Road Trip Diary Day 13

I got the bad news at 10am. The Jeep needed a new radiator. One word. Expensive. And to make matters worse, they wouldn't get the part until the following day. At noon. And it wouldn't be fixed until 2pm. Ack!

We were already supposed to be in Lovelock the night before and were supposed to spend this day taking a tour of the town with Mike the Mayor. I had made the dreaded call the day before with the "Sorry the car broke down" excuse. How was I going to call him and say I'd be delayed yet another day? Besides, he wasn't going to be in town the next day and I had to get Jaimie to her camp thingy by Friday noon. It was already Wednesday. I had only one option...rent a car and head to Lovelock and drive back to Elko to pick up the Jeep the next afternoon.

I got a car from Enterprise. We checked out of the Gold Country. Stopped by the dealership to pick up some things from the Jeep and drove the 200 miles to Lovelock. Knowing that we would be driving it back and then driving it forward one more time. Yay.

We saw several signs prohibiting hitchhiking because of nearby correctional facilities. And sure enough, here was one of them...

I was anxious to get to Lovelock. I was looking forward to meeting Mike the Mayor and having my private tour of the city. And I wasn't disappointed. According to Mike, there is a Chinese tradition of locking your love...

When he first told me about how couples came from far and wide to lock their love behind the courthouse, I somehow thought they actually locked themselves together on a chain. So much for my imagination. Turns out they put locks on these chains...

The courthouse is the benchmark/landmark/whatever mark you want to call it. It's round on the outside...

...and the courtroom on the inside is also round. It made me want to remake 12 Angry Men...

After the courthouse, we strolled over to the cop shop and I politely asked if I could go inside and check it out. We went inside and Mike asked Tom, the deputy on duty, if I could take a look around and shoot some pictures. He did a total double-take and was staring at my boobs...or so I thought, until I realized I was wearing my t-shirt that says Everybody I Shot Is Dead. Oops. Not exactly how I wanted to be perceived at that moment. After a quick explanation of the shirt, Tom gave me the royal tour and allowed me to shoot photos and video. I even saw a few prisoners in the back and was surprised that they were wearing Old West-style black and white striped uniforms. Very cool.

I'd love to show you some of the pictures but I didn't ask for clearance to plaster them all over the world wide web so...you're s.o.l. How about a cow family instead?

...or this one where Jaimie insisted I get a photo in the side mirror of the dust she was kicking up on a gravel road...small things amuse small...nevermind...

After being in Lovelock for several hours, we decided to forgo staying the night there and drove straight back to Elko. It was a long ride, again because we knew we would be doing it all over again the next day...

We made one stop on the way back because Jaimie was hungry and she wanted me to drive. The stop was Valmy, NV and this was it...

Seriously...all of it. Except I didn't get the tiny stand-alone building off to the right and behind this building. It was really small and had a little sign above the door that simply said "Laundry." Jaimie was not impressed with the food offerings and chose to go hungry. That black car was our rental.

The sun finally set on Day 13...

...and it was close to midnight when we finally rolled back into Elko and checked into the Red Lion. It was across the street from the Gold Country. We decided it was better because it had a Starbucks in the lobby. I went to the 24 hour restaurant - also in the lobby - and ordered French toast (for Jaimie) and pancakes (for me) and took them back to the room, where we thoroughly enjoyed our midnight breakfast knowing that we could sleep in 'til noon.


Miles traveled: 400

Time in car: 6 hours

Went to sleep: after breakfast