Partway through the day, I stopped in Winnemucca to get some gas and there was a hot road show going on in the town. Some beutiful old cars, some local but others looked like they were on tour. There were even some canadian cars.
I had a late lunch just as I was turning off of the Interstate in Wells, NV. This random little truck stop had some of the best mexican food I've ever eaten. Delicious! While there, I did notice that on the side of the hill, there was a gigantic white W. I had seen them all day and realized that there was one for each town with the first letter of the town's name emblazoned onto the closest hill. Weird desert folks.
After lunch, I made my way to Twin Falls, Idaho, while the vegetation slowly got denser and greener. I stopped in Twin Falls to get groceries and then, on the road out of town, I saw a sign that read "point of natural interest". I had been seeing these every once in a while, so I decided to turn off. What a great idea! Cutting through this plateau as far as the eye could see was a beautiful canyon cut out by Snake River.
It was getting late so I got back on the road relatively quickly and headed for Lake Walcott State Park to find a spot to throw up a tent and crash for the night. When I arrived, it was a picturesque little place beside a lake, however it looked a little out of place. It was too green compared to the rest of the area I had been driving through. Reading the signs at the gate, I discovered the reason. They have to use sprinklers. The sprinklers go off in the middle of the day and they warn people about it so that they aren't surprised when they get wet. It's kind of crazy that you need to water your natural parks, but at least it made the ground soft enough to easily pitch a tent.
I made some spaghetti for myself and when I was almost finished, I discovered I had no utensils. So, I used the casing for a couple of pens and used them like chopsticks. *shrug* it worked. Packing up for the night, I wasn't thinking and didn't bother to put away my dirty dishes. I guess I figured there were no bears and they needed to water the grass, so there couldn't be much wildlife right? WRONG! I was woken up in the middle of the night to some snuffing sounds. Pulling out my flashlight and opening my tent I saw a couple pairs of beady reflective eyes looking at me. Racoons. I yelled at them and got out of the tent to discover that the two I could see were just the tip of the iceberg. There were 6 of them milling about my site! I scared them into the trees, but they weren't going too far, they still looked at me from their perches in the foliage. I figured if I packed everything up and moved my tent it might be enough to discourage them, so I did that and went back to sleep. They didn't bug me for the rest of the night.
*Disclaimer* This post was written over a month after the trip, I figured it just makes sense to put a different post for each day
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