Hi there, welcome back.
Our last chapter concluded on Tuesday, August 19th when we arrived at
the Corps of Engineers RV park near the Columbia River, not too far
from Rufus, Oregon. This is a nice little park that sits right on
the edge of the John Day River, where it flows into the Columbia. We
stayed here once back in 2005 and wanted to come back again. Our
friends Peggy and Vernon Bullock came here from the last of the
rallies, the one in Prineville, but they are only staying for a
couple of days.
On Wednesday, the four of
us left the coaches around 10:30 for a day of exploring and
geocaching. We drove west to The Dalles, a city in Oregon on the
south side of the Columbia River. This town of 15,000 or so was
founded in 1857 and was mainly a river port town for traffic on the
Columbia River. Later the railroads came through the area and the
town became centered around rail traffic. It is a cute little town
with a lot of really pretty old buildings that have been well
maintained for the most part. We had lunch in a place called the
Baldwin Saloon, which is one of the oldest buildings in town. It was
built in 1867 and has seen a number of uses, including warehouse,
saloon and restaurant. In 1991 the current owners reopened the place
as a restaurant after extensive renovations. Much of the interior
and exterior decoration is original to the building and it is a very
neat place to visit. The food was good too, although a little
pricey.
After lunch we drove
around town doing some sight seeing and geocaching. We also crossed
over the bridge into Washington to find a couple of caches. We ended
up with six new finds for the day. About 3:30 we arrived back at the
RV park and rested for a while. At 5:00 we had cocktails with Peggy
and Vernon and then had dinner at Peggy's. She made the penne pasta
dish that I love and Jackie made a salad and some garlic bread. We
had a great dinner and headed back to our place about 8:30.
Thursday, August 21st,
Peggy and Vernon were packed up and out on the road by about 7:00
this morning. They are headed to Rapid City, South Dakota, where
they have their "official" residency. They need to renew
their driver's licenses and have to be there in person. We are
staying her at the river for another three days. We had a quiet day
today and stayed around the coach taking care of some minor chores.
Friday we left the coach
after lunch and went out to do some geocaching. We crossed the river
into Washington and drove up the highway for about 20 miles finding a
few caches along the way. We went as far as the little town of
Goldendale, Washington, before some storms started moving in and we
decided to head back to the coach for the rest of the afternoon. We
ended up a half dozen new finds to our credit, along with one DNF.
Saturday was another stay at home day.
Sunday, August 24th was
another travel day. We packed up and left the John Day River about
10:00 and started east and south on Interstate 84. We are now on our
way to our "home" in Pahrump, although it will take us a
couple weeks to get there with a number of two night stops along the
way. Our first stop was in Baker City, Oregon, 188 miles southeast
of where we started. We ran into a bit of rain along the way, but
mostly it was an easy trip. We arrived at the Oregon Trails RV
Resort about 2:30, got setup and settled in and just stayed in the
rest of the afternoon and evening.
Monday we went out about
noon and drove into the little town of Baker City. There are around
10,000 residents of this town, which was founded around 1870 as a way
station on the Oregon Trail. The town has continued as a railroad
town and support for local agriculture. We stopped for lunch at a
place called Rising Sun Palace and Sunset Lounge. Quite a mouthful,
but it had very good ratings on Yelp. It is a Chinese restaurant,
but also seems to be the hot spot in town for evening drinking and
entertainment. The restaurant was very nicely decorated and the food
and service were certainly up to the ratings. We both had lunch
specials for under $9.00 and there were four selections in each, plus
soup. I also ordered egg rolls and if you check in on Yelp you get a
free appetizer, we chose pot stickers. As you might guess, we took
home almost as much as we ate. The quality of the food was great and
the service was good, even though there was only one server. Angie
was very friendly and helpful, even looking up the address and phone
number of the local Elks Lodge for us. I would highly recommend this
place if you are passing through Baker City. It's not even that far
off the Interstate for a quick lunch.
After lunch we did some
geocaching in Baker City, ending up with seven new finds, along with
two new DNF's. The caches took us on a pretty complete tour of the
town, which was a lot of fun. After caching we stopped in at the
Elks Lodge. The bartender, a young guy, probably in his mid
twenties, looked at our cards and told us he grew up in Pahrump. He
had never had any visiting members from Pahrump and was very friendly
and chatty. He moved to Oregon before we changed our residency to
Pahrump in 2007, so he was not familiar with a lot of the changes
that have come to the area. The lodge was very friendly, even bought
our second drink, and we talked to several members as well as the
bartender. Jackie even won twenty bucks on the slot machine,
although I lost my twenty, which made us even. We also got our first
new Elks Lodge Pin in quite a few months. After the Elks we drove
back to the coach and watched TV until bed.
