Day 16: Klamath Falls, OR - Battle Mountain, NV

Cold this morning!  Not by the standards of La Poudre Pass, perhaps, but still nippy enough to keep the roof up until the first set of roadworks on Highway 140.  The first part of this was much the same as yesterday afternoon - a bit treey and a bit farmy, but pleasant enough.

Not far from Klamath Falls

It's always nice when you see signs at the roadside saying "Chain-Up Area", "SNO-PARK" or "Skiing Area".  These mean SNO (in the winter), SNO means hills and hills mean corners.  We like corners.

This state of affairs continues until well after Lakeview, where I am obliged to top up with motor-spirit.  The quantity remaining is insufficient to take me as far as Winnemucca, the location of the next "gas" station badged to a company I might actually have heard of.  This being Oregon, a Polite Youth does all the difficult stuff for you.  Self-service "gas" stations are illegal in Oregon.  I stayed in Lakeview in 2008 and met a man from the Oregon Fish & Wildlife outfit who counted among his cow-orkers a former mechanic from the McLaren F1 team.

More twiddly woody bits for a while and then things turn all deserty instead.  At least the builders of this road have sought to keep tedium at bay by permitting many changes of direction and elevation.  One elevation change is particularly noteworthy:

The road is the diagonal line across the cliff face and leads to the Doherty Hang Glider Launch Site, a spot where loonhouses like Ben Goodall voluntarily throw themselves into space for shits'n'giggles.  After this it becomes the Bad Sort of Deserty with added drowsiness.  At one point I am stopped at the roadside smoking a fag when a Nice Man pulls over to check that all is well.  Hurrah!

About the only excitement hereabouts was the sudden appearance of a strange black silhouette on the horizon, looking for all the world like a large pickup truck parked across the carriageway.  Here come Mr Obambi's Arrest-O-Bots, I thought, to throw me in gaol for stealing my own rental car and being politically motivated west of the Rockies.

It was a combine harvester.  So I finally rocked up to Battle Mountain unarrested.

Home for the next week and a bit...  No, not in the water tower, buffoons!

And all I have to show for it is a very mucky Mudstang, a big credit card bill and a nose that frightens small children; in addition to the expected sunburn it is also being worn away at the side by my poncy sunglasses bought from a poncy shop in the exceedingly poncy town of Breckenridge, CO in 2011.  This in turn is due to the said nose not being straight as a result of an accident on the dodgems in Brighton about thirty years ago.  If you should happen to read this, Mr Cottle, this is your fault...

Additional: My room at the Super 8 overlooks the car park and I-80 chiz.

On lakes: Emily seems to have developed a Thing about lakes recently.  After showing us driving across a lake near Sacramento the other day, she has twice more produced lakes on her display where none exist in RL.  This all goes to show something, but I'm sure I don't know what.