Laughlin to Ely – A good day!

Friday April 9 2010
We pulled out of Laughlin at 8am this morning on our way to Ely, Nevada.  No wind!  We had been waiting for a lull and today we got it.  A really pleasant drive up to Las Vegas across the desert with ….no wind!  In case I haven’t mentioned it, wind is no fun in an RV and we do what we can to avoid it.  We were hammered crossing the Mohave last year heading for Bakersfield and learned they closed the highway shortly after we passed through.  Not a good thing.  So, a really good trip today, no stress and I didn’t make any navigational errors.  Things are getting better.  I took pictures out the window as we travelled to show the changes from Laughlin at 450 feet to Ely at 6500 feet after coming over the pass just south of Ely at 7400 feet.  The camera is a Fuji Finepix S5100 4megapix 10X Zoom set on auto.

Heading north on 93 between Las Vegas and Ash Springs.

   Shots of the sandstone canyon on 318 between Ash springs and Lund.Starting to see Juniper close to Ely.

Snow on the mountains close to Ely.

Just over the 7400 ft. summit.

Lots of snow at the edge of the road.

We arrived around 4pm to nice sunny, warm (for Ely ) weather with no wind. 

Valley view RV park.

The rig in Valleview.  Having happy hour in the sun.

We thought we’d stay an extra day until we checked the weather on the net.  We are in the Valley view RV park ($20 a night) and they have good free Wifi even though we are close to the highway it is fairly quiet over night. 
While we were having happy hour I had to look twice and blink!  I’d only had one beer so I realized it really was a peacock strolling around!  The guy across the way was giving him some scraps.  Pretty hardy to survive an Ely winter.  They got about 3 feet of snow and lots of subfreezing weather.  The guy said there was an old farmer who died who was raising peacocks so now they are on their own.  He looked great so I guess they manage. 

What’s a peacock doing in an RV park?

The guy I talked to had been living in Ely for two years  (from Oregon) and was  working in the Copper mine and living in an RV.  Two old pick-ups and heading back to Oregon tomorrow!  Doesn’t look like he saved any money.  Good luck!
Anyway there is a big storm coming from the Pacific and we are going to get big, big wind from the south.  So….we will head out of here early and make a run for Boise/Meridian.  A big day at 385 miles but if we don’t get out now we’ll be here for a few days.  Wind gusts to 50mph!  We like Ely and spent an extra day here on the way down and thought we’d have another look around.   The  Coppermine here had it’s own railroad with steam trains.  It has become a national heritage site with operating steam engines, shops and 50 miles of track. 

The Ely train yards where they still run the steam engines.  You can pay to ride on their tour days.
We had a tour for $2 from an old train enthusiast and were amazed at the size of the steam engines with their 6 foot drivers. 

The operating steam engines.

The mechanical shop has lathes that can true these drivers and all the machines are driven by a line shaft and flat belts which adds to the reason why this is a National Heritage site. 
The main mechanical shop with a car under repair on the right.

Lathe truing railroad car wheels.

Milling machines and lathes.

The downtown of Ely is being restored and we’d like to get time to walk through it.  Up the road (heading north on 93) there is the small town of McGill which was the smelter site.  A pretty restored company town. 
The second thought was a stop in Jackpot 180 miles north but ….again wind!  50 mile per hour gusts are not what you want in an RV.  So, onward!