Tuesday, August 26th,
another travel day. We left Baker City about 10:00 and headed down
Interstate 84 towards Homedale, Idaho, a small town just northwest of
Boise. The trip was only a little over a hundred miles, so we
arrived in Homedale about noon. We were a little concerned about the
RV park we picked when we were routed down a narrow farm road into an
industrial area and then a half mile gravel road to the RV park.
However, we were pleasantly surprised when we found a large RV park
with huge grass lawns and sites sitting right on the banks of the
Snake River. We pulled into our site and we are facing the river,
only a hundred yards away, and it is beautiful. We have full hookup
50 amp service, great satellite and phone service, all for $25 a
night. An undiscovered gem of an RV park.
After we got setup and had
our lunch of leftovers from yesterday's Chinese, we took a drive into
Homedale to sight-see and geocache. There weren't many caches in
town, but we did get one so we would have one for the area. We then
decided to take a drive to Caldwell, Idaho, about twelve miles or so
east to the Elks Lodge. This is another new Elks for us and they
were open. Again, the bartender was very friendly, as were several
of the other members in the bar. They also bought the second drink
for us and we were able to get another new lodge pin for our banner.
We left the lodge and did some caching in Caldwell, but we were only
able to find two. The total for the day was three new finds and one
DNF. We also made a quick stop at the grocery store for a few things
and after caching headed back to the RV park where we relaxed the
rest of the night.
Wednesday, August 27th, we
left the coach about noon for a day of sightseeing and geocaching.
We were heading for Boise, the Capital of Idaho, which is only about
30 miles southeast of the RV park. Our first stop was in the city of
Nampa, which is nearly 90,000 population and second only to Boise in
the state. We found a very nice Mexican restaurant called Jalapeno's
which had good Yelp ratings. The food was good, but not outstanding.
Jackie had fajitas, I had a combo plate. I would give the place
something between three and four stars out of five.
After lunch we did a
geocache in the parking lot next door to the restaurant then started
towards Boise again. Our next stop was the town of Meridian, a
bedroom community of Boise, where we did two virtual geocaches. Once
we had these we headed into Boise proper and spent the next couple of
hours driving around looking at the area and doing a few caches. We
ended up with six new finds for the day. We took a few photos of the
capital building and explored some very neat old neighborhoods.
Boise was founded in 1863 as a fort intended to protect settlers
coming along the Oregon Trail. The city also had a history of
support for mining in the surrounding mountains. The population is a
little over 200,000.
About 4:30 or so we drove
to the Boise Elks Lodge for a visit. The Boise Lodge is number 310,
which makes it one of the older lodges, chartered in the late 1800's.
The lodge is on the outskirts of town it is very clear when you
drive up to it that it used to be a restaurant. At one time it was a
JB's, then a Chinese place. The Elks bought it a few years ago and
are in the process of trying to fix it up inside. They only have
about 450 members, so it is not a big lodge. We had a cocktail and
chatted with the bartender and a couple of other members who were in
the bar. We were able to get a lodge pin for our banner as well.
After one drink we left
the Boise lodge and started driving west back towards home. On the
way we stopped at the only other Elks Lodge in the area, the one in
Nampa. This lodge was located right downtown in what looked like an
old business building. We were the only people in the bar when we
went in and were still the only ones there when we left after a
drink. The bartender told us that it was usually pretty slow in the
summer. We weren't able to get a lodge pin since the bartender said
that they were out of them. After we left the Nampa Lodge we drove
the last fifteen miles back to the RV park and relaxed the rest of
the evening.
Thursday, August 28th, was
supposed to be a travel day, but we so enjoy the view from this spot
that extended our stay here by one day. We wanted to do two extra
days, but the park has something going on this weekend and they
couldn't accommodate us for Friday. We made today a stay at home and
relax day and that's pretty much what we did.
Friday morning we were
packed up and heading out of the park by about 9:30. Today is a long
day, by our standards anyway, traveling 230 miles south to
Winnemucca, Nevada. The drive was pretty desolate, mostly high
desert, and we were on U.S. 95, which is a two lane road, making the
trip a little more stressful. We arrived in Winnemucca about 3:00
and got checked into a nearly new RV park on the east end of town.
It is called New Frontier RV Park and it seems to be a good choice.
Huge, level gravel spots, no trees to deal with, and full hookup 50
amp sites for about $25 a night with discounts. We decided to just
check in for the full four days of the holiday weekend, that way we
don't have to deal with the traffic. After we got setup we just
chilled for the rest of the day.
