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We went to see another few arches in Valley of Fire the next morning and then drove to Las Vegas for the night, heading up to Mono Lake in California. As we crossed the State border we had to go through an agriculture check point. They are mainly looking for citrus fruits which you are not allowed to bring into California.
The official asked Helen what fruits and veg we had and Helen rattled off a list which included grapefruits. She wanted to have a look at those. So Kirsten got out and went into the back and the official went off to deal with a truck that had just pulled up.
Kirsten panicked because she had just bought a pineapple in Las Vegas and tried to hide it without realising that the official could see her carrying it through our window!! Helen didn't know anything about such surreptitious action going on in the back and got a shock when the official returned, confiscated the grapefruits and then said to Kirsten - "I thought I saw you carrying a pineapple!!"
Caught red handed! Kirsten blurted out "Oh! But I only bought it yesterday!" The good news is that she was allowed to keep the pineapple but she should have made juice out of the grapefruits and drunk it right there! Next time!
We couldn't help but laugh all the way to Mono Lake. How embarrassing can a pineapple be?!
The table tufas were another tip from the Synnatschkes which we had also missed the last time we were here. They are table like structures of sand formations and are quite unique. Kirsten got up around sunrise at 5-50 am the next morning for more photos.
Then we headed north and were forced to get some petrol in California at $5-09 a gallon. Kirsten even took a photo of the price because we have never seen a 5 at the front of the price sign before. Ouch!!
We got back into Nevada for more reasonably priced petrol and ended up driving all the way up to Fly Geyser our next stop. We did over 250 miles that day which is a lot for us.
Fly Geyser was formed when the owner of the land dug into the ground and hot water started pouring out. A crystallised, multi coloured shape started building around the hole and grew with time. Kirsten found it mentioned by others on the internet and we weren't sure if we could get access to it or even find it. The description was pretty vague as how to get there.
By the time we got to the area where we believed it to be, it was almost sunset. Kirsten had to jump out and go off to take photos before it got too dark. It is also on private land and we were not sure if it was allowed or not. The internet reports talked about a resort being built there and it might be blocked off. But there was certainly no signs of a resort.
It was really cold overnight. We had gone through 34°C in Las Vegas and now the daily high was only 12°C. So we were feeling the difference and had to put the propane heater on the next morning.
We also needed to put extra petrol into our tank from the spare 5 gallon container we had filled. We are in the north western corner of Nevada in the middle of nowhere so we had planned ahead and filled up the spare tank.
It's the first time we have used this new tank even though we bought it two years ago and was slightly different to its predecessor. So Kirsten attached to nozzle to it and decided to check if she had it on tight enough by tipping it up. She forgot that the petrol would come straight out of the nozzle!!!
So yes we had a big leak! And Helen's shoes got splashed! Sometimes Kirsten does some really stupid things - like prancing around trying to hide a pineapple in plain view!! Makes you wonder doesn't it!
Anyway, we set off along a beautiful drive over the mountains and through a valley back into California and yet another check point! Our pineapple has been through a lot! But we still have it!
We drove across the top eastern corner of California and then into Oregon. We stayed at Klamath Falls for the night and spent a lot of time in the library working on the computer. By now we were 3 months behind on our web site and it was going to take a great deal of time catching up.
We spent the next day doing the same thing and Helen managed to find one of the books we are looking for at the friends of the library book sale.
It rained as we headed west for the next leg of our trip - north along the Oregon and Washington coasts.
