DONE WITH NEVADA, ON TO UTAH!

13,000 foot Mt Wheeler along the Great Basin Highway

Cathedral Gorge pictures

We were on the road just before nine today. We drove #93, the Great Basin Highway down to Panaca where we turned east. Just before Panaca, we stopped early for lunch at Cathedral Gorge State Park. What a little gem it turned out to be. Great erosion happening there and the noon light wasn’t too unkind. Just to be on the safe side, I plugged the car into the inverter and battery charger, the car was still fine tonight when I unhooked. The solar system is pretty handy for stuff like that as you have 110 volts wherever you are. And of course, if the sun is shining you get to recharge the main batteries. After lunch, Aileen grabbed a short nap while I downloaded the pictures I’d just taken.

We had a couple of hard climbs today especially out of Cedar City toward Long Valley Junction on #14. In hindsight, it is not the best motor home road. The climb went on forever and we groaned our way up at 50-60 kms per hour for much of it. The Fall colours were striking in places but of course there was no way to stop and shoot them. Oh, the agony!! Perhaps I can make it there again in the car but it would be hard to get there at the right light.

We are set up at the Riverside RV Park just north of Hatch, Utah and will likely stay here for several days, depending on the weather. I think there is a lot to explore and experience within driving distance from here. Tomorrow I will take a first run into Bryce Canyon to check it out. Aileen is going to take it easy in camp.

FIRST TIME INTO NEVADA FOR US

We didn't find it any different the the other Nevada roads we drove. They are nearly all very quiet

Some old cars next to our Eureka campsite

Typical scene along Highway 50

Detail in doorway of cabin above

Some downtown Eureka shots

A weird atmospheric scene during the storm today

Man made hill and colour at the Ruth Mine near Ely

We were up about 7 Saturday with the pitter patter of rain on the roof. It didn’t amount to much which was good since we had a dirt road to exit the park. We were on the move just before 8:30 and ran into steady rain fairly soon. We didn’t want to feel left out as the family and friends on Vancouver Island had a major storm Friday night with another forecast for Saturday night. We had quite a few passes in the 5800 – 6350 foot range but most didn’t involve major climbs since we were already fairly high. There was a lot of narrow twisty road though which didn’t allow much time for sightseeing. We stopped at a rest area about 60 miles north of Winnemucca for lunch and a nap for Aileen and I discovered the Honda again had a dead battery. It would have been nice if the guys at Arbutus had wired the tow set up the way I thought it should have been because then there would have been a wire for keeping the battery charged up. Now I will have to wire something myself. I put the charger on it right away using the inverter.

We continued along the road to Winnemucca after Aileen’s hour long nap and made our way to Hi Desert Good Sam Park only to find them full and not overly friendly. I called the Winnemucca Good Sam Park next door and they still had a couple sites and they are very friendly. Apparently there is a nine month long gas pipeline project happening so the parks are full of workers. I used our little BBQ to cook a couple of tough steaks for supper. Aileen prepared the rest inside. I spent most of the evening researching RV park possibilities and viewpoints for the next few days.

Aileen got rather upset with the TracFone Sunday morning. She tried to call her friend Wendy in Salmon Arm but kept getting an error message. When I went into the manual, I discovered we were supposed to have called in to get it set up for international calling so I proceeded to do just that. It will be two or three days before it is activated. We gassed the Terra up before hooking the CRV on. The tank worked out to 8.06 miles per US gallon which is not too bad considering all the hills we had yesterday.

We stopped at a large gravel area just south of Carlin for our lunch. Aileen declined a nap, opting to push on and find spot for the night earlier. We got the second to last site at Silver Sky just past Eureka, NV. Aileen went for her nap after I got us setup while I took Mitzy for a walk up the highway since that was what she wanted. She is finding the 20C and 6500 feet a bad combination though so was puffing pretty quickly. I brought her back to the motor home then walked into town by myself. There are some fairly interesting old buildings. The town was started in 1864 and in the 1880’s had 16 smelters, over 100 saloons and over 10,000 people. The boom lasted less than twenty years.

