Tag: Nevada

Out of Missouri, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, and Arizona and into Nevada

Yup, lots of driving. No pictures either because I never remember to take any when we are just driving to a destination. We left Oklahoma on Friday morning after visiting my sister, my niece, niece’s husband, and their four month old baby. The baby was such a solemn little guy he was inadvertently hilarious. We stayed in a lovely campground in Oklahoma City, Twin Fountains near the Cowboy Hall of Fame. I definitely will stay there again on another trip.

We ended up Friday night in Santa Rosa Campground in, surprise, Santa Rosa, New Mexico. It was an old KOA so the sites were a bit narrow, but it was a nice and quiet place. Surrounded by that classic New Mexico landscape, I could smell pinons and enjoy the sunsets in that clear New Mexican Sky.  Another one worth a repeat for sure. There is a little restaurant at the campground that wasn’t too bad, so no cooking! Nice after a long day of driving the motorhome. I am getting in the grove for 400 mile days: drive a few hours, take a nice long break (30-45 minutes) then finish it up.

Saturday was another 400 mile day. We spent the night in the parking lot of the Twin Arrows Casino outside Flagstaff. We ate in the (well-reviewed) buffet at the casino, but it was so-so at best. Add into it the smoke that you had to walk through to get to the food, and it is definitely not a place to return to. The parking lot was nice though! Many RVers say they only pull into parking lots late at night, but we like to stop our drive no later than 4 or so. Here it was a good thing because the RV parking got quite crowded by evening. We got to position the coach so the driver side windows looked east onto the sage, and it made for a lovely sunrise. The long ride on I-40 made me want to plan a much more leisurely trip where we can stop and see all the lovely places we just drove by on this trip. Maybe 2-3 weeks, just sightseeing.

Last night we made it to Pahrump and spent the night in the Wine Ridge RV Resort. Very nice place though we didn’t use all the facilities. We did do lots of laundry and got our shopping done though. We will be in Death Valley for almost two weeks, and there isn’t much shopping there so we really stocked up. We actually stocked up more than I intended to since the baby back ribs and the meatballs were both BOGO. We should have plenty of meat! I also used the convection oven to cook up a bunch of maple bacon for future BLTs. Surprisingly the little store at DV generally has nice produce. We plan on leaving today with empty waste tanks and full fresh water and propane tanks. Weather shouldn’t be too bad though the forecast is for higher than average temperatures in the low 90s-upper 80s.

It is hard to get internet in DV, so posting will be limited except when we get into a town.

On the road again, plus some food goodies

We left the “sticks and bricks” house today to head south for warm weather. We took our time, didn’t leave until 11:30, and we were set up at the Eureka Casino parking lot (free!) by about 5:30. It was 57 degrees when we arrived, a nice change. Here’s what else happened since the last post though.

I sent a couple onesies with the heat transfer vinyl off to my 11 month old grandson. My daughter is under strict orders to wash and dry them a lot so I make sure I have the technique down. So far so good. I also used the Silhouette cutter to label my food canisters in the kitchen plus decorated a couple of sweatshirts for Kevin and me. Mine is a little crooked, but his looks nice.

Last night we went to see “Something Rotten” at the Eccles Theater. The first act wasn’t thrilling, but good. The second act was hilarious and definitely made the play. Our next show is “The Sound of Music” on 28 February. We have been arranging our trips based on show times, and it is a bit of a pain. I am not sure I will renew the season tickets next year; we would rather RV!

As for food, I have conquered yogurt in the Instant Pot. It tastes yummy even if it wasn’t as thick as I wanted. My first one was a complete fail, so I was thankful this one worked so well.

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The fruit came from individually frozen bags of cherries and raspberries. I did add a little bit of sugar since the fruit was unsweetened. Really lovely.

I didn’t get a picture of the other item of food porn: Kevin’s smoked turkey. It was a gorgeous color, amazingly moist, and utterly delicious. He vacuum packed it into 1/2 pound packages, and a bunch of it is in the trailer’s freezer for the trip. We bought the turkey when it was on sale after Thanksgiving. We actually bought two, but the other is in the deep freeze for smoking this spring.

