Day 12: Boise ID to Alturas CA

Boise ID to Alturas CA - 394 Miles

After a crazy long day yesterday, we were looking forward to  shorter day, and gaining back an hour as we entered the Pacific Time Zone.

Here is the morning view from our hotel in downtown Boise (the Grove):

After a quick 50 miles on the freeway north, we broke off to Highway 20 west, which starts out VERY DULL.

Of course, we had to stop for several one lane traffic controls (the amount of road construction in Idaho, Oregon, and California is insane). Here are a few shots from a stop on Hwy 20:

We didn't stop to get a lot of pics on Hwy 20, but the video footage is AMAZING. Unfortunately, the wireless was not reliable or fast enough for me to upload the videos, so I will try again tomorrow.

From Hwy 20, we got onto 395 south in Oregon. The first 100 miles were pure monotony. One straight line of 80 mph in 80 degree dry heat. Ew. It got a little interesting when we hugged Lake Abert:

After another hour on 395, we finally crossed back into California on our way to our destination for the evening, Alturas:

After getting cleaned up, we headed to the Hotel Niles bar for an adult beverage.

Kate's favorite sign in the bar:

Our hotel has an interesting history...

The first stones for what was originally named the Curtis Hotel were laid near the dusty main street of Alturas in 1908.  In 1912 Jay Eugene Niles purchased the building, completed the 2nd and 3rd floor rooms, and renamed it the Niles Hotel. 

For many generations, the Niles Hotel was the social center of Alturas - - the meeting place of cattlemen, railroad workers, farmers, loggers, salesmen, tourists, and local businessmen.  When the Niles Hotel was first built, each of the sixty guest rooms was furnished with a wood burning stove.  During the winter, the hotel guests would keep warm in their rooms by purchasing an armload of wood at the lobby desk for two bits.  

Here are some pics I took throughout the hotel:

While we were at the bar, we met a wonderful gentleman named Dave. Dave is a local (who is from  Cedarville) and works for the Forest Service. He jokingly told us his office is 1.8 million acres. Dave was quite the story teller, and just a genuinely wonderful human. We loved talking to him and were so happy our paths crossed with Dave. 

We said our goodbyes as Dave was having dinner at the hotel with a friend. We headed into the dining room and had a very tasty dinner, including veggie burgers that were delicious !

Dave wrapped up his dinner and stopped by our table to say goodbye. He also bought us our dinner ! This was an amazing surprise and totally unexpected. We didn't get a chance to properly thank Dave, so if anyone knows him, please tell him Kate & Alice would love to return the favor some day !

Being a really old hotel, there are no elevators; we had to climb these stairs lugging our gear to get to our room:

The wireless at the hotel was SO SLOW and I could not upload our videos from today - will try again tomorrow.

Here is our route for the day. Tomorrow we head to Nevada City, CA.