May 2017

Today was another very enjoyable travel day on our extended excursion, covering the territory from Moab to Oljato/Monument Valley, Utah. The weather, although forecast for possible showers, stayed reasonably sunny and nice for the duration of the drive. The winds were light and variable, thus making for a less tedious drive in the big RV as opposed to those days when gusty winds made it a bit tiring.

Our camping spot is in a little enclosed area surrounded by higher terrain with a gap looking toward the massive rock formations made famous by the likes of John Ford and “The Duke,” in the golden days of western movies. We had that view from our campsite before some late arrival RVs arrived. We still can have that view by taking a short walk to the end of the row where we’re parked.

Tomorrow, we will head south with one more overnighter in Williams, AZ, before heading home on Wednesday. Damsel and I discussed taking a side route through Grand Canyon tomorrow, but dismissed the idea since we were just there last September. Besides, the side trip would add an additional hour of travel time, so we will be happy to take the faster route.

It doesn’t look like much on a map, but today’s drive had some very spectacular scenery going across US 6/50 from Ely, UT to Delta, NV. There are beautiful mountains, rock formations, National Forests and fertile valleys.

The weather was a bit disagreeable since there were gusty winds most of the way over the 150 mile long route. It was a considerable challenge to keep the big slab-sided bus going straight, but we managed. The winds varied from a quartering tail wind to a full-on tail wind with velocity of 25 to 35 and some gusts up in the 50’s I’m sure. We are still getting gusts here in camp, but not on the same order as those on the road.

Tomorrow will find us on the road headed toward the eastern part of Utah with a planned stop near Arches National Park near Moab, UT. We have traveled most of tomorrow’s route on prior vacations and expect to see the same spectacular scenery as before. On this route, if you don’t like the scenery, just wait five minutes and it will change.

Tonight, we’re in high country in the Great Basin area of Eastern Nevada camped at a nice campground and RV park, elevation 6200 feet or so. Luckily, the forecast is for unseasonably warm weather overnight with the lows forecast to be in the high 50’s rather than the customary mid 30’s for this time of year.

Our route today took us across most of middle Nevada from Hawthorne down to Tonopah and across to Ely. Despite having mostly overcast weather, the scenery was quite striking with pastel colors, jagged peaks and mountain passes followed by verdant valleys dotted with farms and ranches in a very wide-open and spacious “Great Basin.”

The RV performed great going across the desert today, refueling at Tonopah with one other rest stop on the way out to Ely. The ride was smooth and comfortable most of the way with only a few areas of gusty winds that make keeping a big rig like ours between the lines a slight challenge.

Today’s leg and yesterdays were longer than we consider nominal (nominal being a four hour trip), mostly because of the vast distances between places. Tomorrow and the rest of the trip working our way home are planned to be shorter than nominal. We will be in Utah tomorrow, stopping at Delta which is less than three hours from here. That will give us some time for showering and other personal things when we get in camp over there.

We made the trip from Stockton to this campground today. We don’t usually drive for more than four hours per leg, but we wanted to exit California before stopping for the night. This trip, using the scenic route we took, was a little under six hours of driving time.

We used CA 88 out of Stockton across the Sierras (still lots of snow, BTW) and thence via US 395 back into California for s spell and then across the desert just north of Mono lake into Nevada again terminating here in Hawthorne. We were as high as 8,500 feet MSL and are at 4300 feet at “Whiskey Flats.”

Tomorrow won’t be as scenic as we make our way across the great basin of Nevada. Tomorrow’s destination is in the little town of Ely at the confluence of US 50 and US 6 in Eastern Nevada. We will report in at that time.