25 October ‘06

Today it was off to Red Rock Canyon.   Just 10 miles from Las Vegas, the mountains rise to a great colorful spectacle, formed along a fault zone with peaks over 8,000 feet.  Huge cliffs and ravines of grey, white and red rock bands, all heavily eroded. The wide plains beneath the hills are studded with Joshua trees and other desert plants, contributing to a most impressive site.  We first arrived at the visitors center and then off to see those beautiful red mountains.  The closer we got, the more detail you could see in those rocks.  There were also rock climbers, climbing and repelling all those rocks.  We met a couple from Holland that were climbing.  They travel each year to find new locations to climb, in as many countries as possible.  The canyon has 13 miles of roadway that takes you through many different looks throughout the valley and mountains.  At one stop, we decided to hike across the plain and into another beautiful canyon that split one of the mountains.  We really enjoyed the hike but were a little disappointed that we didn’t see any animal life.  Just after the “Gold and Silver Rush” of this area, the prospectors would turn their burros loose rather than try to take them back from where ever they had originally come from. Now you can find the ancestors of those burros running all over these hills and plains.  In one way it is too bad that we are here in the winter because of the shorter days, but on the other hand, the heat of the summers is more than we want to go hiking in.  Oh well, with the temp at 75 and us with so many more sites to see, we will take what we can. 

24 October ‘06

Bruce and Peggy picked us up this morning for a drive out to China Ranch.  China Ranch is a family owned and operated small farm, with lush greenery amidst the Mojave Desert.  Imagine towering cottonwoods and willows by a wandering stream, date palms and abundant wildlife, all hidden away in some of the most spectacular scenery the desert has to offer.  The Ranch is also rich in history. The Old Spanish Trail is within walking distance, as is the historic Tonopah & Tidewater railroad bed. You can hike to nearby abandoned mines if you wish, or just relax and browse through our store having one of the best shakes I have ever had…a “Date Shake”.  I mean it, this shake was absolutely “the best”, although I did get the small one and 4 spoons to share it…nice of me right?  We took a long walk through the date trees and along a small stream that flows through the property.  It was harvest time in the orchard, so we were able to get a little education on dates today as well.  One thing that was really interesting to us was they had found that wrapping the dates in paper wrapping to protect them from the birds and hasten the ripening just wasn’t working to well.  The paper would blow away, melt in the rain (if and when it might rain), and the birds could find their way in easily.  Then someone at the ranch/date farm came up with the idea of wrapping the date pods with a dress or large shirt…it lasts much longer, doesn’t blow off as easily, the birds don’t like the feel and movement, and the longevity of the cloth is much longer…not to mention the “coloring of the orchard”.  The drive down into the small valley known as China Ranch is beautiful.  It is a gravel road that does get washed out every rainstorm, winds and twists through the hills of sand and light porous rock.  We saw several mine openings that have been cut into this rock, but they were all boarded up for safety.  I know I wouldn’t want to venture into one of them…weak walls and ceilings, no large planks to hold up the tunnel, and snakes…. 

22 October ‘06

Today was a very special day for Louise and I….we are meeting Bruce and Peggy after all this time.  Most of you will remember how it was that Louise found their web page back in November of ’03 and gave us “our way of seeing Europe”.  The rest is history, except actually meeting Bruce and Peggy in person.  Meeting them could have been under better circumstances (Peggy’s mother had just passed away and they found themselves living here in Pahrump to settle her mothers estate) but the best thing is we did finally get together.  When they walked around the front of the coach, it was like a homecoming.  We melted together immediately with all our stories of travels through Europe in a ‘VW’ campervan.  There was an art show going on at one of the other campgrounds in town, so we joined them for look-see.  This campground is attached to Terribles Casino.  This is more like a “resort” than the usual campground.  Very nice !!!

21 October ‘06

Pahrump ???  Pahrump what ???  I thought they had some unusual names for the towns in Europe, but not a “Pahrump”…  Anyway, we continued driving south this morning and pulled into this Nevada town of Pahrump.  It was a little strange as we come down into the valley and saw this sprawling town in front of us.  A sign along side of the road told us we were in Pahrump but the few homes that lined the roadway told us we were not quite there yet.  About 8 miles further we did come to some commercial businesses and low and behold a couple of “casinos”.  The casinos were no big surprise as we were in Nevada, but the layout Pahrump…another story.  The turn off was at Winery Road so we knew we had a possibility of something better to look forward to.  Finding our campground up this road was easy and the big highlight was that we were attached to this “winery” as well.  Once settled in, we noticed that we were in a very nice campground with a lot of extras we can enjoy…a swimming pool, hot tub, lots of available hiking, a full daily schedule of things to do (including computer classes and more), and a very good restaurant at the winery. 

