May 2020 – Page 15 – RV Travels in Europe and North America

January 21, 2020 Round Mountain NV

The original plan was to drive to Tonopah NV which was about 250 miles. I woke early and while I took my time getting going and doing a trip to Walmart to get some supplies I was still on the road at 8:15.

The route thru central Nevada goes thru some more remote land, though not quite as remote as yesterday. The roads are pretty good, straight as an arrow and posted at 70mph. I took it easy and cruised at 65mph, and while there was not much traffic it was all faster than me including tankers and semi-trucks.

I’m not sure what this thing was, but I was diverted to the shoulder so it could get past, and it had another truck hooked to the back to push.

The highlight of the drive was a giant gold mine at a place called Round Mountain Nevada. Gold was originally discovered there around 1880 and it was a very large and initially easy strike as it was surface gold. Over time while there was quite a bit of gold still around it became much more difficult to get at, and according to the signpost at the mine all of the different techniques for gold mining have been used there. At one point it was abandoned, but as mining technique became more sophisticated the mine was reopened and now it is quite a spectacular operation. It is now a pit mine and there are extremely large trucks moving the dirt form the hole to the site where it is processed. I stopped and watched these oversized dump trucks run up and down the hill for a while before moving on to Tonopah.

The Round Mountain Gold Mine with one of the giant dump trucks moving dirt from the pit to the processing area.

It was only about 12:30 when I got to Tonopah, and thanks to the miracle of satellite technology I was immersed in the Arsenal v Chelsea game on the radio so I decided to press on to Death Valley today. This turned todays drive into 380 miles. I arrived about 3 and went into the visitors center to register when I realized I was now eligible for the Golden Age pass which is a lifetime pass for all of the parks in the US. It also gives you 50% off at campgrounds. So taking advantage of my senior status and $80 I now have lifetime access, and half off in the campgrounds. Publishing this is probably going to be delayed as there is no internet at the campground, and really marginal phone service.

Sunset looking at the Panamint Mountains from the campground.

January 20, 2020 Winnemuca NV

Winnemuca Nevada has been on my radar since last year when we passed thru on the way home. I liked the name and it had an interesting history. It got its start as a railroad stopover on the intercontinental rail road. There are several large gold mines in the area, and one of its banks was robbed by Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. It has a Basque heritage, and boasts of five Basque restaurants in town. The final reason is that it was only 230 miles from Bend and seemed like a reasonable distance for the day.

Windshield shot of the loneliest road in Oregon. Don’t worry about my safety, I was in the middle of a 10 mile straight stretch of highway without a car in site in either direction.

The first 150 miles of the trip was on Oregon Highway 78 which has to be one of the emptiest highways in the continental US. About 30 miles outside of Burns is a gas station and the Oregon Department of Transportation (ODOT, it comes up again later!) has put up a sign warning motorists that there will not be any fuel for the next 120 miles. Ton and I have driven this road several times in our visits to eastern Oregon and we always comment on the lack of man made objects. This time because I was by myself and had nothing better to do I paid attention, and for a 48 mile stretch of OR78 there are no visible permanent man made objects besides the road and the power lines adjacent to it. For a 100 mile stretch of OR78 and US95 there are six man made objects, I kept track. In this stretch all you see are 2 ODOT facilities for road maintenance, 1 radar site for either the military or the FAA, 1 cell/microwave tower, and 2 very lonely ranches. It is hard to envision the emptiness of south east Oregon.

Typical scene along OR78. Sagebrush desert virtually unaltered by man.

Last night while researching things to do on the drive today I came across an entry for Paradise Valley in the Nevada tourism site. It had an interesting history as a gold mining town in the 1880’s and was billed by Nevada tourism as a living ghost town. The blurb showed a couple of interesting pictures. It was close to my route so I decided to swing over for lunch. I know that selling tourism in north central Nevada is tough but they really exaggerated the ghost town. What is there is a small farming community with a couple of well maintained churches, a few nice houses and some derelict buildings that are old. It is certainly no ghost town, and really shows the power of what a good photographer can do to make a mundane site look interesting.

