Finally!

At 2pm we officially hit the road, headed East on 80. No real plan, but it is East. We need to go East. Lots going on in the skies, dark and heavy and sleepy. REM's new album "Around the Sun" is on. The music and the sky make for a melancholy mood. I bury my nose in Backpacker magazine.

Somewhere around Auburn the tension settles, the anxiety diminishes and we settle into the road trip and start talking some. We eat a roll of Sree candies. I was surprised because these things are little artificial-everything sugar bombs, and Jay's not a junk foodie. Climbing towards Tahoe, it starts to rain. A pack of Harley riders are slogging through the weather and still have a ways to go to get to their NV homes. Or at least their license plates say that's where they're from.

Dense fog. More rain. Yellow leaves. I may not be sleeping outside tonight.

On top of Donner Summit, we encounter a white dusting of snow and some accumulating slush. Nothing too spectacular, but a reminder of how weather can rear its head. I imagine sititng in a snowstorn in Tahoe ski traffic. Yuck.

Heading down into NV on 80, traffic comes to a standstill. On comes Dharma Radio. It's Jai Uttal. Chanting and soothing voice while at a standstill. I guess this is where I remind myself to breathe?

Saw Reno as we drove through and Nevada became increasingly dark as the sun set. Flat. Dark. Headlights. That's Nevada so far. Humboldt, NV isn't what we Cally folks thing of as a Humboldt kinda place. Here it consists of an exit and a Penitentiary, nothing else.