Everything's good! Friday, 5/28/21

 

Earlier this month while we were on our way home from our travels in Tergel, we stopped at a Pilot gas station in Fernley, Nevada, for one last fill-up before hitting California's steep gas prices.  Lo and behold if I wasn't hailed by a lady in an RV that pulled up next to where I was standing, and knock me over with a feather if she didn't know who I was!  It was Karen from Rolling in an RV, a blog I follow, and she follows mine.  She recognized Tergel/Smartie, and me!  Mind you, neither of us knew the other was in the area, nor had we ever met in person.  Kind of boggles the mind.

Me and Jimmy, Karen and Tony!

We exchanged phone numbers, and Jimmy and I invited them to stop by after we got home and settled in.  And, by gollies, they did.  She and I talked on the phone and we picked Friday (today) for our visit.  The four of us spent time visiting inside before moving to the deck.  I'd fixed a light lunch and Jimmy grilled hot dogs (like people do on Memorial Day) and we enjoyed our lunch sitting on the deck.  It was perfect day to be outside.  The afternoon flew by.

Karen and Tony are fulltimers, and their blog is full of great places to go!  We hope they'll come by again.  It was a pleasure to meet both of you in person!

I missed nearly all of my spring flowers while we were away, but my roses are in bloom now, and I have one Foxglove, and one gorgeous Iris.  I'll take 'em!

Here are A few stats from our West-to-East RV'ing trip:

March 25, 2021 - May 12, 2021

Round trip mileage was 6500 miles

Gallons used:  A whopping 862 for total cost of $2392, average fuel cost:  $2.77/gal

Campgrounds:  $563 for 48 nights equals $11.72/night

We had added campground costs when Smartie lost (literally) her front tire, and then there was the tire replacement (plus three more) of $800

Without incidentals and food, total cost was $3755. for 48 days of fun.  Not too bad.

As soon as we hit the road, gas prices began their climb.  Seems to happen every time we put Tergel on the road.  Oh well, if you don't want to pay the price, stay home, right?  We usually don't spend that much on campgrounds, either.  This was probably our last trip in Tergel to the East Coast ... it's so danged far away.  We'll spend more of our camping time in the West from now on ... after all, we live here, and heaven knows there's plenty to see/do in these parts!

Touchdown! Tues, 5/11/21

 

"Only" 260 miles to reach home.  Not as long as the past three or four days, but still a fairly long drive.  This time we have a real prize at the end:  Home.  Thus finishes a nearly seven-week journey from the west coast to the east coast to see and hug people we haven't seen in a year or more.  Everyone we visited had been vaccinated, so we felt safe being close.  On a different note:  we discovered new sights, enjoyed new activities, hiked new trails and met new friends.  Win-win-win!

I always wonder how far it is from where I am, above, to the road's vanishing point, yonder.  Yet, I don't believe I've ever remembered to check the odometer when I got to that point!  What might it be?  Ten miles, twenty miles?  Five?

Here in Nevada, Hwy 50 crosses several large desert valleys separated by those north/south mountain ranges towering over the valley floors, as above, in what is known as the Basin and Range province of the Great Basin.  What goes up does come down.  Up and down.  I felt like my ears would blow up from all the altitude changes!

Near Middlegate Station is/was the Shoe Tree.  People have pitched hundreds of pairs of shoes into its reaches ... at least till 2010 when some heartless cad chopped down the tree.  A sister Cottonwood then became the new Shoe Tree.  I'm sorry to report that this tree didn't look alive when we whizzed past.

The dry desert has its moments of color, though this section of Hwy 50 is more known for its desolation.

As well as sand dunes.

Dropping into Carson Lake Salt Flats.

Deep and wide, you wouldn't want to step onto it.

You'd probably sink into it. Yuck.

As usual, people want to be recognized.  I was here; look at me.  In this case, people are using volcanic rocks to tell the world I passed by.  Floodwaters wash them away, and more come to rebuild.

We stopped at a Pilot gas station in Fernley to fill up Tergel ($3.39/gal) one last time before entering California with their higher prices.  Jimmy was driving.  The station was crowded.  I hopped out to assist in guiding him to a pump without a line.  Just then a motor home pulled up to where I was standing.  A woman tentatively smiled, and asked, "Aren't you Nickie?"  My eyebrows scaled up to my hairline!  "Yes, but ..."  She said, "I'm Karen from Rolling in an RV blog."  She and I follow each other's blogs, but neither of us had any idea where the other was.  "How did you know it was me?" I asked?  She said she recognized me from my blog.  I clasped her hands in mine.  What a wonderful surprise!  Or just plain serendipity!  We couldn't visit long, but we exchanged phone numbers, and maybe they'll stop by Nevada City on their travels.  This still blows me away.  I love how we connect with each other.  Wow.

Our first glimpse of the spectacular Sierra Nevada Mountains.

Almost home ....

A welcome sign!

Looks like the Truckee River is rippin' downhill.

We made it home somewhere between 2-3pm, happy to get out of Tergel and stretch.  We commenced unloading; it's what we do.  Get 'er done.  I looked around, and I was aghast at our yard!  We live on half an acre.  When we left last March, it was cold and barely spring.  The trees were still bare and the flowers were asleep.  Now we have foot-high grass and weeds, and all the flowers have finished, even the beautiful Dogwood blooms were spent.  I guess this is the first time we were away during prime spring.   It's gone green!

I don't have all the stats yet, but I can tell you we drove 6500 miles R/T.  One of these days, I'll sit down and figure out costs, when I get less busy!  Both Tergel and Smartie had a couple of issues and we'll get them squared away eventually.  Otherwise, we had a terrific trip, so glad we could go.  But, truly, there's no place like home.  We're glad to be here.

