Odometer 25097 Trip 275 Mi. 11/8/2012 We intended to leave Fallon, NV like scalded cats this morning, however we were only mildly successful. We were up, washed, breakfasted, and secured for travel by 7:45 (that's very good for us!) however we decided to fill up at the fuel stop at the RV Park and things started to unravel. The pumps took my card swipe, but shut off at $75 which is like 18 gallons of fuel. Whose great idea is this I ask? Modern big rigs take on 90 plus gallons of diesel, and at a half tank low we needed 45 gallons- 3 card swipes- Gads! Okay so round one is pumping away and I grab a squeegee out of the bilge water they supply for window cleaning and get this- the handle on the squeegee is 12" long! For a gas station any where else short of a truck stop that's fine- but we are in an RV stop. 12" and my right arm get me about half way up the windshield. I starting to loose it when the pump clicks off at 18.5 gallons. Long story longer, by the time I dig my own squeegee out of the basement, finish the front shield, run my card again- muff the zip code- the pump locks out- the cashier can't reset it- I have to get another card. We don't get on the road till 8:20. The high winds predicted for this morning are warming up as we glide out of town on 95 south. by 10:00 we are passing Walker lake and the wind is steady at about 15 mph and gusting to OMIGOD! I don't know how much- but it's knocking me around a lot. Why is it that the road narrows and the shoulders are 10 feet above the surrounding countryside when you get these kinds of gusts? I am picturing us being blown sideways, off and down the precipice- blowing up into a thousand shards of fiberglass and twisted metal at the bottom. Joan calmly reminds me that RVing is inherently safer than other modes of travel in the 9 year interval between 1999 and 2008 only 97 RV lost their lives in the whole nation. How does she know this stuff? Sure enough we had no catastrophe and arrived safely at our destination. We did have one 4-5 mile stretch of road north of Tonopah where we headed into a dust storm the likes of which I've never seen. We were sandblasted for like 5 minutes with fine brown sand. Visibility was just good enough to keep the semi behind us from clobbering us. I swear this is true- just as we entered the dust cloud the satellite radio began playing "dust in the Wind" by Kansas! We laughed and laughed. As we exited the cloud we saw two touring style motorcycles heading in from the other direction- Eweue!

After a quick salad lunch at MickeeD's in Tonopah we scoot 26 miles down the pike to Goldfield. Goldfield not only got on the map in 1902 with a major gold strike, it soon became the richest town in Nevada as mines sprung up everywhere. Gold at Goldfield is credited with ending a great period of depression in Nevada from 1880 to 1900 during which Nevada lost a third of it's population. In all, almost 89 million dollars in precious metals were extracted from the area before the bust. By 1940 the population of Goldfield had plummeted from a high of 20,000 to just a handful. Joan and I enjoyed about an hour of walking the old streets and snapping photos of the ounce glorious buildings.

I even found a neat old Packard Camper that I wanted to make an offer on

By 3:30 this afternoon we were in Beatty with 275 miles on the clock. Should press on to Pahrump but we didn't choose this life style to beat ourselves up. Besides there is a roadside stand with every type of military case or container ever made on sale- I just gotta check that out. We pull into an RV park and ask the overnight rate. A mere $38.50 plus Nevada tax!-Nope too rich for us- the manager directs us to the Space Station RV park $24 for the night- full hook ups AND it's right next to the military surplus -Yeah!