ROAD TRIP!

So Thursday Morning Alison and I split PDX to head east (well, sort of east). The goal was to get to Reno but that proved to be a little ambitious as the weather heading through the mountains into California was rather unforgiving. That said, the Element and it's mighty 4 wheel drive capabilities handled it all like a charm and we didn't have any problems (though we drove past plenty of people who did). So, yay for the Honda! Once we got through the mountains into CA, we broke for lunch at the Pizza Factory (We toss'em, they're awesome!) for a pint and a slice. The Pizza Factory is located in the strange little town of Weed, California.

At any rate, we crashed for the night just outside of Sacramento the first night and stuffed ourselves full of Chinese food before crashing for the night at a Holiday Inn off of I-5. Woke up early the next morning and crossed over from I-5 to Hwy 80 through California into Nevada. Gorgeous drive! Watch out for the Nevada State Troopers - they like to hand out speeding tickets (I learned this the hard way) and they're really good at hiding!

Stopped in Reno for lunch and won $20 on the slots. Go me. We go back in the car and drove 8 hours straight to Vegas, go here about 7:30 PM. We got a room at the Gold Coast as it's affordable and clean, then went for a nice steak dinner at the Cortez Room before calling it a night. Today we're gonna play tourist and just wander Vegas until we feel like stopping. We're here until Sunday at which point we're going to head pretty much straight east, hoping to make it to Albuqueque if not a little further by the time we quit driving on Sunday night.

So without further ado, a few pictures courtesy of the mighty Nikon D40 digital SLR....

A friendly Mexican lady was kinda enough to take this shot of us at a rest stop in the pass way up in the mountains between OR. and CA. There was lots of snow!

Scenic Weed, California. Home of the PIZZA FACTORY! Huzzah! Weed was a strange small town with a strange name but the pizza was pretty rad.

My poor dirty car! We stopped to get gas as we were coming into Nevada from the east side of California sorta near like Shasta just before Donner Pass. A very pretty spot.

Last picture for today.... the mountains of Reno! What a gorgeous (and long) drive it was through to Vegas. Lots of weird old mining equipment just kinda lying there on the side of the road and all manner of strange casinos and cowboy bars alongthe way.