Leaving Nevada City, we headed towards Route 80 and the Tahoe area. The uphill grade of the highway in the Tahoe region led to more than a little nail-biting, as we were towing a substantial-sized trailer. Ultimately, we made it through fine. I suspect we pissed off a fair few drivers along this part of the interstate, as we tried to mess with gears and speed to handle the incline.

Dropping down into Nevada meant we left behind the mountains, and were in for long day of desert with rugged mesas and hills. All of us had our audiobooks downloaded and running into headphones, which was a good thing because reception was often spotty (Verizon). Stopping at a rest area was not particularly restful with temperatures in the 100s (F) and worries over our dog’s paws getting burned on the hot ground.

After the break we hit the road again and – for the first time on the entire trip – we had a moment when we weren’t sure we’d make it to a gas station before we ran out. I had lost track of time in the middle of a great podcast, as well as my car game of following dirt roads out as far as I could see and trying to find the homes or towns at the ends of them, and imagining what life would be like there. By this point, I had been lulled into a pattern of there being ready a gas stations. Being that it was the middle of a desert area with no cell reception by this point, we were more than a little nervous. Luckily, we found a station within ten miles of where we noticed we were almost out of gas and made it there on fumes!

Around a half hour before lunch, we found we had cell reception and tried – yet again – to come to a consensus on placing a take-out order in the right amount of time to pick it up just as we rolled into town. We all agreed on Odeh’s Mediterranean Restaurant in Elko. It was easy to order, and the food was incredibly satisfying after a long, boring day. We pulled into a local park (I believe near the Chamber of Commerce) and ate under a pavilion. After so much desert, it was soothing to feel grass under our feet (I’m sure Cee Cee appreciated it too!)

We reached the border of Nevada and Utah, and our campground for the night, which was behind a strip of casinos on the Nevada side. It was a KOA in Wendover. It wasn’t much to speak of, but we were only there to sleep and move on, so it served our purposes just fine.