The on-line dictionary defines discombobulation as "to confuse or disconcert; upset; frustrate." Well, the day started out that way, got better, but then this evening, we are back into the classic definition.
This morning when I was putting together lunch for the road, I couldn't find anything I needed. It was as if I'd never been in this kitchen before. Where were the lunch sacks? What drawer are the sandwich bags in? (None of them - we are out of sandwich bags.) Dang, I left the frozen things for the lunch sacks at home so how am I going to keep the food cool? I was just going crazy. Of course, it all worked out, but for criminy sakes, that's not the way to start the day.
We realized we left Roger's slippers, my sun hat, and my hairbrushes at home, as well. Nice. I did find a small brush we bought to use on Maggie, so that'll have to work - we hadn't used it on her yet. Rog will just have to put on his shoes when he goes out with Maggs in the mornings, and I do have a back up sun hat with me - just not the one I wanted. I'm told they do have stores in Arizona, but in the meantime....
Once we were on the road it was Roger's turn. He drove right by our exit in Fernley and as he passed it he commented that we were passing the Walmart - which we shouldn't have been. Of course, I hadn't been paying attention either and realized it at the same time he did. Geez. Luckily there is now a third exit in Fernley and we were able to get off, cross the interstate and get back on - only lost about 5 miles, fortunately.
As always, the first night's sleep in the RV was not optimal for any of us and Maggie had to go out at 6:30. Think maybe that may have something to do with our state of mind this morning?
After that we were OK. Minds on our business. We stopped at one of the picnic areas at Walker Lake for lunch and enjoyed a relaxing repast. For the first time we could remember, there was no wind when we stopped for lunch in Hawthorne. The sun was shining, it was about 60 degrees and with no wind it was most pleasant sitting looking out over the lake and enjoying our lunch. We were surprised to see lots of water fowl. We didn't think that the lake supported any animal or bird life these days.
As it happens, the place where we pulled off was, in the 1950s when Hawthorne Army Depot was the Hawthorne Naval Ammunition Depot, the Officer's beach and I spent many hours there with my mother and sister when my father was stationed there . Now, of course, there really is no beach and what little bit of one there is, is far from the picnic area because of the drop in lake level. It did bring back memories - one in particular where I remember eating so many hot dogs I got very sick. It took many years before I could face one again.
The long drive through the desert was, indeed, long today. It took us 6 hours with lunch and pit stops pulling the RV. We thought it would never end. We both spent a lot of time with earbuds inserted listening to our audio books. Road construction for 10 miles or so had traffic backed up as it was one lane at a time. We sat waiting for the "follow me" car for about 20 minutes. We did see a large herd of pronghorn antelope just south of Hawthorne and then as we were just north of Luning there was a HUGE cow on the side of the road - belly up like a dead bug and bloated to twice it's size. Gross. Not until we got just north of Beatty did we see some wild burros. No wild horses today and that is unusual along this route.
We pulled into the Beatty RV Park about 4:30 p.m. We were fortunate to get a long pull thru site "because you made reservations and have stayed here before." It's next to the highway and is a bit noisy, but was easy in and will be easy out in the morning. The computer in the office was frustratingly slow because "everyone is on the internet streaming movies." So we parked and I went back to finish up with business. I asked about the internet and that I needed to get on Google Maps because we weren't sure how far we were going tomorrow. In the discussion, the guy in the office told us about a shorter route, so we decided to check it out.
Here's where the discombobulation and confusion starts again. First, the internet is too slow to even query the maps program, so we turned on a hotspot on Roger's phone. About that time both our phones decide to drain their batteries at an alarming rate. I looked at mine and saw 26% and two minutes later it was shutting down because it was at 1%. Roger's dropped to 26% in a matter of minutes. The computer was also running outta steam at a pretty good clip. We plugged every device in, and in all our confusion were finally able to get a map and started looking at routes again. We changed our minds about our planned route for tomorrow (saving about 50 miles and an hour) and tried to make reservations on line at a state park near Parker, AZ. We tried 5 times. Now, we either have no reservations for tomorrow, or we have one, or we have 5 and the credit card has been charged not at all or up to five times. I left a message (it is Sunday night) and hope to hear from someone in the morning. In the meantime, the place we have reservations for, but are not going to, I have already called and changed the dates once. Now I've got to call and cancel. I feel bad about that but fortunately they did not take a deposit. What a crazy mess.
Because of the internet issues here, we won't be able to post pictures tonight. I'll try tomorrow as we got some nice ones of the yellow cottonwoods along the Truckee River between home and Fernley, of Walker Lake from our advantage of our picnic spot, and a lovely sunset here in Beatty. It has been a most wonderful day weather-wise which helped make the journey more enjoyable.
Maggie is being a good girl but is very subdued and unsure. She's not (nor are we) liking being leashed just to go out to pee. At least, though, she knows what she's going out there for and is pretty good about doing her business in a reasonable amount of time.
Tomorrow - we think we are going to continue south on US 95 to Parker, AZ and stay at a state park just south of town. That's the plan tonight.
No internet to stream our shows and no TV tonight. Reading, Suduko, and Words with Friends will be the entertainment for what's left of the evening.
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