I arrived in Winnemuca around 1:30 and checked into a very nice campground a couple of miles out of town. I was debating what to do for the rest of the day but I had noticed that there was a brand new sidewalk all of the way from town to the campground, so I decided if Winnemuca had gone thru all of that trouble to build a sidewalk I should use it. The walk into town was nice as I spent a lot of it chatting with Ton. The town itself was kind of disappointing. I expected more, but it looks like Winnemucas’ downtown has suffered from the suburbanization of it’s shopping so there was not much going on downtown. The tourist information office/museum was closed, and none of the other stores looked interesting. The restaurants looked shabby, and they do not brew beer in town. So after walking around a while I headed back to Scout and cooked up some of Ton’s Larb, which is my favorite Thai food.

January 21, 2019 Las Vegas NV

Today we spent the day with our son Alex. He wanted to have Korean food for lunch so we had our second Korean barbeque in three days. It was also good and Alex really enjoyed it.

After that we headed out for some shopping and then went to watch the local hockey team on TV as Alex has become a big fan. Who would have ever thought of Las Vegas as a hot bed of hockey. Unfortunately the home team lost.

Ton was looking for some Mexican food and had a place in mind. When we got there though the restaurant was closed. We just drove randomly down the road after that looking for a Mexican restaurant and found a place called Pepe’s. It turned out to be both the cheapest and possibly the best meal we had in Las Vegas. Ton really loved their salsa.

January 20, 2019 Las Vegas NV

This was the last day for all of our friends in Las Vegas as they all need to get back home to go to work. The guys and Ton wanted to watch the football games, while the girls were either sleeping in from their club adventure, or shopping.

Las Vegas has a replica of the Hofbrauhaus from Munich and we decided to watch the game there. We found ourselves in this cavernous beer hall with one other couple. It was kind of strange to have that much space to ourselves. Both Ton and Tim one of our friends had been to the original Hofbrauhaus in Munich and they thought it was a pretty good imitation. Our waitress had a slight accent so we asked if she was German, and it turns out she was from Heidleberg in Germany. Her and her husband are touring the US by RV for the past few years and have stopped here to raise a little money. We enjoyed comparing the experience of RVing here and Europe for a while until she had to get off to another table.

Following the games everyone decided we had been in the posh part of Las Vegas too long and decided to head down to Fremont street. The clientele are not as elegant, but Ron felt like he belonged there, and the drinks were significantly cheaper. Our friends decided it was time to take advantage of the lower cost of gambling there, so we took our leave and headed back to Scout for the night.

When we got back there was a Blood Red Wolf Moon which was nice. The weather was talking about high wind warnings, and while a couple of good gusts hit it did not seem to be as bad as they indicated.

January 19, 2019 Las Vegas NV

Today we spent with our friends, beginning with a walk down the strip for lunch at a Beer house. After that the group splintered for a while with different people doing what they were most interested in in Las Vegas. Some went to gamble, some went shopping, and Ton and I relaxed in one of our friends posh rooms in the Cosmopolitan Hotel.

In the evening we headed out to dinner at a great Korean Barbeque near the strip. Everyone ate far too much beef and pork, but it was delicious. Following dinner we headed back to the Cosmopolitan and shared some drinks in another friends room. They had a fabulous view of the strip at night, and got to see a fireworks show, and the fountain show at the Bellagio from their balcony.

When the group decided to go clubbing again for the night, Ton and I headed home to Scout for a good nights sleep.

January 18, 2019 Las Vegas NV

Our route today was on one of Ron’s favorite stretches of roads. US-95 from Fallon to Las Vegas passes thru some of the most stark terrain in the US. There is a town about every 100 miles and the rest of the time you are surrounded by desert and mountains. Generally the traffic is light so you can enjoy the views.

We have traveled this route quite a bit as in addition to being the way we prefer to go to Las Vegas to visit our son, it also is a way to access Death Valley National Park.

It also passes by Area 54 which is an Air Force test and bombing range, where if you believe the movies the US government keeps the aliens we have captured!

The Mojave Desert with the snow capped Sierra Nevada Mountains in the background.

In addition to visiting our son on this trip, a bunch of our friends from Portland are flying in for the weekend to celebrate some birthdays and to enjoy Las Vegas. Alex picked us up at the RV park and we decided to head to the strip for dinner. While Ron was parking our rental car, Ton and Alex ran into Goi one of our friends so she joined us for dinner.

