Road Trip - April-May 2026 - #4 - Middle of Nowhere
April 19, 2026
We’ve been on the road two days now and…so far, so good! I’m almost afraid to say it. Don’t want to jinx it!
We left the day after my Aunt Shirley’s funeral. It was a very nice funeral. Her 13-year-old granddaughter read the Scripture and gave a eulogy. So sweet. She also made a beautiful slide show. The sermon was nice, based on Romans 8:28. It was a good turnout, both from the family and her church family. One good thing about funerals is seeing family members who we haven’t seen in some time.
Below is a map of our route so far (the dark blue line).
At least I think that’s our route. We were on Highways 82, 84, and 93, I know. But not so sure if this is completely right. Randy can correct me if he reads this.
I called this blog entry “The Middle of Nowhere” because that is what it felt like for many of the hours. Randy told a friend he was looking forward to parts of the trip he’d never been to before. It often reminded me of when we drove the Oklahoma panhandle after going to Pawhuska to see The Pioneer Lady “Merc.” On that drive, I prayed constantly we wouldn’t have car trouble because it was the middle of nowhere, as she says on her TV show, AND no one else was on it for miles and miles. This time, there were at least other cars. Not a lot, but we were not alone.
Last night we stayed in Ontario, Oregon, right by the border of Idaho. When we drove to a gas station in the morning, we went into Idaho for a minute, then back to Oregon to get on the highway. After driving for a long time in Idaho, we crossed into Nevada. Barely passed the “Welcome to Nevada” sign and started seeing casino after casino. Yuck. Every time I come to Nevada, I think what a shame that gambling has uglified it so much.
Tonight we are staying in Caliente, NV. Small town. Old-fashioned motel called the Shady Motel. When I checked in, there was a jar of “Complimentary Earplugs.” I said, “Oh, oh, complimentary earplugs. Is there a noise problem?” She said, “We have trains that pass by.” Randy texted the kids about it, and one of them said it reminded them of the movie “My Cousin Vinny.” Love that movie!
I forgot to take pictures until this afternoon. (My sister tried to tell me to be sure not to forget to take pictures because it’s a common occurrence. That’s because I so live in the now. Haha.) I should have taken some pictures of the Snake River. It really was like a snake, all curvy, and we’d cross over it, then cross over it again miles down the road, then again. Pretty. Here are a few I took from the truck windows and a couple here at the motel tonight.
Most of the landscape was very “scrubby.” This part has some trees, but there were lots of flat, scrubby plains with no trees. We did see a lot of hills, and yesterday the road climbed and climbed. We drove along some beautiful snow-topped mountains, too.
View from the front window for much of the drive.
The motel has an old fashioned key for the door. No USB ports in the room. It does have WiFi, though. :)
Randy checking out the pretty train station across the street.
A little of the town of Caliente. We saw lots of little town along the way, many sadly filled with decrepit buildings and junky vehicles.