Reno, NV Lake Tahoe

Hawthorne NV - Reno NV
5/14/24 - 5/16/24

Miles Traveled    134
Trip Total           3800
Travel Time        2:45

States visited: FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA

The trip from Hawthorne to Reno started with a very scenic ride along Walker Lake.  As scenic as it was some there were a couple section that kept me on my toes.  There's nothing like a winding mountain highway, no guardrails, and a very steep drop off to start your morning.  We did pass a couple of campgrounds along Walker Lake that we had considered instead of the Elks.  Looking at the roads into those campgrounds, I am very glad we stayed at the Elks, they were steep narrow gravel roads not suited for our size motorhomes.

Enroute to Reno we stopped in Fallon NV for fuel, each stop the cost of fuel has been rapidly climbing, with Fallon being the most we have paid yet.  $4.56 a gallon, and the closer we get to California the higher it gets. We did see it for $6.99 a gallon in Death Valley, but we made sure we did not need fuel there.  I hate to see what it will cost when we get deep into California.  One of the things we noticed as we arrived at Fallon was water and greenery.  For the first time in a couple of weeks we are out of the desert.  Once again we see streams, green fields and trees taller than we are.

We arrived at Grand Sierra Resort, a casino with a RV campground.  Anything to bring in the gamblers!  The campground is nothing more than a large gravel parking lot, with full hookups.  Normally they sites we picked are $40 a night, but we found a discount code for 20% off.   So far this trip we have been able to keep our average cost for the campgrounds at $29 a night, well below our budget of $50 per night.

The first thing Angel & I did after we got set up was to head to the local Camping World store.  I wanted to get a sunscreen for the windshield.  In Death Valley we found out how much heat comes in from the windshield.  It was definitely the smallest Camping World I have been in.  I have seen WAWA's bigger than that store, but they had what I needed.  After that we spent the afternoon, running to a couple of stores.  The highlight of they day was when we headed to the casino for the night to donate some money.  I normally play roulette and Angel plays the slots.  This casino did not have any electronic roulette, so I stuck with the slots.  Normally I burn through my money very quickly when I play slots.  This was no different, until I got down to my last $20, when Angel hit for $200, and convinced me to play the max bet on my machine, four spins latter I hit for $560.  Not a bad night!

Wednesday I searched for things to do near me, and came across a self driven, audio tour of Lake Tahoe.  You down load the app, buy the tour ($15.99) and drive.  This tour gave us 4 choices where to start the tour, and once at the starting point, the "Guide" on the app directs you through your tour.  The app is GPS triggered, so as you reach waypoints along your trip it explains what there is to see, where to turn, right down to where to park.  It was the best money I have ever spent on an app.   The route was 72 miles, and with stops it took us around eight hours.   The same company (Shaka Guide) offers these audio tours for sites all over the country, including several of the National Parks we just visited.  I wish I found them sooner, but we will use it again.

Lake Tahoe is amazing, but once again we are here off season.  The ski season is over, and the summer season does not start until mid-June.  Several of the stops were "closed" but there was still plenty to see and do.   One advantage was not having to pay to get into the state parks, but the disadvantage was the museums and historical buildings were closed.   What was crazy to us, was even with the temperatures in the 60's and the water temperature around 56, people were laying on the beach and swimming.

One of the coolest parts of the tour was seeing Mark & Karen playing in the snow!  Yes there is still lots of snow, especially where the plows have piled it.   We also saw the biggest baddest snow blower I have ever seen. Tahoe gets an average of 24' of snow a year so they need some crazy equipment to keep the roads open.   The bottom two pictures are of Mark, Karen and Angel climbing a snow bank, and the snow piled up outside of the restroom.  The snow is over the top of the door.

Once again we found ourselves driving  along a steep winding mountain road with no guard rails, this time the road was even more narrow, and the hairpin curves were crazy. (At least we are in a car this time)   I can not imagine driving some of these roads in the snow. To add to the excitement we came across the a new wild animal crossing sign.  While on this trip we have seen all kinds of animal crossing signs, Mountain Goats, Elk, Sheep, Cattle, Horses, Tortoises and today we added Bear and Bear Cubs signs to the list. 

One of the last stops, actually a side trip of the tour, was Olympic Village.  There was not much to see there other than the original Olympic Torch from the 1960 Winter Olympics.   The torch is older than I am and it still burns at the roadway into the town.  

Our next stop is Redding Ca, a one night stop on our way to Eureka, CA.

