Oregon to Death Valley

We left Portland on Sunday at noon, only 27 hours later than planned.  I was carrying the last few things out of the house as our tenants, Amy and Dan, arrived to move in.  I hope Eric remembered to remove the booby traps (boiling oil, spring-loaded crossbow, writer's block potion) from the interior entryways.  We did remember to bring the dog, packed into his dog-shaped space in the hatchback.  No leg room but a great view of the sky and the kids' lunches.

About an hour out of Portland Kai asked how much longer it would be before we got to Rhode Island.  He seemed dissatisfied with our estimate of two and a half weeks so he asked a few more times.  Fortunately I remembered the envelopes that Linda and Joe gave him - the wiki stix were an instant hit.  So were the Madlibs from Emily & Collin & Sabina.

We spent Sunday night in Altura, California.  Our plan has been to head south to enjoy some sun and warmer weather before the Big Winter in Montreal.  SoCal, Albuquerque, Austin, Death Valley.  So far Montreal has been in the high 30s, Oregon and California in the 20s, and Albuquerque is rumored to be covered in snow.  Not that I'm complaining.  I just have preferences about what form water takes.

Liam did his best to teach us to finger knit in the car, and offered to teach me to knit with needles tomorrow.  I accepted his invitation, following my motto "When at first you don't succeed, try something harder (preferably something involving operating pointy things in close proximity to loved ones while traveling at speed through windy mountain passes)."

Yesterday we crossed into Nevada, drove through Reno, drove back into California, had dinner at the only open restaurant in  Bridgeport and spend the night at the Walker River Lodge which backs up to a beautiful trout river with a bridge over it.

Today we stopped at Mono Lake.  Stunning.  The water where the rock forms rise and reflect themselves is so wonderfully still.  It was just us there enjoying the serenity of the place.  And a television crew filming a show, with a ten-person crew, host, and a huge fuzzy microphone on a pole.  To recover from all that beauty we stopped at Schat's Bakery, a little piece of Germany in the middle of the desert, and had churros and chai.

Then back to Nevada and into Death Valley, where Eric's cell phone met its demise in the sand dunes that we were running up and jumping down.  Dinner at the BBQ Firepit (just opened - great ribs) in Beatty, NV, where the GPS expired.  We are down to one cell phone, two laptops, and a road atlas.  The horror.

-Juliet