Toward the Horizon

Chronicling a drive across and around the US, summer 2017.

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Day 75 - September 5, 2017 - Hawthorne, Nevada to Reno, Nevada

Day 76 - September 6, 2017 - Reno, Nevada

Day 77 - September 7, 2017 - Reno, Nevada to Oakland, California

On the way from Hawthorne to Reno, I knew I had to stop in Fernley to get the last stamp on my Highway 50 passport (when you mail in the last page, they send you something. I hope it’s good.) Fernley isn’t actually on Highway 50, but you would pass through it if you were starting the route from the west along I-80. Because I was sticking to US-50 all the way from Sacramento, I didn’t pass through it while going east.

Passing through Fernley meant I also passed through Fallon, so I had to stop at the Churchill County Museum, which was one of my first stops at the beginning of the trip. I enjoyed signing the guest register a second time (and of course I found where I’d signed it a little over two months earlier.) 

I got into Reno so late that night (reasons) that I passed up on the chance to stay with two different friends, because I didn’t want to bother them so late. Instead, I decided to see what it was like to stay in a nice hotel in Reno (when I lived there, I never did, since why would I have?) and stayed at the Atlantis, the only major non-smoking casino/hotel in Vegas. They have an arcade! I hadn’t known the entire time I lived in Reno.

The next day, I also ended up staying in Reno until very late, despite intending to go home that day. Shades of the days in Vegas. I didn’t actually end up sleeping that night, and drove from Reno to Truckee in the early hours of the morning.

Finally, I drove home from Truckee (with a long stop at the DMV there -- again, for reasons) and somehow, I made it home alive.

fin

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Day 74 - September 4, 2017 - Beatty, Nevada to Hawthorne, Nevada

The remnants of my wild time in the Motel 6 in Beatty: empty La Croix cans and an empty bag of pumpkin pie M&Ms.

Having woken up relatively refreshed, I headed north on 95 and stopped in Goldfield, which is kind of a ghost town but kind of not. It has a few things: a house that had a lot of pigeons sitting on it when I passed by, for one thing. Also, a store that was for sale, and another store that was open and located next to what appeared to be a pile of abandoned Burning Man art cars. The Yucca Mountain Repository Oversight Program office, which appears to actually have been turned into a school. The combination county courthouse/county jail. The Goldfield Hotel, where the “Radio KOW” studio in the movie Vanishing Point was located. And, apparently, hell, if you angle your camera so the letter ‘S’ in the old Shell sign is behind a street sign. Why wouldn’t you?

After dillydallying in Goldfield, I headed to Tonopah, which featured a lovely cavernous used bookstore that doubled as a location for AA meetings. I got there only about an hour before closing time, but still left with some outrageously cheap books. At that point I was still trying to get to Reno that night, so I passed up my chance to stay at the infamous Clown Motel. Ended up staying at the Travelodge in Hawthorne (a tiny military town) instead, being too tired to go all the way to Reno. 

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Day 72 - September 2, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada to Beatty, Nevada

Day 73 - September 3, 2017 - Beatty, Nevada

The day began with me helping two guys start their car in the parking lot across from the motel, and ended (sort of) with giving a guy with a little kid a ride from Walmart to their apartment building. In between, I don’t have anything to show you except my breakfast, which was delicious (so much for buying a house!)

I spent most of the day online, and it was entirely necessary coping. Ended up in the Walmart parking lot -- not intending to sleep there this time -- after buying some food at a Sprouts, and got wrapped up chatting online with a friend. Then the guy asked me for a ride. I figured since he had a little kid with him, he probably wouldn’t murder me, and he didn’t. Especially as someone who’s gone through foster parent training, I felt nervous about having a kid in my car with no seatbelt (much less a car seat) -- with the bed in the back of the van, I only have one passenger seat -- but I figured it was better than leaving them stranded in the Walmart parking lot at 2 AM. And that’s making a very long story short.

The guy offered to let me stay with him (it was the Saturday of Labor Day weekend, and neither of us thought a last-minute hotel room in Vegas would be cheap), but I politely declined, figuring that since I was already up at 3 AM, what difference would a couple hours make? I didn’t think I was going to have an easy time finding a room no matter how much I paid, so I decided to keep driving north until I was away from holiday crowds. Which, US-95 being what it is, meant Beatty, where I arrived around 7 AM. (With a stop in the parking lot of the post office in Indian Springs, Nevada, a town with only a gas station and a vast nearby Air Force base, no motels, to watch the sun come up, or something along those lines.) Found a motel that let me check in early, managed to stay up another 6-7 hours doing whatever, and finally passed out around 5 PM the next day and slept until about 6 AM the next day.

