Road Trip - Reno to Bend, OR 05-20-18

First I'll say HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the KoKo dog who turned four years old today May 20th.  He and his Froggie are spending two weeks with Nancy Ota and Bud.  Many Thanks!

Don't know what was wrong last night, but I could not post on my blog and lost what I had typed.  So, here is a morning try...... 
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A very late start to the day as I was just so tired I felt I needed to sleep some more and it worked!  I felt much better and enjoyed the day which showed how much open country there is in NE California and SE Oregon.   Today's drive was 430 miles and a lot of the time I felt like I was the last woman on Earth!  Not a lot of cars/trucks on the road and almost no activity in the small communities along the way.  So, today's pictures are sort of a flip book (do they still make those?) with few captions.  As you flip through them you'll be riding along with me.

Just north of Reno (a city changed beyond all recognition from a decade ago) I saw what I thought was a dry lake bed, but when I was down on a level with it I realized that this was the color of the water.  I saw several huge lakes that looked the same.  Minerals in the water??  Anyone know? 

This is still 395 with minimum traffic.  Could it be because it was Sunday?

Sometimes as the miles roll by I spot something mysterious - no time to stop and check it out. 

Here it is in context. 

And then the entrance to something rolls by.   Mysterious. 

Wild trees in bloom, don't think they are fruit bearing. 

Wonderful clouds.  No traffic. 

Another lake. 

Looks stormy ahead. 

Flowers?  Minerals? 

Of course, I am looking through the windshield. 

Almost like a mirage this rest stop appears.   The "chimneys" are venting for the no-flush toilets.  The solar panel must be for the outside light as there was none inside. 

There is a wonderful fragrance in the air on this trip.  It is the sagebrush blooming - there are many different varieties of sage, here is one in bloom. 

And many.

Nobody on the road but me.

Another mysterious appearance.

It appears to be made of wood. 

Blink and I miss it.   What do they do out here? 

Roadside blooms. 

And suddenly water in the roadside ditch.  I saw two ducks swimming. 

And it goes on and on and on.

I turned NW on highway 31 which goes along the east side of Summer Lake with 150 miles of gas left.  By the time I found a gas station at Silver Lake I was down to 43 miles and it was about 45 to the next town, La Pine.  My SCalifornia brain told me surely there will be gas stations in 150 miles.  Not.  

Bend is not the cow town I remember from my childhood.  I am staying at a Hampton Inn which is lovely and had a great dinner at Pastini Pastaria restaurant close by.  It is in the Old Mill District right on the Deschutes River, a lovely place with walking paths, ducks and geese on the water, and very impressive landscaping.   What happened to the cow town?  

More on this day in some future post.  Heading for I-5, or I will never get to Washington. 

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