Later we went out for a late dinner and some drinks at a nice but expensive Tapas bar. The rest of the group headed off for some clubbing while Ton and I used our advanced age and ailments to skip the clubs and head to bed.

January 17, 2019 Fallon NV

After getting up we both felt a little better so we decided to push on. We planned an easy day down to Fallon, and Ron optimistically commented that if we got to Fallon too early we could go on to the next town so we would have a shorter drive into Las Vegas the next day.

The weather was supposed to be rain with a chance of mixed rain and snow at the passes. They were mostly right, and the first 150 miles from Klamath to Alturas was just that. The next leg was about 80 miles from Alturas to Susanville California. As we climbed up to the pass the rain turned to mixed rain, and then turned to just snow. Before we new it we were on snow covered roads and in 4 wheel drive. After about 5 miles the lane we were driving in was suddenly clear of snow though the other lane had about 8 or 10 inches covering it. It turns out we were behind a snow plow. We lucked out and followed him for about 20 miles until he turned off. We covered the last 15 miles or so to Susanville in 4wd. While it was slow we made the trip without any real drama, though we did see one accident. Once we descended to Susanville we were back in the rain for the rest of the trip.

The snow plow we followed for about 20 miles. Thanks.

Because of the snow Ron’s optimistic hope of going past Fallon was dashed, and his back was pretty stiff from driving so we decided to spend one more night in a hotel.

August 21, 2018 Las Vegas NV

Alex had to teach so we had a day to kill in Las Vegas. We are not gamblers so we decided to have an easy day taking in a movie and doing a little shopping in Costco and another Mexican Supermarket.

Later we met Alex for dinner at one of his favorite place in Las Vegas Nacho Daddies. As you can guess from the name they are famous for their Nachos. They have been featured on one of the restaurant shows on the Travel Channel. Alex and Ron had big plates of Nachos while Ton ordered soup and ceviche.

Afterwards we did our favorite thing in Las Vegas which is watch people. It is a great place for people watching, and our favorite place is the outside arcade in the old town. We enjoyed a nice walk and the people did not let us down providing great free entertainment.

The Fremont Arcade our favorite place to people watch in Las Vegas.

August 20, 2018 Las Vegas NV

When we were doing the planning to see both of our sons we new that it would be hot in Las Vegas but our experience was that it cooled down at night to a point where it was comfortable. The night before we left Dylan looked up the weather for Las Vegas and said it was quite hot, the high was supposed to be 106 degrees.

Driving over we stopped at a rest area about 50 miles outside of Las Vegas. The thermometer on the dash said 111 degrees, and as we stepped out of the truck we were hit with a wind of about 20 miles per hour that felt like a blast furnace. As we pulled out of the rest area Ron asked Ton what she thought a room would cost in Vegas. Without hesitating Ton began the research. It turns out rooms were cheap, The Rio was offering a rate of $30 plus a $34 dollar resort fee. We both decided that was cheap enough to not bother stress testing the A/C unit on Scout as the overnight low was supposed to be 92 degrees. The deal got even better when we checked in as Ron asked if they had a military discount and that got us down to $15 plus the resort fees.

Elvis and a show girl. After all it is Las Vegas.

Alex had to work late as this is the first full week of school in Las Vegas so we decided to eat in the room. Ton whipped up some food in Scout and we carried it up to the room for dinner. We spent the evening talking about teaching and particularly teaching in Las Vegas which is infamous for having a low priority for schools. Alex earns every penny of his salary.

February 3, 2018 Las Vegas NV

A slow day for us. We spent the morning taking care of laundry and using the internet at the office to publish the blog and do some research on next stops for us.

We decided to go to a Chinese Lantern Show that was advertised in the local paper. It looked like it would be interesting and a nice way to spend an evening. It totally blew us away. It was 5 or 6 acres of really complex lanterns, though they did cheat and use led lights instead of candles. Ton killed the battery on her camera taking pictures. We had a hard time selecting a couple of pictures for the blog. It also included a show of Chinese jugglers, acrobats, and a mask dance that was really extraordinary. The young women went thru a series of masks in just a couple of seconds. We have not been able to figure out how she did it, but it was really cool.

