Book of Ely

The towns along US HWY 50 has such cool names.....Baker, Ely, Eureka, Austin, Fallon, Fernley....well, okay, Fernley sounds a little geeky, huh....but the rest....come on...they are cool names.  

We had only 64 miles to drive from Baker to Ely, NV Wednesday, so we just took at easy in the morning waiting for the temperature to rise up from 17 F degrees to the "guessed" 50 degrees by Noon.   We had our electric blanket blazing all night to offset the 17 F degrees exterior temp....plus we had both the front and back electric heaters set at 60 and 50 degrees respectively.  The water bay heater was set at 60 and did a fine job at keeping the temp there above 50 degrees.

We did some wash.......my micro fiber towels were getting grimmy so TLE washed them first so I could lay them out on the picnic table to dry in the sun, and extremely DRY air.  Then she set about to wash a few towels we use on occasion when it is raining to put on the stairs and entry flooring.  Sometime during that wash cycle the splendid Splendide had a hiccup....it would not go into spin cycle, and then we began to smell a smell that is never good......I think the belt that drives the drum has slipped, broken, or fallen off.....so I have a new project to tackle as soon as we reach "home" and have time to pull out the washer and open it up to see what is what.  

We pulled out of the Border Inn RV Park at exactly 11:17 am heading due west toward Ely, NV.  The scenery was even more spectacular than the day before.  TLE took several pictures along the way to illustrate in a somewhat feeble attempt how spectacular it was.

We had to climb two passes between Baker and Ely......the first topped out at just over 7,200' and the second closer to 7,700'.....as always the DD performed flawlessly never exceeding 198 F degrees.   I have to say once again there is nothing sweeter sounding than a 2 stroke Detroit Diesel purring along at 2,100 rpm's (redline).....it just has such a silky smooth tone that reverberates off the guard rails, and mountains.  It never sounds like it is straining in the least as it pushes 50,000 pounds up a 7% grade for 7 miles.  It's as if "she" is saying....."come on, is that all you've got for me today?".

We reached Ely, NV around 12:45 pm and found a nice pull through spot at The Prospector Casino/Hotel/RV Park (thank you Dave for your recommendation!!) with full hookups for $15 per night!  As we finished checking in Adrianna handed me two tickets for 2 free Margaritas in their bar.....good after 3 pm.  That was perfect, because we were going for a walk around town, and specifically over to the Nevada Northern Railway Museum on 11th Street.  This is a "living" museum as almost all of their steam and diesel engines are in working condition, and, in fact, pull passenger cars several times a week in the summer on short local trips.  Unfortunately after Labor Day they only run their "Ghost Train" trips on the weekends, so we were out of luck in that regard, but the museum was open when we arrived at 1:45 pm.

There is a $5 per person charge for a guided walking tour, and since we were the only ones there on a Wednesday we got Engineer Bob all to ourselves for over an hour as we walked through living history.  They have at least 3 operating steam engines that I could count with another one under restoration.....the cost to restore one of these steam engines?  $1.2 million dollars.  Along with the steam engines they have a number of cabooses, passenger cars (all restored) that are still in service.  In essence the museum is the old Nevada Northern Railyard, which includes the old water tower, and coal elevator.  All of the engines, including the diesel powered ones, are kept in the enormous RIP buildings (Repair In Place), and out of the weather.  The old steamers require a lot of maintenance.  As we walked from engine to engine we would ask Engineer Bob (probably in his late 70's) questions about each, and he had answers to every single question we had.

 Fully restored box cars.....still in use today

 Old # 40 was built to pull passenger cars back in the early 1900's, and she still does......look at the size of the driver wheels....69"...built for speed.

 Loved this sign at the entrance to the "RIP" building.....click on it to enlarge the print.....I didn't tell Engineer Bob what I used to do for a living.

#93 was strickly a freight train

TLE took some great pictures with her iPhone.......

 Steam powered crane

 Enginerr Bob standing by a steam powered snow blower that is, by the way, operational!

The coal elevator (left) and water tower (right)....still in use today!

Afterwards we continued our walk around town looking for a couple of thrift shops, but both were closed this day.....well, we needed the walk anyway.  According to the program on TLE's smart phone we walked about 3.5 miles in all.  Saw this cool old Studebaker truck inside a storage yard as we walked back to the casino.

Eventually we returned to the casino and headed in for our free Margaritas.....of course the free ($1 size) Margaritas were quite small, so when we finished off the first two we paid for a full size Cadillac Margaritas.  We sat talking with Dale, the bartender, for about 40 minutes....a very interesting guy, who, by the by, is from........SIDNEY, MT!  Small world, huh?

