I know i'm a bit late to be any help but if anyone else is reading this that will be going though susanville the all night gas station has about a 6ft beef jerky stick i bought one and it fed myself and 4 guys almost all the way to vegas.
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I know i'm a bit late to be any help but if anyone else is reading this that will be going though susanville the all night gas station has about a 6ft beef jerky stick i bought one and it fed myself and 4 guys almost all the way to vegas.
Must've been a TALL cow! :)
I got the following trip report from "Rebel" and am copying it with permission for all who are interested!
"We, of course, had a complete blast!!! We took the I5
down from Portland to somewhere around Sacramento then
the 99 to Bakersfield. We started at 6am, and got to
Bakersfield by 11pm. We stopped A LOT! So the
trip was significantly slower than we had planned.
But... we stopped and had actual meals, met up with
some of my friend's childhood friends in Stockton etc
etc. We took whatever it is that gets you from
Bakersfield over to Las Vegas, and again stopped in
the middle for lunch & lollygagging. Oh, and had to
stop and celebrate my car turning 100,000 miles just
as we got into Nevada. So... slower than expected.
On the way back, we *tried* to have faster
pit-stops... but NASCAR we are not! We left the Strip
at around 10:45am, and took the 95 up through Nevada
then took something over to Reno. At that point we
made the decision to consult the map and find a
"shortcut" over to California so we could take the I5
for the last part of our trip (when we would be tired,
and not quite as good at following directions). So we
saw there was a highway going from Reno to
Redding - and figured that would save us about 200
miles. Not sure exactly how we figured that out.
Anyway it turned out to be a road through a National
Park (Lassen?)... a national park on a mountain!! So
we climbed up to about 6,000 feet elevation, and had
to drive through what we like to tell people was a
"blizzard" - you know, for dramatic effect. In fact
it was snowing and windy but the roads were pretty
clear. There was traffic coming from the other
direction every few minutes, so it seemed safe enough.
It was *COLD* though... and we had to really crank up
the heater. We may have saved 200 miles, but we ended
up driving 40 mph.... so I doubt if that actually
saved us any time. It was beautiful though... highly
recommend it to anyone confident enough to drive in
snow... or going in the summer time.
By the time we got to Redding it was late (10/11pm)...
and we were seriously cheering at the sight of a "big
city" after all that snow & wilderness. And the I5
was a sight for sore eyes! We stopped for perhaps the
worst fast food dinner of my life at a gas
station/burger king, then headed for the home stretch.
This is when I started to sleep - but I did notice
there was a lot of snow in the pass, but again, the
roads were clear (Thanks CalTrans & ODOT!!). We made
it back to Portland in time to run into the morning
rush hour (not fun!!) and got home by like 7am. The
return trip took about 20 hours.
I'm sure a person could do it faster if they tried.
Through most of Nevada I could have seriously sped if
my car had enough ooomph. But there was some increase
in elevation, and it was all I could do to drive 75mph
(the speed limit I think). Also 2 of the 3 women I
was traveling with are notoriously slow at everything,
so rest-stops were not quite 'efficient'. And again -
the "shortcut" wasn't. ;)
If I had it to do over again, I would absolutely take
two days to drive down, and two days to drive back.
And... I'd take at least 3 or 4 days to spend in
Vegas. But we did manage to pack in a lot of fun in
our whirlwind trip! We did okay on mileage -
typically getting gas when we were at a 1/4 tank.
Thanks again for your help!"