 

Homeward bound, Mon, 5/10/21

 

Google Maps says it's 371 miles, and that was more than enough for us this day.  Driving all day, every day, gets kind of tiring (but doable with a prize at the end -- home!).  We looked at several boondocking spots along Hwy 50, but elected to give $25 to the Pony Express RV Park in Austin for FHU and nice long showers!

Yup, we were on Hwy 50 again, "the Loneliest Road in America," a major secondary road through middle Nevada where a driver can say, "no one in front and no one behind," the road being clear forever.  The Town of Austin bills itself as the "Friendliest Town on the Loneliest Road."  Although multiple high elevation passes present a challenge to an RV (chug-chug-chugging up the hill), we prefer this highway over the freeway.  It's a humble road, basically devoid of scenery, but, still, there's something appealing in its very emptiness.  Maybe it's a feeling of freedom.

Sure, there's plenty of long stretches of desert grass and sage, but you'll also see some significant rock formations on Hwy 50.

The road goes on forever.

Through the years, we've camped along Hwy 50 from Delta in the East to Sparks in the West, including Lehman Caves, Ely, Cold Spring, Austin and Big Creek.

This is open range territory, meaning no fencing, and cows (all bovines are cows to me) can roam freely.  Also at their peril.  We saw way too many bodies roadside, cows and calfs.  We had to slow down to a crawl several times 'cause cows were too close to the road, as above.  We stopped for this one, opened the window, and suggested she move away from the vehicle!  She didn't move a muscle.

Central Nevada has north-south mountain ranges, so if you're heading east or west, you have to climb up to and over six or seven or eight passes.  I think the highest one was over 7700', and Tergel was a-wheezing on that one.  The mountains are beautiful, ranging from the deep blue you see above to an arid, seemingly barren chocolaty-brown.

A couple of old log cabins sunk in a sea of old Cottonwood trees.

Downtown Ely, Nevada boasts this famous hotel.  We went inside once a few years ago, choked on the cigarette smoke haze, and walked out.  My Mom lived in neighboring McGill for a few years, so we've spent time in the area.

Jimmy and I met fellow bloggers (at the time) Laurie and Odel for the first time at the Ely KOA campground.  They were headed east and we were on our way west.  Or maybe it was the other way around; can't remember what year.  We followed each other's blogs, but hadn't met yet.  I love how this works!

The road less traveled.

We quit for the night in Austin, unhooked Smartie and went exploring.  One of the things we found was Stokes Castle, which you see below.  It's actually quite tall, and the explanation that the Stokes family used it for two months is nuts.

Austin is a dinky town, but after a mighty silver boom got going in the 1860s Austin was the second largest city in Nevada with more than 5,000 residents. Today, there are less than 200 that have worked to keep the little town alive, though the town seemed sorta deserted to us.

Tomorrow we'll grind out one more day (let's hope it's only one).  After that, we'll be home.  But tomorrow holds a wonderful surprise!  Oh boy!

Westward, Ho! Sunday, 5/8/21

We awoke to a mighty cool temp ... technically freezing:  32°.  Then we remembered our elevation is roughly 7200' and spring is moving slowly in these parts.  Many of Colorado's deciduous trees haven't leafed out yet; others are beginning to wear their tiny spring green leaves.  Because we wanted to put on as many miles as possible, we were up and atem early, notwithstanding the chilly weather.  I left a small electric heater on low all night, so we were toasty inside Tergel.

405 miles.  Our GPS gave us a bum steer, inasmuch as we thought we'd end up in Delta, Utah, but Nuvi took us a bit south, and we finally petered out in Joseph, Utah.  No matter, tomorrow's drive will be in new territory, at least part of it anyway.  We did have a stint on I-70, but it was okay.

Seeing the grandeur of Eastern Utah was the real highlight today!.  We took so many pictures!  The Red Rock formations are breathtaking.  Jimmy was hard put to pick "not too many" pictures for this post!  Here are his choices:

Chimney Rock, not far from Pagosa Springs.

Beneath the sign was the word "Closed."

The diagonal line is the road up to Mesa Verde ruins.  I'm including this pic because ten years ago Jimmy rode his bike down this hill.  Read about it here.

Isn't nature wonderful?

I see a camel.

In this one, I see a serpent.

Muffins?

Can you spot all the people?

Marvelous arch!

No, we didn't.

Can you spot the rock people?

Is it a pregnant woman standing next to a man?

What do you see in this one?

I examined my photo to see if a reflection caused the lighter top o' the rock.  Nope.  This was painted by the Master Painter.  Isn't this cool? 

I call them Cathedrals in Stone.  The many different hues make for a rainbow of sorts.  These are mere snapshots of an entire area that can only be described as inspirational.  Because home is calling to us, we didn't stop, nor did we tour any of the special parks.  We did decide, however, to return later ... at a time when the majority of tourists will be back at work/school, and we can freely wander about this grand temple of rocks.

We're closing in on Nevada City.  Wonder if we can make it home tomorrow?

Into Colorado, Sat, 5/8/21

 

366 miles.  The map shows us on I-40 for a bit, but we bypassed it.  We'd like to get home and, in fact, are on our way home.  I suppose we'd get there faster if we stuck to the interstates, but I-40 was no friend to us on our way east a few weeks ago.  No, we'll take the scenic route, even if it is slower.  By gollies, most of today's drive was quite picturesque.

My favorite.

It looks like a watercolor.

We had no reservation for tonite (Saturday) because we didn't know how far we'd be able to drive.  We pulled into the first RV park we saw when we hove into Pagosa Springs.  It was expensive, way more than we'd normally pay, but tired people might do unexpected things like that.  It was a good stay, regardless, including a couple of hours of live music ... music we knew and liked.  We're not here to play, just to sleep.

Tomorrow it's on into Utah.