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Day 71 - September 1, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada

I had been planning to leave Vegas, I really was. But I got some bad news about a friend. After spending a good bit of the morning processing in the motel room, I went to eat a waffle (which was delicious) and then, somehow, spent most of the day wandering around a Target and doing more processing. As a result of me tweeting “fuck cancer”, I got told I was virtue signaling, to make a very long story short. At that point I just gave up on motor skills and sat down in the floor in the ladies’ swimsuit section. (See above selfie for documentation.)

I managed to get out of Target around 10 PM and made a second trip to the pinball hall of fame, then ate at Gorilla Sushi (and let me tell you, Harambe was delicious.) It wasn’t really -200 degrees. Stayed at the Downtowner Motel, by Fremont Street.

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Day 70 - August 31, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada

I had been meaning to leave Vegas on this day, but I got derailed and honestly, I don’t remember all that much about it. I know I ended up at a 24-hour laundromat between about 10pm-12am, finishing up a writing project that really needed to be finished up. Also doing laundry. Ended up checking in very late to the Ellis Island Hotel (fka Super 8).  (Did you know it’s illegal to sleep in a van within Vegas city limits? I do, now.)

Here’s a lovely Vegas sunset.

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Day 69 - August 30, 2017 - Las Vegas, Nevada

(nice)

I ended up deciding to stay a second night in the same hotel in Vegas, which ended up being the second of four nights in Vegas, though I didn’t realize it yet.

Some people go to Vegas to gamble, but I find gambling to be boring (those arcade machines where you play games for tickets and trade them in for prizes that are worth much less than what you paid, though, bring ‘em on.) I went to the Pinball Hall of Fame. This is the happiest place on earth, without a doubt. Just a warehouse-y building full of pinball machines from the 1940s to the present, no fuss, no cover charge, no one to bother you. I cannot possibly convey its vastness in a few pictures. It was away from the strip, in a gamer strip mall of sorts that also had a comic book shop, some sort of video game store I didn’t care about, and, of course, a massage parlor.

Met up with an Internet friend I hadn’t met before and had Japanese curry and, surprisingly, talked about computers and I liked it. 

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Day 68 - August 29, 2017 - Williams, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada

I’m writing this from Oakland, having finished my trip. Things went a bit sideways (not literally) and I didn’t update for the last week and a half of it. Catching up now.

From Williams, it was Vegas or bust. This stretch included an original piece of Route 66, the stretch from Ash Fork, Arizona to Kingman, Arizona. Seligman, one of the towns in between, is full of the kind of roadside gift-shop kitsch I can’t resist, including the Sno-Cap, where I replicated a selfie I’d also taken when I traveled this road two years before (the one with the “DERAIL” sign.) 

Hackberry featured a general store mentioned in the book; when the edition I have was written, the store had been turned into a museum but was in the middle of being sold. It appears to still be operating, but I got there just after they closed for the night. Near Hackberry, I also saw an incredible double rainbow that I had to get out of the car for, even though it was still raining so I had to hold my umbrella and the phone awkwardly.

Got to Vegas very late and stayed at the SLS hotel in the north part of the Strip, because fuck it.

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Day 67 - August 28, 2017 - Williams, Arizona

For the first time since St. Louis, staying in the same place for two nights in a row -- entirely by accident. Some life stuff happened that resulted in me spending most of the day writing in a coffee shop in Williams, and around 6 ish I stumbled out onto Route 66 and wandered into some gift shops. I think I figured out why I’m so fascinated with touristy gift shops: they’re like museums of a certain kind of American aspiration that you don’t see in as concentrated a form anywhere else. If Route 66 lives on, it lives on in gift shops in ways that the remaining pieces of original road don’t give you a sense of.

And Williams is big on that fantasy/memory/dream, being the last town bypassed by I-40, as the mural (which I distinctly remember taking more or less the same picture of two years ago) tells you. The “Addicted to 66 Deals” store advertises having the biggest metal Route 66 sign in the world. What a place.

My plan had been to be back in Oakland tomorrow, but that’s not happening, due to life stuff. Around dinnertime I thought maybe I’d drive up to the Grand Canyon tonight, even though I hadn’t been planning on going there at all. But then more distractions happened and I ended up sitting in and around my van in the parking lot by the train tracks for a couple hours. It got cold. When I get cold, my executive function (what little of it there is at the best of times) basically disappears. So around 11 PM, I just couldn’t decide what to do, and eventually decided to head back to the same KOA campground I stayed in last night. The same campsite was open.

