"The long and winding road...."

 6:59 am - Monday - October 19th - TWW - 50° F, humidity 56%, cloud cover 39%, wind 12 mph out of the south.....very cloudy this morning with a forecast high of 67° F.  On this date in 2017 TLE and I were in Panguitch, UT....

....at Bear Valley RV Park watching the sun set.  We were on our way to Bryce Canyon, which was amazing!  The view this morning.....

....there was a lot of monsoonal rain this summer, and things have become a bit overgrown.....time to get out the ECHO string trimmer!

The 'last' of things that have given you so much pleasure over the years is always bitter sweet, and that feeling is strong as we have now come to the end of  that "long, and winding road" which has brought us HOME. When we moved into our 1982 Newell Classic to live on February 1, 2011 we had no idea we would still be living in her almost 16 years later.  We thought we might travel for 1,2 or 3 years before finding a place to settle, but as the months, and then years passed into the rear view mirror we found we could not imagine living any other way.  Being able to change our view on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis without the necessity of an escrow is, and has been very intoxicating.  I have looked out the drivers' side salon window to some amazing views over the years, and as I sit here this morning looking out that same window at The Wilson Wilderness, and specifically my sister-in-law's 1982 Newell Classic (the sister coach to our 1982) I find myself smiling.  It has been a long, but wonderful journey to come to this point, this place, where we have decided to spend the rest of our days, however many they might be.  

When we first arrived here at The Wilson Wilderness back in October of 2024 we had no idea how much we didn't know about living off the grid.  The first month was a trial by fire trying to figure out how to configure our entire power system to be self sustaining, and require very little generated power assistance, and just rely on the sun to keep both of our Bluetti solar generators charged and sending electrons into our coach to power our 12 volt, and 120 volt systems.  In fact, we actually discussed abandoning our dream at one point, but we persevered, and with the addition of many more solar panels now have continuous power to the coach and the trailer, and here we are back at TWW to live here full time.....winter, spring, summer and fall.

We left the TA Express truck parking lot to drive the final 112 miles back to TWW a little after 8 am, and were transitioning from US-93 to I-40 in Kingman, AZ in less than an hour.  We exited I-40 4 miles later at US-66 to drive the final 59 miles to our final destination in our wonderful, reliable, comfortable 1982 Newell Classic 36 foot diesel pusher.  

We have had only had three minor issues on the road since we purchased her back in March of 2008.  The first was in June of 2008 when the left front tire exploded on I-10 about 90 minutes west of Mesa, AZ.  The tire service guy was there in 90 minutes, changed out the tire, and we were on the road home in less than 30 minutes from the time he arrived.  The second was in October of 2009 when we pulled off I-40 in Needles, CA late at night to take a break.  When I went to start the Newell nothing happened.  Once again, we called Good Sam (it was around 1 am), and the mobile mechanic was there in 90 minutes, fixed the problem (a shorted trigger wire for the starter), and we were on our way by 3 am.  The final issue was an auxiliary coolant line feeding coolant to our onboard air compressor ruptured in April of 2016.  We pulled onto a side street, found the leak, and drove about 2 miles over to a specialty hose place to have a new coolant line made.  In all we were delayed less than 3 hours, and back on the road.  Considering we have traveled over 100,000 miles in her since 2008, it is remarkable that we have never had a major breakdown.

About 10 miles east of Kingman I took a couple of pictures of US-66....

.....by 10:25 am we were exiting US-66 on the north/south arterial (unpaved) which takes us to TWW.....

.....about 20 minutes later I turned onto the street which takes us to the entrance of TWW....

.....within 30 minutes we had parked the Newell in her permanent site....

....where she has spent the last two winters, and then, with Charles' help backed our 2007 American Trailer into its final resting place....

......within minutes we had plugged the Newell into the Bluetti battery bank, and had power.  Our Eco Worth Dual Axis solar tracker was working as it should, and within minutes of plugging in the batteries were at 100%!  Everything was just as we left it six months ago.  Is this the final time we will take our 1982 Newell on the road?  Probably, but one never knows, does one?

