From Oregon to Nevada - Craters, Cowboys, and Chaos

Left bright and early on Wednesday morning to begin the loop back to Denver.  We chose the route that went down through Oregon and east through Nevada, Utah and back to Colorado.

A mountain in Oregon that I'm sure has a name but I have no idea what.  

We decided to drive through Crater Lake on our way down through Oregon and it was a great place to stop for lunch. 





Yet another peanut butter and jelly feast

John Paul takes a picture.

We didn't stay long because we needed to get on the road but it definitely was a beautiful place!
We headed back on the road towards Nevada and it was a long drive and got old really quick.  We thought Nevada would be more scenic.  And when we finally got there (I totally underestimated in my head how wide Oregon is) there were some neat views...for a little while.  Then it just went on and on and on.   Any trace of civilization was hours apart and what qualified as a town on the map was often a quarter mile (if that) strip of broken down shacks and trailers.  A pretty desolate drive. 

A small glimpse into one of the more difficult moments of the trip that tried our patience and willpower and charity greatly.  It involved vomit, a mother in the backseat yelling "pull over IMMEDIATELY!", a father not knowing what was going on veering a bit too quickly to the side of the road, said side of road being a steep slope of rocks and the van getting sucked down into said rocks.  We ended up at an almost 45 degree angle from the road and very much stuck.  Vomit was spewing, car was veering, people were screaming.  Ah, the memories...  

Awesome part was that within three minutes, three different people had stopped to help us out.  Sometimes I just love people.  And this cool cowboy man who lived just down the road chained us up and pulled us out with his massive truck.  Don't you just love that 'stache??  Perfect.  I can't believe I took a picture while on my hands and knees in the backseat wiping up the vast amounts of spewage with vast amounts of baby wipes.  I was honestly afraid to get out of the car or move lest the weight shift make the van tip over it felt so precariously tipped.  The cowboy man said that this happens a lot on that road and he often has to help.  And then within moments, the angel cowboy man was gone and we were back on the road.   We thanked God and prayed for all of them once we pulled away (and our adrenaline had petered out a bit).  

"Rest stop" (i.e. a pit toilet and picnic table) shenanigans



The rest of the way looked like this and we drove and drove and drove.

So instead I took pictures of this cuteness.  

By nightfall we arrived in the town of Winnemucca which is a tiny little place with lots of casinos and lots of hotels.  We hunkered down at a Best Western for the night (which was surprisingly nice).  I tried to feed the boys Trader Joe's version of spaghettio's (rejected!) and then we slept.  We left early in the morning after partaking of the free breakfast (score - make your own Belgian waffles!) for yet more driving.


7 comments

  1. I think that's Mt. Jefferson. Crater Lake was beautiful, wasn't it? We drove all around it when we were there on Monday.

    Who was vomitting? Was it car-sickness? You poor thing!!

    Nice shirt, Brian. I have 50 more if you want another.

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    1. It was Michael and yep, just carsick. He felt better right away. Crater Lake is so vivid! So stunning!

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  2. No! Vomit in the carseat is a mother's worst hell! *shudder*

    So, I'm pretty sure little Luke looks exactly like your husband. Yep.

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    1. Well, good news is that it was projectile enough that it missed the car seat...
      Also, did you know that clothes and shoes covered in such fluids then stuffed in a bag to be washed asap but then sort of forgotten about will grow vast amounts of mold? True story. Good science lesson.

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  3. Oh I want to vomit now! Like, so much. barrrrrrf. Anyway, you have my sympathies. And I just want to say something about that dude's moustache. I'm not sure what I want to say, but I sort of wish I could make a song about it. "sirrrr, your moustache is CRAZY/do you grow that thing on purpose or cuz you're just lazy/ do you ever worry about mites/ do you ever worry about fleas/ do you ever eat pizza and get moustache on your cheese"
    All I know is, a person could do pull ups on that thing!
    I still feel like vomiting. These posts are great!

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  4. You drove the 140/95 from Crater Lake to Winnemucca? with 4 small people in a van? Brave, brave mama.

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