Saturday, August 30th, we
left the coach after lunch and drove to the nearby county fairgrounds
for a visit to the Tri-County Fair and Stampede. We had seen this
advertised yesterday when we came into town and when I looked it up I
found that it is put on every labor day weekend. We like fairs, so
we decided to visit. We got there and the first thing we noticed was
that there was no admission fee. The fair had a small carnival,
maybe a dozen rides, an exhibit area with a whole bunch of antique
tractors on display, along with some military equipment, and a few
other tents with stuff for sale. We spent a half hour or so going
through the 4-H building where all the kids have their animals on
display for judging. Lots of rabbits and chickens in the small
animal area and lots of pigs, goats and sheep in the large animal
area. A few kids had beef, which was what was being judged when we
were walking around. Little kids with great big steers. We only
were at the fair for about 90 minutes, but pretty much saw
everything. We stopped and did one quick geocache on the street near
the fairgrounds, just we would be sure to have at least one in
Winnemucca, then we drove up the hill to Walmart for some shopping.
After Walmart we headed home and then stayed around the coach the
rest of the day.
Sunday, August 31st, we
started the morning with the Sunday paper, the first time we have
been able to do that for a couple weeks. We have been in small towns
without daily papers for a while. Later in the morning we took our
dirty clothes down to the laundry at the RV park and started the
washers. Since this is a brand new park there were brand new
machines and it was convenient. By 1:00 we had finished our laundry
and had lunch, so we went out for an afternoon of geocaching in
Winnemucca. We did a few in the desert close to the RV park and then
went into town for some urban caching. One of the caching was a
virtual cache that took us to five different historical sites in
Winnemucca, including a corner bank that was robbed by Butch Cassidy
back at the turn of the century. We ended up with thirteen new
finds, and one new DNF, by the time we quit about 4:00. We went back
to the coach and relaxed the rest of the day.
Monday, September 1st,
Happy Labor Day, and Happy Anniversary to us! This date in 1998 I
left Phoenix and moved to Indio to be with Jackie and begin the
second stage of my life. This has been the most wonderful 16 years.
We pretty much hung around the coach for most of the day, but about
5:30 we headed over to the historic Martin Hotel for dinner. The
Martin is built right next to the railroad tracks and was one of the
major hotels in town at the turn of the century. The Martin is also
known for it's Basque restaurant. There are actually two Basque
places in Winnemucca and Peggy and Vernon have told us about both of
them. The other one, Ormachea's is closed on Mondays, so we went to
the Martin by default.
The food was very good.
It is a small dining room and the tables are all family style,
meaning you will end up sitting with people you don't know. Shortly
after sitting down we were joined by a couple from Salt Lake City who
were just passing through on their way to California. We chatted
with them for most of the meal. Another couple sat down later, but
they were at the other end of the table and too far away to talk with
very much. The service is also family style and you only order an
entree, everything else comes automatically. They start with a
chicken vegetable soup and then a salad and beans. With dinner you
get vegetables and french fries and everything is served in big bowls
that you have to pass around.
I had the Martin steak,
which was a 16 oz rib eye that was smothered in mushrooms and garlic.
It was cooked perfectly and was very tasty. I ended up taking half
of it home because of all the other stuff they gave you before the
entree. Jackie had lamb chops and said they were good too. She got
four chops and took two of them home too. All in all it was an
excellent meal and a great way for us to celebrate our anniversary.
After dinner we headed back to the coach for the rest of the night.
Tuesday, September 2nd, we
were packed up and headed out of Winnemucca on Interstate 80. We are
going about 135 miles south to Fallon, Nevada. It was an easy trip,
mostly freeway and we arrived in Fallon about 1:00 or so. We found a
parking spot at the Bonanza Casino, a place we have stayed before.
The casino has a dozen full hookup sites out in the back parking lot
and they only charge $15 a night. They are only 30 amp, but it is
not too hot here, so we should be fine. Once we got hooked up Jackie
left to go get a pedicure. I stayed with the coach and after Jackie
got back we didn't go anywhere else.
Wednesday we were out
after lunch for some geocaching. We did caching pretty much in
Fallon and ended up getting a dozen new finds, along with three new
DNFs, in a few hours of caching. After caching we stopped at Walmart
for a few things and then went back to the coach where we relaxed the
rest of the night.
Thursday, September 4th,
we left Fallon about 10:30 and headed south on Highway 95 to the
little town of Mina, Nevada, about 110 miles away. Mina is a turn of
the century railroad town that is one step away from a ghost town
now, with a population of 156. However, there is a pretty decent RV
park just south of town at which we have stayed before. Highway 95
between Las Vegas and I-80 is a pretty desolate road with only a few
towns along the 600 or so mile route. You have to set up your daily
drives pretty carefully, especially if you don't like long drives
(over 200 miles for us) or long days. The only reason to stop in
Mina is the RV park.
We arrived in Mina about
1:00 and got setup in a nice pull through spot with full hookups. We
were the only rig in the park and the office was closed. I didn't
get registered until about 3:30 when I saw the owner's vehicle by the
office. We are only here for one night, so we didn't even unhook the
car. We just leveled, put the slides out and settled in for the
night.
