Day 2 - Closer To Home

It started out being a good day but this afternoon we got a little stressed out.  We learned a couple of lessons, too!

We left Kingman at our usual 9am departure time and headed northwest on US93 towards Las Vegas.  We crossed into Nevada at Hoover Dam and because Arizona doesn't change times, we didn't have to either.  

We found a parking area for a hiking trail just south of Boulder City and pulled in for lunch.  We were a little early for lunch, but wanted to eat and use the facilities before hitting Las Vegas traffic.  It had a nice view of Lake Mead (well, it would be without the high tension electrical wires coming from the dam).  We parked and started to put out our chairs and this guy pulled up and asked what we were doing.  He lived in the neighborhood that overlooks the parking lot.  We told him we had just stopped for lunch and he said that was fine.  He apparently is from the neighborhood watch and they want RVs parking there overnight or dumping their grey water.  After a nice conversation he said we could stay.  It was a good thing we did, though, because the spare tire which is stored under the RV had worked it's way loose and was dangling.  Rog got it cranked back up tightly and now that is another thing we need to check on regularly.

Las Vegas traffic wasn't too awful, but there was construction and congestion at the intersection of 215 and 15.  A real mess! 

We realized that we were going to get into Beatty really early today and thought maybe we should go further.  We started talking about weather and Saturday's storm and stops, etc.  We stopped in Aramagosa Valley for fuel so we could make it to Tonopah for the night.

While we were at the pump a young man came up to Roger and I thought he was looking for a handout but it turns out he was asking for advice.  He was hauling a big 5th wheel for the first time and asked Roger about the engine brake and going up and down inclines.  He'd never done it before and so figured Rog might know.  Nice young man from Texas headed to Reno.    We also met a couple from Oregon who wintered in Arizona and were hauling the same model RV as ours and stopped to chat.   

We got back on the road and we decided to cancel our reservations in Beatty and go further.  This would result in having to cancel Hawthorne, as well.  The plan was to try to get to Sparks on Friday before the storm.  No prob.  Just call Sparks RV park and move reservations back one day. So, I called Beatty and Hawthorne and cancelled.  Then I called Sparks to change dates.  Problem.  Nothing available on Friday.  Lesson learned - make the calls in the opposite order!!  

New plan - stop in Tonopah and then Fallon at the Navy base.  No room in Fallon.  Now we have reservations in Fernley for Friday night.  It's so close to home - only 30 miles - so the question will be whether the wind will be so bad in the Truckee River Canyon between Fernley and home that we can't go in on Saturday?  If so, we just stay there and go on Sunday - hoping to be able to shift our two night stay the opposite way.  If not, we forfeit a night there.  It'll all work out and we will have a nice day Sunday with help from Mike and Erica to move out of the RV and into home.   

So, we are in an RV park on the side of the road in Tonopah.  It's basically a gravel parking lot in front of some modular housing for temporary workers.  Definitely not one of the nicest places we've stayed, but all hookups.  Cable tv but no wifi. (no photos tonight)  I had called to hold a site - it's a good thing I did.  We got the last one open and when I took the dog out after dinner I saw three motorhomes parked in the driveway area dry camping.  There's just not many places to stay between Las Vegas and Reno and the snowbird traffic is filling up the few that are fast.  

We did see wild horses outside of Goldfield and wind burros outside of Beatty today.  No desert blooms yet this far north.  Tonopah is at 6,100 feet so it's cool tonight.  We are back to long pants and sweatshirts!  

In all the craziness of being on the phone and checking weather and rv parks, I knocked Maggie's water dish over into her bed.  She didn't like it one bit, jumped in Roger's lap with wet feet and wet butt.  He shoed her off and she leaped over her bed and into my lap.  She stayed there until her bed got dry enough that I could coax her into it with a cookie.  She's been a good dog so far this trip and settles right down once we get going.  She just doesn't like a wet bed!