Out across the loneliest highway in America

After Yosemite, we stop off in South Lake Tahoe.  Our intention is to spend a couple of days replenishing our supplies and taking care of some business.  But the town is very pleasant and we ultimately decide to spend four days here, enjoying the lake and the pleasant temperature.

On the way, we made a brief stop at Sutter Creek, one of the best preserved old gold mining towns in the mountains of California.  The buildings were nicely preserved, and we walked around the old town taking pictures and enjoyed an iced latte in one of the local spots.  Then it was lunch in the RV and on to South Lake Tahoe.  

South Lake Tahoe, it turns out, is hugely popular in the summer as well as the winter, and there are lots of tourists here.   There are lots of RV parks and camping places, and although we were able to find a good spot easily, many places were quite busy, if not full.  The other nice thing about this place, is that all the casinos are about 2  miles away, on the Nevada side.  (Because we are so not into the casino scene).  So things are peaceful and quiet in the evening.  

The area is basically a flat lake bed surrounded by mountains, so you have snow capped peaks in the distance and all around the town, but the town itself is pretty flat.  There are bike trails everywhere and lots of people use them, so we found that very handy for getting around.  There was a trail that went from our RV park all the way to the beach in the national forest nearby, and we enjoyed that ride very much and spent a nice morning at the beach. 

South Lake Tahoe is up at about 6,000 feet, and I began to have problems with sleeping because of the altitude.  We had brought some medication along for that and once I was convinced it was necessary I began to take it.  It eventually worked, but it was a rough four days until it kicked in.  We're glad it did, though, because our next few weeks are mostly going to be spent at pretty high altitudes,  and without sleep that could be pretty unpleasant.

Ivy has been working  on her painting whenever she can.  She's had some good results, and is starting to see some improvement. Here are a couple of photos of her work, one a scene from Gualala, and the other our friend the marmot from Yosemite.

Next, off across Nevada  on Highway 50, the so-called Loneliest Highway in America. A Life Magazine article gave it this name in 1986 and the Nevada people have adopted it with pride and made it a matter of bragging rights.  The area certainly is not very heavily populated but today the highway is pretty well traveled, steadily used by cars and trucks (and RV's)  After duly chugging along for a couple of hundred miles we arrived at Austin, Nevada where we stopped off at an RV park run by the local Baptist Church. 

Austin is certainly very remote, somewhere out past the Middle of Nowhere.  People here admit to routinely driving 115 miles to get groceries.  It's not that they don't have any stores that are closer.  There's another grocery store only 70 miles away in Eureka, and one that's 80 miles or so at Round Mountain, or one at Battle Mountain around 90 miles, but the one in Fallon at 115 miles has a Wal-Mart, plus a bunch of other services like medical and repair, parts, etc.  So they mostly stick to that.  But you want to be careful to get everything on your list when you go.  Don't want to have to go back.

The town is small but the area around it is quite lovely.   It's high up at 6500 feet, relatively cool in the summer but with mild winters.  The town has been on the decline for some time, and a lot of the buildings are closed and/or boarded up, even the churches.  It's hard to tell if this is the current economic downturn or something much longer term.  But there are some long term residents, permanent Austin-dwellers.  The businesses are often closed, even on the weekends, and there's not much tourist traffic.  But there are some gem shops and a lot of turquoise.  I was surprised to learn that much of the turquoise mined in America comes from Nevada.  There is even a local guy who has a mine that is still operating, and he brings in gems from time to time to his store in town.  We found a few trinkets for the grandkids.

We also took a drive out to an even more remote area, the Kingston Creek area.  Here's the turnoff.  You go down the road on the right for about 15 miles and there's a small town built around a creek that comes down from the National Forest land in the mountains.  Up high there's a reservoir where the local kids go to splash around in the summer.   There's also a Forest Service campground, but we thought that getting our big rig up there was more trouble than it was worth.  Still, a lovely spot. 

After a couple of nights in Austin, we were ready to move on.  Our next stop is Ely, one of the big towns on Hwy 50.  We have no trouble finding a spot in one of the RV campgrounds.  This place has real trees that provide shade, a welcome commodity in this part of the country.  The campground is half empty, and this is the middle of the summer vacation season!  What's up with that?  Are people not taking vacations this year?  I have to admit, I was a little worried when we started out, that it may be difficult to find a place to stay without calling ahead for reservations.  But when we do call ahead, they always say "Don't worry, they'll be room for you." 

Highlights of the Ely, Nevada visit were the hawk's nest, the train museum and the political signs.  Right outside our RV park, there was a hawk's nest with three young and a parent.  I think that they were Swainson's Hawks, but I'm pretty bad on ID'ing the hawks.  But the young were very large and very demanding, and the parent, besides having three hungry chicks to cope with, had a pair of very aggressive Western Kingbirds who were making its life miserable.  Besides swooping down and harrasing the poor parent, these birds would actually land on the shoulders of the hawk while it was flying and peck its head relentlessly from their perch.  I even saw them take turns doing this, changing places on the fly.  

The Northern Nevada Train Museum is a unique institution, so far as I can tell.  Besides having the usual rides on antique trains, they also have open tours of the shop facilities in which they work on the partially restored engines and cars.  You get to see a real railroad roundhouse shop as it existed during World War II, and it's still very much in use, as they work on the trains.  The young man giving the tour was enthusiastic and knowledgable, and the equipment was amazing - old steam engines still working, diesels and electrics, and all the equipment to work on them.  Quite a treat!

Finally, just a quick comment on politics.  The areas of Nevada that we saw were really down at heels for the most part.  Lots of For Sale and For Lease signs everywhere, empty RV's by the dozens sitting around in open fields, closed businesses, etc.  So there's a certain amount of anti-incumbent anger going on.  My favorite was this sign, a large one, posted by the side of the main north-south highway.  It's going to be an interesting November. 
 
Tomorrow will be the real test of our RV campground luck.  We leave for the Great Basin National Park, and will try for one of the few spots there for an RV our size.  It is all first come, first served basis.  We will try to get there by 10am.  If they are all taken, we will drive down the road and stay at a commercial spot outside of the park, and drive the car in for some sightseeing and hiking. We'll stay here for 3 days.  Once again, we will no longer have cell or internet service.  Can Steve and Ivy survive under those conditions?  Speaking of, we haven't been to a movie in ages.  There is a movie theater in Ely, and Steve went to see the teenage vampire movie last night.  Ivy stayed behind, because she will sink only so low.  ...Check in later.   More to follow...