This is a traveling show if it ever comes to your town I highly recommend you go.

February 2, 2018 Las Vegas NV

We moved into the city for the weekend. Today was about a little shopping, giving Scout a bath to knock some of the mud off of her, and going somewhere we could use WiFi to catch up and post the blog. We finished everything except the internet stuff as it turns out we are in the only part of the park that does not have WiFi.

February 1, 2018 Lake Mead National Recreation Area NV

Ron woke up a little early to go for a walk and chase some big horn sheep around for a while trying to get pictures. Ton’s from yesterday were better.

After breakfast we set out to explore the rest of the park. We took a couple of short hikes and really enjoyed ourselves. The weather was perfect for hiking, mid to high 60’s, and we picked a couple of easy places that still gave us wonderful views of the Red sandstone that gives the park it’s name. We really enjoyed Valley of Fire, it is a nice size and has a variety of places to visit. It is the equal of many National Parks for things to see and do.

This Raven kept an eye on us for a few minutes while we were walking.

Our next stop was planned for Lake Mead National Recreation Area if you are wondering what the abbreviation in the title for the day is short for. Ton and I were both surprised by Lake Mead as we thought the Lake would be front and center, and for the first 40 miles it was almost invisible. Instead we had a drive thru a typical Mojave landscape with occasional burst of Red from Sandstone deposits. It was not at all what we expected. We are staying at a campground called Las Vegas Cove. Once again we are parked along a river and the Lake is far away. We enjoyed a nice dinner watching another colorful desert sunset. We managed to actually drive less than 100 miles and were content to park up around 2pm. Maybe we can slow down.

January 31, 2018 Valley of Fire State Park NV

Our alarm was set for 4am so we could get up to witness the eclipse/Blue/Blood/Super moon. The skies were clear, but it was really cold. The temperatures had fallen more than we thought and it must of been around 20 degrees. Ton stuck her head out of the truck and told me to call her when the moon turned Red. I stuck around and watched the eclipse from the inside of the truck. When the moon turned Red I told Ton and she reluctantly rolled out of bed to take a look. After a few minutes she could not get a good picture and was very cold so she decided to get back under the blankets. I followed her a few minutes later. So while we witnessed the eclipse/Blue/Blood/Super moon we have no pictures to prove it, you will have to take out word for it.

Ton loves Joshua trees, we passed this one on the way to Valley of Fire.

After a little nap we got up and headed towards Las Vegas to Valley of Fire State Park. It is about 70 miles from Las Vegas and is quite striking. It has very Red Rocks throughout with many different shapes and forms. As we were arriving we noticed about 100 RV’s parked on BLM land just short of the state park and Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We assume camping is free there and we were tempted to park there for the night, but decided to opt for the State Park and pay the camping fee.

After we settled in we went for a short walk near the campground to a site of some Indian petroglyphs. They were quite impressive. Our reward for ponying up for the campground came in seeing 5 big horn sheep a couple of hundred yards from Scout. While we have been in lots of places with signs warning us to watch for big horns we had never actually seen one until today.

January 30, 2018 Caliente NV

I love the west. Today we drove a ridiculous distance thru the Mojave Desert. We wanted to position ourselves to see the Blue Blood Super Moon eclipse tomorrow and decided a good place we had never been before would be Kershaw-Ryan State Park near Caliente Nevada. So to explain tomorrow is a blue moon, the moon is supposed to turn red after the eclipse, and it is a super moon. The only problem it was over 400 miles away. But we decided to go for it and if we were tired in Tonopah we would shorten up the trip.

The drive from Reno to Caliente is thru mostly unoccupied desert. Quite often you do not see anything built by a human for miles and miles. Our route once we got clear of the urban area around Reno was US 95 to Tonopah, US 6 to no were in particular NV351 to a small town we forgot the name of already and US 93 to Caliente. We are familiar with US95 from Fallon to Tonopah as it is the route we take whenever we go to see Alex or to Death Valley, we had one of our flat tires on US95 near Hawthorne a few years ago. We had never been on the rest of the roads on the trip but they were fun and really isolated. Route 6 goes thru long empty valleys with nothing to stop you. The roads are straight as an arrow for miles and miles. Ron began looking at how many miles it was before curves in the road and we had stretches of 11, 14, and the longest of 16 miles of perfectly straight roads.