I enjoyed the company of two beautiful women while I drank my Cadillac Margarita....only one of them really talked to me though.

We headed back to the coach around 4:20 just as the sun was setting.  Around 5:30 I turned on the BBQ so we could BBQ two filet mignons.....TLE added green beans, and baked potatoes, and a bottle of Pinot Noir.

After dinner we watched a couple of TV programs (LIVE), and then headed off to bed around 11.....another day lived well on the road.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baker's Dozen

So happy to be rolling again, but so sad to be leaving my brother and sister-in-law's home after 8 days.  We had a great time spending evenings with them and talking for hours over lovingly prepared meals.  And, of course, the work Dwyer did to help us put the finishing touches on our remodel were invaluable, and greatly appreciated.

We woke up to heavy snow Tuesday morning......I had just finished my daily blog entry when I opened the front curtains to see snow everywhere.

To say the least, departure Tuesday morning was looking iffy.......we like driving in snow even less than rain, so for a brief time we anticipated not leaving South Jordan Tuesday......but just a brief time....within an hour the snow had stopped, the sun came out and the snow began to melt.....whew!

Once we saw the weather clearing around 9:30 we began getting ready to leave  and by 11 am the weather as looking good enough to travel.  We said our "until next times" to Dwyer and Lori and then headed to a local fuel station to "pay the rent".  We were down just under 1/2 a tank of diesel, and it will only cost more the further west we go, so we took on 105 gallons at $3.68 per gallon.  From there it was a short hop to I-15 where we merged into the southbound lanes just about 11:30 am.

We drove south on I-15 to exit 244 and US HWY 6 for about 70 miles west until we hit US HWY 50, and then southwest another 90 miles through some of the most desolate, deserted country we have seen in some time........"some time" being almost exactly 5.5 years since we drove this same highway.

We stopped briefly in Delta, UT on the side of the road where TLE made me a sandwich while I drained some 40 weight oil into the crankcase (we were about 2 quarts low), and then we continued on the final 90 miles into Baker, NV.  What I did not realize was that as soon as we crossed the Nevada state line we entered Pacific Standard Time.    The Border Inn and RV Park  straddles the state line with the motel rooms on the Utah side, and the RV park on the Nevada side.  The RV section of this oasis has improved since we were last here......the sites are level, there are full hookups, and the water spigots are heated to prevent freezing.  For us is it a great overnight spot.  Since we are at the eastern most end of the PST here at the border the sun went down for us at 4:24 pm.....on the Utah side, just a few yards away, it went down at 5:24 pm.

Not long after the sun set the temperature was dropping quickly into the 30's.  Yes, it is good to be on the road again, and it is good to see the vast open spaces again.  We have just over 800 miles to travel in the next 9 days before we reach home, and are looking forward to a nice, leisurely pace.

 Sunset

Thanks for stopping by!

"Honey Do"

Monday was just a plain, old fashioned, very, very cold day.....no two ways about it.....according to the "guessers" it got up to 42, but with the high humidity it felt 10 degrees colder.  I was feeling better in the morning after a day of feeling kind of "punk" on Sunday.  I had one last "honey do" thing to accomplish for The Lovely Elaine.  Of course, the very big "honey do" item had been put to bed.....redo the salon area, and coach flooring......but this last "honey do" item was very important to TLE, and she had been talking it up to me for almost as long as the salon redo (remove the couch, etc.), so I knew I needed to come through for her on this last smallish item.

As you know, we have a small fold-down dinette table in the salon, which, when we are parked, is up most of the time.  Before we installed my new computer station I either used the dinette table to sit my laptop on, or used a small "TV" table in front of the drivers seat.  Now that I need neither of those tables any further for my laptop we would prefer the dinette table only be up when we are using it to "dine".  Being able to keep it down makes the area much roomier.  

We have previously utilized a 3 foot long table that came with the coach in this space, but it stuck out about 18" and still did not make the area feel too much bigger, so TLE's vision for that table involved cutting it down to 7" wide, and permanently fastening it to the wall.  Once again, let me remind you......I don't like big changes, and cutting this nice looking table down to a third its size just didn't feel right, but in my heart I knew TLE's idea was a good one.  It was just a matter of "making it happen", so Monday morning, the beginning of our last full day at my brother's home with access to the necessary power tools to do the job, I got busy cutting the table down and installing it just over the fold up dinette table.  Personally, I think it turned out well, and based on the quick posting of pictures by TLE on Facebook, I'm pretty sure she likes it a lot.  Here are TLE's pictures posted on Facebood for her friends to see.