Friday, September 5th, we
were up early, and had the coach ready for travel by about 9:00. I
wanted to get an early start today because it was supposed to be hot,
in the low 90's, and we had two 6,000 foot mountain passes to go
through today on our way to Beatty, Nevada. The trip was only 160
miles, but the up and down concerned me in the heat. The Jeep is
pretty heavy and really puts a load on the coach when it climbs
grades. I really have to watch the temps as we travel.
Getting started before the
heat of the day worked out as we made Beatty by noon and the coach
didn't get critically hot at all on the trip. We checked into the
Beatty RV park, just north of town, and got a nice full hookup, pull
through spot with 50 amps, all for $25 a night. We are going to stay
here for two nights as our reservation in Pahrump isn't until Sunday.
I always try to build a little slack in our travel schedule between
reservations so as to accommodate any necessary changes in plan.
After we got the basics
hooked up we drove into town for lunch. When we asked the guy at the
RV park for recommendations on lunch he told us there was only one
restaurant in town where he would spend his money, KC's Outpost. It
was mostly a sandwich and pizza place, but we went there and ordered
a pizza. We also had some homemade clam chowder that was out of this
world. The pizza was very good, although a little on the pricey
side. I guess when you are in the middle of the desert you pay more
for supplies.
After lunch we drove
around town for a little while doing some sightseeing. It didn't
take long as the town is pretty small. Founded as a railroad town
and support center for mining in the surrounding mountains, the town
has pretty much dried up now, with a population of just over a
thousand. It relies now on tourism, touting itself as the gateway to
Death Valley National Park. In a way it is as the park is only about
20 miles west and Beatty is the biggest community anywhere close.
After our tour of the town we headed back to the coach and stayed in
the rest of the day.
Saturday, September 6th
we went out about 10:30 or so to do some geocaching and exploring.
After an hour or so of caching we stopped for lunch at a place in
Beatty called Mel's Diner where we had hamburgers for lunch. The
burgers were excellent, having that old fashioned homemade drive-in
taste. After lunch we continued caching and drove a couple miles
south of Beatty to the ghost town of Rhyolite. Rhyolite was a silver
mining town founded in 1905 with the discovery of a huge silver lode
in the nearby Bullfrog mountains. Unlike many frontier towns, a lot
of money was put into infrastructure in Rhyolite and in just two
years the town had dozens of concrete and stone buildings, concrete
sidewalks, electric lights, water mains, telephone and telegraph
lines, daily and weekly newspapers, a monthly magazine, police and
fire departments, a hospital, school, train station and railway
depot, at least three banks, a stock exchange, an opera house, a
public swimming pool and two formal church buildings. With more than
5,000 population in 1908 Rhyolite was the third largest city in
Nevada. However, the city declined just as fast as the silver ore
was depleted and no new finds were made. By 1910 the population was
less than 1,000 and the mines closed in 1911. By 1920 the town was
abandoned and vacant. It is now administered by the BLM which tries
to maintain some control over the area to avoid total destruction of
the remaining relics.
We drove around town, took
a few pictures, and then continued caching, including a cache at the
Rhyolite cemetery. We finally quit caching about 3:30 and headed
back to the coach with 13 new finds and a couple of DNF's. One of
the DNF's was a cache that was supposed to be hidden in the wreckage
of a twin engine Beechcraft that made a crash landing years ago
alongside the road not too far from the RV park. The only thing left
of the plane is the aluminum structure, but it is still interesting
to look at. You can see the damage from the crash landing on the
right wing and the tail structure. We looked and looked, but
couldn't find the cache that was supposed to be there. After we got
back to the coach we just watched TV the rest of the night.
Sunday, September 7th, we
left Beatty about 10:00 on our final leg "home" to Pahrump.
We only had about 80 miles to travel and we arrived at the Wine
Ridge RV resort about 11:30. We are going to be here at Wine Ridge
for a full month, and then another week at another resort in Pahrump,
so we have a good long while to enjoy the area. After we got settled
into our site we did the basic setup and then relaxed for the day.
It was very hot and humid, with thunderstorms rumbling around the
area. The remnants of a hurricane in the Pacific. I decided I would
wait until morning to set up the outside decorations and screens when
it was a little cooler. Our arrival in Pahrump marks an excellent
place to close this episode of the blog and get it published. As I
said, we are here for a month, so I will probably have something in a
couple of weeks or so. Since the last time I published we lost two
of the brightest lights in the comedy heavens, Robin Williams and
Joan Rivers. I will leave you with a quote from each. Williams;
"Never fight with an ugly person, they've got nothing to lose."
Rivers; "People say that money is not the key to happiness,
but I always figured if you have enough money, you can have a key
made." Until the next time, keep a sense of humor about you, it
makes life much more tolerable. Bye.