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Day 66 - August 27, 2017 - Gallup, New Mexico to Williams, Arizona

Day 66 on Route 66! Kind of a frustrating day, but I saw some cool stuff. Woke up shockingly early given the embarrassing time I’d gone to bed the previous night, but still got started late and felt the need to stop and check out everything. Souvenir stands at the Arizona line, the Hopi Travel Plaza outside Holbrook, a knife outlet store that I left super quickly after noticing a display of Trump/Pence propaganda, the Jack Rabbitt trading post outside Joseph City, and Winslow. Took some stretches of the old road when I could, too. None of that sped things up any. But, some beautiful scenery, at least until I was eating dinner in Winslow (it’s rare to find a memorable veggie sandwich, but the Relic Brewing Company has one) and sunset hit. I’d been hoping to get to Vegas last night, but that was way out of reach. It was solidly dark, I was tired, and I stayed at the KOA campground (very nice) in Williams, just past Flagstaff. At least I’ll get to see more scenery in the daytime instead of the dark.

Torn between whether to see the Grand Canyon today and not spend any time in Vegas as a result, or stick with the original plan and see nature in Arizona only from the sides of I-40. (Yes, I like Vegas, for certain specific purposes, and also the Pinball Hall of Fame is there.)

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Day 65 - August 26, 2017 - Albuquerque, New Mexico to Gallup, New Mexico

Productive day for me, non-notable by anyone else’s standard. I went to Bookworks, the recommended indie bookstore in Albuquerque, but was underwhelmed. More whelming: the brunch place attached to it. Somewhere along the way, I managed to get a picture of El Vado Motel (I’m not sure if it’s being demolished or if it’s just the road around it that is; Central Ave., aka Route 66 in Albuquerque, is being taken apart and put back together again for bus rapid transit, a noble goal). I went to a coffee place in Albuquerque and worked on a project for a while, which isn’t really notable to anyone else, and then went to Target -- also not notable. Sometime far later than I’d meant to, I left along I-40 west, taking old Route 66 detours for part of it, skipping them as it got dark. Stopped at the Chaco Canyon travel center, found that the restaurant and trading post were both closed, but hey, I got a Route 66 mug and some vending machine stickers. Drove through Grants, New Mexico, which seemed unremarkable. It was dark at that point, so I rushed on I-40 all the way to Gallup, and after some driving back and forth, opted for the independent and bargain-priced El Capitan Motel. Stayed up until 6:39 AM (at least) for reasons that are no one’s fault but mine. Debating whether to go to bed or just start driving (and take a nap later), never a great situation to be in. If I go to sleep I’ll just be awakened by banging on the door at 11. or possibly 10. Anyway, this is the kind of thing that’s good to happen on one of the last day sof the trip. I can lie to myself and say that one I’m not having to adjust to a different motel every night I’ll be able to function.

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Day 64 - August 25, 2017 - Tucumcari, New Mexico to Albuquerque, New Mexico

I caught a daytime photo of the motel where I stayed, then went to the Route 66 museum, which was closed the last time I was in Tucumcari. It was open this time. Small, but free. Took a detour to Santa Fe, partially on the pre-1937 Route 66 route (now US-84). Santa Fe seems entirely lovely; by some incredible synchronicity, I discovered that a friend who normally lives on the West Coast was there, right after I arrived, and we got dinner. I checked out some bookstores afterward and bought too many books, then sat in the coffee shop part of one of the bookstores (Collected Works) and tried to work on a thing. Mostly didn’t. 

I liked Santa Fe so much that I was afraid if I stayed longer, I’d never leave, so after that I headed to Albuquerque to rejoin Route 66. Went to a bar with arcade games and pinball (Sister), which had much less in the way of games than the places in Oklahoma City, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, but was still appreciable. Old Town Albuquerque was surprisingly busy -- sure, it was a Friday night, but most places I’ve been on this trip aren’t like that even on Friday nights. After that it was late and I thought I wouldn’t be able to check into a campground, so I looked for motels; I wanted to go to the Monterey Inn, which is both vintage and has good reviews, but they were full. I looked at Motel 21 (whose sign is shown in the last picture), but they were cash-only (I have never run across a cash-only motel before). Finally I ended up at the Sandia Peak Inn, which would probably be nice if the air conditioner, light fixtures, and toilet worked.

Wishing I either wasn’t disabled or had functioning batteries for my CPAP, because sleeping in my van is not just cheaper than the alternatives, but nicer, since I wake up with the light (and it also feels more natural to stop driving and get ready for bed when it gets dark; I’ve stayed in motels 4 nights in a row and stayed up very late every night because of being indoors). But, I need to be able to breathe, and the Route 66 historic route has more cheap motels than it has campgrounds. Also kind of regretting not getting in touch with my friend in Albuquerque so I would have had to pay for one less motel night, but I think I had already exceeded my quota for making social plans while in transit, plus I didn’t know when I was going to be here (or even, really, that I was coming at all) until late in the game.