Once we were plugged in I deployed the Starlink dish (on the trailer in the picture above), and settled in to watch some NFL football.  Around 4:00 pm we headed over to the house to have dinner with Charles and Phyllis which was baked potatoes, pot roast, onions and carrots.....delicious....

....I took our first 'usie' as we finished our dessert....lemon bars.  We are HOME, and we are happy!

"The long and winding road" - Beatles

Thanks for stopping by!

Next to last driving day......

 7:07 am - Sunday - October 18 - TA Express, White Hills, AZ - 61° F, humidity 37%, cloud cover 41%, wind 7 mph out of the north....very cloudy today, the last day of our travel south, with a forecast high of 77° F.  Where we are headed today (The Wilson Wilderness) the high will be 62° F.  On this date in 2024 TLE and I were in Bishop, CA.....

....at the Tri-County Fairgrounds.  We had planned to continue our trip south on US-395 that day, but high winds were forecast along our route, so we took a 'wind' day, just as we did this past Friday.  The view this morning....

....at the TA Express truck stop in White Hills, AZ.

We were out of bed by 6:30 am Saturday, and on the road by 7:23 am, as we wanted to get through Las Vegas traffic before it got busy.  We would continue south on US-95 until we reached Henderson, NV where we transitioned to US-93.  The section of US-93 just south of the Lake Mead Vista Point is terrible for about 15 miles.  The road is uneven with lots of dips at first, then the right lane becomes almost washboardy asphalt, if that is even possible.  It's been like this for years, and I wonder why NDOT hasn't fixed it. 

At any rate, about 60 miles north of Las Vegas the two way highway becomes a divided highway the rest of the way to Vegas.  The road was smooth, and the driving was easy.  Just as we hoped, the traffic on US-95/I-11 through Las Vegas was very light.  We took a 30 minute break at the Lake Mead Vista Point, then continued south to the aforementioned rough road.  It seemed like way more than 15 miles, but it wasn't.  Finally, I saw the exit sign for the TA Express (Travel Centers of America) around 11 am.  Our 180 gallon tank was down to around 60 gallons when we pulled into the fast flow diesel pump section.  It was the first time we've 'paid the rent' in 6 months, and was it ever painful.  Using our 'Open Roads' discount card we paid $6.449/gallon (that's the discount price...the pump price was $6.589/gallon) for just 87 gallons ($554.07).  I didn't fill it all the way, because I didn't want to pay almost $800 to fill the tank.  Anyway, that took us to over 2/3's of a tank.  When the prices come down to a more realistic price per gallon we'll begin to haul diesel from town, whenever we go into town, 10 gallons at a time to top off the tank.

Once we were done 'paying the rent' we found a parking spot in the back of the truck parking area to spend the afternoon and evening.  We had just covered 152 miles, and the final 29 were grueling, to say the least.  We spent the afternoon watching college football, and were there ever some great games!  In all 5 of the top 7 ranked teams LOST on Saturday including #1 Georgia, and #2 Notre Dame....what a crazy, crazy day!

Now it is time to point the nose of the Newell south to The Wilson Wilderness, and home sweet home.  Thanks for stopping by!

Taking a 'wind' day.....

 1:41 pm - Saturday - TA Express, White Hills, AZ - 73° F, humidity 20%, cloud cover 77%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northeast.....heavy cloud cover with occasional sprinkles with the forecast high just one degree away.  On this date in 2020 TLE and I were in Newport, OR.....

....having breakfast at the Coffee House at the Yaquina Bay Historic Waterfront.  Our favorite breakfast place in Newport.  The view this morning....."Red skies in the morning, sailor take warning".....

....the view right now....

....we arrived at our final overnight location (TA Express) before we drive the final 112 miles to The Wilson Wilderness tomorrow (Sunday).

The wind blew all night long Thursday night, and only gained in ferocity as the sun rose.  The decision to remain one more day at Fort Amargosa was an easy one.  We have no deadlines to meet, so why drive in a bad cross wind if you do not have to do so?  At times the wind rocked the Newell from side to side reconfirming or decision to stay put.  TLE took this video of my 'Click' reading glasses swinging with the motion of the coach.....