Aileen made stir fry for supper then we pored over the maps trying to roughly plan out the next couple of weeks. It was difficult as we have no internet so we couldn’t check for campgrounds in the different areas. The Trailer Life Directory has a pretty limited number. We both went and had a shower taking turns in the one stall. Aileen went to bed about 7:30. I spent most of my evening downloading and processing today’s images. I had planned to save to the external hard drive but ran out of time. I pulled a book out to read but that didn’t happen either.

We only made it to Ely today as Aileen was needful of a longer break from the road. We went over several passes, some in the mid 7,000 foot range, in the 131 kms we traveled. We are in a KOA park in Ely and the guy who checked me in told me his wife is Canadian and her grand parents live in Hagensbourg, BC which is near Bella Coola.

After lunch I wandered off in the car. Found six coke ovens very similar to the ones near Florence, AZ. A storm rolled through about then and I was in some pretty good blowing sand with a few bits of rain so the car is dirty again. I shot some old buildings we’d passed this morning on the way then went up for a view over the big copper mine. They have made a viewpoint up above giving a great view. They have a gate man who opens a gate when it is safe to cross the main haul road the 240 ton trucks use.

Aileen cooked us some chicken for our Canadian Thanksgiving Supper tonight. It was very tasty. In another five or six weeks, we’ll be able to do it again to help the locals celebrate the American Thanksgiving. That sounds like a good excuse anyway.

ROLLING THROUGH SOUTHEASTERN OREGON

A series of Crater Lake images

The island called The Phantom Ship from the Sun Notch viewpoint

The Pumice Castle

The Pinnacles down a side road. The original entrance to Crater Lake was near here. The Pinnacles were formed by super hot gas rising up and welding the rocks together

A nice little trickle beside the road

Vidae Falls on the loop road

One last look at Crater Lake and Wizard Island

I took Mitzy for a longish walk on a trail adjacent to the RV park before having my breakfast this morning. We then began the packing up process and finally hit the road south mid morning. We stopped at a casino about 20 miles north of Klamath Falls for gas - $2.89 per gal. We unhooked at the fairgrounds in Klamath Falls and went to Safeway to restock the larder. There was a Petco right next door and I was able to buy a case of the venison and green pea food that both Sophie and Mitzy eat. We had a late lunch when we got back to the motor home then right after hooked up and headed out.

We took #140 east and stopped on Quartz Mtn for a break. An interesting memorial there. It seems in 1945 a local minister and his wife took a Sunday School group of five children there for a picnic. The kids and wife bailed out and started exploring about. The minister, while parking the car some distance away, watched as the group approached something on the ground and when one of the kids reached it there was a huge explosion of which the minister was the only survivor. What they had discovered was a Japanese balloon bomb. Apparently 10,000 were launched with about 3,000 making it to North America. Most caused no damage and this was the only one to cause human casualties. The landings were kept from the media and the Japanese fearing their mission unsuccessful, abandoned the launches.

We are at another Good Sam Park tonight. This one is near Lakeview in southeastern Oregon and is called Juniper Reservoir RV Park. The internet is quite fast but not nearly as fast as at Big Pine. We drove through a round up on the way in and tonight we are being serenaded by a large number of distraught cows. I suspect they separated the calves out today and hopefully the din will lessen as the night progresses. Aileen just stepped out to go use the very nice free showers and there were a large number of deer about 100 feet away. It’s too dark for photos though. This is a very rural park and there are miles of old roads and trails one can access.

My evening was spent processing images from my two trips to Crater Lake and catching up on the blogs I follow. We’re hoping to get to Winnemucca tomorrow.

THE PAINTED HILLS AND CRATER LAKE

A couple of the deer near Hardman

In a Hardman yard, there were lots of old trucks in town

The above were all taken in Hardman, Oregon

Morning light on the Painted Hills

These were all afternoon and late afternoon lighting

Crater Lake

Crater Lake

Exiting the driveway Sunday was very easy then we went to the sani dump at the Petro Can near Walmart. It used to be the Esso and I drove around quite a bit this morning in the CRV looking for the Esso which was listed online. The lady told me they changed to Petro Can two years ago. Anyway it worked well and was free. It was about 11 when we finally got on the road headed south.

