mid-trip

We are clocking in at around 2000 miles so far? We have driven from Arkansas to the Pacific Ocean, and up the central valley of California. Tomorrow is Nevada, in which we meet the rest of the cousins on my husband's side. (My inlaws have 16 grandchildren.) We've seen some pretty stuff, and some pretty desolate, horrid stuff as well. (angie_frazier , while we didn't go to San Francisco, we did pass near it on interstate 5, and I'm pretty sure Oscar and Andy were visiting there.)

At some point I'll post some pictures, but not until I have some time. Happy summering!

There's this smell...

...and it's good. I first smelled it in Yosemite when my roommates all but had me kidnapped one summer and shipped off to Yosemite for a couple weeks. Their mom was a park ranger naturalist, so they LIVED there every summer. (!!) Anyhow. Most. Sensory. Vacation. EVER.

So we're driving across I-80 today and stop somewhere between Sacramento and the state line (NV) to get gas, and wow, there was that smell again! And what a fantastically beautiful place. Drop me anywhere in that area and I will be VERY HAPPY, thanks. Mountains, rivers, tall pines, yes, thank you, I'm moving in NOW.

So now we're in Carson City and it's the wrong side of those mountains because it's all deserty and scrubby (I am not a desert girl at all). But the people we're visiting have this house up on the hill and breezes blow from all across the valley, and it's that smell again. I assumed it was yellow pines, but it can't be because um, there is a lot of sagebrush, but no trees. (And I know what sagebrush smells like--it isn't that.) What is it? Because I like it!