ON TO NEVADA

Leaving the farm and heading west, we stayed at Cedar Bluff State Park in Kansas.  For dinner, we had salmon with the morels cooked in butter.  Yumm!

Looking at our route west,  I realized that parks in Colorado weren't opening until mid-May, which meant there was likely to still be snow there.  We decided to take a more southerly route to be warmer, and started west on Rt 50, "America's Loneliest Road".  Driving through western Kansas on 50 was pretty desolate.  But we'd rather be on a smaller road where you see the towns and get a sense of what it might be like to live there, than to drive faster on an interstate.  

We intended to stay at a town campground in Holly, Colorado that night, but when we got there it was too sad - weedy and mostly inhabited by old motor homes where people clearly eck out a living long term.  A racetrack used to bring thousands of people to the town every summer.  When it closed 17 years ago, the town population went from 4000 to 800.  We learned this from Larry, who used to be one of two police officers in Holly.  The town can't afford it's own police any more, so they rely on the county sheriff.  Larry got a job working for the town doing maintenance, and taking care of the RV campground on weekends.  We drove on to the KOA (Kampgrounds of America - a chain of fancy RV parks all across the country) in La Junta instead.  A kids' softball team had rented a cabin for their picnic across the way from our site.  They were really cute - having a great time and not being noisy.  

In Cotopaxi Colorado, we saw the snow capped peaks of the Rockies for the first time.  

That night, we stayed in a campground in Gunnison.  The next day, Rt 50 took us by the Blue Mesa Reservoir in Curecante National Recreation Area.  

The reservoir is long and winds through Black Canyon.

Samoa is dangling her feet over the edge on the left.

That night we stayed at Desert Moon Hotel and RV Park in Thompson Springs, Utah.  It was a funky place.  The town was built on the railroad, which ran just across the street from the RV park.  Like many towns we passed, the railroad didn't bring tourists to the hotel as it once did and the whole town was kinda down on its luck, even though it is just a few miles from Arches National Park.  However, a young couple from New York City had recently bought the hotel and park because Covid had shut down their jobs -- they were on a crew in New York that did sound and light for big concerts and indoor events, all of which were cancelled for the year.  Having family in the area, they learned the hotel and park were for sale, figured they could support themselves there, had begun to upgrade it, and had invited their whole crew to come weather the pandemic with them.  We enjoyed their enterprising attitude, the good food in their Desert Spoon cafe, and their friendly advice, which led us up a dirt road to Sego Canyon Rock Art.  

These petroglyphs had such presence. 

I was busy with nurse visits and Samoa drove toward Arches, but there was a long line of cars waiting to get in.  We were content with our rock art.  

For awhile, Rt 50 follows I-70 through the San Rafael Swell.  This is an outcropping of rock pushed up thousands of feet above the desert geologic ages ago.  It was a huge barrier to pioneers, until a road was blasted through the rock.  No wonder both roads run together - wouldn't want to blast another roadbed through this wild country.  Samoa got out her ukulele and played some tunes - to the land which was so beautiful.  I wish I could share my videos of her singing.  I was so busy taking videos, this is the only still photograph I have:

That night we stayed at Little Sahara Recreational Area, a Bureau of Land Management site in Nephi, Utah.  This area of deep sand dunes is in the middle of desert and mountains.  Once it was the bottom of an ocean, which is where the sand came from.  

We went for a walk up onto the dunes.  It was so strange to be slipping and sliding our way up and down the dunes, with the sand shifting under our feet, after climbing on rugged rocks all day.  Then the wind picked up and sandblasted our feet and legs.  You could see the sand moving with the wind like snow drifting around our feet.  ATVers love the dunes and were roaring around until dark, but we just made our campfire and Samoa sang lots more songs.  

The next day we drove across the rest of Utah.  Not much to see where we were - some snow capped mountains, some cattle and sheep grazing.  

And on to Nevada!

Can you read the fine print at the bottom of the sign?  "America's Loneliest Road"

Spent that night in Eureka NV, which is an old mining town.  There is still significant mining going on and the town has the money and the will to preserve and restore the old buildings.  They have them all numbered and listed on brochures and we drove around town admiring them and reading their histories.  

The old opera house - now a convention center.

And restored old trucks, too.

We could see that they were just starting on this building.

Samoa fell in love with this old store.  She's always wanted to have a general store with a cafe in it and plenty of space for folks to gather and play music together.

Samoa wanted to arrive in Virginia City in the early afternoon the next day and decided to leave at the crack of dawn, while I poked along at my own pace.  So this was our last night together for this part of our trip.  What a wonderful trip it has been!

I stopped at Sand Mountain in Fallon NV.  The sign said this huge sinuous transverse dune was known to the Northern Paiutes as Panitogogwa, a giant rattlesnake, headed towards it's hole in the northeast.  They said you could hear it hiss when the wind blew.

On the road nearby were salt flats.  I'd never seen anything like it before.  The picture doesn't do it justice -- flat land stretching out from the road for miles - covered in white salt.  

Val wanted us to approach Virginia City along Rt 395 from the southwest.  She wanted us to see the ruggedness of this land and this really rugged road. 

It was a beautiful drive although I had to take the many hairpin turns slowly with the camper.

And so I arrived in Virginia City and settled into the Virginia City RV Park, which is perched on a bluff overlooking an old cemetery.

My camper was backed up against the fence at the edge of the bluff.