We left Spokane WA at about 6:30 am on Wednesday, having delayed a day to let a snowstorm roll over our route. My philosophy is ‘chase the weather, don’t run from it,’ because it will give you spectacular camera fodder.
We drove to the Tricities (Pasco/Richland/Kennewick) and crossed the Columbia, drove to Pendleton, La Grande, and on down to McDermitt—it was dark by then, because we’d stopped for an hour in Pendleton and gotten lost after La Grande and had to backtrack. Cyber Sally needs an update—she’s still running on her original info, and now if turned off she takes about 5 minutes and some clever instructions to let her find the satellites (you have to tell her you’re a) not indoors and b) not where you darned well know you are, then ok ‘a broader search’ for satellites.—Which happens every time you get gas. So we were waiting for Sally to tell us where we were and had to figure out that workaround while moving, and by then were in Idaho. Oops.
That’s why we were late getting to McDermitt. But from McDermitt it’s a hop, skip and a jump to Winnemucca.
Now, Winnemucca is surrounded by mountains (snow-covered on this evening). Beautiful. We stayed at the Motel 6 (35.00 a night for a single, 50.00 for a double) and had supper at The (Flying) Pig…best barbecue this side of Casper WY, and from-scratch. House speciality is the pulled pork sammy (to die for), and the ribs (NOT baby-back: 6 is a meal). It’s a detour-300-miles to reach this restaurant sort of place, because you’re not going to find food this good any closer.
We left Winnemucca at about 6:30 am looking for breakfast and I am here to tell you, do not stop at the McDonald’s in Lovelock NV. We then picked up 95 south (in the morning fog) and drove south toward Las Vegas, but turned off it toward Bishop CA, and drove down the backside of the Sierra. We reached San Bernadino late-ish, and hit rush hour traffic on our way, via 15 and 5 into San Diego. That was a zoo—-and—I had just glanced up at our insurance papers on the visor and discovered our car insurance had expired on the 17th. We were in rush hour traffic: I opted not to tell Jane until we reached the hotel.
We called our insurance company and became legal.
We had a glorious suite: we were so comfy in the hotel. Each of us had a bathroom. That was great! We loved the con.
And on the advice of locals, we got underway at 10 am and headed past LA on I-5, going upward toward San Francisco. We had no incidents, traffic moved, and we did find the Farrell’s Ice Cream (to die for!) in Santa Clarita, past the university and a little drive up the hill, about five miles east of I-5.
Well-stuffed, we nursed our ailing navigator, Cyber Sally, up I-5 to the cutoff to the San Mateo Bridge, visited Jane’s brother for a few days, then launched out over the San Mateo Bridge (4.00 toll going in, none going out) to I-80, which we took over Donner Pass, through Truckee, Reno, and finally Winnemucca.
We repeated the barbecue experience, then headed (we thought) for Pullman WA to have supper at our favorite burget place, but by then we were so tired, we started investigating how Sally was going to send us, and discovered we’d have to backtrack 20 miles from Colfax WA once we got onto state 75. Nay! By now we were opting for home. So we just trucked back the way we’d come, up across the Columbia and on to home…had a supper at the Swinging Door, where they’ve added a new Mexican menu list (this place violates chef Ramsey’s ‘keep it simple’ rule of menus, and whatever you want, they’ve got)—so we tried that—it was good—and we went home and crashed.
By then I knew it was convention crud round two.
But that was the itinerary and the restaurant report. Jane’s got the pix, or will have. She’s really tired, because she drove almost all of it.
Ah,that explains Donner Pass. I had thought that
you would go Hwy 5 all the way. I never even thought of Nevada. My folks stopped in Winnemucca
coming and going to visit me once and they loved
Winnemucca. So glad that you both had a great time.
You will be happy to learn that as of now MT. has
no flu(crud) activity(if you can believe CNN).
“Donner, party of thirty-three! Your table is ready.”
Really? Interesting route. Was there much snow East of the Sierras? Was everything well-plowed?
“Donner, party of thirty-two…?”