This stretch of highway was 14 miles without a curve.

NV351 is also known as the extraterrestrial highway as it skirts Area 51 where everyone knows the government is secretly keeping the aliens that come to earth. The businesses along the road know a good thing when they see it so they have set up souvenir stands. We of course stopped and bought a magnet to put on the fridge at home.

Ron could not resist getting his picture taken with an alien.

Our stop for the night was at Kershaw-Ryan State Park, Ron was a little worried about arriving late in the day as it is a small park. There was no need to worry as we have the place to ourselves. it is a pretty location in a little canyon, and all of the facilities look brand new. We went for a short evening stroll, and the Blue-Blood-Super Moon gave us a little preview.

January 29, 2018 Reno NV

Ton had a restaurant on her bucket list that is near Reno. So we began our day by heading towards Gardnerville to get a Basque meal at JT Basque Restaurant. She had read about this place at a Basque Museum in Boise and she had been looking forward to the next time we passed thru Reno to give it a try. We had the family style meal which included all you could eat soup, salad, beef stew, bread, beans and French Fries, and an entree and a small bottle of wine. The food was superb and it only cost $25 per person. Ton was really pleased and crossed JT’s off her bucket list with all of her expectations met. If you are in the Reno area JT’s is worth the 45 minute drive over to Gardnerville.

After JT’s we headed over to Virginia City. It is one of the most famous boom towns from the gold rush era. At one point it had a population of over 30,000 including Mark Twain who worked at the paper in town. It is in the hills above Reno and has a great collection of mid to late 19th century buildings. It was a nice way to spend the afternoon and we were impressed with the buildings and the setting. We were tempted by a couple of the saloons in town, but were too stuffed from our lunch in Gardnerville to do it. It is probably overrun with tourists in the summer, but was pleasantly quiet in January.

A saloon originally built during the gold rush still in operation in Virginia City.

Our last stop was the Costco in Sparks. We were excited because the Sparks Costco had Diesel available and our experience on our Alaska trip was that Costco had by far the cheapest diesel in any town. So after going out of our way and driving during rush hour to get there we were disappointed that the Costco fuel was actually higher than one of the major chain stations in town. This is the first time Costco has let us down.

October 31, 2017 Las Vegas NV

Today we headed to Las Vegas as the trip is starting to wind down and it is time to begin heading in the direction of San Francisco for the last stop for Dang and Noi. We decided that Vegas was a reasonable drive, and it gave Ron and Ton a chance to check up on our son Alex who is a teacher in Las Vegas.

Tonight we are staying in a parking lot/RV park in Mainstreet Station Casino near the Fremont area of Las Vegas. It is not much to look at, basically an extension of the employee parking for the casino. But the location is good, it has full hookups, and only costs $21. It is also located directly under one of the main freeways for Las Vegas and next to the headquarters for the Vegas fire department, so it is not going to be quiet tonight.

When we planned the trip we did not realize we had picked Halloween night to be in Vegas, but it turned out to be a nice bonus. We met Alex for a buffet dinner in the casino, and then headed out to Reno street to people watch. It was everything you could expect from Las Vegas on Halloween. Really quite wild in a very fun way.

May 14, 2017 Las Vegas NV

We visited the Red Rock National Conservation Area outside of Vegas today. It is run by the Bureau of Land Management. The conservation area is just outside of the city and was quite busy. The visitors center was quite well done. Showing both the land and native plants and animals in a very interesting and engaging way. We did the loop and it was quite beautiful and exceeded our expectations.

We met Alex for dinner at a casino that Ton declared the worst buffet in history. The good news was due to teacher appreciation week Alex’s buffet was free.. After dinner Ton, Alex, and Dang went to the strip to do some tourist stuff and Ron took Scout back to the park to do some maintenance.

January 27, 2016 Hawthorne NV

Today was supposed to be an easy day. We planned on a drive into Reno expecting to arrive there around 2pm, do some shopping and then stay in our normal Reno stopping point at the casino.