.....you can hear the wind in the background.  There have been numerous occasions over the past 15 years when we have taken a rain, snow, or wind day, and we have never regretted doing that.  I spent most of the day reading, then watching a few of the YouTube channels I follow.  The day passed quickly, and soon it was time to head off to 'Slumberland'.  The wind was still blowing at 10 pm, but eventually abated as was forecast.

Thanks for stopping by!

'Everyone knows its WINDY.....'

 7:40 am - Friday - October 16th - Fort Amargosa, NV - 68° F, humidity 20%, cloud cover 0%, wind 20 mph out of the northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 84° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE and I were in John Day, OR....

.....having an early dinner at 1188 Brewing Company; one of our favorite micro breweries.  We ate there back in 2015 on our first trip through John Day, OR, and were happy to see they were still in business, and had actually doubled their floor space!

Wind was forecast for Thursday afternoon, so we were exiting the parking lot at Tonopah Station by 9 am continuing our trip ever southward on US-95.  The highway south out of Tonopah is downhill for about 10 miles, so we went from 6,300' elevation to just under 5,000' in that distance....

.....we had a tailwind which means there was almost no wind noise as we floated on a cushion of air ever southward.  The cruise control was set at 60 mph, so all I had to do was hang onto the steering wheel, and enjoy the view.

We stopped in Goldfield for about 20 minutes so I could clean the Newell and VW windshields, then continued our journey south to Beatty, NV where we took another 30 minute break.  We were now 30 minutes from our destination for the day, Fort Amargosa, NV where we have stayed in their RV park two previous times going north and south.  By the time we parked the Newell, paid for our site, and connected to the water, sewer, and electrical utilities it was 1 pm.  The last 10 miles into Fort Amargosa we had a severe crosswind from the east, making for very unpleasant final 10 minutes....

.....as early afternoon became late afternoon, then evening the wind increased its intensity.  In checking Friday's forecast we found heavy crosswinds all along our planned route of 20-30 mph, with gusts over 40 mph.  We made the decision right there and then that we would spend another day here at Fort Amargosa and then drive the next leg of our journey to the TA Express in White Hills, AZ, and will now arrive at The Wilson Wilderness Sunday morning.  If this is, indeed, our final trip in the Newell I do not want to spend the 2nd to last day fighting cross winds for 150 miles.

We had a nice evening watching the Seattle Seahawks in Denver playing the Broncos on TNF.  The first half saw Denver dominating the Seahawks on defense, and ended with the Broncos up 14-3.  The second half was all about the Seahawks offense as they pulled even with Denver 14-14 as regulation time expired.  The Seahawks had the first possession in the 10 minute overtime period, but their quarterback threw an untimely interception.  The Broncos the drove far enough down the field to kick the game winning field goal to win 17-14.

As we headed to bed around 10 pm the wind continued freshening, and blew hard all night long, and as I sit here composing today's missive it is over 20 mph with gusts to 30 mph, so we have made a good decision to stay put.

Windy by the Association

Thanks for stopping by!

A two hour jaunt.....

7:44 am - Thursday - October 15th - Tonopah, NV - 43° F, humidity 29%, cloud cover 8%, wind 13 mph out of the north....mostly clear, blue skies today with a forecast high of 68° F.  On this date in 2016 TLE and I were in Tahoe City, CA.....

 .....at our favorite Tahoe eatery, Christy Hill, having dinner with high school, and college friend Don Neff.  It was a stormy, rainy night on the shores of Lake Tahoe.  Eleven years ago, now.....seems like 'yesterday'!

We were awake early enough Wednesday to see the sun peak over the mountains that line the eastern shore of Walker Lake.....

....we will miss that view for sure!

Wednesday was also departure day from this wonderful, lakeside campground on the shores of Walker Lake.  We wish it had been warmer, but it is what it is.  The main goal was to sit in one place, not LPG&RVR, and decompress, for a few days, and that is what we did.  As you know we love to find places like this which have the 'it factor' when we are traveling, and Sportsman's Beach on the shores of Walker Lake fit the bill to a 'T'.  If you should ever find yourself in this area the daily rate, and view are worth it.  If you stay a week you only pay for 6 days.  You can stay for up to 2 weeks for $72.  The view this morning.....

