Alamo, Nevada to Jackpot, Nevada and a good time was “not” had by all!

A beautiful sunny morning and we were ready to hit the road by 8am.  353 miles to go today and that is a long day for us.  It is wide open and can be easy driving if the weather conditions are good but that is likely not going to be the case today.

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Leaving Alamo and the scenery is lovely.

As we travel along it is beautiful and sunny and there isn’t too much wind….yet!

North of Ash Springs we turn left and head north on 318.

Onward to Ely.

Here we are in the White River Canyon and I can never resist a couple of pictures.  Window is dirty and the bicycle is in the way so the pictures aren’t great.

Well what happened here?  We were happily sailing along at about 65mph when a pickup pulling a red cargo trailor pulled up beside us and then pulled in front, slowed down and hit his brakes.  We thought he was nuts!  We slowed right down and he pulled off and as we went by he was pointing down at our rig.  Oh, oh!  We pulled off and he got out to talk.  He had seen that the right rear tire on the rig was missing and figured we didn’t know.  Didn’t feel it and couldn’t see it.  Just dandy!  He said he has a toyhauler at home and said he has had the same thing happen and didn’t know either.  We thanked him for his trouble and he carried on his way.

Not much left of that tire.

And of course damage to the rig once again. 

On with the coveralls, out with the jack and spare tire and get it changed.  Damn….we thought we were done with tire failure once we put truck tires on the rig.  However….this tire was probably one that got hot when a spring broke two years ago and the tires rubbed together.  Probably not the tires fault but that doesn’t make it any easier to take!

Nice wide open space to change a tire and a good thing it was on the passenger side or Eric would be laying out in the traffic.   Lots of debris from other blown tires here so we aren’t the only ones.

Spare on and we’ll have to stop in Ely and buy a new tire. 

Back on the road and the wind has started to pick up.

Neat old house in Lund.

We make a quick fuel stop at the gas station just past Lund.  It’s a long climb with a head wind and the more fuel the better!

Right turn to Ely.

23 miles and it’s all uphill.

Still lots of snow on the mountains.

We’re climbing and I took a shot back through the side window.

Twisting and turning here.

We’ve descended from the over 7000 ft. Murry Summit and are now coming into Ely where we’ll refuel and get a tire.

Turn right to head north.  We stopped at the Good Year Tire shop where we bought tires the last time we had trouble.  They didn’t have exactly what Eric wanted but we had to have something. 

McGill the town with the slanted main street and beautiful old buildings.

The misleading sign, left on 93 or right on 93!  Left for Ely.

Pretty but certainly not spring here yet.

We’ll stop in Wells for our next fuel.  Some of our gauges have failed and the fuel gauge is one of them.  Eric is keeping track with the truck’s onboard computer so we don’t want to make any mistakes.  The speedometer isn’t working either and he’s using the GPS to track our speed.

78 miles to Wells.

That’s what is ahead and it’s also very windy.  Makes for stressful driving.

How about a little rain too!

Fuel in Wells and onward.   We are a bit behind schedule after our tire repair and stop to buy a new spare.  We know it will likely be really busy at the Cactus Pete’s RV park in Jackpot as there are lots of RV’s on the road right now.

This is a huge elk migration area and they build overpasses (like this one) as well as underpasses to keep them off the highway as they migrate.

Check headlights.  Well another gauge problem here because when we turn on the headlights the indicator lights such as the heater temperature go out!  Headlights off…..indicator lights on!  Swell!

We pulled into the RV park around 4:30pm and it was snowing at the time.  While I stood outside as a landmark for Eric to park the RV it was freezing cold….even in my down vest. 

The sun came out shortly after that but it is not warm!!!   It is supposed to go down below freezing tonight and it’s windy to boot.  This RV that is parked across the road from us turns out to be our winter neighbours Rick, Judy and Sadie the dog.  How much of a coincidence is that? I’ll say hi tomorrow.

Pretty but cold.

And….now it’s pouring rain and cold.  Am I whining too much?  Tough, this is just nasty and I have to walk down to the RV office to pay and have a shower. 

We had a few beers, went over for a buffet dinner and came back to shiver before we went to bed.  I put the flannel sheets on the bed and added an extra comforter so we wouldn’t freeze to death!  We’ve got the electric heater on max but it can’t keep up so it will be chilly in the morning.

We haven’t decided whether we will lay over tomorrow or head for Boise….we’ll check the weather in the morning.