Day 10

Day 10 began in Reno, Nevada, at the delightful Peppermill casino and hotel. We woke up and hit the gym for a while, our first real exercise in well over a week, which embarrassingly enough kicked both of our butts. We then had breakfast at one of the restaurants downstairs, a glowing, neon establishment that was wayyyyy too dazzling for such early hours.







We got back on the road around 12, heading north on the same road we had traveled the day before, still searching for a path over the mountains. We found one in the ever delightful route 299, an impossibly windy road that weaves through multiple state parks en route to the Pacific edge of the country. It was a fun drive for the first 30 miles, but around mile 50 it got a lot less interesting and a little more nauseating. Around mile 80 Caitlin was ready to jump out of the car, and by mile 92, when we finally reached Route 101, she was mildly suicidal. Thankfully salvation was found in the tiny town of Trinidad, California, which is nothing more than a few houses packed around a casino, which was curiously packed for such a tiny town. Later, seated at the bar, we discovered that it was Bingo night at the casino, which guaranteed a full house. Go figure.

Asking around, we soon realized that not only was there no where to stay for the night, but as it was 8:00, we were quickly running out of options for dinner. We were finally directed to Wildflower cafe, a small vegetarian restaurant in neighboring Eureka. Caitlin was quite proud of Joe's open-mindedness at the prospect of eating vegetarian, and even managed to put away a portion of his veggie spanakopita, even though it "fought back."









We are ending the night at a hotel in Eureka, with basically no idea where we are, but we're pretty sure it's beautiful wherever it is. Tomorrow we plant to visit the redwoods, and hopefully make it to Portland by early evening. It's hard to believe our cross- country extravaganza is almost over!