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Day 63 - August 24, 2017 - Clinton, Oklahoma to Tucumcari, New Mexico

Breakfast at the Route 66 cafe in Clinton, then west to the Route 66 Museum in Elk City, which was mildly entertaining. From there, into the Texas panhandle; I stopped at the U-Drop-Inn in Shamrock, Texas, which is no longer operating but has been converted into a gift shop. Another iconic Route 66 cafe was the Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas, which is at the exact halfway point of Route 66 between Chicago and LA. They are still in business, but were closed when I stopped by, and there was a sign saying the owner was trying to sell it. I thought about buying the cafe and starting a gay commune in the Texas panhandle. Then I saw some goats, in a field very close to the road, and they were frolicking. They looked like nice goats. This whole time I was pulling on and off I-40 to take as many of the preserved pieces of Route 66 as possible (though not the parts that were tightly parallel with I-40, since it seemed pointless to be on a slower road that was otherwise exactly the same). After crossing into New Mexico, there was a good 15 or 20 miles of Route 66 that was gravel road, and it started to rain heavily (it was also dark by then). I made it into Tucumcari and its plethora of neon motels (though fewer than I remember there being when I was last in Tucumcari, two years ago); the Blue Swallow, which the book recommended, was full. I opted for the Roadrunner instead, which is certainly nicer than the last couple of Motel 6s but also a lot more expensive than some of the other places in town. 

Having been to Tucumcari before, it’s not exciting this time to declare that I’ve been from Tucson to Tucumcari, though it’s still true.

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Day 62 - August 23, 2017 - Oklahoma City, Oklahoma to Clinton, Oklahoma

Oooooklahoma! I didn’t go very far today. Pictures: the donut delivery van parked outside Hurts Donut in Norman, OK (which reminds me of 2004 on LiveJournal when we used to say “call the whaaaambulance”); several photos from Cactus Jack’s, the pinball arcade in western Oklahoma City where I spent an enjoyable couple hours; a mural in El Reno, Oklahoma; and some photos of a former gas station in Hydro, Oklahoma that was made much of in the book (written when it was still operating; now it’s not.)

I’m trying to follow the original Route 66 as closely as possible, which means, at least in Oklahoma, getting on and off I-40 a lot to follow the bits of road that haven’t yet been covered by the interstate. Combined with playing pinball for a while, this meant I got a late start and didn’t go too far. Once more, motels were barely more expensive than camping so I stayed at the Motel 6 in Clinton (but not before having delicious Vietnamese food then ice cream at Braum’s.)

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Day 61 - August 22, 2017 - Colby, Kansas to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma

I did enough driving today that I had to get gas twice in one day, and I can’t remember when else I’ve done that on this trip. Google Maps Timeline tells me I drove 430 miles. Stopped at a strange coffee shop in Scott City, Kansas that was playing Christian rock and where I was the only customer despite the space being somewhat large and cavernous; breakfast was a cherry turnover and coffee (I couldn’t find a diner anywhere nearby that was open and serving breakfast.) Lunch was pupusas in Liberal, Kansas. (I’m not sure why I didn’t stop to take a comedy selfie with the “Liberal” sign at the town line.) US-83 through Kansas was all right, some rolling hills, more vast seas of wild sunflowers, sorghum and corn fields. And cows. I do love the cows.

Finished the Road to Nowhere (that is, the part of the Road to Nowhere that I’m doing; there’s plenty more going from Texas to Mexico) and headed east from the Oklahoma panhandle into the... uh, pan, I guess. From US-83: east on US-412, east on US-270, east on US-281 to I-40. Made the day’s second gas stop at the Flying J, where I took a couple of pictures of densely clustered birds on a wire. One of those big Midwestern thunderstorms had been happening, and would continue happening for a while. Dinner at a Laotian/Thai place in Oklahoma City that seemed indistinguishable from a Thai place to me (but was good), then played games at a retro arcade/bar (I do like the trend where most cities seem to have arcade/bars now and it’s not just Portland anymore) that had some cassette-tape-based decor. The games were all free as long as you bought drinks, and they had Burger Time, the Simpsons game, Missile Command, Double Dragon, Q-bert, Robotron 2084, Defender, and lots of other goodness. Staying in the airport Motel 6 because it’s the same price as the two campgrounds I could find in town. (I mailed back my defective CPAP batteries and at least I got a refund on them, but there goes any chance of being able to sleep in the van unplugged for the rest of the trip.)