We were pulled over for the agricultural inspection at the border but he mostly wanted to talk about video games when he spotted our two lap tops. I zipped into Prince’s for a few things for lunch then we stopped just out of Oroville for lunch. We pulled into the Walmart in Omak so Aileen could nap while I shopped. First off I bought a TracPhone and got one with double minutes. I managed to set it up using their phone at customer service. If we wait two business days we can call Canada free and we can also apply for a Canadian number so it is pretty much free for Canadians to call us. Sounds like a deal! The phone was $9.88 and included a free coupon at that. I bought 200 minutes which doubled to 400 minutes so 460 minutes and 150 days with the bonus. I got all this for less than $60 including the phone. Telus, are you listening??? For $100 I can put on a one year card with 800 minutes so we continue with the same number next year with no hassles.

I got some groceries then after bringing them out to the Terra, I took the broken door blind over to Home Depot. For $7.47, they cut a 37 inch wide roller blind down to the 26 or so inch wide that I needed. Another deal. I took Mitzy for a good walk around before supper. After supper Aileen and I went back to Walmart and bought a blood pressure monitor since we couldn’t find ours in storage. I bought a pair of lined Croc type slip on shoes for driving. We got three cans of different cat food to try and some ear plugs which would be needed here for the traffic noise. I walked over to Safeway later for a couple items I couldn’t find in Walmart. It is very difficult to find strawberry jam that doesn’t have high fructose corn syrup in it.

We both used ear plugs and slept surprisingly well. We woke about 6 Monday morning and after our normal routine, were on the road by 8:10. We followed the Good Sam routing which took us onto #17 past Chief Joseph Dam and Dry Falls where we stopped for a break. We stopped for lunch early at a wide spot about halfway between Moses Lake and #395 junction. Aileen had nearly an hour nap then said she was ready to go. I processed three HDR pictures and dozed in between. We stopped for gas at Hermiston and put in 55.018 US gallons. Aileen had selected Anson Wright campground which turned out to be further than comfortable so she was pretty tired by the time we arrived. When we went to unhook the CRV its battery was dead. Fortunately, I was able to join two cords together and put the charger on the battery. Three hours later at 10 amps and it claims to be charged. After reading through the manual for the Even Brake, there seems to be a couple things I can do to minimize the brake usage which I will try tomorrow. I pulled out a couple bungee cords which I attached to prevent the dinette drawers from sliding out as we’ve been surprised a couple times on some twisty roads. Maybe we’ll get things in order yet.

Anson Wright turned out to be a super quiet campground. I only heard a couple of vehicles all evening. Not a sound out of the other campers of which there are about eight. Most of them are hunters and their wives.

It was quite cool overnight. It was -2.4 C at 7:30 AM Tuesday morning but did warm up when the sun made its appearance. I left Aileen to rest and went back to Hardman where I shot many old buildings. By the time I’d walked most of the town, two hours had passed. I saw five big does when I was coming up out of the canyon toward town and they weren’t concerned when I stopped for pictures.

I adjusted the brake system to minimum levels and hooked up the motor home monitor. I took it pretty easy on braking Tuesday even though we had some pretty long hills. I used tow haul or down shifted and I didn’t notice the car brakes activate at all. We had lunch alongside the highway in Spray then carried on to the Painted Hills. The lighting was pretty good the whole time and I shot HDR for most images. However, in processing, I found it to be too much and the best results are just increasing the levels then sharpening the images taken at the correct exposure. I prepared several for the blog. I left Aileen in the Terra at the viewpoint and wandered around on foot then with the CRV. I found a nice boondocking spot five kms (three miles) up past the Painted Hills viewpoint so we moved up there before supper. It is very quiet! Just outside the park boundary there were two class A motor homes and a camper set up and we’re over half a mile past them.

We had a leisurely start Wednesday morning. Mitzy and I wandered around a bit then we puttered a bit. Aileen drove out to the highway. I took a few pictures out the window as I drove the Terra out. We parked the Terra at the highway and took the CRV into Mitchell for a look see as Aileen hadn’t been there before. We had lunch along the highway after Prineville. We are at Big Pine Good Sam Park at Crescent, Oregon where I booked us in for two nights.