19 October ‘06

Death Valley it was… We drove up North Northwest to Scotty’s Castle.  What, you’ve never heard of it?  Louise had, but as for me, “who is Scotty?  Walter Scott, or better know as “Death Valley Scotty”.  He was an ex-cowboy, prospector, performed with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show, and topping all of that he was a con man.  I won’t go into all the con’s that he could take credit for, but there were many.  He also holds a record for having more newspaper articles written about him from coast to coast than any other person of his time.  These articles were mostly favorable, mentioning in detail all of his conquests at searching out the “Big Load” (Gold).  Funny thing is, he never did have a good producing claim.  But to one very wealthy gentleman, he apparently could care less.  He just liked Scotty.  He (Chicago millionaire Albert Johnson) just liked this Scotty character, in fact he liked him so much he bank-rolled just about everything and anything that Scotty thought would work.  Johnson came out to Death Valley with Scotty to see his mine (finding it wasn’t showing any signs of producing any thing of any good).  It didn’t matter because Johnson fell in love with the freedom of Death Valley vs. Chicago, and besides it made his allergies better and his back problem just didn’t bother him any more.  At this point Albert Johnson just didn’t want to leave so he decided to build a home for himself and his wife.  This home started out small…3 tents.  Soon it developed into a couple of small square buildings and then into a 6000 sq.ft. “Castle” with additional “Hacienda’s”, a large stable, guest quarters in separate buildings, and a swimming pool (that never got finished) that is over 300 feet long, 80 wide and up to 12 ft. deep.  It took us over 3 hours to tour this “Scotty’s Castle”, and it was worth every minute…it was fantastic.  The heating, cooling, electrical systems, sewage and water systems…the tunnels that ran from the main house to all others (over a half mile of underground cement tunnels), the music room with it’s beautiful pipe organ (we were entertained with a song by the organ)…this is some castle!!!  28 miles into Death Valley, Scotty’s Castle.  Then we drove out to Ubehebe Crater.  Walking around the top of the crater was awe inspiring.  This crater was formed after a massive 770 foot steam explosion suddenly exploded, shattering the rock above and ejecting 100’s of tons of rock, mud, and small black pebbles miles around, and leaving a multi-colored cavity far below.  Hiking around the crater was a little difficult because of the steepness and the small black pebbles that would slide from under your foot as we climbed.  From there we continued to drop in altitude (from over 4000 feet to sea-level) looking for the small dirt and gravel road that would take us to Titus Canyon.  Now I didn’t mention it, but this is the beginning of the tourist season here in Death Valley.  The “Official” start is the first of November, so we are still here with very few others.  This makes our trip worth it alone.  Titus Canyon is a natural canyon that runs from one side of the interior mountain range to the other.  No more than 10-15 yards wide with walls that tower 100’s of feet above on both sides as it wind and twists its way through the mountain.  There is a single dirt/gravel path that is “one way” once you get to the entrance.  Seeing as we had come in the way we had, we could only walk through it.  Our walk covered about 3/4 mile and was stunning.  Fact is, you just couldn’t see the beauty of this valley if you had been driving (except in a convertible).  Not to much day light left so we headed to Stovepipe Wells Village and then out to the “Sand Dunes”.  Those “Tawny” dunes so smoothly rising up to 100 feet, almost velvet like.  The sun was just about ready to set and the shadows that were created were mystical.  To get out on the dunes we had to park along side the road and walk a couple hundred yards through the sage and sand.  Then you had to climb these dunes.  Each step up was about ¾ step back and your shoe would fill with this very fine sand.  The late afternoon light accentuates the ripples and patterns and it is absolutely magical. 