The route home will be Route 66 to Kingman, Arizona and then US-93/US-95 through Vegas and up to Reno, where I’ll catch I-80 (actually the point of that is to stop in Fernley and get the last stamp for my “Loneliest Road” passport); of course, Route 66 is really I-40 for the most part, and I’ve done almost all of this route before (except for the Oklahoma part), but it’s also the fastest way. Before I turn back tomorrow, I’m going to have lunch with a friend in Norman, OK who I haven’t seen in too many years.

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Day 60 - August 21, 2017 - Murdo, South Dakota to Colby, Kansas

I woke up to a big black storm cloud over the motel, and hoped the weather didn’t continue through the eclipse time. Fortunately, it didn’t, and by the time I got to Stapleton, Nebraska, it was sunny and clear. Even though my alarm had failed to go off, I still made it in time to see the total eclipse. There was no traffic getting there, but on the way out the traffic on US-83 southbound was pretty terrible, and it felt like I was sitting there for hours. Finally made it to North Platte, where I went to the Golden Spike museum/observation tower (which overlooks the world’s biggest train yard). It was interesting, but probably would have been more interesting if I either knew more about trains or was more in a mood to soak up information. I thought it was cool that the train yard was just sitting there next to a cornfield, like, nbd, the biggest train yard in the world is right over there, but let’s grow some corn. I did an errand at the UPS store and ate dinner at a Mongolian barbecue place in North Platte, which at least had some foods that were vegetables. Drove to Kansas, played a little pinball at a bowling alley in Colby and then found an antique shop/RV park to stay in (the antique shop wasn’t open), right next to I-70. (Which feels like cheating, even though I got here by taking US-24, a short detour off US-83.)

The Dakotas and (to a lesser extent) Nebraska have fields of sunflowers all over the place, and all three states also have tons of wild sunflowers growing by the side of the road!! Pictures can’t capture the abundance of it. It’s a little thing, but turns what would otherwise be a monotonous drive into a delight.

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Day 59 - August 20, 2017 - Warwick, North Dakota to Murdo, South Dakota

First of all, I really like my outfit for today.

From the campground, I headed back to US-2 and west to Rugby, ND, the geographical center of North America! Rugby also features the Prairie Village Museum, which is a recreation of a small “pioneer” (I can only put that word in quotes since it’s not particularly brave for settlers to steal land) village, with a bunch of different buildings. 

Continued to Minot, where I left US-2 and started the Road to Nowhere (US-83, southbound). Later, took a picture of some metal buffalo in Washburn, ND and ate dinner at a space-alien-themed bar/restaurant/arcade in Bismarck, ND. Decided to stay in a motel tonight (since I was going to be paying for a power outlet anyway and I might as well pay $20 more) and found the Landmark Inn in Murdo, SD, which is cheap, comfortable and has a pool heated to 90 degrees that’s open till midnight.

The Dakotas are both pretty and open and have lots of things like huge fields of sunflowers that I lack words to describe; also, in South Dakota I wanted to capture the pink sunset that I was driving alongside but I also suspected no picture would be adequate so I just kept driving.

(The book suggests several detours off US-83 that, so far, I didn’t take, since my priority was getting south fast enough to see the eclipse. Which should hopefully happen if I can leave the motel by 8:30am tomorrow.)

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Day 58 - August 19, 2017 - Floodwood, Minnesota to Warwick, North Dakota

Continued along US-2 today, this time in the daytime... at least for some of it. Stopped in Grand Rapids and Bemidji, neither one particularly big, but for this route, they’re big towns. Bemidji has the Paul Bunyan and blue ox statues. From Bemidji to Grand Forks, it was a whole lot of nothing, then the relatively big town of Grand Forks, which is split between Minnesota and North Dakota, and has a surprising mural with palm trees. After going to a couple different restaurants and finding them either closed or with no vegetarian options, I ended up at Whitey’s in East Grand Forks, where they had deep-fried avocados. It only occurred to me later to be suspicious of avocados in North Dakota, but I guess it doesn’t matter as much when it’s deep-fried. By the time I left the restaurant, it was close to sunset (see: sunset over the parking lot). The drive from Grand Forks to Warwick was again, beautiful and desolate, and I headed for a campground just short of Devils Lake that I wasn’t sure I was going to find, because the road was so dark when I turned off US-2 and it looked like I was heading for nowhere. But the campground was where it was supposed to be, and the office was still open. And now I can cross North Dakota off my list of states visited! (Only South Dakota, Oklahoma, and Alaska are left now.)