The weather didn’t look promising for Thursday so I decided to whip over to Crater Lake Wednesday afternoon. It turned out to be a long drive, over 220 kms return. I drove and shot like Harold Smiley and it was still over 4 hours round trip getting home at 8 pm. I had some good light but mostly not. Some spots were pretty impressive and worth another visit. I stopped for a great sunset and after finishing that decided to take a peek over toward the lake. Well somehow I managed to trip over a log and landed flat out on my face. My camera got flung way in front of me attached to the tripod. I can’t see any visible damage but will have to see how it performs next time. Today’s images seemed fine.

I spent the rest of my evening downloading images then catching up on blogs. Finally, a late shower, take Mitzy out then disconnect the water hose in case it freezes.

Today is our 43^rd anniversary and we celebrated it by spending the day at Crater Lake. I started the day off with some frustrating events with TracFone. They advertise that one can get a Canadian number that family and friends can call which connects directly to our phone when in the US and doesn’t cost long distance for them. After a long while talking to two reps, the last guy told me the only available number was in Montreal. I finally sent off an email trying a different tact.

We took our lunch with us and it was pretty darn cool at the view point we chose. It was 6C and very windy so we were out there in our winter coats, Aileen with her hood up and me with my ear muffs. Great scenery though and I kept snapping pictures as the light changed. We had lots of cloud but some sunny spells and near the end, one spot was fogged in and only 4C. We went down to the Pinnacles and on the way out Aileen spotted some elk. I saw a cow and calf but she saw several others. We were thinking the only mammals were squirrels and chipmunks.

Our anniversary supper consisted of leftover rice pasta and veggies and tonight Aileen is at the laundry since we are moving on in the morning and no idea where we will find the next good facilities. We do need to find a big grocery store tomorrow before getting beyond a big town. We plan to go to Klamath Falls then head east and south east through Nevada.

STARTING OUR TREK SOUTH

Frosty is a kitten our daughter is fostering part time for the SPCA. It fell out of the cage and the black paws are frost bite like symptoms from lack of circulation. The black eventually falls off leaving fresh pink but some will be just a pad, no toes

If you look closely you can see our motor home peeking out the right side of the house

The house Jacquie and Jim have sold

An old barn in Turtle Valley

Foggy morning in Salmon Arm

Trees beside where we were parked

RVing in the mall

A leisurely start again on Monday morning but then we had to get in gear. After Aileen gave me a haircut in the Terra, (it was too cold outside for me) we headed off to town. I went to HUB insurance and got the truck and trailer insurances done. I also got our health insurance which cost $755 each for 156 days. Our sleep apnea cost us about $68 each. After a couple other errands and appointments Aileen enjoyed her lunch with her friend Edna. I went to A&W for mine then went to Windmill Meats intending to get Mitzy a slice of roast beef for her lunch. The only other customer had the slicer tied up so when my server asked what I was doing, I told her how I was just getting it for my dog so she just reached under the counter and gave me a meat loaf heel and said be gone. Jacquie and Jim went with us to Pengelly’s for supper Monday night. We had to take the truck as the CRV had the scooter tying up the back and they had the seats down in the rear of the Suzuki. Supper was very good. All but Ron played a few hands of Mexican Train which was ably won by (surpize!) Jacquie while I had the highest (losing) score with Aileen not too far behind me. Jim and Eleanor were pretty close together in the middle.

On Tuesday morning we woke about 6 when our built in alarms went off as we knew we had an early trip to town. I think we were on the road about 8 am and dumped the tanks at Piccadilly first. Dropped the motor home at the RV lot then carried on with errands etc. We went to PJs for lunch as I was starved and had the salad bar while Aileen ordered a taco salad with out the shell. Then we finally got at the laundry which needed doing. I walked Mitzy then went to the mall and library while Aileen tended the laundry. Finally we just went back to Tri Crown and waited. It turned out they were still a couple hours away from completion so we took the Terra home, to return it again the next day.

We both woke about 6:30 and got up and at em. Headed for town before 8 and dropped the Terra at TriCrown then Aileen brought me back out to J&J’s to help with the moving. They had Jim’s truck nearly loaded already then we loaded mine and Jacquie’s. We took three big loads with Jim’s, two with Jacquie’s and two with mine then I took Jim’s ATV on the third load. We were done by 2:15. Jim took Rick, Mel and me to lunch at the Goldpanner.

