On the Road Again!

 Odometer 70,804 miles

Trip meter this trip 1051 miles

Fast forward to November of 2021, the house is finished, and the Pandemic is at a low ebb, we are all vaccinated and boosted- we see no reason to put our ramblings on hold any longer.  We pulled the coach up to the house and began loading up.

A very late start from Grants Pass meant that by the time we had reached Weed, CA on Interstate 5 it was getting dark and we were getting hungry.  We pulled up to the curb in the rest area just south of Weed and had a late dinner and retired for the night.

Up early in the morning with hustle all around us.  Trucks all around us starting engines and checking loads.  I could walk to Starbucks, so I went for a couple hot mochas and sweet rolls before Joan was fully up, and brought them back to the bus.  We were all hooked up and road ready, so it took literal minutes to set up the car for towing (insert key and turn to accessory- check braking system and lights) off we went.

Crossing over the mountains in the Shasta Trinity National Forest, skirting the base of Mount Shasta is easily one of my favorite parts of this trip

And today is spectacular in the clear clean air and bright sunshine.  We see snow as we traverse the high points, but it’s all in drifts beside the road.  I feel exhilarated !  

We have coffee at Starbucks in Susanville and set off for Yearington, Nevada where we’ve stayed the night in previous trips.  

Our transit through Reno is mostly uneventful, if you don’t count the stopping for fuel.  We have a couple fuel stations we find are easy to get in and out of without unhooking the car, and our luck holds at our first stop.  We take Exit 78 off US 395, and turn east on N. Red Rock road where we can get to the outside pumps at the Shell station and get away cleanly.  A clear win for us!

We took Interstate 80 east of Reno, Then jump off on State Route 439 south through a big growing distribution center.  The warehouses here are MEGA sized, and there is a new one being built every time we come through.  Nevada 439 ends at NV 50 and we have to jog a couple miles south on 50 before we come to the entrance to Alternate US 395 which is the most direct route to connect up to US 395 in Shurz, NV.  US395 does a split at Shurz, where you can either go straight north to Fallon, NV on 95 or head north-west and angle over toward Reno.  Were now thinking it was too early to stop at Yearington (on Alt 395) so we continue onto Shurz, and turn right onto US395 towards Walker Lake and Hawthorne.

We arrive at Hawthorne and check into Whiskey Flats RV Park.  We get there in time to hookup in the waning sunlight and take a walk around the park chatting with the brave few who venture out in the chilly evening air.

The next morning we drove the motorhome over to Safeway and did a quick shop before heading south again on 395.  Always easy when you can wheel your cart over to the door of the RV and stock the refrigerator right from the front door!  By 10 AM we were on the road south.  We stopped briefly in Tonapah (elevation 6,000 ft) for a lunch from Subway and continued on to Beatty, NV (gateway to Death Valley !). Just north of the town of Beatty we checked into Beatty RV Park for $25/ night full hookups !  That’s a good deal!  

Relentlessly on, we left Beatty at 8AM (early for us :->) heading 120 miles south to Las Vegas to meet friends.  In Vegas, we stopped at our designated rendezvous, the Meadows Mall, only to get a call that our friends had to bail on us.  We were close to a Panda Express and Starbucks so Lunch was at hand!  After lunch we fueled up a in Henderson at $3.79/ gallon and headed for Kingman, AZ.  We chose to go on Interstate 11 which took us over the new bridge over the Colorado gorge just downriver from Hoover Dam.  Crossing the bridge is underwhelming, because you can’t really see anything but the road bed, and you don’t get the sensation that you are 890 feet above the river below.  Interstate 11 is proposed to replace (or follow the route of) US 93 through Arizona to Phoenix some day.  

Today we get as far as Kingman before we decide to stop for the night.  Fort Beale RV has been our choice in the past, and they have a Passport (discounted) opening for us tonight.

The Name of the RV Park harkens back to 1857, when the US military had a Camp here (Camp Beale Springs) that was often referred to as Fort Beale.

The next day saw us on our last leg of our Fall migration.  We were late leaving Kingman because the battery had died in our Chevy Tracker towed vehicle, and unbeknownst to us the smart charger we brought with us and hooked up the night before was not working.  We jump started the car to stir the oil around for the days towing and with that complete, we were on our way.  We have to jog east on I-40 to get to US 93 again (soon to be Interstate  11, remember?).  93 will take us to Wickenburg, AZ where we’ll take US route 60 towards Phoenix and New River.

By early afternoon we were safely ensconced in our RV spot on Ralph and Ann’s 2 acres in New River.

Home is where we park it, and we are home for a while here in sunny New River.

November 19th 2021

Your Traveling Friends

Jeff and Joan