Hawthorne, NV

Death Valley, CA - Hawthorne NV
5/13/24

Miles Traveled      230
Trip Total            3666
Travel Time         4:30

States visited: FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, NV, CA

Leaving Death Valley we took Day Light Pass where we climbed 5500 feet in a little under 10 miles.  When we started this trip that seemed like a very steep mountain to climb, at this point it seems very easy.  The RV seems to handle it very well.   Depending on the grade of the hill we may slow down to 25mph but we just keep chugging along.  Other than some of the towns we went through there was not much to see, even then some of the towns, were not much more than a couple of streets.

Hawthorne is on the route from Death Valley to Reno, and just about at the five hour max we like to drive in a day.  Our stop for the nights was the Hawthorne Elks Lodge. The Elks Lodge in Hawthorne has 3 RV parking spots with electric.   They don't really have RV sites,  just a gravel parking lot, with electric.  While it is not much, it is cheap and a great location.

When we picked Hawthorne we did not expect there would be anything to do, so we were surprised to find out there was a Munition Museum in town.  What we found out that Hawthorne is the home of the Hawthorne Army Depot, a 226 square mile Ammunition Storage Facility. It is the largest ammo storage facility in the world, storing every type of conventional ammo we have.  In addition to ammo storage troops come to Hawthorne for desert warfare training. One of the most notable training sites in Hawthorne is the mock up off the village for the raid to eliminate Osama Bin Laden. Most recently they have been shipping 155mm artillery shells to Ukraine.  

The Hawthorne Ordnance Museum was very interesting and informative.  Almost all of the (inert) ammunition on display came from the depot. The museum had every type of munitions imaginable missiles, battleship main gun rounds, torpedoes and mines.  The tour was self guided, but the staff was very knowledgeable. 

The museum was staffed by three wonderful ladies, The founders wife, her 98 year old mother, and her sons mother-in-law.  We spent some time talking with them about the Depot and the town.  One of them lived on the same street in town her entire life.  She grew up on the 100 block of F Street, her husband grew up 300 block on F Street, and now they live on the 700 block.  She said her next stop is at the end of F Street.  That is where the cemetery is. 

After the museum we returned to the Elks where over pizza and drinks, we learned more about Hawthorne and the Depot.  The Depot is the largest employer in town, and the town is a very proud military supporter.  The Elks lodge is the original freight train depot dating back to 1881 and was acquired by the Elks in 1946.  The elks heads on display in the meeting hall were shot by members of the lodge.  

Leaving Hawthorne we are heading to Reno NV for two nights. 

Boulder City, NV

Leeds UT - Boulder City, NV
5/7/24 - 5/11/24

Miles Traveled    160
Trip Total           3273
Travel Time        3:20

States visited: FL, GA, AL, MS, LA, TX, NM, AZ, UT, Nevada

UT OH - I did not do the blog for Boulder CIty.   I created the page as a place holder and told myself, I will do it tomorrow.   Well three weeks later I realized I never went back and did it.  So there is not a lot of detail here.

One of the special things to me about returning to the Las Vegas area by RV, is this is where the idea of buying an RV all started.  Before we left for our Great Loop adventure and being on a boat for a year, Angel wanted to take a "land" vacation.  We decided on Las Vegas.  While we were out and about exploring the area by car, we saw several RV's camping along the roadways (Boondocking).   Angel said to me that looks interesting, maybe when we are done with the Loop, we should buy an RV.  Well here we are!!!!!

First and update on Ken & Cheryl (Turn The Page).  Heading into Knab, they radioed us that they had problems and were pulling over.  They had their motorhome towed to a local repair shop.  It was quickly diagnosed as a total oil pump failure, that caused a seized engine.  Ken opted for a total engine replacement.  Cheryl already had a short trip home planned from Las Vegas.  Ken decided to join her while the RV is being repaired.  Once repaired they will rejoin us, most likely somewhere near Yellowstone.  

Even though both Angel & I have been to Hoover Dam we all decided to tour the dam again.  The tour we took, not only visited the power generating room, but took us deep into the dam walls where we were able to look out the inspection windows in the middle of the dam.  Very cool!!!!

We also took a couple of trips into Las Vegas.  We did limit the amount we donated to the one arm bandits but we did donate.  One stop we made this time was to the Gold & Silver Pawn Shop, home of the famous TV show Pawn Stars.  It is very over rated, and I think most of their income now comes from "souvenirs"  rather than from the pawn shop.  Yes I did buy a t-shirt.

Valley Of Fire