....from Tonopah Station.

We only had a 120 mile drive to Tonopah, our next destination, which is about a 2 hour drive if you drive 60 mph like we do.  60 mph is the sweet spot for this 44 year old coach.  The drive south is barren high desert, and is quite the contrast to the scenery along US-395, which is less than 60 miles to the west of US-95 from Fernley, NV to the junction of US-95 and US-6.

Once again TLE was following me in our 2001 VW Beetle cruising along at 60 mph just like the Newell.  At 60 mph the Beetle gets 4-5 extra miles per gallon.  From LPG&RVR to Hawthorne she only drank 8.9 gallons of premium unleaded gasoline, and averaged over 33 mpg.  The 120 mile drive was without incident, and saw us arriving at Tonopah Station (casino, hotel, RV park) a little after 1 pm where we quickly snagged site #13, which cost us $36 for one night.  We stayed here one other time back in February of 2021 when we took a one month break from Seal Rocks RV Cove to head down to Wittman, AZ to visit our good friends Tom and Darlene McCloud.  We spent about 2 weeks there making repairs to our coach.  Our Leece-Neville alternator had bitten the dust 6 months earlier, and needed to be rebuilt, plus I installed the new 'Captains' driver side chair, and the new digital, electronic tachometer to replace the old gear driven one that failed years before.  On that trip it snowed overnight at Tonopah Station, which sits at 6,300' above sea level.

Around 4 pm we headed over to a local micro brewery, Tonopah Brewing Company, for an early dinner. TLE and I split the 1/2 pound 'Cowboy Burger', and an order on onion rings....

.....I had a porter, don't remember the name, but it was very good, as was the service, ambiance and food.  Even though we split the burger, we were both stuffed!  Yelp gives them 4 stars on over 600 reviews, and we would be right there.

On our way home we stopped at the local Raley's Supermarket to pick up a few things, and were home before 6 pm.  We spent the evening watching episode 4 of Survivor and Amazing Race before heading for bed around 11 pm, which is late for us....lol!

Thanks for stopping by!

Decompressing......

 7:41 am - Wednesday - October 14th - Sportsman's Beach, Walker Lake, NV - 40° F, humidity 30%, cloud cover 2%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northeast.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 69° F.  On this date in 2021 TLE, our Newell and I were on the Clinton/Mukilteo Ferry..... 

........at the south end of Whidbey Island, WA...headed towards Seattle, then south on I-5 to I-90, then east to US-395 then south on the 'Mother Road'.  The view this morning.....

When we arrived at Sportsman's Beach Sunday afternoon it was getting cloudy, and Monday was totally cloudy all day, so Tuesday, when we awoke to clear, blue skies it  was like we were in a different place....

A little snow on the local mountains on the west side of US-95

.....in spite of the sunny skies it was just 38° F at 7:44 am, and really didn't get over 50° F until after 1 pm.  In spite of the cold temp I was outside servicing the Newell, and Kohler 7.5 kw generator.  I haven't had to add oil to the 6v92 since last April in Bishop, CA on our way north for our 5th summer at LPG&RVR, and I haven't added coolant for at least 2 years.  The Detroit Diesel was down just 2 quarts of oil (holds 22), and the large, rear facing radiator was about 1/2 gallon of coolant low (holds 24 gallons).  The Kohler was about 1/2 quart low on oil, and about a third of a gallon low on coolant.  Other than walking down to the local dumpster to dispose of our trash for the past 4 days that was the extent of my outdoor activity.

TLE and I spent most of the day reading, and for me at least one big nap.  I've had several great naps since we arrived here at Walker Lake, and that is exactly why we wanted to stay here and spend 3 days doing nothing except decompressing from a summer of four day work weeks.  Of course, there will be work in our future, but on our schedule, and just a few hours a day, winter weather allowing.  

