Now, Court has a meeting scheduled at 11 and we are hoping to get to Reno, Nevada before the meeting happens so that she will have good cell reception and right now it looks like we will make it with about 30 minutes to spare. This works out well because Court's favorite flip-flops gave up the ghost yesterday after Lassen and she wants to get a replaement. When I say gave up the ghost, the bottom layers were delaminating. I'm not even sure how that happens but there it was. As we start driving away, Court asks if the tire light is on. I check and sure enough our old friend is there glowing away. Great, not like we are in an area where all we can see in front of us is miles of forest. We keep our eyes out and there are a couple of service stations at intersections of this forest road but none of them have air. Heck, some of them don't look like they have any gas anymore either. We decide to stop trying until we get into Reno since all that is happening is the time we have as buffer for the meeting is going down.
So, as we continue down this road we of course run into MORE road construction and a one lane road that we wait at for what feels like an eternity. At this point it's almost a given that we are going to miss out on Reno for Court's meeting since we know that for whatever God forsaken stretch of this road is one lane, we are going to be going much slower than expected. We eventually get through and as expected, it's now saying that we will be getting into Reno 11 minutes after the start of her meeting. We start keeping an eye out for a place to stop for air, gas, bio-breaks and cell service. As we enter Nevada we are coming down out of the mountains and cell reception comes back so we stop at a gas station with a nice big lot so we can just wait out Court's meeting and all of us get our needs taken care of including Alice. Off we go afterwards to a DSW for shoes.
We enter the DSW to start shopping and Court heads over to the mens sandals/flip flops. She always wears the men's versions as she finds them sturdier and they are more comfortable for her. Unfortunately all of the ones that she likes aren't available in her size so we keep looking and eventually find a couple of pairs that she likes. This whole time Abigail has been looking for a replacement pair of sneakers because her sloth shoes that she brought with her are starting to be in tough shape as well. She finds a pair she is in love with but convinces herself that she can wait until we get home. She has been doing this a lot, trying to make sure that she's not imposing or spending frivolously or whatever feeling it is that she feels. Court convinces her to get them while we are here and we check out and head out. Time to get some food for lunch and lucky enough there's a Steak and Shake here so we can get what we missed back in Toledo a life time ago. We pull in and I order a ludicrous number of frisco melts, some shakes and fries. This really does hit the spot though and the whole car enjoys it.
The drive continues along and Abigail mentions that the truck driver that just passed us was checking out Court's boobs. I see that we will be passing him again shortly and decided that it was time for some fun. I reached over and started squeezing her boob while we drove past him again and Abigail reports that the driver was smiling as we drove by. I don't think I've seen Court so red in a while. She shifted up to make sure that the driver couldn't see her face and keeps telling me that I need to make sure that he never passes us again. A dangerous game of keeping ahead of the semi ensues. Just kidding, he ended up turning off pretty shortly afterward. The whole car is a bit stir crazy today, as you can guess, and Court and Abby decide to have a competition to see if they could get someone in a car next to us to dance with them. It starts off with this older woman who just smiles at them but then another semi pulls up. This driver is having a great time with them and laughing but not dancing. At one point we pull ahead of him a little bit and Abby and Court "lasso" him and pull him in. The driver actually speeds up a little bit! We count that as dancing with them both. No individual winner but still a lot of fun.
We finally arrive at Lee Vining and drive past the motel we are staying at and it looks a bit rough from the outside but whatever. We fill back up on gas and head back to check in. We are handed a key and head down to the room and it's a slider door which is strange but whatever. We head in and it is HOT. We attempt to find the A/C but can't find anything. Crap, I should have looked more closely at the details. This is going to be a long night as I don't sleep well in heat anymore. We start looking for a dinner and the eateries in this town are all very poorly rated so we decide to head down to the town below this, 20 minutes away, to get some food. This place has a lot more to do and eat. I probably should have tried to stay here but oh well. We go to The Warming Hut because it was pretty well rated. We order, Abby and Court get the chicken and biscuits. We are told shortly afterwards that they only have enough stuff for one order. Our streak with strangeness at these local places continues. Abby changes her order to a burger and we eat. Everything is good but the chicken and biscuits are excellent. We head back to the room to sleep in our sauna for the evening. Early morning tomorrow to make sure that we get the most out of Yosemite.