18 October ‘06

This morning we headed down Highway 95 again.  The scenery was much more exciting on this leg.  Still lots of straight highway punctuated with a few mountain passes.  The sun was warming but the wind was cooling.  We pulled into a large graveled area along side of the road to have lunch and as we settled down we noticed that we had pulled into a truck parking lot for the local “Brothel”.  Now you don’t see this just anywhere…  In today’s travel we have now encountered 4…that’s in the last 180 miles…most be money in this business…  Tonight we have pulled into a campground in Beatty Nevada.  It’s called Beatty’s Hot Springs RV Park, and with the camping fees of $18 it includes your enjoyment in their “Natural Artesian Hot Spring Pools”.  They have 3 pool houses which house a large private pool.  Each pool has a different temperature range, with the lowest range running from 98-101 and the hottest from 105-109.  The water comes in directly from the ground and exits out through a large pipe to a small river that flows away from the campground.  This operation was originally built to supply water for the steam engines of the Tonopah & Tidewater Railroad in 1906.  The fresh clear sulfur free water worked best for the engines and now it works well for me…we both really enjoyed a long dip.  The room and pool are about 20 feet square.  The pool is down 5 steps from the door area and the floor of the water is small rocks.  The water comes up through the rocks and then exits out a pipe under the stairs.  I was amazed at how clear and clean the water was and the rocks on the bottom, absolutely without any trace of slime.  Then it was out to see a little bit of Death Valley…well not quite, we just entered the roadway heading there.  We went to see Rhyolite, the town that went from boom to bust like a lot of other towns that got their start about 1900.  Rhyolite reached its peak in 1907 with about 10,000 residents.  It had gained the attention of investors in New York and San Francisco, but the gold was not to appear to anyone but the first mine.  Even that one, the Montgomery wasn’t profitable…well we saw a few of the remaining buildings and what’s left of their cemetery.  Both were posted with “WATCH OUT FOR RATTLESNAKES !!!”, but none were found.  To get to the cemetery we had to drive a gravel/dirt road for a couple of miles and then swing into the sage for about 100 yards.  Most of the graves were nothing but a wooden board sticking up from the ground and unfortunately nothing was left to tell us who it was that was buried there.  Seeing as how we are here in Beatty, and the signs tell us that this is the “Gateway to Death Valley”, we are going to stay one more day.  Tomorrow….DEATH VALLEY or at least a part of it…

17 October ‘06

We did make it back up the hill to see the famous Virginia City of the old west, but before we got there we went into Fallon to visit their museum.  It was like stepping back into the past and living as someone who lived in Fallon from the late 1800’s on to today.  I almost expected to see something about Ernie and Sheila in there (the newer items anyway…).  It was a very nice museum and well taken care of.  They should be proud.  Then we were off to back track from our trip last night.  As I mentioned earlier, Virginia City is about an hours drive from Fallon, so seeing as we had visited the museum and driven for another hour, it was lunch time when we got there.  First and foremost I wanted to eat.  We found a parking place right at the beginning of town and then proceeded to walk the wood plank sidewalks in search of “just the right restaurant”.  After walking ¾ of one side of the town we found that right spot to eat.  It was in a bar that had some tables set aside for those that really wanted to eat, and that was us…  Either the food was really good or it was that we were really hungry…we ate just about everything (we left about 2/3 the fries…aren’t we good???).  Now we could go out and enjoy the sites of Virginia City.  At one time there was over 30,000 people, more than 100 saloons, a very few churches, and many, many mines.  The Comstock Lode had been one of those mines that made good, shall we say $234 million good ???  Mark Twain was also one of those that made a mark here.  He started out in Virginia City as a reporter for one of the local newspapers (one of the newspapers in Virginia City was the first newspaper in the state of Nevada).  From a newspaper reporter that no one would have remembered to one of the most read non-fiction writers of his day…

