CALIFORNIA!

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We Made It To California!
Wow! Where do I even begin? It's been an interesting day. Right now we're sitting in Pete's restaurant in downtown Sacramento at 8:45 p.m. Why, you ask are we sitting here? Because we could not get the internet connection to work where we are staying tonight and we had to try to find someplace with free wireless internet. We stopped at a Starbuck's and they told us to go to "Pete's" and gave us directions. We were finally able to find it. But after walking in and being seated, we found out that we were supposed to be across the street at a coffee shop called, "Peet's". Embarassed, we left the restaurant and walked across the street to Peet's, only to find out that they were in the process of closing for the night. So.....we walked back across the street to Pete's and they seated us back at the same table we were seated at previously. Fortunately, I'm able to pick up a wireless connection from our table! The waiter thinks we are hillarious!! We thought we better go ahead and order something!

Today was all about desert, dust, and wind! We drove for hours through Nevada and couldn't see more than a mile ahead of us. We couldn't even see any sunshine for most of the day. We did encounter a tumbleweed that was about 4 feet in diameter. I was able to swerve to miss it, but I had visions of arriving in Sacramento with a huge tumbleweek embedded in the grill of our car!

We tried to stop and gas up just East of Reno, NV. It was a one gas station town, and the gas was $4.09 a gallon. Needless to say, we got right back on the interstate and drove to the next exit.

We encountered very few vehicles on the highway while traveling through the desert. We did come up on a tractor trailer that was swerving quite a bit. As we hurried past it, Payton noticed that the driver was actually READING A BOOK!

We were stopped at the border of Nevada and California by the Agriculture Border Patrol. They were letting everyone else go through, but when they found out we were from WV, they made Payton get out and open the trunk so they could check for illegal fruit! (Good thing they didn't know we had two apples we'd "borrowed" from the continental breakfast at the Comfort Inn yesterday!

California is beautiful! The mountains around Lake Tahoe were breathtaking! I think I'd like to visit again, but would prefer to fly than to drive!

I'd better get off here. We still have lots to do tonight. Thanks for traveling with us.
Debbie and Payton