Day 10 - Elko, NV to Redding, CA

I knew today would be a long one, but I didn’t think it would be over eleven hours from motel to motel. Anyway, we grabbed a couple of muffins from the motel and a Starbucks and headed West on Interstate 80. The first rest stop provided a sunny spot to down the muffins and then it was off to Winnemucca.

Winnemucca? Yup. Barb has always wanted to go to Winnemucca. Why? I haven’t a clue. It’s not much of a town. Kinda old. Well, I needed a little walkabout (can’t drive as long as I used to) so we took a stroll through Winners casino. Once again I had the magic touch, putting in a $20 and cashing in $21. Now I’m two for two in walking away with just a touch more than I want in with.

The drive along Interstate 80 was very nice. Lots of construction signs, but no work being done on Sunday. The scenery was great. There is a lot of space filled with mountains and thankfully only a few towns to interrupt the views.

We spent some time wandering around in Sparks, Nevada looking for the Red Robin. Finally did locate it near where the GPS said it should be and had lunch. After a quick stop for gas we found some of the worst roads we have ever been on. Interstate 80 up and over Donner Summit is terrible. To their credit (California) is working on the road, but for now (and probably for years to come) it is a rough, noisy, narrow and distracting road to drive. Had I known what we were in for I would have taken another route.

Fortunately we were able to take off on Highway 20 to Nevada City and Grass Valley. The next part of the day was a long, slow drive through Oroville and Chico. If you saw the two lane and occasional four lane roads we drove you might wonder just what we were doing. Well, the answer is we were heading for Corning, California. Corning, also known as Olive City, is home to Bell Carter Olive Company, the world’s largest ripe olive cannery. More importantly, Corning is the home of the Olive Pit, which offers dozens and dozens of different kinds of olives. My favorites are the pitted dried black olives in the Greek style. Bought two containers. Also bought some sun dried tomato stuffed green olives.

rom Corning to our motel in Redding was a short drive and we are in a very nice upgraded room. Dinner was a shared pasta dish at Olive Garden. Tomorrow we go home and both of us are ready for it. A long 522 miles.