks for the advice, it was nice meeting you, and went to bed. It was the only way he would go away. Oy!