Day 15: Susanville CA - Battle Mountain NV

This will be a short and poorly illustrated post because not much has happened today except driving three hundred miles, mostly across not-photogenic desert.  And the camera has been playing silly buggers and claims the cover of the wossname that the memory card lives in is open when it isn't, which meant that the Several of minutes I spent chasing a small lizard around a rest area to persuade him to stand still for long enough to 'ave 'is pitcher took were all in vain.

Not a complicated day from the navigation point of view either.  Turn left out of hotel car park.  Eighty-something miles later turn onto I-80.  Two hundred and something miles later turn off I-80 because that's where Battle Mountain is.

This is what much of the route from Reno eastwards looks like although quite a lot of it is flatter.  In the days of the California Trail the really flat bit was known as the Forty Mile Desert and was best crossed at night as otherwise your mules, horses, cattle and family would often wind up being killed utterly to DETH from the lack of water.  It is a lot easier now with the Ratmobile averaging 34 miles to the puny USAnian gallon today.  That's 41 miles to a proper BRITISH gallon, or 6.9 l/100km in FOREIGN.  Also Nightingale Hot Springs smells like fried onions, which is odd because there is no local equivalent of CMOT Dibbler to be seen.

Arrived in Battle Mountain well early in spite of stops to refuel the Ratmobile and myself.  From the car park of Burger King in Winnemucca you can see this:

That's the only two photos I took today that actually made it into the camera's little Anbarick branez.  Soz.  On arrival much hanging around and exchanging vulgar badinage with other early arrivals.  And thanks for the socks¹, Erika!  Dinner at the Mexican with John Jackson and the entire Lem tribe, then back to the Super 8 for more trash-talking and Tea.  I may get an early night tonight, not to mention a lie in tomorrow, as from Monday onwards it'll be audax o'clock starts chiz.  If the weather behaves itself, and the medium-term forecast is, to put it bluntly, Not That Good.  Chiz encore.

1. Actually I have now taken three successful pictures today.  Here is the third:

   

   I want more money for this job...

   You may need to click to embiggen or use the link to the Flickr Stuffs, but the text reads:
   

   These hand knit socks have been tested and approved by Olivia.
   Have fun
   Erika
   P.S. Make sure you get some stroopwafels

   I assume Olivia is the hound trying to maintain some semblance of dignity in the face of almost insuperable odds.