Through northeast Nevada, as fast as possible

I’m actually on my way! I have been so, so, so busy getting ready, getting the van ready, getting my apartment ready for the kids to live there all summer, I just haven’t had enough time — or willingness? — to let it sink in that I am actually doing this. I am actually driving across the country.

But seeing the vast, empty expanse of northeast Nevada has helped. This is a lot of driving, alone. I’ve crossed three state lines in the past two days, but by far the bulk of the driving was in a pretty barren landscape in Nevada, with barely even a town, a turnout, or a passing lane. At one point, the speed limit got up to 80 mph! I have never seen that before. I had to snap a picture of it from the road. The van can reach that speed, but when there are also wind gusts, sometimes even just a gusty breeze, the van feels like it might get picked up and then set down again. It sort of takes the notion into its own mind of how fast I should be going. So I really don’t drive over 70 or 75 very often anymore. It is just too terrifying when that happens. If it’s really windy, I stay down around 65.

So far, I have not traveled over parts of the U.S. that I haven’t seen before. I drove that stretch of Nevada and into Idaho many years ago. I’m now parked in front of a suburban home in southern Idaho that is part of the group “Boondockers Welcome.” Tomorrow I work from here. Later in the week, I begin what I consider the “real trip”: I head into the mountains and make my way toward Montana. I am hoping the landscape will be much different from what I saw the past two days, a sampling of which is below:

I’ve traveled through 4 states in the past 3 days. I decided I wanted to start snapping pictures of each crossing. We’ll see how long I can keep that up…