Table down

Table up

It took me the better part of four hours to complete the job, and by 1:30 pm I was starting to feel "punk" again.......nuts!!  I sat in my recliner to take a nap whilst TLE made a "wine run" to the local State liquor store.....where we are headed (HWY 50) there are not a lot of liquor stores, and our supply of suitable wine is pretty much gone.

When she returned I was feeling a tad better, but still not 100%, so we loaded up the extra 2 boxes of flooring we didn't use for our remodel project and took them back to Lowe's for our refund of $62.  By the time we returned I thought I was going to throw up, and dashed into the coach quickly, but (whew!!) the feeling passed.  

Our original plan was to go out to dinner at a local brew pub with Dwyer and Lori, but I ended up spening the remainder of the evening resting in my recliner, watching MNF (Monday Night Football), and "Bones" live (I fell asleep near the end of the episode), after which we headed off to bed at 10 pm.....I was feeling better by that time, and was optimistic I was finally getting past this "thing".  You must know if I passed up an opportunity for good beer and food I must not have felt very well......hmmmm?

Tuesday we will roll the wheels of the Newell once again heading first south in I-15, then west on HWY 50 to Carson City.  Looking forward to getting back to Pacific Standard Time, but even more, looking forward to new adventures along the way!

Thanks for stopping by!

Finishing touches.....

 SNOW!!!

The overnight temperatures got quite cold Saturday night, and by 9 am Sunday it was SNOWING!  It snowed for a couple of hours, sometimes quite heavily, and had just started to "stick" when it began to clear.  Even though the sun eventually came out around Noon, it never got much above 40 degrees the rest of the day, and combined with the mild wind we had it felt closer to freezing, if not below freezing.  Due to the super cold weather, and snow we didn't get around to the final finishing touches on our interior remodel until around Noon time.

It was nice to take a day off from our whirlwind remodeling of the floors, salon, furniture, etc., but it was time we got back down to business to try and knock off the last few "fit and finish"  details before we start rolling our wheels again.  We needed to get the new "stair nose" installed, and that was a job for my brother.  There was a lot of last  minute leveling, and smoothing of the surfaces around the top of the stairs before the "stair nose" could be cut, fitted and installed.  Additionally, there were about 20 feet of quarter round that needed to be installed in four areas.  Dwyer arrived around 1:30 and by 4:45 had the final installation of the "stair nose" and quarter round work done, and it looks great!

 "Stair nose" around the top of the stairs

 Quarter round under the vanity in the bathroom

 Quarter round under the floor mirror in the bedroom

Quarter round along the passenger side wall between the stairs and the passenger seat

Of course, in the background was the sound of NFL football......the two morning games went right down to the wire, and in the afternoon the Seahawks staged another miraculous comeback from 21 points down to win over the winless Buccaneers, and the same for the Colts, who came from 21 points down in the nightcap to defeat the Texans.

I was feeling a little "under the weather" so I didn't do too much other than supervise the work going on around me, and watch football.   As a result of my not feeling well I never got around to organizing the trailer for departure Monday, and it is still going to be very, very cold then, so we have delayed our departure until Tuesday morning.  I'll spend Monday getting ready to go.  I think it's a good decision to wait as the trend is for warming the next 6 days along the route we are going to travel.  All of that being said, that is one of the blessings of this lifestyle.....there is no compelling reason why we had to leave Sunday, or Monday, so it's easy to go along with the "Jello" and not fight it.

What is the route we will be traveling over the next 10 days, you ask?  We'll initially head south on I-15, but leave the Interstate just below Utah Lake heading west on HWY 50 (The Loneliest Road in America)  across Nevada to Carson City, NV where we will pick up one of our favorite US Highways.....HWY 395,  We love this north to south route along the Eastern Sierra, and through Owens Valley, and have traveled it a hundred times over the years.....we never get tired of it, and the amazing scenery.....stay tuned for our continuing adventures.  We will once again pick up I-15 about 45 miles from our home.

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. - I am feeling better this morning....Monday.

Day of Rest

Everybody needs a day off at least once a week......especially moi.  It seems I'm loosing sight of what "retired" means doesn't it?  Come on, I can hear the discreet whispers in the background......."he's lost his way"....."he thinks he's 19 again"......."he doesn't seem to know how to relax, and stay retired".  I've been working way too much the past 6 weeks, and doing very little retired, living on the road, nomadic vagabond type stuff.  So, Saturday, it was time for a change of pace.

