0610 Wake up. It feels much too early to be awake but I
want to see Great Basin before it gets too hot.
0725 Leave the room.
0745 Leaving hotel.
0750 Gas, $3.42/gallon.
0758 McD’s for
breakfast. Last chance for civilization
for a long time.
0809 Hit a rabbit on
the highway. Oh no!
0811 Funeral
announcements on the local radio station.
Nicely timed to go with the unfortunate rabbit accident.
0834 Sevier Dry Lake
Bed.
0835 I just missed
hitting a deer! Yikes! That would've been much worse than the rabbit was for sure.
0836 Jo says we will
arrive at Great Basin at 0835. Guess
there’s a time change involved that I forgot about.
0858 Confusion
Mountains
0900 Summit, 6280 feet
0920 Nevada, Pacific
Time Zone
0830 Great Basin
Visitor Center. Unfortunately they are
having alarm problems and they are closed.
0845 Arrive at the
Caves visitor center. Lots of people here going on the cave tours but not
us. Maybe next time.
0856 Scenic Drive, here
we come! Drive to Mather Overlook and
Osceola Ditch. Current temperature, 68
degrees.
1145 Finish our 3-mile
hike on the Alpine Lakes trail. We saw Stella and Teresa Lakes. The temperature up here is 59 degrees so just
slightly chilly. The elevation was tough for me – I was having a tough time
breathing and was wishing I had taken my inhaler with me but I survived. It is just simply amazing how quiet it is out here. Priceless.
12:11 p.m. Driving back
down. See a coyote or a fox.
12:20 p.m. Stop at the
first visitor’s center again to get a stamp for my passport. The ranger says that what we saw was a fox.
12:44 p.m. Sacramento Pass,
elevation 7154 feet
12:47 p.m. Spring
Valley
1:10 p.m. Steptoe
Valley – funny name
1:27 p.m. Ely, NV.
Elevation, 6435 feet. Current
temperature, 80 degrees.
1:29 p.m. McD’s for
lunch.
2:02 p.m. Leaving McD’s. What a zoo that was. Clearly the only one for miles and miles and
miles because everyone and their brother was stopping there for lunch.
2:05 p.m. Gas,
$3.59/gallon
2:17 p.m. Highway 50 –
The Loneliest Road in America. And that
ain’t no joke. Quite desolate out here.
3:06 p.m. Pancake Summit
3:10 p.m. Kids are
watching Cars 2.
3:11 p.m. Tumbleweed.
3:19 p.m. Cows.
3:24 p.m. Eureka. The sign says that it is “The Friendliest
Town on the Loneliest Road”
4:30 p.m. Bathroom
break in Austin, NV.
5:18 p.m. Cold
Springs. This town only has one
building.
5:20 p.m. Cloud cover
has kept it cool today thankfully. I’m
sure it gets blazing hot out here in the summer.
5:28 p.m. Tree full of
shoes. Didn’t see it until too late so couldn’t stop for a picture.
5:30 p.m.
Middlegate. This town is an old Pony
Express Station. Again, there is only one building in town. It is a combination gas
station/restaurant/motel.
5:34 p.m. Fairview Peak
Earthquake Faults. Would be a good stop
for geology buffs.
5:52 p.m. Names spelled
out with rocks along the highway. Maybe
intended for pilots to see as they fly in and out of the base?
6:13 p.m. Fallon, NV.
Gas, $3.47/gallon. Current temperature,
84 degrees. A lady at the gas station says that the gas price was $3.39 just 2
hours ago. We averaged 26 mpg coming across 50.
6:18 p.m. Taco Bell for
dinner. In just two days we will be back
home eating our own food. Six weeks is a long time to be away from home-cooked
food. Such a warm fuzzy to have the kids
comment that they miss my cooking. The
Taco Bell is all decorated with fighter jets to honor the Top Gun school that
is here now. I have to say that Fallon
is not nearly as nice of a duty station as Miramar in San Diego.
7:30 p.m. Dayton. Site of Nevada’s first gold discovery in
1849.
7:40 p.m. Carson City,
NV
8:07 p.m. Made it to
the hotel. Phew. Watch a little Disney channel and hit the pool then bedtime.
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