Pictures after I get a chance to process them.
Today we traveled from NAS Fallon to Nellis Air Force Base just north of Las Vegas. Travel distance was 377 miles, taking seven hours including stops. When we initially saw lots of smoke, we thought it was blowing over the mountains from California. After looking online, we found there were lots of wildfires near Carson City NV, and that was the source of the smoke. It cleared after a few hours traveling east. We drove through the valleys of the Great Basin, which covers most of Nevada and some of surrounding states. Look it up! We passed Walker Lake, made alkaline by fertilizer run off, just like the Salton Sea some distance south. We saw many HUGE dry lake beds with the characteristic white color of alkali. We drove past many mountain ranges, set in desert populated by creosote bushes and sage brush. Other than crows, the only wildlife we saw was one coyote that ran across the road. We have no idea how people crossed the deserts without barrels of water. We saw one desert rain storm that was awesome. Deb said the scenery was both stark but beautiful.
There are a couple of long stretches (on the order of 100 miles) without fuel stops. I tried to stretch our fuel from Hawthorne (home to a huge Army munitions depot) to Tonopah, successfully, but did make the “get fuel now” warning go on. Part of the problem was wind, which was either cross, ahead or following (sailor talk) depending on the angle of the road. Also, our elevation changed from 4000 ft to 6000 ft to 4000 ft and so on. We had two instances where we sat still 20 minutes for road work.
Tonopah was good to see, since I’ve always like the name since hearing the Little Feat song “Willin‘” (particularly the Linda Ronstadt version). It’s on a rise above the surrounding desert. We drove through light rain (no flooding) and had lunch/ refueled. The Mispah Hotel is a main attraction, as are the mining exhibits covering the very large strike of silver-bearing ore.
Las Vegas has a similar characteristic to most large cities: road construction. We were able to get verbal directions from the staff at Desert Eagle RV Park (inside Nellis AFB), and only made one wrong turn in the final miles. The RV Park is very beautiful, with 226 shaded sites, and the ability to stay up to six months. Right now, as Deb cooks our dinner (I drove all day!), we are being serenaded by the sound of Freedom: Air Force fighter jets flying overhead.
