Reno to Twin Falls

281 miles was our total for yesterday. Today is scheduled to be a long day so our departure time was 7:30. At this rate we're going to need a holiday to get over the holiday. Our first stop is going to be Winnemucca for a 'restroom' stop and then it'll be back on the coach to Elko for lunch. Where do they get these strange place names from? We've been driving for nearly two hours and we are just passing our first town, Lovelock. Not sure who'd want to live this remote. Right now the scenery is big, flat, colourless dessert. The term dessert reflects that there is less than 10cm of rain in a year and its not sandy like the Sahara. 

For breakfast John had Strawberry parfait and toast and  looks like the cat who's got the cream.  Me. I just had two slices of toast!

Well here we are in Winnemucca, how the miles fly.  Sat in a Macdonalds for 20 mins for the free wifi but nobody was home except for Natalie. Thank goodness for Natalie :-) Unfortunately the photo isn't as good as when Natalie face timed from the beach with the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop but still the wonders of modern technology allowed us a face to face call with us in the middle of a dessert. 

We have been travelling over four hours now with just a brief stop and we are still driving across the landscape a previous photo. Is there no end to it? We want a bit of colour now. 

Just had our lunchtime stop and once again there was a Macdonalds which, yes you've guessed, free wifi. John had another coffee and I managed FaceTime with mum, Lisa and Jackie. It's just occurred to me that I can try you on Skype Claire so I'll keep my fingers crossed for a lunchtime Macdonalds tomorrow, which will be about 8/9 pm. It's been really lovely seeing everybody today. 

The time on the bus is ok. We have music now and again, would you believe country, which is ok for us and we've also watched a promotional DVD. This afternoon we are going to see part 1 of How the West Was Won. I know you're trying to imagine my excitement aren't you but I think I'll probably have a doze, after all we were up at 5:45 today. It's now 4:30 and we're still on the road with just an hour to go to Twin Falls. Shortly after our last stop we crossed from Nevada into our third state, Idaho and moved our watches on an hour. A long journey is bad enough but losing an hour is a bit of a bummer!

Hurray, with about 30 mins to go we've just lost the dessert and we've seen cows and irrigated fields. Whoopee. Well I've go to write something on the blog, haven't I?

What a disappointment at the end of the day. We went to see the Shoshona Falls, which are called the Niagara of the west, only to find that they've virtually run dry. They feed off the snake river but so do the farmers and the greedy farmers have taken the lot. The rocks in the photo below should have thousands of gallons of water cascading down :-(

Now it's time for a swim and then food.