I left Hawthorne in the morning feeling reasonably well. As soon as I got a few miles I realized what distinguishes this area. There is a huge lake, Walker Lake, to the North. That helped explain the sign I saw as I entered town from the South, Naval Underwater Training Station. Underwater training in the middle of Nevada? Now it made sense. Who would think Navy Seals train in Hawthorne, Nevada?
The lake is huge and very scenic.
Once I left the area, I continued to enjoy the dramatic vistas.
My target was a little town on the Oregon border, McDermitt. It was supposed to have a couple of okay motels. Well, when I got there the motels looked pretty shabby, so I decided to go to Jordan Valley, which was advertising heavily on the road, Jim's truck stop and motel. There also were supposed to be a couple of B & B's. It was a hundred miles up the road and it was only 1:30. Big mistake. The B & B's were closed and Jim's motel made the McDermitt motels look like the Bellagio in Vegas. So what to do? Not much choice; push on towards Boise, another eighty-five miles. As soon as I reached I84, I turned North to the first intersection with hotels and found a very nice La Quinta Inn for eighty bucks. I had lost an hour to go onto mountain time, so it was already six, long day. Oregon was not as pretty as I had expected, but southwestern Idaho was lovely. I did not stop for pictures as I was riding hard.
There is a good side to all this. I have less than five-hundred miles to go and can take two very light days to get there. I am going to stay off the interstate and go through the mountains.
I will see where I get to, and try to take many pictures.
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