Crazy Road Trip Summer 2011: Day 1

Bill and I finally got back from our crazy trip and I have consistent Wifi access where I can write about it. Here we go!

The first half of our first full day of our crazy trip was spent driving through Nevada. I always thought that there had to be more to Nevada besides Las Vegas, Area 51, and Reno, but after driving the length of the state, everything in between pretty much looks like this:

 or this:

 or this:

Yes, I was definitely thinking The Hills Have Eyes. It was even better when Primus came on the radio to seal the deal. 

Once we hit Reno, it was finally green! It wasn't long before we crossed into California and were all of a sudden in the middle of grass, trees, and lakes that weren't put there by man. We drove through the Lassen National Forest during sunset and were able to get some great pictures while fighting off the ravenous mosquitoes. It was amazing! We could even see snow capped peaks!:

 Then came the awesome winding road in the dark through Shasta-Trinity National Forest that lasted FOREVER. I kept dozing off in the passenger seat and waking in a panic that we were going to hit a deer or a bear. Luckily, neither happened, although we did see several deer by the side of the road. As soon as we hit the coast, we even had fog with the dark winding road. Then we hit this weird area of the highway covered with signs and flashing lights called the "Safety Corridor." This struck me as a bit strange since it was the first straight, flat, non-foggy area we had driven through in hours. I'm still not sure what that is all about:

  After 14 hours, we finally hit Eureka and woke up the poor motel desk worker at 1:30 in the morning. I don't even remember walking to my room! Stay tuned for Day 2 of our trip tomorrow!