The photos you won’t see, because I couldn’t take them

My drive from Downieville (and its sad farewell) to Elko Nevada began with the scenic route (to Truckee CA), absolutely gorgeous if you could take your eyes off the road long enought to appreciate it.  I left at 7:45 and, since I was driving east, the slanting sun often created blind spots when I drove in and out of the shade.  A bit anxiety-provoking but not too bad.  I’ve become quite the automatic transmission shifter, even though I really  miss my manual transmission. There are plenty of turn-offs to allow locals to pass (if you live there long enough, I guess the twisting and turning become second nature). I drove through the Tahoe National Forest, over the Yuba Pass, through the magnificient Sierra Valley and then back into the hills. All the places I would have loved to take pictures had no turn offs, so I tried to memorize them.  I took one last windscreen photo (but I don’t remember exactly where):

At Truckee I met Interstate 80.  Faster traffic, straighter road, but still amazing scenery. But at 75 or 80 I was not taking pictures. I did pull over to take   this:

But don’t ask me exactly where it is!  I also stopped at a rest stop to walk the poor dog (where are Reddie and Keelie? why are we back in the car?) and took a few photos of the sheer expanse of the Nevada basin we were driving through:

We finally got to the Quality Inn in Elko Nevada around 2:30.  Out back is a fairly pitiful dog run (100 ft x 25) but it’s a nice gesture.  Calli sniffed around while I took a picture of the neighboring RV park toward the hills:

The alien spaceship in the upper right-hand corner is, of course, my finger.  I have deleted many a photo because of that offending finger.  It’s actually a wonder that so many of my photos shot outside turn out ok, since I am ‘looking’ into an iPhone screen wearing sunglasses, so I often can’t see what I’m photographing. That same sky is no longer blue, but getting blacker, with a promise/threat of thunderstorms around 6pm.  Promise: maybe it will cool things off? Threat: I had scouted out what looked like a good restaurant with a patio that welcomed dogs and thunderstorms will surely put an end to that idea. It may be ramen noodles.  I’ll have to content myself with remembering the fabulous dinner Liz made last night (pork ribs and salmon and a wonderful couscous dish and a cucumber/cauliflower/basil salad and I’m forgettng something).  So ramen won’t kill me.

My back hurts. But it won’t tomorrow. Right?