Thursday, July 29, 2010

Nevada!!! Not home but....

Stopped for the evening in Hawthorne, NV.  There isn't a lot here but there is the Hawthorne Army Depot; a huge weapons storage area that makes for a lot of the jobs in the area.  We found a nice rv park with concrete pull-through spaces and excellent internet.  What more could we ask?  How about a couple stories from the road today?

We are back in the desert though here it is at the 4,000+ foot level  (1200+ meters); Pahrump is around 2700 ft (825m).  Had a good day driving through country that reminds me of the old tv show Bonanza - lots of scattered pine trees with lush green meadows.  We did have a good laugh not long after we got on the road.  This road is in the middle of nowhere; miles to the nearest gas station much less anything else.  Along come two state patrol cars leading an extra-large and wide load going somewhere.  Following was another state patrol car - and, what made us laugh, about 30 cars full of people who thought they would be moving at 65 mph (105kph) but were instead doing about a third of that.  Yes, I know it was cruel to laugh at them but gee, they all looked so happy! 

An hour or so later we were climbing this really steep grade on a narrow 2 lane road when we see a line of three traffic cones across our lane and a state patrol car pulling away up the hill.  We carefully go around the cones and find a large semi broken down in our lane of the road and the cop putting out yet more cones on the uphill side of the breakdown.  In my heart I know the cops help people every day but today I actually got to see two instances of them doing it! 

We were pulling into Susanville, CA - slowly because there is a big hill for us to go down west of town.  The hill is signposted for trucks at 35 mph (56kph); I was going a bit faster but not a lot more.  We were right on the outskirts of town going through a piece of road that was blasted out of the rock leaving about a foot of shoulder (35cm).  Here were two little deer strolling along the side of the road; no horns and they were both really small.  I braked to the point of almost stopping but the deer just kept walking.  Finally I honked the horn and they hopped up the almost vertical rock face to safety.  I was sure glad they went the right direction! 

Should be home tomorrow.  We are both looking forward to it.  It's been a good trip but we are home-bodies.  There will probably be a few more pictures that I haven't shared yet in the next few days.  Have a good one.

2 comments:

JoeinVegas said...

So, you were the roadblock in your direction laughing at the roadblock in the other?
And almost venison stew. mmmm

Don said...

Must not have said it correctly; we had NO roadblock, just had to wait for the wide load to pass, but the other folks had a moving one.