Day 16: Pocatello ID -> Battle Mountain NV

To compound the sin of bleating about wanting a service the display on the POB's dashboard that is supposed to tell you what the current speed limit is has thrown a wobbler and kept furiously blinking "50" at me on I-86, with its 80 mph limit.  I wot not whether this is:

• a corollary of the overdue-by-a-thousand-miles service
• a software error
• a hardware bug, in the form of smooshed bugs affecting the gadget that reads the signs

but I wish it would stop.  The 25 mph limit here in town is being shown as 15 mph and the cruise control only goes down to 20.

It should have been a straightforward day from a navigation perspective too, given that I-15 is a hundred yards from last night's resting place and the junction with I-86 a mile up the road.  Turn left at Twin Falls and take US-93 south to Wells, I-80 the rest of the way.  No.  Instead I'm treated to a bewildering and convoluted route avoiding the centre of Twin Falls completely, including an attempt to send me down a road that was:

• closed, and
• dirt

Though I did get to cross this:

Carries ID-50 across the Snake River
somewhere not that near Twin Falls

Once off the Snake River Plain US-93 climbs over some not-insubstantial mountains - the road tops out at around 6,200 feet before dropping into the Great Basin at Wells.

Cliffs near Jackpot NV

Using your trusty Junior Pocket Microscope (model 3a) you will be able to see the lengths, or rather heights, some people will go to in order to tell the world that they love Ashlee.

And so to Battle Mountain, where it was blowing a hooley and trying very hard to rain.  I arrived at ye olde Super VIII just before the driver of this rather splendid '55 Chevy:

"Looks better without the dust and bugs!" opined the San Diego-based owner.  He's driven it to all states of the continental US too.

First sign of the event, apart from a billboard next to I-80 just west of Elko, was finding Larry Lem having an early dinner/late lunch in the foyer of the motel, and thus I learned that not only have the boards lining the bridge already been erected but that nine or a dozen hefty youths from the high school sportsball team have been coöpted to deal with the straw bales we scatter around the course to prevent wayward bicycles from falling in holes or demolishing ranchers' mailboxes.  Thus making the early arrival of this Unit rather superfluous.  So I can put off phoning the hire car folks until tomorrow and also do some laundry.