"I believe Louisiana is the pelican state" -Irwin M. Fletcher

I have been percolating this post for a while, and its time to tell the story of my trip before I forget about it. We (Jessica and myself) pulled out of Portland around 9pm last monday. I still had tons to do that day so we left the minute everything was done. The car was packed to the brim, and then Jessica's friend came over and used his ex-navy packing skills to make it even more cramped, and we definitely noticed it on our trip. The three hours we slept in the car were almost impossible. I would have been more comfortable if I had just laid on the steering wheel. The trip to vegas was interesting to say the least. For that leg, I had a copilot (Jessica), although my control issues prevented me from taking advantage of her driver's license as much as I could have. We filled up in Sandy, OR, and as we passed the last gas station in Madras, I had 3/4 of a tank. I had no idea that might not be enough. Several hundred miles later we hadn't passed any sign of civilization or even another car for several hours, and the needle kept dropping farther and farther past empty. Every mile of the last 70 amazed me. At one point I threw the car in neutral and coasted for a few miles of hill to eek out as much distance as I could. To the amazement of both of us, we made it to Denio Junction, NV, where there was a closed gas station. It was about 6 am and we were more than willing to wait out the 3 hours till they opened. We settle down to a sleep filled with strange dreams for both of us. We awoke and I bought $30 worth of $4.30/ gallon gas, enough to get us to Winnemucca. I was already delirious when we got there so I got some coffee. It was approx. 150 miles to Fallon, NV and Jessica slept to a soundtrack of The Boss, which she said made her dreams very theatrical. We pulled in to a gas station and I noticed the cooler was leaking all over everything. Jessica was hesitant to empty it in the interest of keeping things cool, so I went inside to get more ice. They wanted to charge me for it. It is a miracle the ice argument occurred, because I then discovered I had left my wallet in Winnemucca, which as I said, was 150 miles away. I called the shell and it was there, untouched. I had left it in the bathroom. As I said I was delirious. This little detour added ~4 hours to our trip, but Jessica was a sport and drove on the way back, after I bribed her with two big Juan burritos from Taco Time. The rest of the trip to Vegas was fairly uneventful, save for some deep conversation and a brief trip through a town called Hawthorne NV. It was an army town, and the evidence supporting this fact was so extreme it was almost cartoonish. On the way out was a surreal landscape of bunkers and training grounds. We rolled into Las Vegas at 1 am, whereupon I insisted on eating at In n Out Burger. We went to the home of her close friend and they both gallantly offered me the bedroom, leaving Jessica on the couch. I slept the best sleep I have had in years, and woke bright and bushy at 10:30 am, ready for the leg to Albuquerque. Jessica strategized my stops for me, locating which towns on the route were equally staggered and had hotels in which I could use my employee discount. Google told me Albuquerque was 7 hours away, so I added a little detour to the Grand Canyon.