Speaking of weather forecasts, the long range forecast for this winter will be El Niño conditions, which I believe means we'll have more precipitation in the southwest.  The El Niño conditions tend to strengthen the southern rain track, which means more snow at the higher elevations in Arizona (where we will be), Utah, and New Mexico, and the current conditions support much higher than normal precipitation in these states.  We will see how that forecast plays out this winter.  I've already seen reports of snow in the mountains above Flagstaff, and we actually had snow in the local mountains here at Walker Lake.

TLE made tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner, which is a perfect cold day meal.  For our evening entertainment we watched last week's Survivor and Amazing Race episodes, and were in bed by 9:30 pm.  It was a perfect decompression day!

Thanks for stopping by!

Cold, cloudy, windy, and a little rain/snow......

 7:44 am - Tuesday - October 13th - Sportsman's Beach, Walker Lake, NV - 38° F, humidity 37%, cloud cover 1%, wind 8 mph out of the north by northwest.....crystal clear, blue, sunny skies today with a forecast high of 58° F.  On this date in 2019 my oldest son, Chris, and his wife, Rochelle, paid us a visit at Ramona Oaks RV Resort to help TLE and I install our new, automated Winegard satellite dish.  They've had the exact Winegard automated dish for years, and it has worked well for them, so that is what we bought.....

Chris and Rochelle's Fleetwood diesel pusher

Getting ready to install the dish

Discussing options with Chris

Installed!

.....our previous Winegard satellite dish was of the 'crank up' and aim variety, and was only standard definition.  We wanted to move to high definition with DirecTV, hence the new satellite dish.  We originally subscribed to DirecTV in 2004, however, sadly it has gotten too expensive (over $160/month), so we have cancelled our subscription, and moved to YouTube TV (streaming - free the first 21 days, then $45/month until March of 2027, then $75/month after that), which, by the way, we love!  The view this morning.....

.....we've got sun and warmer temperatures today!

We awoke to heavy cloud cover Monday morning with the sun just peaking over the mountains on the eastern shore of Walker Lake....

......it was bitter cold, and the stiff 13 mph breeze made it seem even colder.  Needless to say, but I'll say it anyway, we spent the morning indoors.  It seemed as if it would rain any minute, but we only got a few scattered sprinkles off and on during the day.

Around 12:30 pm we decided to drive into Hawthorne to get a few necessities at the local Safeway Supermarket (Albertson's), drive around the town, and then get a late lunch at a local pizzeria called Old Nevada Pizza on E Street (US-95).  We had to wait about 30 minutes as they were busy, so to pass the time I ordered a Leinenkugel Summer Shandy, and then another when the pizza arrived.  It is rare that I drink two beers in one sitting, but it seemed like the thing to do.  The pizza was amazing, and we were glad we chose Old Nevada Pizza, plus the second brew was free....doesn't get much better than that!

After lunch we headed to the local truck stop to get our 5 gallon propane bottle filled....it's been a good 6 months that it has been used by the Sea-B-Que, and our propane fire pit, but it only took 2.5 gallons....amazing.

From there we headed to Safeway where we were in and out in about 15 minutes, and then over to the fuel station to top off the VW.  The tank had only 20 miles on it when we started south on Saturday, and since TLE has only been driving 60 mph she was just under half full.  We got over 33 miles per gallon over 270 miles....not bad.  We were home around 3 pm where it was getting colder by the minute, so while TLE took the two small bags of groceries inside I turned on the Predator 5000 dual fuel generator to power up the coach, and finish charging our lithium battery bank.  It's been very cloudy since we left LPG&RVR and they were down to 75%, which is not bad considering how cloudy it has been.

It began raining around 8:30 pm, and rained for 2 or more hours before we went to bed.  This morning (Tuesday) we had snow on the local mountains....

....yup, it is time to head south!  Our travel plan is as follows: Leave Walker Lake Wednesday, drive 119 miles to Tonopah, NV.  Thursday leave Tonopah, NV to travel 123 miles to Amargosa Valley, NV.  Friday leave Amargosa Valley, NV and drive 159 miles to the Travel Centers of America in White Hills, AZ.  Leave White Hills Saturday and drive the final 122 miles (stopping briefly in Henderson, NV to shop at COSTCO/Trader Joe's) to The Wilson Wilderness.

Thanks for stopping by!