16 October ‘06

This morning we took the “toad” and headed for Carson City and then onto Reno.  While we were in Europe we either loaded the VW back up with all our goods for travel, or caught a bus, tram, or train to make a side trip like this one today.  Over all we probably covered 125 miles round trip.  It’s very interesting to see these different cities that have all the “Western” history that I’ve always heard of or read about, as I was growing up as a kid.  Leaving the history lesson of the towns and cities for a few hours, we went to Reno for another type of “looking at history”.  We had read and were told over and over, that The Harrah National Automobile Museum is a “must see”.  As we drove into Reno, I thought we should grab the first parking lot at a casino that offered free parking, so we pulled into Circus Circus when we saw the “Free Parking” sign.  Now to find Harrah’s and the museum.  We chose this day to see the museum because it was forecast that it was going to be a cold, blowing, and light rainy day…what a better day than this to do a museum???.  Well, Circus Circus just isn’t right around the corner from the museum, it’s about a 15 minute walk and it’s not quite miserable, but close to it.  When we found the museum we found that they also offered free parking …bummer…  Now inside, we wondered around looking at some of those beautiful collector cars when it was announced that there was going to be a tour guide giving a very exciting free tour that we “just couldn’t miss”.  At this point we met Mike Thomas and, we became very informed about these incredible collector cars over the next 3 hours.  I must admit that this stop was much more than I could have ever imagined…it was great.  Unfortunately Louise had chosen to wear her cowgirl boots so she was suffering a little, not bad, but a little.  Now it was off to one of our favorite grocery stores…Trader Joe’s.  This was our first since leaving the Seattle area and we were looking forward to shopping.  With the car full and the pocket book empty, we headed up and over the mountain to historic Virginia City.  It was after 6 and getting dark, but we still wanted to make the drive.  The 2 lane road was winding, twisting, and climbing for the clouds.  The lights of Reno and the surrounding towns were beautiful as we climbed.  Once we arrived at Virginia City we realized that it was too late and too dark to really enjoy, so we’ve just got to make the drive again tomorrow. 

15 October ‘06

McCall, back to Highway 95, and a long ride through 2 states and into a third.  Not too much to tell about this part of the drive, except to say it was long.  We did find this part of 95 was a highway for the truckers.  I don’t think we have seen so many trucks on any one road before.  I’m sure this will continue all the way to Las Vegas and most likely further.  The destination for the day was Winnemucca Nevada.  After spending the night we were back on the road and heading for Fallon.  The sights along the way weren’t too exciting until we turned off of 95 Alt and onto 95.  There the roadbed was raised, narrow and without a shoulder.  Throughout the rest of the drive, which was as straight as I have ever seen, we overlooked a very large area of small sand dunes, sage brush, and spotted with small lakes for bird migrations.  I had pushed on from Winnemucca without topping off the gas tank on the coach and by the time we were pulling into Fallon I had just about soaked my shirt with sweat.  I’ve got to quit passing that dag-nab gas pump looking for a few pennies off the price of the last pump.  Well we made it…and we did find gas…and in Nevada we’ve found the prices 20 to 30 cents a gallon higher than Idaho’s.   We were able to meet with Ernie and Sheila today.  This is a very uncommon thing to do seeing as they are the traveling couple of the millennium.  They had just gotten back from a cruise through the Panama Canal and the Caribbean.  Ernie was already repacking for another trip on Tuesday down to Cabo.  They have a beautiful home here and are wonderful hosts to all of us vagabonds who traipse through. 

13 October ‘06

Damn, Damn, Damn….Look at me… The damn Mustard bottle just broke all over me….  We had just stopped for lunch at a small roadside diner in Riggins Idaho when I no sooner had picked up the plastic mustard bottle and the damn thing just exploded.  Mustard all over me, not on the table, not on the floor, just on my lap, chest, and arms…all bright yellow and smelling like strong mustard.  I showed the young lady behind the bar what had just happened and all she could say was “GEEZZZ”… What did she mean Geezzz????  My new sweatshirt was just ruined, not to mention my jeans.  Then let’s talk about the “Elk Hamburger”.  It was totally over cooked and tasted like something I don’t want to put into my mouth again, especially after having to scrape off the excess mustard from the exploding mustard bottle.  I couldn’t get back into the coach fast enough to get some mint mouth fresheners to get rid of the taste that was left from that “hamburger”.  Oh yes, I forgot to mention it…today is Friday the 13th after all.   After getting further down the road towards our next campground, I found myself raiding the refrigerator trying to fill the void left from lunch…not a good idea for someone who is trying to lose weight.  Our destination today was supposed to be McCall Idaho and the drive down from Lewiston was through some wonderful territory.  We followed our boat ride from yesterday for quite awhile although the Snake River was on the other side of the mountains to our right.  We had the Salmon River at our side most of the time and the mountain was separating the Snake from the Salmon for over a hundred miles.  Finally about 3 we wound our way up the side of a mountain to make our first visit to McCall.  The town its self didn’t impress either one of us much but it could have been that it just didn’t have anything happening.  It was just off the seasons of Summer and Winter which it is known to excel in.  Payette Lake was very pretty, sitting here at the doorstep of McCall, and at the top of a mountain.  We thought we were going to camp in McCall but after walking the town and seeing just about everything possible in 20 minutes we decided to move on…we moved on down the mountain for the night.