Oooh, you’re bad. 🙂 The snow was all on the mountains and the plains (and the roads) were dry and clear. We often were the only car in sight. I’m told it’s quite different in tourist season. It’s a 2 lane until Bishop, then 4, but the 2 lane is broad and very flat, so passing is very easy. We only had to pass twice in the entire trip to CA.
Which hotel did you stay at in San Diego? Were you downtown or out on the beaches? Seaport Village is really nice, my ex-wife used to be stationed in the large white building at the “foot of Broadway”, which is part of the Navy establishment there, so we’d go run after her watches, since she was on remedial physical training. Sadly, we left San Diego on June 1, 1991.
May I ask Cyber Sally’s heritage? Is she Garmin, Tom-Tom, or some other? I have a Garmin Nuvi 265WT which sometimes gives me wrong directions, but then, construction companies and local highway departments don’t tell Garmin that they’re going to tear up the road that the GPS insists we have to take. Garmin offers the lifetime map updater for $99.99, which is good for the life of your current Garmin GPS, not transferable to another Garmin GPS, and certainly not good for your life.
Glad you made it back. I drove up I-5 to Fresno, then we went to Yosemite, through the Tioga Pass, on to US-395 up to Reno/Sparks where we finally made it to the Motel 6. We went back up through the Feather River Canyon to Mt. Shasta, and took I-5 the rest of the way until we cut over to stop in Olympia for the night. Alas, Spokane was a pass-by, but then, you were still living in Oklahoma City.
We were on Hotel Circle, in the Handlery, but the con will move next year because the Handlery is asking too much: they’ll be in the convention center.
We never did get to the ocean…but it was beautiful. Had one downpour in the weekend, but balmy weather.
Cyber Sally is a Garmin 2750 or thereabouts: got her from Amazon, back in 2004 and never have updated. We’ll check that out. Last we looked, they wanted 300.00 for an update, which is WHY we were out in the outback with Sally’s brain one satellite short of a full load.
One of our priorities this week is to get her brain back on line.
At $300, you might want to look at replacement. Some come with lifetime updates for as little as $150. Costco has some on sale now, and you can always return it if you don’t like it:
http://www.costco.com/Common/Category.aspx?cat=74790&eCat=BC|79|4843|74790&whse=BC&topnav=&hierPath=79*4843*74790*&lang=en-US
In 1983 I rode in a boxcar from Maryville,CA. up to Eugene,OR. The train went up the Feather River
Canyon and I was entranced,pure beauty! When ever
I think back on that year the first memory is of
the Feather River Canyon. 1982 & 1983 were some
of the most interesting of my life.
I’ll bet that was pretty!
I believe that’s the route I took (aboard a passenger train, I suspect in far better comfort than a boxcar! 😉 ) in 1985, went from Sacramento to Portland. Stunning views in that route through the mountains, just at sunrise, lightly raining…
Welcome back, Travelers!
@CJ, I’m sorry, it’s been almost 19 years since we left, the memory’s fading, and I sincerely do not know where the Handlery is located. At the time, San Diego was the 6th largest city in the US, and I loved it, not so much for the city life, but for what was available to do at the zoo, Sea World, etc., and since both of us were active duty military, it meant extra money to go into savings – hard to believe, but we managed!
If you can, could you tell me approximately where the Handlery is?
Sort of as you enter the city on the right, off either I-5 or I-15…it was getting confused by that point. It’s very close to the Convention Center.
http://www.handlery.com/sd/
You have to understand that our normal style is Motel 6. This was pretty darn fabulous. They’d just reopened after redecorating, and there were a few glitches requiring housekeeping and engineering, but we absolutely adored our accommodations. Comfy to the max!
NEXT time, we hope to get to the animal park—both of us have been there, independently, but I’d like to go back; and also to see the zoo.
I can say that Pizza Uno near the convention center is pretty darned good!
I’m heading to San Diego week after Easter. Luckily, work is paying, because the conference is at the Hyatt at Mission Bay. I usually wait for hotel points to hit the jackpot before going in that style.
