Day Three, Post Two

Thursday, May 15th, 2014

Since my last post we left our spacious, albeit sparse, accommodations in Lakeview and headed east on highwy 140.  Those of you who have driven this route know it's nothing to write home about.  Thus no post yesterday.  The road from Lakeview, OR to Winnemucca, NV really goes through no other cities, towns or villages.  Unless you count Denio, but then you are surely living in denio/denial.  However it does sport some darn impressive passes.  Not all that fun when your home is behind you and you have a well equipped kitchen on board.  Here's a little bit of nostalgia for those who have passed this way

Yep, that's a long way down looking out the passenger side when you're at the top.  Did I mention the lack of shoulders on this highway?  We had quite a little excitement when we apparently got whacked by a dust devil.  Fortunately it was on a flat section.

Anyway that long, long, long day of driving brought us to Winnemucca, Nevada.  I have a very early memory of Winnemucca that involves a family vacation in the very early 60's in a Ford Falcon station wagon when cars had vinyl upholstery.

It was the middle of the night and it was over 80 degrees and my mother wasn't happy.  Despite that I loved those family vacations when we'd hit the road and I would have this wonderful "nest" in the back of the station wagon.  I'm sure it's what planted the seed for this whole RVing thing I love to do.

Okay, back to the present.  We checked in at the Hi Desert RV Park which was just fine.  However Simon gave it a tails-down because he couldn't find any grass, which for him is like a good wifi connection.  We found a good spot to eat.  If you find yourself in Winnemucca check out The Pig BBQ and Pub. I really enjoyed the Pulled Pork tacos and Dave & Simon (tails-up and wagging) enjoyed the house special Pulled Pork sandwich.  And a big advantage of being in Winnemucca was a wide open horizon to watch the full moon rise.  

This morning we hit the road, Interstate 80 specifically.  And I took the wheel to give Dave a break.  I can't express how much I appreciate his great driving skills.  But a gal's gotta do her part.  So I took the wheel for the straight, flat leg ahead of us.  Well, actually there's several grades to pull, but more annoying there was construction.  I'm not good with constricted lanes.  But I got through it for about three hours.  Meanwhile Dave was able to take this picture as we drove through Battle Mountain.

I'd like to have been at the city council meeting where they decided to put a big "BM" up on the hill.

Just so I could say-

 "Really?"

In their defense all towns and cities in Nevada do this.  It's just Battle Mountain's bad luck that their initials are what they are.

Tonight finds us in Wendover, NV.  Mind you we drove across town and bought fuel in Utah earlier.  But we were sure to drive back to NV to buy beer.

We of course were welcomed to town by Wendover Will.

Will is the far more evolved version of the cowboy we saw in Lakeview.  But can anyone tell me what the heck are the white things hanging from the corners of his mouth?  Are they feathers?  Did he just eat a chicken? 

Now we are enjoying a nice breeze under the awning with mediocre Nevada brewed beer as we look over the Salt Flats.

Tomorrow we will drive out across this famous proving ground for fast vehicles.

At 65 mph.