Home again, home again, jiggity-jig.

We're here! Got in at about 8PM Tuesday at the end of a 400+ mile day.

It seems we got behind our daily schedule by stopping in Eureka and Ely, Nevada and ending up in Pioche rather than Las Vegas. Hence the 400 miles the last day.

We could have stayed out another day but got caught up in "get-home-itis."

Like I said, we got home about 8PM and walked into the house and said "Wow!" It's beautiful! You see, Cheryl had hired a young lady to do a top to bottom house cleaning and to finish the job just before we got home. So the whole house was shining like a new penny.

We brought in just the few items we'd need in the morning and then put on our buffs and jumped into the pool. After that we collapsed into bed and zonked our way through the next eight hours.

In the morning I treated myself to a fifty-gallon shower. It was pure heaven. The trailer provides 6-gallons of hot water at a time which means 3-minute showers. Doable, but not relaxing.

After that we unloaded all our clothing and the food from the trailer. Then I took it up to the dealer to wash out the tanks and to buy some replacement and upgrade parts for fixes and changes I decided to do while on the trip. Each time we go out I come up with new ways to make the camper just a bit better. The fun never stops.

Today I washed the trailer. I've found that there are only two days when a trailer looks really good. The day before a trip and the day after a trip. Other than that it only ever looks as good as Moma Nature wants it to look.

So that's it. Unless Cheryl wants to post something.

The trip is over. Bikes are coming into the shop. Business is ramping up and drudgery and boredom are looking at me from around the corner. I swear that becoming full timers is looking better and better each day.

'Till next year,
Love,
Yodar, Yodera, and Yodette the Wonder Pup.

More Photos.

The Loneliest Highway in America – Nevada Route 50

“The Loneliest Highway in America.“ We didn’t make up that name. Life Magazine dubbed it thus back in the 50s when they wrote a story about it. Nevada adopted the name in hopes it would attract tourists to the state. It worked! Route 50 runs from Lake Tahoe all the way across Nevada and into Utah. We picked it up in Austin and traveled as far as Ely where we turned south on Route 93 and ended our day in Pioche. It’s cool and quiet here, and we plan to sleep good tonight.

Today on “The Loneliest Highway in America,” we saw about six cars, two motorcycles, a truck, and for some strange reason, a bicyclist! We all got together and formed a support group for lonely drivers with annual meetings to be held in Austin, Nevada. We bought a bottle of champagne to be opened by the last surviving member of the group.

In actuality, Route 50 is incredibly beautiful with rolling hills, giant mountains and a few exceptional twisty-turny roads like you’ll find up around Jerome. There are all sorts of small towns full of buildings that hark back to the days of the Pony Express. In fact, this road follows the Pony Express Routes very closely. We can’t imagine how the riders rode a 10- mile leg followed by a four-minute horse change and continued this routine for 10 hours a day.

We had breakfast in Eureka and went through the town museum full of old newspaper equipment housed in the Nevada Sentinel newspaper building, and dating back to 1864. It produced papers using hot lead and flatbed presses up until the 1960s. Then it was on to Ely where we visited the old train depot and saw an amazing old steam engine chugging away on the tracks next to the station. We even got see the stoker shoveling the coal into the firebox and hear the wail of the whistle!

So here we sit in Pioche (Pee oach). It’s a little town firmly caught in the middle of a time warp, half 1800s and half 21st Century. It’s absolutely fascinating to drive from one end of town to the other and see the centuries change!

Love from the Whistle-Stop Kid, Lucy the Loose Caboose, and Peanut the Hobo Wonder Pup

Austin, Nevada. At the opposite end of the spectrum.

Remember when I said some of the best RV Parks were the ones we didn’t plan or reserve in advance and just found by accident. Well, that holds true for those few parks we’ve stumbled into that reside on the other end of the “nice” spectrum. Welcome to Pony Express RV Park in lovely Austin, Nevada. All seven spaces. Well, at least they are all pull throughs

That’s the highlight of the day. The good old PERV Park.

The rest of the day we just drove through a whole lotta seriously empty Oregon and Nevada.

Tomorrow we’re going to drive some of Nevada Route 50, known as “The Lonliest Highway” in America. It runs from Sparks, Nevada to Ely, Nevada, and then into Utah.

We’ll enter it here in Austin at just about the halfway point and follow it to just past Ely and pick up Rt. 93 down to Las Vegas. The next day the plan is to do Vegas to Phoenix.

That’s all today.
Love,
The Desert Rat, the Foxy Desert Fox, and Peanut the Prairie Pup.

By the time we get to Phoenix

Howdy!

Looks like we'll be showing up in Phoenix on Tuesday!

We're in Burns, Oregon, waking up this morning to a terrific sunrise over a meadow. It was balmy and breezy last evening and this morning it's crisp and feeling like fall. Yesterday we almost ran out of gas when we spotted Hampton Station with two gas pumps and a cafe. So . . . as the saying goes, we ate and got gas. Har, har. Anyway, while we were eating we noticed a table surrounded by honest to goodness cowboys. They had dusty boots with spurs and were chowing down on rhubarb pie with gusto. I think that's the first time I've seen "real" cowboys. They sure looked like they knew their way around a horse.

Today we hope to make it to Nevada. These back roads are fascinating. We're loving seeing these slices of Americana, and amazed at just how much untouched land still exists.

Love, Roy Rogers, Dale Evans, and Bullet

Experiment. A Spruce Goose Video

Extra Photos