nevada

nevada nothingness

Nevada, specifically Reno, was not my favorite part of this journey; I found it extremely depressing. In Reno, every other building is abandoned and boarded up. People aimlessly wander through the streets in wheelchairs and drunkenly stumble into casinos at all hours of the night. They all appear to have lost everything, and seem certain they will win it all back. Very sad.

Granted, I formed this opinion of Reno after being there for less than 24 hours. This impression is also coming from a girl who is overly-sensitive to the plight of others (I tend to assume the worst in all situations) and who hates deserts, casinos, and gambling in general. So, no offense if you love Reno; it's just not the place for me.

The good thing about Reno? We got a hotel room on the 12th floor. I cannot say that we had a stellar view (unless you deeply appreciate parking lots), but after days of small town U.S.A., it was nice to feel like we were in a city again. Even if it was the "Biggest Little City in the World." Whatever that means.

taking in the city view // reno

It also happened to be our last night before arriving in California. And thank goodness for that.

Honestly, I'm not sure how many more days of travelling we could have tolerated. Had this been a leisurely cross-country road trip (sans dog), it would have been an entirely different experience. A vacation, even. That's not to say we had a terrible time; we just wanted to do more.

For example, there were countless times I wanted to pull over to snap a photo, but there were just too many miles to cover and not enough hours in the day. Had we stopped to photograph each and every random thing I saw, we'd probably still be in Wyoming.

I did try to take photos from the car but never really mastered that skill. Since I would usually forget to roll down the window, most of my car photos, while very sharp and well-composed, have smeared bug guts in the foreground. Oops!

Also limiting us was Margot, who is prone to separation anxiety and could not be left unattended in a hotel room (and we would never leave her alone in the car). Drive-thrus are fun for about a day but at a certain point you want to just sit down in a restaurant and eat off of a non-disposable plate. That being said, I never ever want to eat fast food again for the rest of my life ever.

Same problem with Yellowstone. For very good reasons -- bears and cliffs, for example -- doggies are not allowed in most areas of the park. Because one of us always had to stay with the dog, we didn't get to see anything together and some things we didn't get to see at all. Not a big deal, we'll just have to go back :)

Sure, at times we were annoyed we couldn't leave her, but overall Margot did a great job. On day two, she concluded that we live in a car now, and the backseat was her new home. And what is her favorite thing to do at home? Nap. Oh, and nap she did.

margot napping in her backseat suite

In a lot of ways, Nevada marked the end of the road trip. It was the last state, the last hotel, the last night before we were in our new apartment, in our new city.

We loved the romance, the adventure, and the unknown of the open road. But we were both just ready to be home.

on the road

Peace out, Nevada. Hello California....