Friday: NEVADA: Never Ever Visit Any Disasterous Areas

or
Never Ever Visit Areas Deemed Arbitrary



(Matt)After having a late night on the road, we got up around noon to eat and find somewhere to print off an updated copy of the insurance policy. In theory, this seems like a simple concept. There was a Triple A (AAA) office in Reno no more than ten minutes from our hotel. After arriving at that office, however, ...

(David): Oooh boy, i was getting annoyed really quickly. Apparently the AAA office we found couldn't help me because my insurance was Illinois and they were a separate branch than that and told me to call a number. So, i went back out to the car (Matt had taken everything out and dumped it in the lot in an attempt to rearrange the back for convenience sake.) I called the insurance rep's office and asked her if she could send me a new copy. Oh, but customer service has to deal with that and here is the number to call. I called the number and after a series of numbers that didn't lead me where I wanted to get, I ended up with some lady who asked for my information and what she could do for me. I told her i needed an updated insurance. Oh, but she was with glass claims, let me transfer you. I get transfered, and another 5 minutes another lady came on and asked for my information...again. Well, I gave it and told her my dilemma.....but wait, no, she couldn't help me either because she was from the MICHIGAN branch.....(We're getting closer!) Another transfer, another waiting time, and finally i get a guy who could help me. (just wait, this gets so much better :P ) He gets all of my information...for the third time and I tell him that i'm stuck and need updated insurance. He brings it up and asks if i could email or fax it. I assumed that the least this office that couldn't help me would be able to receive the fax and so i went in and asked, they obliged and i stayed on the phone while it was faxed over. Once i got the actually papers (finally, right?) i said my thanks and hung up....and went back to the car. Upon reading the document.....i discovered he sent me an already expired copy. How thick can this company get? How could he send me an expired copy of 2 months? Frustrated.....I got back on the phone to talk to another representative. Another wait, another gathering of information and finally, this new guy (named Dave....David's of the world understand each other i feel. ;) ) and he just emailed it to me so I would pull it up myself later rather than go through more AAA hassle.

(Matt)To pull up the policy through email, we stopped at the local Barnes and Noble. In the mean time, Matt decided to look through the books. Since both of us thoroughly enjoy reading, getting out of any book store takes about as long as it would for a young teenage, fashion conscious girl to leave a mall. As such, leaving Barnes and Noble set us back a little further than we had intended. Also, right before leaving Reno, we decided to give one last try on an Office Max to print off the updated version of the insurance card. After finally being successful, we left Reno around 3:30 with three new books, an updated copy of the insurance, and less daylight to travel in.

We set out toward Salt Lake City and stopped for gas soon after when it was needed. After coming out of gas station, we were greeted by a shocked, older Nevadian. He was very curious of why were so far from Illinois. We told him briefly of our road-tripping, and he wished us luck in continuing our journey and remarked that he wished he could go back and have his own youthful adventures again. He also mentioned something about how we should find women to spend the night with, and after we insisted that we had lovely ladies elsewhere (*cough* Melanie and Rachel *cough*), he was still convinced that we should find women in the area. After feeling more than slightly but less than extremely uncomfortable (or perhaps not sure how uncomfortable to be... more or less), we got back on the road in the direction of Elko.

En route to our straight, non-stop trip to Elko, David read a few chapters of Paradise Lost and Matt shamelessly sang out of key on a few different occasions. Conversation was good and scattered, and the California- esque terrain of Nevada (I felt as if I was driving through California) was mountainous, attention capturing, and photo-worthy. We stopped in Elko around 7ish for dinner.

We found a nice restaurant called Pizza Barn, and ordered a medium pepperoni pizza. After fifteen minutes, we were happily enjoying our fluffy crusted pie. (David) Apparently this place was a bit of a hot spot as there were quite a few people eating there with us. We cleaned up our pizza pretty well. No leftovers. :P Afterwards Matt had to stop inside the casino to get a few postcards as the gas station didn't have any. Fun little place.....maybe.

(David still) From there, we headed all the way to the border crossing into Utah. Matt stopped the car off a ramp that led to Ola, Nevada and switched with me.

Utah was....dark. No, really, it was night by this time. Matt had decided to take a power nap, though he didn't miss much since it was all pitch black. By the time we got to Salt Lake City, I woke him up, and we kinda got a glimpse of the reflection off of Salt Lake. The city itself looked pretty with all the lights. But we busted straight through and on to Ogden. By Ogden, we needed gas and I was fading, plus my eyes hurt. So, Matt, who had taken a nap and gotten two cans of NOS, took over again. I rested a bit even though Matt and I pushed through the last leg with good conversation...not to mention running over a skunk. Oops. (Matt) I tried my best to save the poor guy, but determinism plays much to strong of a role in our lives. Roger Skunk didn't have a chance, but I'm guessing it was over before he knew it. (David) I couldn't stop laughing. The image i got was so amusing. Finally, 3 oclock rolled around and we made it to Idaho Falls, which we still couldn't see. We checked into another motel 6 and promptly fell asleep.