Day 36 – From Southern Nevada to Lee Vining, California

I woke up today to sunrise in Nevada:

In addition to being my Nevada day, today was also election day, and I definitely wanted to watch that unfold. In addition, I was still exhausted (four nights sleeping in my car wasn’t helping), had a monster blister to finesse, was in rather dire need of a shower, shave, etc, had a load of photos to sift through, and had a slew of blog entries to polish and post. With this confluence of creature needs in mind, I decided to find a hotel, turn on CNN, get a shower, and take care off all the other things it’s difficult to address while living out of your car.

So now I’m cooling my heels in Lee Vining, California, a small (population 500) tourist town in view of Mono Lake and a about five miles from Yosemite. Most of the town is closed down for the season, but there’s a few motels, a gas station, market, and kitschy tourist shops still open, so all the essentials.

One thing I didn't expect to find in the rustic hinterlands of central California is Escher-esque throw rugs.

At the market, I was intrigued by the item below primarily because I couldn’t discern whether it was intended to be a drink or a soup:

After sampling, I'm still uncertain.

Further, I realized after purchasing cereal and milk that I had neither a bowl nor a spoon. The woman ringing me up was kind enough to offer a plastic spoon gratis, but I was still sans-bowl. I did however have a cereal box and duct tape:

Problem solved.

As of now, I’m looking and smelling basically civilized, the blog is getting dangerously close to being updated, CNN is on, and the first batch of polls will be closing soon. We’ll see how the rest of the night goes.

Day 36 Stats:

Miles Covered: Today: 119 To Date: 6,363
States/Provinces: Today: 2 To Date: 14