Happy Birthday Lance.. hope you have a good one.
It’s Wednesday, it’s early and it’s cold (believe it or not). Typical desert; hot, hot days, cool to cold nights. Really quite beautiful if you’ve got enough blankets :-)
As mentioned before, we stayed at the Three Islands Crossing State Park until the weather had settled and the Flash Flood warnings had disappeared. It wasn’t much of a hardship. It’s a beautiful park. But, by Tuesday morning it was time to roll. We headed out fairly early (0900’s early, isn’t it??) and then stopped for breakfast. There’s a down-home style cafe in downtown Glenn’s Ferry. The food’s good and the decor’s well… it’s down-home. We were properly on the road by 10 and the road took us east (Hwy 84) to Twin Falls and then south (Hwy 93) to Wells, Nevada. Bye bye Idaho potatoes, hello… Nevada.
Jo, you would just love this country. It is cowboy through and through. Wagon wheels, saddles, bridles, old buckboard carts and broken down wagons from the by-gone days of ‘how the west was won’ litter the landscape wherever you look. Half the folks wear Stetsons (and need ‘em, cuz they’re for real cowboys) and the other half wish they were. It would be a hard life, that’s for sure; rounding up cattle on horseback, picking your way through the scrub brush that covers the hot, baked land, in the scorching sun with no trees for shade… a very hard life. But these folks are tough and I’m sure a great many of them come from the families that settled the land and have been ranching and farming here ever since.
Now then, back to our journey. There were still some long, slow hills to climb (we sure hope Lane is right and it’s all downhill from Wells) but we made it up… much to the chagrin of the vehicles behind us as there were no passing lanes. We just pretended we were a big truck, loaded down with cement and bricks… and travelled about the same speed they would have. It was a relief to meet a fellow last night who drives one of those large,older Winebago things.. and he assured us he never gets above 55 either… so we’re slightly vindicated.. and, more importantly, still ‘good to go’.
Our travels brought us to Wells, a very small, dusty town near the junction of Hwy 93 and I 80. From there it was a 12 mile drive to our next rest stop’ (in the vernacular of Amazing Race). Our stop for the night is the Welcome Station RV Park, a small place with friendly owners, about 20 sites (parallel parking) on grass. It’s on the slip road to the highway and, subsequently the traffic noise becomes part of the background ambiance. But it’s okay, cuz we’re here for one night. There is a beautiful grass lawn to play on with a stream running beside it.. and 5 beautiful horses right across the fence to watch. Each site has full services (that’d be power, water, and ‘you know’), and the washrooms are not only clean they’re ‘just like home’ clean with mats and complimentary soaps and enough hooks to properly hang your things up in the shower. And… they even have hot water. (Passport America $15…thanks Jeannette, for the tip about P.A.).
Who on earth designs showers anyway? I can’t believe how many showers don’t sport hooks for your clothes, or a shelf for your soap, shampoo and razor, or even have proper nozzles that can be aimed up if you’re tall or down if you’re not. And then there’s the water pressure and the ‘hot’ water situation… I won’t even go there…
Okay enough. It’s starting to warm up and we plan to hit the road in about an hour. Today we’re heading to Lund but will stop at the first MacD’s we come to for coffee and wifi access. I think there’s a State Park at Lund and Kathy’s been told of an old restaurant that was closed and is now open and that allows you to park behind it…. We shall see. We’ll check out both and make a decision when we get there… let you know. CJ
