Nevutwybraska
The coffee in the west is awful. Seemingly every hotel, restaurant and gas station in Nevada, Utah and Wyoming "proudly serves" Cup o' Flavor. It's more like Cup o' Brown Water, if you ask me. I love coffee, but even I have my limits. I was stuck with a 20 oz morning bottle of diet soda for my caffeine intake. This morning, in Nebraska, we had our first decent cup of coffee, but that's only because we went to the Starbucks across the street from our hotel.
Nevada was little more than a relief to us. Entering Nevada meant that the worst of the Sierras was behind us. The speed limit was 75, which meant that we were able to get through Nevada a little more quickly. We had planned to stay in Winnemucca, but because of the awfulness of the Sierras, we had to stop in a town called called Lovelock. They had a gift shop off of the lobby which contained two vending machines. One held snacks of various stripes and the other held personal effects that you might have forgotten. This was also our first experience with Cup o' Flavor.
Shortly after Lovelock, we entered Utah. Utah is a vast expanse of rocks and stuff, just like Nevada and Wyoming. Admittedly, the terrain in Nevada is slightly different than the terrain in Utah, which is slightly different than the terrain in Wyoming, but we were pretty sick of it by the time we were in Utah. The salt flats are kind of neat, but also a little creepy.
After our experience in the Sierra Nevadas, KP was acting like a stress monkey about the Rockies. He had also watched a fair amount of the weather channel in Lovelock. He made me call the various departments of transportation to find out exactly what the road conditions were. The Wyoming automated line, (888) 996-7623, was kind of funny. First, you should look at a map before you call it. Tell it you want the road conditions for I-80. Then you have to tell it whether you want the conditions for west of Cheyenne or east of Cheyenne.
Before we stopped in Rock Springs, WY, we called around to find hotels with a wireless connection. We found one, or so we thought. Before I made the reservation (from the road somewhere west of Rock Springs), I specifically asked whether they had wireless connections. The woman said they did. I think it was a Travel Lodge or something like that. After we checked in, we found that the wireless connection was broken. That was annoying. Especially since the hotel across the street also advertised "free high speed internet."
In between NPR stations, we found talk shows on AM. We received more than a healthy dose of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. I found particularly annoying Rush's attack of the "drive by media" criticism of the federal preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina. [Imagine my best impersonation of Rush Limbaugh, which probably isn't very good] Well, what about those tornadoes? You don't see the drive by media criticizing the federal response there. We knew those tornadoes were coming. The come every year. The federal government didn't evacuate the midwest, but the drive-by media doesn't criticize FEMA. That's because the midwest is full of white people. The drive by media doesn't care about white people. [end crappy impersonation]
UGH! KP just laughed at the smoke coming out of my ears, before switching the channel. First, tornadoes are notoriously unpredictable. You could evacuate to 40 miles away, and you might leave the place that was untouched. It's a crap shoot. Second, the hurricanes obliterated an entire infrastructure, killed thousands, and did it in a way that was preventable. Tornadoes strike individual buildings and such. It's not usually an entire block. And you cannot prevent the wrath of a tornado, but you can prevent the aftermath of a hurricane. And, how many people died in the tornadoes? 20? 30? Not even. Rush Limbaugh, go suck an egg. The fact that you're still on the air makes republicans look like idiots. If I can come up with a solid rebuttal in like 2 seconds, shouldn't you come up with something better to say?
So Nebraska was a relief. They had pretty cows; baby ones, too. They also had a fair number of what looked to be oil wells. On passing a smallish wind farm about 40 miles into Nebraska, KP and I had the following exchange:
The weather was fine in Eastern Wyoming and in Nebraska, so KP seems to be more relaxed. Although, now he's worried about how we'll find a parking spot in his neighborhood when we arrive around 7pm.
Up next, Eastern Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
Nevada was little more than a relief to us. Entering Nevada meant that the worst of the Sierras was behind us. The speed limit was 75, which meant that we were able to get through Nevada a little more quickly. We had planned to stay in Winnemucca, but because of the awfulness of the Sierras, we had to stop in a town called called Lovelock. They had a gift shop off of the lobby which contained two vending machines. One held snacks of various stripes and the other held personal effects that you might have forgotten. This was also our first experience with Cup o' Flavor.
Shortly after Lovelock, we entered Utah. Utah is a vast expanse of rocks and stuff, just like Nevada and Wyoming. Admittedly, the terrain in Nevada is slightly different than the terrain in Utah, which is slightly different than the terrain in Wyoming, but we were pretty sick of it by the time we were in Utah. The salt flats are kind of neat, but also a little creepy.
After our experience in the Sierra Nevadas, KP was acting like a stress monkey about the Rockies. He had also watched a fair amount of the weather channel in Lovelock. He made me call the various departments of transportation to find out exactly what the road conditions were. The Wyoming automated line, (888) 996-7623, was kind of funny. First, you should look at a map before you call it. Tell it you want the road conditions for I-80. Then you have to tell it whether you want the conditions for west of Cheyenne or east of Cheyenne.
Before we stopped in Rock Springs, WY, we called around to find hotels with a wireless connection. We found one, or so we thought. Before I made the reservation (from the road somewhere west of Rock Springs), I specifically asked whether they had wireless connections. The woman said they did. I think it was a Travel Lodge or something like that. After we checked in, we found that the wireless connection was broken. That was annoying. Especially since the hotel across the street also advertised "free high speed internet."
In between NPR stations, we found talk shows on AM. We received more than a healthy dose of Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh. I found particularly annoying Rush's attack of the "drive by media" criticism of the federal preparation for and response to Hurricane Katrina. [Imagine my best impersonation of Rush Limbaugh, which probably isn't very good] Well, what about those tornadoes? You don't see the drive by media criticizing the federal response there. We knew those tornadoes were coming. The come every year. The federal government didn't evacuate the midwest, but the drive-by media doesn't criticize FEMA. That's because the midwest is full of white people. The drive by media doesn't care about white people. [end crappy impersonation]
UGH! KP just laughed at the smoke coming out of my ears, before switching the channel. First, tornadoes are notoriously unpredictable. You could evacuate to 40 miles away, and you might leave the place that was untouched. It's a crap shoot. Second, the hurricanes obliterated an entire infrastructure, killed thousands, and did it in a way that was preventable. Tornadoes strike individual buildings and such. It's not usually an entire block. And you cannot prevent the wrath of a tornado, but you can prevent the aftermath of a hurricane. And, how many people died in the tornadoes? 20? 30? Not even. Rush Limbaugh, go suck an egg. The fact that you're still on the air makes republicans look like idiots. If I can come up with a solid rebuttal in like 2 seconds, shouldn't you come up with something better to say?
So Nebraska was a relief. They had pretty cows; baby ones, too. They also had a fair number of what looked to be oil wells. On passing a smallish wind farm about 40 miles into Nebraska, KP and I had the following exchange:
Me: "Why are there only six windmills? If they had more, wouldn't they get more power?"
KP: "Maybe it's done for a very specific application. Maybe some rancher built them to power his ranch. He's a tree-hugger. Or, at lease he would be a tree hugger if there were any trees around here."
The weather was fine in Eastern Wyoming and in Nebraska, so KP seems to be more relaxed. Although, now he's worried about how we'll find a parking spot in his neighborhood when we arrive around 7pm.
Up next, Eastern Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois.
posted by nugatory | 9:20 PM
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