April 2010 Trip - 17 April

Well, we beat the pass record today. 6526 ft. in Tonopah Pass in Nevada. That was after about 36 hours of being at least 4000 ft. We didn't realize that so much of Nevada was very high desert country. Well, after a pleasant night in Fallon, NV, we headed out. Had to stop on the way to take a picture of a lonely A-7 outside the defunct Fallon Naval Air Station.

We passed through Hawthorne, NV which for some reason never ceases to amaze me. It is the Army Depot and ammunition storage area. It is littered with big buildings and bunkers.

The second picture was taken through Janice's window as we were driving. While the first one below looks like it's been there a while, the second appears to be new.

Our plan was to stay at the Valley of Fire State Park, but when we got there; there was no room at the inn. So I stopped and took a few pictures. I wish we had been able to stay there. It reminded me a lot of the red sandstone we had seen in Colorado. But it was getting late and we needed to find a place to stay.

As we were driving through Minot, NV; I had to turn back and take a picture of this restaurant. Minot appears to be significantly challenged economically. Desert Lobster crossing signs were evident.

He used a lot of "junk" to build this and it is hard to discern what he was up to.

Went through Tonopah (which is slightly better off than Minot) and hit our peak of 6526 ft. Passed a Shrike rocket (old and tattered) on a Tonopah Missle Range sign and wished I took a picture of that. However, we did stop for lunch just outside of Tonopah at a "rest area". Below is a picture of Janice and the mutt and a picture of what appears to be an old dredge bucket out in the middle of nowhere.

One the way to Tonopah, we saw what looked like a snow field. It turned out to be a huge salt marsh backed by the mountains. There is a movie I made which you can watch as well.

There was hardly any traffic on the road which was lucky because Janice stopped dead in the road as she wanted me to get a picture of the green ahead. When we got down to that valley, we found that it was all due to Joshua trees.

We finally found some level patches right outside of the Lake Mead Recreation Area. So, we "roughed it" (i.e. No electrical hookup). That didn't change much though. We fired up the generator, raised the TV antenna, and watched an old Bing Crosby/Grace Kelly/Frank Sinatra musical, "High Society".