Day Four — Elko NV to Carson City NV

[320 miles today; 1896 miles so far. I-80W from Elko NV to Reno NV, Hwy 395S to Carson City NV.]

Today’s journey began with a much needed late sleep. Well, ok, my internal clock went off at 5.45am, but it was a slow moving start, and that was great. After setting up reservations in Carson City NV, I ate some breakfast (yes, Beck, I had some fruit!) and hit the road.

The scenery in northern Nevada is really outstanding. I had mountain peaks in clear view all day, with only a few clouds here and there to make the scenic shots that much more dramatic. Really, this is pretty country, and it sure does sing a siren song to my soul.

Today’s journey was to be about 300 miles, and it flew by fairly uneventfully. I arrived in Reno around lunchtime, and set out on the streets. I hit three casinos, and they commemorated my visit by creating a terrific suction that was quite adept at pulling green slips of paper from my wallet. In short, I didn’t do well, but lived within the budget I’d set for myself, so I guess that’s the silver lining. 🙂

I quickly tucked my tail ‘twixt my legs and pointed the truck south. Along the way, I passed through Virginia City. This little burg is on a piece of Highway 395 that is built like a racetrack, and yet has a 50mph speed limit. All along the way are resident-created signs imploring folks to keep to the 50mph speed limit. Impressive to see the rank-and-file getting involved like that.

I arrived in Carson City just a short bit later. Carson City is the capital of Nevada, and is really one of the smallest and quietest capital cities I’ve seen. Cheyenne and Lincoln both look like Metropolis (the one from Superman, not the one in Illinois) by comparison. Check-in was uneventful, and the desk help pointed me to a Chinese restaurant just next door. Man, did they have good food! Of course, the fact that I was starving may have influenced the perceived quality of the meal, but still…. yum! And my fortune cookie? “What you seek is closer to you than you realize.” Hmmmm……

And, unlike Elko, Carson City does have Thai food — in fact two restaurants! I think I’ll give one of ’em a try, although there is a sushi shop just next door in the other direction that may grab my dinner funds.

Tomorrow, I make the drive to Yosemite, and beginning of DLWS. I’m excited, I’m nervous. Were I a budding guitarist, this would be akin to Eddie van Halen teaching me how to play. One of the best, teaching me… it just seems hard to believe. Cool. I looked back at my old e-mails, and found that I first exchanged e-mail with Moose Peterson in late 2003 concerning DLWS. That session just so happened to be at Yosemite as well. Two years I’ve waited to do this, and now it’s happening, and at a location I really wanted to see.

I would imagine, given what Moose describes on his site, that I’d be hard pressed to get any writing done before the last session ends on Wednesday night. Stay tuned though, and maybe I’ll make a token appearance now and then!