With 320 miles separating us from Reno, NV we thought it wise to get an early start. The first thing I did after getting out of bed was to open the control panel located just outside the bedroom door and flip the engine heater switch to the "on" position. The outside temperature was a frigid 4° and I suspected the Cummins I6 might need a little love. I should have flipped the switch before going to bed last night but forgot. By the time we got everything stowed, walked the dogs and completed all the other various tasks necessary to allow us to roll, about 45 minutes had elapsed. A partial turn of the key, pausing just long enough to allow the glow plugs to work their magic followed by a further turn and hold at the start position and the 450hp behemoth rumbled to life. She wasn't happy about it, and it took a few seconds for her to settle into her usual cadence, but considering the ambient temperature and the relatively short warm up period, I was impressed. And relieved!
There's an in-dash alarm that sounds until all four of the coach's hydraulic leveling jacks have fully retracted and it was taking longer than usual to go silent. There are also lights on the leveling system control panel showing which jacks have retracted to the travel position and which have not. I could see the driver's side rear jack was the culprit. For a jack to not fully retract is not that unusual, although this particular one has never given me problems. The solution is to extend the offending jack and spray the shaft with silicone - which is what I did. It retracted - and we were good to go.
Before departing I had a short conversation with the fellow in the next site. He and his wife were in the process of winterizing their 5th wheel before returning home to Carson City following a week of elk hunting. He had a cow elk permit and she, a much more coveted bull permit. The permits are issued by way of a lottery and would-be elk hunters can wait years to win a chance at bagging one of the beasts. He said his dad waited 20 years before being awarded a bull permit... and never even saw one that season. He, himself bagged one 3 years ago - which means he can't participate in the lottery for another 7 years.
But America's Loneliest Road was beckoning... so off we went.
The Ely KOA is 3 miles east of downtown Ely. A relatively bustling copper mining town, Ely is home to fast food franchises, a couple handsome looking casinos, several cafes and many other seemingly successful businesses that line either side of the main drag. As we climbed out of town we could see the man-made mountains of earth to the left of the highway - evidence of more than a century of copper mining.
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Climbs, summits, descents and basins... one after another. Antelope Summit, Pinto Summit, Mount Airy Summit... and a few other summits whose names I can't recall. The final was Austin Summit - and the twisty, steep descent into the town for which it is named was relatively slow-going.
A couple photos from today's journey...
Yeah, it's lonely
Eureka, NV. A very 'western' looking little town
An hour or so into our trip Suzanne went back to the galley to fix us something for breakfast. When she opened the refrigerator door a bunch of stuff came crashing to the floor, including a bottle of beer. Fortunately there was a turn-out just up the road. I pulled over and we spent the next 30 minutes cleaning up the mess. Hey, it's not all unicorns and rainbows.
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So tonight we're in Fallon, Nevada having ended our day about 60 miles shy of our planned destination of Reno. We were both a little tuckered out and after a long, lonely day a quick Google search performed by my navigatrix yielded a couple promising possibilities for overnighting.
Fallon RV Park gives a small discount to Good Sam members and is conveniently located just off US50.
And speaking of Fallon...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naval_Air_Station_Fallon Naval Air Station Fallon or NAS Fallon (IATA: NFL, ICAO: KNFL, FAA LID: NFL) is the United States Navy's premier air-to-air and air-to-ground training facility. It is located southeast of the city of Fallon in western Nevada. Since 1996, it has been home to the Naval Fighter Weapons School (TOPGUN) taking over from the former NAS Miramar, California, and the surrounding area contains 240,000 acres (97,000 ha) of bombing and electronic warfare ranges.
A group of three fighter jets were performing some very impressive tight formation maneuvers overhead as we approached our destination. Very cool.
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