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Loving it. Enough said!

June 16th - Nevada (and a lot of it)

I drove east across US50 through Austin and Eureka. Eureka was a great town, kept in great condition, with the store fronts nicely painted. It was the picture postcard of small town American life. I stopped in at the town museum and this wonderful woman who runs the museum gave me a tour of the printing press area, which was in use until 1960.

From there, I headed east again through Ely (e-lee) and then went to a national park, I and you probably have never heard of. It is the Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada. The highlight of the park is a huge underground cave. I took the tour.

They used to hold dances and weddings in this cave; you can still do the latter.
I entered Utah (lost an hour) and will head into Colorado tomorrow. Here are some pictures of the central Utah landscape. The United States is an amazing place.

The scenery as you drive across America!

By the way, White Teeth is getting better. I wasn't so sure about it before.

I'm a TOTAL KLUTZ

I dropped my camera in the sand, lens down with the camera on. After shaking out as much sand as possible, I assessed the damage my stupid mistake had made. When I turn off the camera, the lens doesn’t close. This is an initial assessment. After a day with the camera, I have noticed that the camera does not focus quickly, if at all, when on panoramic mode. The camera does appear to work when zooming in, however. Whether or not it focuses depends upon usage. Sometimes it focuses, sometimes it doesn’t. Other times, the camera doesn’t show you the picture you are taking in the display on the back, instead I must look through the lens. However, the picture does get taken and when the camera is put into display mode, I do see my pictures. Hopefully, the camera figures itself out and pictures won’t be out of focus and starts to display in the back again. I have a PYSCHOTIC CAMERA. It continues to be temperamental; we’ll see how the rest of the trip works out. Keep your fingers crossed.

Biking

As you saw in the first picture of this journey, I put a bike rack on the car and have taken my bike along with me on this journey. Each morning (there have been two so far), I have arisen, taken the bike off the car and gone for an hour ride. By the way, my fear of not being able to get the bike on and off the car, let alone locked and secured has fallen by the wayside. It’s fairly easy and logical, just like everything in life that I have feared. Anyway, I thought you might like the picture below of the tire tracks I made.

June 15th - The journey begins

My home away from home, she's looking good isn't she? 
My friend Michael who was supposed to join me on the trek from California to Nebraska had to cancel on me for various reasons. This threw me into a loop as it meant that I was going to be along by myself instead of having a companion for this journey. I met with him in the morning to pick up some boxes to take to his family in Nebraska as I am still going to go to his cousins wedding. I am close enough with his family to still be welcome at this event. I guess I’ll be Michael by proxy.

I crossed the San Francisco Bay Bridge at 11:45AM on Tuesday June 15th, 2004. I was a confusion of both excitement and complete terror as to what my journey was going to hold in store. As I promised, I took as many of the smaller roads as possible that meant getting off I-80 immediately and taking Highway 4 along the Sacramento River delta. The greatest excitement about this journey was to see exactly the location of the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART station. I have ridden the Pittsburg/Bay Point BART numerous times but never knew where the terminus was. Now I do. The route took me through Antioch and then I crossed the Antioch Bridge into the delta itself. The delta river road had me cross numerous small bridges and I soon ended up in Sacramento.

One of the many bridges on Hwy 160 in the Sacramento River Delta 
As I passed through Folsom, I stopped in at a Borders to pick up the book White Teeth by Zadie Smith on tape. I entered into the Lake Tahoe region, had a picnic and then set off for Carson City. I admit, that being the gambling lover that I am, I did drop some cash on the craps table. I was in and out in less that half an hour.

Heading east from Carson City, I was faced with a decision as to whether or not to take I-80 or to head east through Nevada on US-50, named “the loneliest road in the US” by Life magazine. I took US-50 and immediately saw the sign below

Read it and weep all you Californians!

And filled up my gas tank. I had to document this for all you Californians reading this. As I headed east, I stopped off to see some petroglyphs.

Any idea what these mean?

I ended up pulling off at a recreation area called Sand Mountain (a big sand dune in the middle of the basin and range region) to camp for the night. Note the sign below that pointed to the BLM area pulled into. My plan on sleeping outside was quickly thrown out the window by the swirling wind and sand.

And it's solar powered!!

A peaceful place to rest one's head for the night, especially the first night. 
I am feeling much more comfortable about things now. But I realize that these first three days of the trip are essentially the equivalent of a “solo” that they have a number of wilderness students do. I am alone with my own thoughts and feelings. At this point I am reflecting on the fact that I am actually able to physically take this trip. To think about where I was one year and nine months ago, in that hospital in London, I am so grateful for all the support and love I was given and for all of you who told me NOT to give up, when at that point, I would rather have just said “screw it” and given up on life, let alone have hope of walking again. For all that support and love (that’s you Mom, Dad, and Marl) I am eternally grateful.

What am I doing???

I sit here and write this entry on the evening before I depart on my two month journey across this great nation and back again. There is the part of me that is excited and ready to get on the road. There is the part of me that is freaking out about this great adventure I am about to embark on. I am such a person of structure and routine that these first couple weeks of driving at my own leisure and not having a real agenda is a hugely foreign concept for me. It is going to be a struggle for me to not have a place to be at a set time, but to just stop when I feel like it and call it a day. I was talking with a friend of mine today who reminded me that once I get on the road and know what it will look and feel like that this apprehension will fade away and I will embrace the open road. I think he is right.

I truly am challenging myself by taking on this great unknown adventure. I easily could have taught summer school and stayed here in the Bay Area and taken it easy. But I know that life is about doing the uncomfortable and doing the unknown so here I am on the cusp of the great unknown. Some goals of the trip.

a) Stay off the interstates as much as possible. I hope to take US 50 across to Kansas and then cut up to US 20 and hit Nebraska, Iowa through the Midwest (INDIANA!!!!) to Upstate New York.

b) To stop as much as possible to see the small towns of America and talk to people. I hope to meet some great characters along the way.

c) To get out of the car everyday for an hour or two and hop on my bike to get some exercise but to also see these places at less than 10 miles per hour.

d) To stop doing this goal setting and to live life without having to achieve.

Where I write you from next? Who knows. Will I have a story to tell, I definately hope so!