I actually spent two years north of San Diego as a kid while my father attended Palomar Jr College. I don’t remember much about the Zoo or Sea World though…
– S
I am pretty sure I spent less than $300 on a magellan for the spousal christmas or birthday in 2008. Maggie works a treat, apart from a few small idiosyncracies. But it may not be better than an upgrade for Sallie.
Yep,lightly misting for me too,I suspect it does
that a lot! The myrtle trees shone like molten gold against the greens of the other trees. I liked the boxcar rides for the most part. It felt
like you were a part of the scenery. Very Grand!
I’m a resident of San Diego, but didn’t make it to the convention this year. Darn work!!! The Handlery is on I-8, which is an east-west freeway that runs between I-5 and I-15 in the Mission Valley section of San Diego. It’s only about 10 minutes from the Zoo, which is in Balboa Park, site of the 1915 Worlds Fair. It’s also close to downtown and the beaches and an overall good base of operations when visiting the city.
There’s no place like home…
Well, that’s what I heard on the Wizard of Oz anyway…:)
Forrest
Thank you, CJ and jschmitt. I now know where it is. I was thinking somewhere down at Seaport Village, which I really liked, or else out in Mission Valley. I lived in Spring Valley, where Jamacha Rd. turns into Apple St. At the time, I didn’t realize that there were meth labs all over the neighborhood. We never had any trouble, except with the schoolkids throwing stones at our dogs in the yard.
If I could afford it, I’d consider moving back, but I have two parents that are up in years and I’d kind of like to be only a few minutes away if they need help.
I wonder what new changes have been made at the zoo and Wild Animal Park. Oh, and one of our favorite trips was up to Mt. Palomar to look at the 200-inch Hale telescope. It’s rapidly becoming unusable due to the high-pressure sodium lights from LA, but it’s still impressive to see.
Palomar and the making of the big mirror was the techie dream of my childhood: I had b&w pix of its construction, and knew every detail of it from my encylopedia. I saw a tall dome for just a bit as we were approaching the city and wondered if that possibly could be it…
Oh, we are so glad to get home. I can at least breathe this morning, which is a great improvement. Still a little sore from the dive down the mudroom steps (what a homecoming!) but outside of the knee of the foot that was trapped in the boxes, we’re doing fine.
Watched the Scotty Hamilton bio on telly last night: no matter if you skate or not, catch it if you just want to see a real inspiration to optimism…
When, where was Scott”s bio on? Could not find it….but we have very strange cable programming. I have always admired his love of life….. (and loved the send-up he did of himself in Blades of Glory)
Do you guys ever come to cons on or near the east coast? Just asking………
On another note yesterday was International Women’s Day….sunday Kathryn Bigelow won the Oscar for best director and today the W.A.S.P. are being honored in Washington (that only took about 65 years) but I agree with Ms. Bigelow in looking forward to the day when we aren’t preceeded by the modifier ‘female’. Just out of curiosity, have you ever found any difficulty as a female writer?
It was on last night. It was two hours. Bet they repeat it soon.
Mmm…. What troubles have I had as a female writer? MMmmm, lemme see…nope. Not me.
Cons on the east coast? It could happen. Haven’t been asked by any that had a time I could make it. I don’t like to travel in winter. I drive, and I don’t want to get stuck on the wrong side of a pass.
did you see? an article featuring CJ is shown on the main page of Wikipedia! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page
Neat! Jane wrote for that book…
@HRHSpence….Thanks……neat reading 😉
ms. cherryh, check out new garmins, there’s specials and sales on various models for 1/2 your stated upgrade price or less. i recently checked out a website that reviews all the different gps models and garmin still comes in better for routing than magellan or tomtom. also some of the models have lifetime traffic alerts.
D
I’m a real believer in the Garmin version—I do prefer them: but we lucked out! Seems we originally registered our Garmin in 2004 and never had used the one free map upgrade: never needed it until this trip. So when we got home we successfully upgraded for free, and now should be good until, who knows, 2014!