On Wednesday, or Thursday my brother, Dwyer, suggested we drive up to Park City (a well know ski resort) for dinner.  I had no idea how close time wise Park City was.  We, of course, agreed.....but wait, I get ahead of myself.

For the first time this past week we got up and did pretty much nothing most of the day.....okay, I did one important thing.....emptied the black and gray tanks.....we had plenty of "room" left in both tanks, but we will be leaving in a couple of days, and I prefer to leave with mostly empty waste tanks.  Thankfully there is a sewer cleanout conveniently located in the middle of Dwyer's driveway with a nice brass plate over it, and a cap that screws out for access.....this is probably one of the nicest cleanouts I have used, including my own at home.

After that I watched some college football and took a nap....or two....until it was time to leave for Park City around 3:30.....the drive up took less than 40 minutes, which passed quickly.  Dwyer had made reservations at the Stein Eriksen Lodge restaurant.....apparently a very well known restaurant in these parts.  Park City, like a lot of ski areas in Utah and Colorado, started its life as a mining town back in the 1800's, but has transformed itself into a world class ski area, which actually hosted some Winter Olympic events when Salt Lake City hosted them in 2002.

Our dinner reservations were not until 6, so we decided to hang out at the Wasatch Brew Pub and Brewery for an hour, or so.  Lori's favorite brew there is the Jalapeno Cream Ale.  Dwyer, TLE and I had a pint of their Polygamy Porter Nitro, and TLE also got a sampler of the Jalapeno Cream Ale for us to taste......wow, a real peppery after taste!  If you every find yourself at this establishment you must try it.  We also ordered an appetizer of chips and salsa to kind of take the edge off our appetites......I had only had a couple of pieces of toast for breakfast, and half a sandwich for lunch.....apparently none of us had eaten much all day in anticipation of our dinner at The Stein Eriksen Lodge that night.

"The Lovely Lori" and "The Lovely Elaine"....Lori, I'm sorry I caught you with your eyes closed......:D

We hung out until about 5:30, then took a short site seeing drive around Park City and Deer Valley before arriving at The Stein Eriksen Lodge.  Their restaurant is a Forbe's 4 star restaurant, and I can see why.....the Filet I had was one of the top 3 I have ever had.  Their wine list is 57 pages long with some bottles of wine exceeding $1,000.  

Internet file photos of the grand entrance, and the dinning room

Out on the deck before dinner

After dinner pose

We enjoyed a leisurely 2 hour dinner, which almost rose to the level of the great conversation we had.  The service was exceptional, as was the food and ambiance.   For my first course I had the Garden Tomatoes and Housemade Ricotta, and for the main course I had the Double R Ranch Beef Tenderloin (Filet Mignon).

We arrived back home just before 10 pm (really 9 pm as Sunday morning at 2 am the time rolls back one hour), said our good nights and headed into the coach....what a great evening!!

We have delayed our departure for one more day (Monday) as it will rain Sunday and we don't like hitting the road in the rain, plus Dwyer has a little more finishing work to do in the salon area.  Hard to believe we have already been here a week.

Thanks for stopping by!

21 Months and I'm Still In love....

When TLE first suggested we remove the "sacred" sofabed back in Campbellsville, KY a year ago I kind of went along with the suggestion not wanting to get into an unnecessary argument.  It was the same feeling I had just before we left on our journey when TLE suggested we "dump" the old "club chair" (the one I sat in most of the time) that came with the coach, and replace it.   When "D" day arrived to take the club chair out we had nothing to replace it except a folding chair.  Well, we didn't literally dump the club chair.....I think it is still in the warehouse at my son'e office, so I thought if it doesn't work out we can retrieve it later.  My chair for the next 9 months was that transitional folding chair.  It was when we officially replaced the folding chair with my European Style recliner that TLE laid out the next step in her plan to remake the salon area of the coach.

Nevertheless,  I don't like too much change at one time, and there was no way to get around the fact that taking out the sofabed was a really BIG change.  At the time I just could not imagine how big a difference removing the sofabed would be for the positive in our quality of life inside the coach.  Even the day we officially removed the sofabed, Tuesday, I was still apprehensive, but there was no way to stop the incoming tide.

Now, 4 days later, with 99.9% of the work done (right, you got it, there is always that .1% which remains to be done) I have finally seen the birth of TLE's vision, and I like it a lot.  Here are some shots of the new salon area of our coach taken by TLE Friday evening just before dinner.