We are all beginning to plan some trips in addition to the big Alaska trip this summer. We made reservations at Kodachrome State Park in southern Utah for late March. A friend who bought their first trailer last year is going to join us, a real treat. They have an A-frame trailer they call their “Tin Teepee”, a name if I find hilarious. During April we have to work around tickets to see “Hamilton” and my daighter’s completion of nursing school in late May. Fun times ahead. Tomorrow we intend on staying at the Calico Ghost Town. Let’s hope they have a spot open. Otherwise Plan B is another overnight in a parking lot somewhere.

Gold country living history, trains, and heading home

On 19 May (Friday) we went to Columbia State Park for a living history festival called “Columbia Diggins 1852”. It turns out the entire state park is a living history location. It was great fun. There were hotels, restaurants, homes, stores, etc. that were from the early gold rush days – blocks and blocks of them. There was even a stagecoach ride that I had to take, just because. The stage was “held up” by a masked bandit, causing the children on the stage enormous amounts of fun.

Me in front of the hotel
Stagecoach ride was fun
Lots of kids on school trips

The “Diggins” was a tent city with lots of costumed docents teaching (mostly children) how to do laundry in a wash tub, how to pan for gold, how to use a sluice and a rocker for gold, how to bake in a wood fired brick/stone oven, and other fun things.

We bought some food and some very small presents for the granddaughters.

On Saturday we went to Jamestown and their 1897 Railroad Park. This is another California State Historic Park. There is a working oil fueled steam train and cars that you can take on a short excursion. Of course we did it. The train only runs on Saturday’s and Sundays, and the entire trip took 45 minutes. It was well worth the $15 per person cost.

The only known woman steam engineer was running our train

Saturday night was pizza at the Pizza Factory in Groveland with the remaining rally attendees. The pizza was very good, and I highly recommend the place. No atmosphere but good food.

We decided to do most of the cleaning and packing on Saturday so we could get an easy start home on Sunday. It worked; we were out of the campground by 8:00. The original plan was to find a Forest Service campground somewhere near Lake Tahoe or Reno, but the Tahoe area was too crowded for us. It was a beautiful lake, but not worth the number of people. We decided to just head home in two days instead of our planned three, so we ended up in Winnemucca, NV again. This time we stayed at the KOA which is actually quite nice. Real cable TV so I can watch the news is very pleasant. The internet isn’t very good from the campground, but I am running great on my Verizon hot spot. Since we have a full hookup site we can get all the tanks dumped and cleaned before heading home. I really like being able to do that on the last night of a trip. There is some road noise from I-80, but I expect much of that to die down later tonight. We have the windows and doors open right now, cooling off in the lovely evening air. Home tomorrow!

Water Canyon BLM campground outside Winnemucca, Nevada

We left the house at 9:15 MDT in lovely weather. After taking our time with a stop for breakfast (McDonald’s Egg Mcmuffin for me in Magna, UT) and lunch (incredible chicken friend steak at Bella’s in Wells, NV – I highly recommend it), we arrived at this wonderful BLM campground around 3:30 PDT. We found a shady campsite next to a fast running creek. No neighbors anywhere within sight or sound, and the campground is free! The site is a huge pull through and we kept the truck connected so it will be easy leaving tomorrow. We sat outside in the recliners next to the water for a long time.

Kevin took a bike ride up the road some. This is just a general area picture he took plus a closeup of a chukkar, one of my favorite birds.

 

The moon came up over the mountains just as the sun was setting.

 

Tomorrow we head to civilization, Petaluma KOA. It definitely won’t be quiet and dark like tonight. Urban California (or suburban California) is tough to drive in with the truck and trailer. The roads are much better for smaller cars than our 55′ combination. I can handle the traffic, but there just isn’t any parking even in shopping centers.

Oh, and we only forgot a few things – both sets of house shoes and my cotton kitchen towels. Both should be easy to replace somewhere tomorrow. Dinner was a one spot meal – Knorr’s Chicken Fettuccini plus frozen rotisssrie chicken from Costco. We didn’t need much with such a big dinner. Now if only I can stay awake until 10:00 pm PDT …