When we had arrived back to the campground yesterday Ron took a close look at the tires as we had worked them hard the previous two days. Our tires had about 30,000 miles on them and were starting to approach the end of their service life. But despite the tough workout from Titus Canyon and the drive to the Race Track they looked ok, the air levels were good and there were no signs of cuts or punctures.

When we got up it had stopped raining, but the valley was fogged in. It had rained steadily most of the night and it was amazing to see how quickly the plants around the camp ground were greening up.

From Death Valley to Reno the first 180 miles is thru the desert and there are only three towns with any services spread out about every 60 to 100 miles. We had been cruising for about 130 miles averaging about 60 mph when as we were leaving Hawthorne Nevada the front right tire blew and proceeded to shred itself. Ron wrestled the truck to a very narrow soft shoulder right at the edge of the town.

While it was a problem to lose a tire like that it could have been much worst. First we were actually in one of only three towns along the route. Second we were only going about 40 mph when the tire blew, for long stretches we were traveling at 70 mph and it could have been much worst to lose the tire at that speed. Ron got out to take a look at things, we were on a narrow shoulder on a fairly busy stretch of highway, while we were clear of the travel lane it was only by inches. The shoulder was extremely soft and Ron was concerned about the stability of the jack in the soft sand. At that point he decided that since we had AAA coverage he would call them to assist us.

Ron had just pulled out the card and was in the process of calling AAA when a young man walked up from behind us. He asked Ron if he was calling AAA and when Ron confirmed he was, he laughed and said he was AAA in Hawthorne. How is that for service? He said he heard the tire go and looked out of his window and saw us on the shoulder. So our streak of extraordinary luck continued. He had us on our way in less than a half hour.

So our easy travel day had a complication. After calling around we found a set of tires we had been thinking about as an upgrade at Reno Vulcanizing Works (had to get that name into the story) which is the oldest Good Year Tire Dealer in the world. And after a more exciting day than we had planned we were on our way to the casino for the night.

December 14, 2015 Hawthorne NV

Another day of hard driving. We have spent a lot of time since we got Scout transiting through and exploring Northeast Nevada and Northeast California and we like it here. To get us on a new route we decided to head a little further east out of Klamath Falls and headed towards Gerlach Nevada for no better reason than that is the closest town to Burning Man. There are not a lot of towns in this desert area.

We came across a small town in California called Canby that had an extensive Christmas and Thanksgiving display along the highway. We stopped and took some pictures.

A wiseman, a wiser woman, and another dude.

This area averages less than 10 inches of precipitation, we ran into some snow going over a pass and we got some nice pictures. A little later we ran into Gerlach and got a couple of pictures of extraneous stuff left over from Burning Man, and mission accomplished moved on south.

Unexpected snow near the Burning Man site.

We missed the campground we were planning to stay at on Walker Lake so we kept heading and ended up in a Casino parking lot in Hawthorne Nevada. While not elegant the price is right.

August 24, 2015 Reno NV

Ron had once read that US 50 thru Nevada was the loneliest road in America. Great Basin is on US 50 so we got to drive it today. To tell the truth it was not that lonely. We probably passed about 100 cars over the 250 miles. There are only three towns on the route and very few structures in between so it is pretty far between people. The road crosses 7 or 8 mountain ranges with passes in the 6500 to 7300 feet, in between are large valleys on average about 30 miles across which are at 6000 feet. It was a pretty interesting drive, but not that lonely.

We planned to stop in Reno for the night at a Casino. It was a parking lot park with no soul, but it turned out to be interesting. We got there early and had time to catch the second half of the Timbers Soccer game which was a disaster, but there was something interesting going on. As we have traveled thru the west in the summer you encounter lots of European tourists in RV’s. Today at the casino we witnessed one of the places where they pick up the RV’s and observed the process of orienting them and having them practice driving the RV’s. It was kind of fun to watch them learn the in’s and out’s of slides, levelers, dumping their tanks, and driving a vehicle which is the size of a commercial truck in Europe. We also noticed that a lot of the campers had colorfully and unconventionally designed bicycles, it turns out that they are heading to Burning Man.