Ignore that guy the behind the curtain......look at the kitchen area!

All of the trimming that had to be done around the edges of the coach front to back has been cut in, and  a big part of the finish trim (quarter round, transition molding, etc.) has now been installed.  What is that .1% that remains......the new stair nose molding around the stairway and a couple of lengths of quarter round, all of which will be finished Sunday morning.

We are like a couple of giddy school kids who just unwrapped their Christmas presents.  The even more remarkable thing is the new simulated wood vinyl is almost a dead on match to the rest of the wood veneer in the coach.

Of course,  almost lost in all of the remodeling work which has transpired this week is the fact that on Friday we finished 21 months living on the road in our 1982 Newell Coach.  When I wrote above that "a year ago" TLE suggested removing the sofabed, it seemed so unreal to be able to say something happened "a year ago".  In just 3 more months we will be celebrating 2 years on the road, and we are STILL in love with this nomadic lifestyle!

Also, yesterday our friends Chris and Cherie (Tales from Technomadia), who have been a major inspiration to us to take up the nomadic life, just finished a two week stint in Sacramento clearing out a storage unit Chris had been renting for 7 years since he began his nomadic journey.  At the end of Friday I was watching a streaming video of their talk about the task of cleaning out that unit.  If you are interested in their observations about the process click here to see the Ustream video.....it is very interesting and informative.

Cherie and Chris

Friday night we headed into Dwyer and Lori's home once again for dinner.  I really look forward to dinner in their home each night, and Friday night was even more special with their son, Arthur, joining us, plus their daughter, Ingrid, and her husband of 2.5 months, Randy.  We had a typical Hockwald dinner where there are at least 3 simultaneous conversations going on at all times.....lots of laughing, interesting stories, and just general zaninous (is that a word?).

Our time is coming to an end here in the great state of Utah, and in a couple of days we will continue our trek home to Southern California to spend the holidays with our children and grand children, AND my brother Philip and his family......life is soooo good!

Thanks for stopping by!

DONE!!!.......okay....almost DONE!

We hit the deck running Thursday morning, and by 9 am were deep into the continuing installation of our new flooring, plus my new work space.  TLE and I developed a good rhythm working together and by 2 pm we had about 80% of the flooring in place.  We saved the toughest parts for my brother who does this kind of work for a living, and while it takes a while to do the last 20%.....if it was I doing this part it would take 3 times longer.

Eventually TLE and I had gone as far as we could go without Dwyer's expertise, so we went out to the garage (trailer) to assemble her new recliner.  Wow.....that was way harder than either of us envisioned.  Even with TLE reading the directions it took us over an hour to put it together....at least there were no bolts or washers left over.

TLE needed to go to the store to get a couple of things.....mainly the 1/2 and 1/2 she forgot the day before, but also another folding chair like the one we got for my work station.  We figured when we have guests we can use the two folding chairs to go along with our two recliners and the two front seats that we swivel around when we are parked.  I, on the other hand, needed a nap, so I went inside to lay down for 30 minutes.......at just about the 30 minute mark Dwyer returned home from a job he is working on, and came over to start working on the difficult sections where a lot of cuts are necessary to get each piece to fit properly.  By 6 pm he had gone as far as he was going to go Thursday, and it was time for dinner.  He probably has 3-4 hours of work left, which will get done Friday afternoon, but this is what our salon looks like now.....you can still see a few spots where the linoleum moisture barrier is showing through, but they will disappear Friday morning.

There is a small amount of "piece work" that Dwyer will finish Friday afternoon, and some trim to install, but we are basically there as far as the new look and feel.....I now have a dedicated work space with which I am very pleased, and TLE has her own recliner now, and the space feels a little bigger than it did with the sofabed.  The main thing is the damaged wood flooring is now replaced with the easier to maintain vinyl flooring, but we still have the wood look and feel.

We headed into Dwyer and Lori's home for dinner around 6:30, and enjoyed another evening of laughter and great conversation, not to mention another great meal prepared by the loving hand's of my sister-in-law.

We got back to the coach just in time to see the very end of the Dophins vs. Bengals NFL game, which was in overtime....the Dolphins won on a "safety" when their quarterback was "sacked" (tackled) in the end zone.

Oh, and by the way, I forgot to mention that the Boston Red Sox won game 6 to win the World Series.......one sport down, and another starting up.....it's almost basketball season and time for the NBA and NCAA basketball!

Thanks for stopping by!