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Thursday, November 7, 2013

Jackpot to Ash Springs, Nevada

Thursday Nov. 7, 2013

We were up at a reasonable 6:30 am this morning so we could be on the road by 8:00 am.  I had not posted the blog last night as I wasn’t feeling well after my big buffet dinner so I wanted to do that this morning before we left.  We paid $18 for our RV spot and the good news was that there is was really fast internet which is always a bonus.  I hadn’t had the best sleep last night as the motor home next to us had his furnace running all night.  Eric said it was a boiler and it ran for a minute or two and then shut off for a minute or two all night which was odd as it wasn’t even very cold.  Didn’t freeze and we had our electric heater on which kept the temp at 20c. 

On the road at 5C with no wind, rain or snow.  Bonus! 

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Coming into Wells on the Great Basin Highway.

Wells, Nevada was our first fuel stop and it is at 6280 ft. so it is quite high.  The station we usually stop at had no diesel.  So on to the Flying J where they put the diesel pump on an inside island….not great when you are hauling a rig.  Got fuel and on the road which is always a challenge in Wells. 

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The Ruby Mountains.

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No twists, no turns, straight as an arrow.

Just as we were coming into Currie we hit road construction.  A 20 minute wait ….improving the shoulders….hard to tell what they were doing.   

At this point we had wind on the nose but nothing serious. 

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Lots of interesting vegetation at the edge of the road.

The next town was McGill (6193 feet) which is just north of Ely and it is interesting to drive through as the main street is on a huge slant.  Going south it’s high on the left and slants to the right and not just a little, a lot.  I think if it was icy you’d just slide into the buildings on the low side.  Odd and I wonder why it’s that way. McGill is or was the smelter town for the copper mine in Ely. P1040859

Coming into McGill.P1040862

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Much more slanted than the camera shows.

“McGILL

In 1906, the Nevada Consolidated Copper Company built a mill and smelter north of Ely in the Steptoe Valley to accommodate the large amounts of copper ore being produced in Ely mines. Two years later, the company built a town to house mill employees, and McGill was born. The Nevada Northern Railway extended a line to the town to carry ore to the mill and smelter. McGill prospered until the 1970s when the mines, mill, smelter, and railroad closed.

The town has survived the substantial blow of losing its primary industry, and today about 1,000 people call it home. The McGill Drugstore Museum—which opened the same year the town was founded—was a working drugstore until it closed in 1979 and remains today as a time capsule with many products from the time it closed and earlier still on the shelves.

The McGill Swimming Pool is a popular summer hangout, with a sandy beach, slides, and diving board.

CONTACT

McGill Drugstore Museum.”  from McGill Website

Next stop Ely, Nevada and more fuel.  Ely is high at 6480 feet in town and even higher when you go through the pass south of town.  We like Ely and try to stop there when the weather permits.

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Lunch stop just out of town looking back down on Ely. P1040866    Lots of dry land vegetation.

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Going through the pass at Ely. P1040868

Coming down the mountain.

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Next town Lund at 5280 ft. and it has warmed up to 16C…Eric might have to remove that Stanfield’s wool yet!

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The above rock formations are through the White Water Narrows and they amaze us every time we drive through….so ever year I take a few more pictures! 

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Coming into Hiko and they have just cut hay and it’s now 19C ….whew it’s getting warm!  Yahoo!!!

We are now entering the Pahrangat Valley and our over night stop at Ash Springs.  We’ve never actually seen the springs but they are there somewhere.  We have travelled about 380 miles today and that is long enough.  Ash Springs has an RV park of sorts attached to the very busy gas station and food stop.  It is hugely busy all night and you don’t get much sleep but what can you do…you have to stop somewhere and since we are still at 3280 ft. it can still freeze it’s nice to be plugged in. 

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Coming into Ash Springs and it’s nice and green. 

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You just never know who you’ll meet on the road.  This is Ed and Marilyn from Masset on the Queen Charlotte Islands in B.C.  They left home about the same time we left Kelowna and haven’t had a very good trip.  Horrible snow through the Caribou and then when they were in Osoyoos ready to cross the border their dog had a medical emergency.  He went crazy in the middle of the night and bit them both.  Off to the hospital for them and then to the vet for the dog.  Unfortunately they had to have him put down and at this point just felt like going home.  They missed last year in Yuma because Ed had a heart attack the year before so this wasn’t much of a beginning for their winter.  However, they are carrying on.  Marilyn used to work for B.C. Hydro in Masset so she knew people Eric knew as he worked for Telus.  Our daughter Erika might know her as well as she worked for Hydro and Telus as well.  Small world. 

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We spoke to the guy from the rig on the right the next morning and he is from Midway, B.C.  Nice fellow and he had a motorcycle in his pick-up with a really slick lift (Rampage- power lift) to get it in there.  He said it worked great and was really easy.  Good idea if your towed is a truck and you have a bike too.  They are off to Palm Springs, California and then Yuma. 

So it was a relaxing evening and a really noisy night which is just what we expected.  Tomorrow Laughlin and only about 200 miles to travel. 

No internet here so I’ll publish when I get to Laughlin. 

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