Oregon or Bust!

Wed. - April 2 -  Gary was up early and rode his bike around the marina area.  I went for a walk too before breakfast.  There were numerous motorhomes and campers, some people were cooking breakfast outside, it smelled yummy.  We cleaned up and packed, then said our goodbyes to Curtis, and headed out.  Hwy 74 from Lake Pleasant to Hwy 60, up through Wickenburg, where we caught Hwy 93.  That took us up to I-40, over to Kingman, back on #93.  Many different types of terrain, especially as we got up to the Hoover Dam area.  We were having a little rain as we went along, we had not seen that for a long time.  We crossed the bridges over Hoover Dam and the lake, very impressive construction.  Finally arrived at Sin City, Las Vegas.  We drove into the Las Vegas RV Resort, right in the middle of town.  We are staying here so we can visit with friends. They came over late afternoon and we had a great time catching up.  We had supper and relaxed before bed.

Thursday - up and breakfast, then got everything ready to leave.  We took the car and ran to the Hobby Lobby store to get small strings of clear Christmas type lights.  I use the small strings, 20 or 35 lights, to make the decorative lighted wine bottles I give for gifts.  Hobby Lobby always has them and when I did my research, I found that Oregon does not have any stores.  So get them now or would have to order them on line.  Mission accomplished - thank you to my understanding Captain. Back at the RV park, we hooked up the car and were on our way.  On Hwy 93 again, we headed northwest which goes around the west side of Nellis Air Force base and range.  We were in the valley between mountain ranges, it was beautiful scenery around us, bare and scruffy along the roadway. We went by the two roads leading to Death Valley, we decided we will have to see it another time.  After four hours travel, we arrive at Tonopah, NV.  Out in the middle of nowhere.  (As we traveled this day, we kept losing internet signal - finally just turned our devices off so they were not roaming all the time.)  Once in town, we checked the internet to see what our options were for RV parks.  There were two - a small crowded parking lot on a slope behind the casino (not good) and a very small, not neat, looking park on the edge of town, so I looked at boondocking options, Nevada has a lot of BLM land, Bureau of Land Management owned.
The BLM allows people to camp on their properties in some areas.  At Tonopah, my research shows there was a BLM camp area near the Tonopah airport.  We drove outside of town to the airport area. We could not seem to find the camp area, but nearby was the Tonopah Raceway with a large empty parking lot.  The sign said the races were on Saturday nights, so we knew we were not intruding on that.  We decided to stay there, a large open area off the highway with beautiful mountain ranges all around.  We took the motorhome back in to town to get fuel and propane, then went back to the raceway lot and set up.  It was a nice day, we sat outside and enjoyed the scenery, did a walking workout around the parking lot, and sat outside again until it started cooling down at dusk.  Inside, we watched the sunset on the mountain range toward Tonopah.  We had great internet signal there, so we worked on the computers after supper.  Before going to bed, I stepped out and looked at the stars.  It was very dark there, no lights except the beacon light occasionally from the airport.  Wow - very dark!   We brought the bed slide and living room slides in to help keep things warmer through the night. We, of course, were a little wary about being safe, but all was well and we slept good.

The beauty around us on the road.

One direction from our boondocking site

Our campsite at the raceway

Happy Captain

Sunset toward Tonopah

Sunset colors in Nevada

Friday - A beautiful morning, Gary was up to see the sunrise.  We packed up and headed north again. We had been parked just east of the Hwy 376 junction and that was our first road.  Today we were driving in the valley between the Toiyabe Range and the Toquima Ranges.  At the turnoff to the Peavine campground, a good size antelope crossed the road in front of us, without looking for oncoming traffic.  We were in one lane, a car coming toward us in the other - luckily he hustled himself off the road quickly when we laid on the horn.  This is the first time we have ever seen an antelope that close to the highway.
When we got to the junction of Hwy 50/85, we stopped and unhooked the car before driving to Austin through the twelve miles of mountain pass there.  A smart move, there were a lot of S curves going down the six and seven percent grades.  We hooked the car up again and drove north on Hwy 305 to Battle Mountain.  The beauty is amazing with the mountain ranges, even though the terrain by the highway is scruffy, but still beautiful in its' barrenness.  We stopped for gas in Battle Mountain before getting on I-80 for the 53 miles to Winnemucca.  It was going to be cooler that night, so we decided to stay at a RV park - there was some selection, we picked the Hi-Desert RV park.  They gave us a nice spot and we got hooked up and settled.  I ran a load of laundry before we went to the Catholic Church there, St. Paul's, for Stations of the Cross.  They led each station first in Spanish and then in English.  Then back home for supper and TV, we had free cable TV at this park.

There is snow!

Winnemucca, NV - from campground

Winnemucca, NV

Saturday - Our last day in Nevada, finally reaching Oregon.  We start up Hwy 95, again along mountains, the Santa Rosa Range.  Not quite as pretty as the days before.  Seventy-four miles to the border, McDermitt is the last town in Nevada.  As we cross into Oregon, there are still a few mountains around, but we leave those behind and then we are in a huge valley area.  The foilage has changed, more scruffy looking tree types, instead of bushes.  A lot of the fence lines are lined with tumbleweeds that have been caught, they look golden in the light.  Again we drive through a little rain as we travel.  Cooler temps, different from where we have come from.  We get to Burns Junction, where we had planned to stay for the night, but it was just before three o'clock and there is not much to see in Burns Junction.  The Captain decided that we would drive on rest of the way to Bend, where we plan to stay for a week.  There is a lot more to do and choose from in Bend.
So, on we go on Hwy 78.  The terrain is the same, until we get closer to Bend where we start to see mountains again.  We called ahead and got a reservation for the Scandia RV Park in Bend and arrived about 5:30 PM.  On the way, I was reading about Bend and discovered there are 18 breweries in this town of 80,000+, interesting!   We are ready to get out of the rig for awhile after riding for four days, so we headed out to find our first brewery and supper.  We found our way to the Old Mill District, a shopping and park area and found the Rat Hole brewery and grill.  We sat down and were soon visiting with one of the owners.  She was very interested in our full-timing lifestyle, as she and her husband hope to be on the road some day.  We told her about Rvillage and about Workamper.com. It was a good meal and they had great brews and it was fun to visit.  We slept well that night, safely arrived from our many miles of travel.

Oregon high desert views

Closer to Bend, OR

Brewery # 1