Our home for the night: Ely (EE-lee), Nevada. Elevation: 6,437', Population: 4,255 Total number of Covid cases in Pine County: 184, Deaths: ☝ Maybe we should stay here for a while.
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First of all, in honor of Veteran's Day I'd like to thank anyone reading this who has served in the US Armed Forces. My dad was a Staff Sergeant in the United States Army during the Korean War and served his country proudly.
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We exited Antelope Valley RV Park at precisely 10:00am making a right hand turn followed by a quick left-hand turn and then a ... well... here's an aerial shot of the area showing exactly what we did.
Diesel fuel at the Delta, Utah Sinclair Station was $2.59 per gallon and they don't participate in the EFS fuel program. No discount. Oh well, I can remember, not all that long ago, paying $5.00 a gallon. So it could be worse. Hey, with the Green New Deal looming out there maybe we can get back to the good ol' days at some point in the not-too-distant future.
That'd be great. Right?
So as you can see, fueling up this morning was a fairly painless exercise and we were back out on US-50 headed west in very short order. I did take the time to retrieve my long-handled brush and squeegee from the cargo bay in which they are stored and washed the windshield. It wasn't all that dirty, but I like starting a travel day with a clean windshield - especially when the scenery is as beautiful as it is in this part of the country.
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Well, they don't call US-50 the "Loneliest Road in America" for no reason. Within just a few miles I felt lonely as... well, a search for an appropriate simile at similestack.com yielded, "Lonely as a cloud". I never really thought of a cloud as being lonely. But, alright.
We passed through a desolate portion of the Great Basin Desert before beginning our first climb. Desert basins and mountain passes in the 7,000' + range were today's theme. It may be a lonely road, but some of the views, especially from the mountain passes, were spectacular! Even the more desolate expanses were beautiful in their own way.
Having said that, there were some very long, very straight stretches of asphalt.
After crossing the narrow waist of the Schell Creek Range at 7,722-foot Connor's Pass we began the 1,300-foot, 22 mile gentle slide into Ely.
We are parked at the Ely KOA where, by 6am tomorrow morning the temperature will dip to 6°.
Nippy.
I filled the fresh water tank and emptied the waste water tanks before departing Delta this morning so when we arrived here in Ely I connected only to the 50 amp power pedestal. We haven't done a lot of cold weather camping so purchasing a heated water hose (they're rather pricey) never seemed necessary. We've always taken a more southern route to California at this time of year. Before attempting another autumnal crossing in these latitudes however, I may have to pull the trigger.
Tomorrow we'll get an early start and see if we can knock out the 320 miles between here and Reno. If something interesting presents itself along the way we can always tap the brakes and push Reno out another day or two. We're kind of making it up as we go.
Thanks for checking out the blog!
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