September 5th -- More Nevada

Woke up early this morning, about 7:45 for some reason. It was cold. High desert -- 80+ degrees during the day, in the 40s at night. If I'd realized it, I would have turned on the heat. Anyway, looked out the window and saw all of these signs for a mountain bike race that was held last weekend in Austin. The hills around town are all wide open scrub. Probably some good singletrack though, and I considered trying to find the trails. But with no one to talk to, and Moab looming, I decided to just get on the road. Shower, quick breakfast, break camp (which means, unplug and stow everything), and out I went.

Wow. Just east of town are some major mountains. Windy roads. I'd always wanted to go this way to Nationals, but was afraid of the lack of gas and other amenities on the way. With the Explorer's short fuel range with a trailer (250 miles on a good day), there are stretches of this road that would get scary. But today I discovered that this road is mountainous, windy, and it's 2 lanes the entire way, no passing lanes. It's not a great way to tow to Nationals. Would be cool without a trailer though. Of course, here I am doing it in a very slow, very large vehicle. With a trailer :-) The difference, though, is that I'm in no hurry. Good thing. On the flats I can cruise easily at 70. On the hills, all of which peak between 7,000 and 8,000 feet (probably 20 times), I'm down into the upper 40s. But I can pass nearly any other "rig", tractor trailer, motorhome, Ryder truck, whatever, even uphill. Not bad.

Since last night I'd discovered the warning signs before the historical state markers, I stopped for a couple today (see the picture). They were very boring -- "over this hill, there's something vaguely interesting to some historian, but you can't see it from here." Actually, in many cases there are dirt roads that lead to the vaguely interesting thing, but I didn't feel compelled to drive a 1-lane dirt road in the rig. Or in the BMW, for that matter. It would be neat to bring the Explorer back and visit some ghost towns though. I really want to see a ghost town. But they are inaccessible on paved roads. Likewise lots of old copper and silver mines.

I did stop in the city of Ely, at the old Nevada Northern Railway Museum. Actually, the museum was closed, but the rail yard was open. Took lots of pictures. Also bought a refrigerator magnet (so, Jane and Catherine, it begins -- too bad the fridge in the motorhome has wood panels). There is a 90-minute tour on an old steam train (diesel for the 4pm tour) that even sees a ghost town or two -- but I'd just missed a tour and didn't want to wait 2 hours for the next one. Note to self: plan schedules slightly better. It's hard when you are trying not to have a plan though.

Southeast of Ely is the Great Basin National Park, home of the Lehman Caves. All of the signs and tourbooks say that these caves are really the tourist thing to see in eastern NV. So, I headed to the park.

When I got to the welcome center, I was pleased to see that they had RV parking all set up and reserved. Very nice. I headed up to the building, and saw the signs -- all tours sold out. It turns out, a ranger told me, that on the weekend they usually sell out within 30 minutes of opening in the morning (they only sell same-day tours). So, you have to get there in the morning, and wait possibly all day. More bad planning. I figured that with tours every 30 minutes (say the guides), I'd be in like Flynn (whoever that is.)

Instead, I did a little hike on the Mountain View Nature Trail. Took more pictures. It's really just high desert scrub. The most amusing part (to me) was that someone, about 100 years ago, tried to plant some things, found it was too dry, and then built his own little aqueduct from a lake. Didn't he realize he was in the desert? (Okay, so I have no respect for our pioneering ancestors. Sorry.)

Oh, I bought another refrigerator magnet.

I went back to the motorhome and plotted the rest of the day. How far did I want to go tonight? I had originally thought that I'd go as far as Fillmore, UT, but I realized that I wasn't that far away, so I looked to see what was "next" on my route (headed towards Moab). Looked like a town called Salina. I thought: Austin, NV. Salina, UT. Really, this is just a coincidence, I swear.

I noticed a sign on my way out that said that the RV dump was open. So, I decided to dump. My black tank (that's the toilet tank) was indicating full, though I don't really believe it. So, I dumped at the public dump, then got back on the road.

As soon as I got cellphone service, I called ahead to the Butch Cassidy Campground, in Salina. The guides all seemed to indicate it would be a good place, and I actually got to talk to a real human, and it all sounded great. So, made a reservation. I was crossing into the Mountain time zone, so it looked like I'd get there at about 7:30MDT. I decided that was a good time to stop -- get hooked up, make some dinner, download my e-mail, and have time to relax.

Pulled in right on time, and it's a great place. Lots of big pull-through shaded sites, 50amp service, modem line (not at the motorhome, but in the main building). There's a pool table and big living room up there, books and movies, a little grocery store, and they sell refrigerator magnets. Haven't bought one yet though. Tomorrow morning I'll upload this web site and buy one :-) Set up the satellite and I'm swapping between the USOpen on USA and the Darlington Nascar race on ESPN2.

After dinner, I did a major cleaning of the motorhome. Vacuumed, cleaned the counters (they looked clean, but on close inspection, yuck), and now I'm just making journal notes. Goodnight!

Thanks for reading!
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