Aileen had a good visit with her friend Wendy then had lunch and a nap in the Terra as they had completed the work. She came out and picked me up mid afternoon then we stopped at the storage to drop off some filing. Picked up the Terra and paid the bill. Aileen did her interview with Madonna from the University of BC and then I did one at 4 PM for about ½ hour. This was a ten year follow up to an in depth genetic study Aileen participated in for MS. We came back to J’s and I immediately washed the whole motor home which took about 1 ½ hours, so supper was late. It’s a good thing I did it tonight as we have to be moving on in the morning as J’s are moving out before lunch. They did their final cleaning in the house tonight.

Thursday was a more laid back day for us. We moved the Terra into Piccadilly Place Mall after breakfast then Aileen drove me back out for the truck. She came to town and spent much of the day around the motor home. She met ex neighbour Marion A and little dog. They have moved out of Lakeview Terrace also and are in Piccadilly Terrace glad to be out of the strata. She also saw her friend Donna B in the parking lot and she came and visited at the motor home outside as she can’t do stairs. This afternoon Aileen got to visit with friends Fiona and Val.

I went to the Scales (my last employment) for a visit. On the way, I had a call from Terry G who worked in my department and who I had advised on his Canon Elan purchase years ago. The camera has broken the rewind mechanism and he was looking for guidance on repairing it. Terry H was at the Scales so I sat and visited there awhile and got to see some of my old truck driver friends. I visited with Rob R at the Dump. He is still driving the Outback he bought from us three years ago. I was disappointed to see there have been no upgrades to either the Scale Shack or the Log Dump. Everything I hear about Adams Lake makes me so happy to have moved on. Perhaps it wouldn’t be so bad if I had been there while things slowly evolved. I certainly don’t feel any attachment to the place.

I drove home via Turtle Valley where we lived for 16 years and took a few pictures. I’m thinking the fall colours are 2-3 weeks early this year. Usually there isn’t much in the way of colour until late October but it’s happening now. I had a cheap burger at Wendy’s about 2:30 then washed the truck. I came back to the Terra and Aileen was up so chatted awhile then took the CRV for a wash. Bev came and bought supper makings at Save On and we had pita pizzas and salad. Later we took the truck to her house and I left her the keys and we got to say good bye to Kevin.

It was quite foggy around Piccadilly Friday morning so I took a few pictures after walking Mitzy. I think we pulled out about 8:30 then stopped for gas in Enderby – 98.9 at the Indian station. I filled the propane also - $13.48 which is about 3-4 weeks use. I put in $187 gas and the tank was at ½ to start with. Next stop was at Westside for a quick break then on to the window manufacturer in Summerland. He took a rough measurement but said I needed to pop the window out and send him an accurate measurement including the wall thickness. Hopefully Jim will help with that down south. We had our lunch right there. We had to unhook to turn so Aileen just drove the rest of the distance to Penticton.

We found Bev and Carole’s apartment then they took us the few blocks to their friend’s the George and Kathy’s where we were to park. I had to do a fair bit of trimming and it was still tight backing in. The voice camera really worked well for that with Aileen walking along behind me. I did have to get up on the roof for some dead Hemlock branches. We are set up on the lawn and it didn’t take much to get level.

Carole surprised everyone including her partner Bev by buying new 2010 red Hyundai Accent two door today so we had to have a peek when she brought it by. She and Bev had a Terra tour after. I took Mitzy for her afternoon stroll. Carole and Bev took us for supper at Theo’s.

Our son Richard turned 40 on October 1. Hard to imagine! Aileen chatted with him the night before and caught up on news.

Aileen awoke violently ill at 2:28 AM and spent much of the night in the bathroom. She rarely has problems like this so we don’t know if it had anything to do with supper or if she picked up a bug somewhere. She stayed in bed while I went to the Okanagan Mainline Photographic Council meeting. Only two of the possible seven clubs attended so not much was accomplished. We plan to educate the various clubs over the Winter on the benefits of participating in OMPC events. We will call another meeting for March or April and attempt to organize an outing or event for later in the Spring. Campout events are always lots of fun. It was good to see my friends Ian and Wendy from the Shuswap Photo Arts Club and John and Carole from the Summerland Camera Club. We did have a nice potluck lunch and some great visiting.