Extraterrestrial. Area 51. Phone Home. Beam Me Up Scotty!

 

We got on the road at 8:15 this morning.  We changed things up a bit and canceled our reservations at Tonopah, and made reservations at Mina.  We just thought we could put more time on the road, and we did. Highway 375.  Does it ring a bell?  What about a couple of bells?

We are traveling on the Extraterrestrial Highway.  (Never ask me to say Extraterrestrial!!). Miles and miles of nothing.  Well wait.  What is that in the sky?  A flying saucer?  No.  I think the windshield is dirty.  Yes.  That is what it is.  Road Hog needs to clean the windshield.

Every once in a while I had to make sure we still had our home behind us.  One never knows on highway 375.

There wasn't a whole lot to see.  Lots of desert.  Pictures of ET.  Kind of sketchy on this highway.

And once again, hardly any traffic.  Where is everyone?

Miles and miles of just nothing.  

Do we need to be reminded of what highway we are on?

And just like that, out in the middle of no where, there is a lake.  

The hills around us sure are pretty though.

I think this could have been a ghost town.  I would have loved to stop and explore but we have animals that need to get home.

Our canceled reservations were in the town of Tonopah.  I am so glad we changed!  Do you know what we passed?  Ewww....

A 'Clown' Motel.  I know some of you like clowns...(My Aunt Jackie for one), but clowns are something I could just not get in to. And a motel?  Honestly, it looked just like Bates Hotel.  Ewww.  I would not be able to sleep a wink in this place.  Now is the time I would say Beam me up Scotty!  😂

So, we are now in the small town of Mina.  No gas stations, no restaurants, no grocery stores.  But there is a RV park, and lots of mining going on.  We got set up, made the cats comfortable, and Road Hog wanted to go into the town of Hawthorne to fill up on diesel.  I was so tired watching him drive all those hours and didn't want to go, but I talked it over with Tully and we decided to accompany him.  I do want to note that Hawthorne is 30 miles away.

Do you notice anything about the above photo?

X marks the spot.  How weird is that?  Is the X there because we are nearing what Hawthorne is famous for?

Hawthorne Nevada's nickname is 'America's Patriotic Home'.  It is home to 2,427 artillery storage bunkers lining the surrounding hills and land.

It is the worlds largest artillery storage facility and has been since World War ll.  (You might need to click on the photo to see the bunkers better!)

This was amazing to see!  The Depot covers 147,000 acres, or 226 sq. miles.  The World's Largest Depot is divided into three ammunition storage and production areas, plus an industrial area housing command headquarters, facilities engineering shops, etc.

Hawthorne Army Depot stores reserve ammunitions to be used after the first 30 days of a major conflict.  As such, it is only partially staffed during peacetime, but provision has been made to rapidly expand staffing as necessary.  I wonder if they ever hold an open house?  I would love to visit the bunkers!

Alamo, Nevada!

We left Kanab this morning at 8:15.  Do you know how many times we were supposed to change our clocks before arriving in Alamo, NV?  I don't want to talk about it!  Let's just say we are still currently on Western Time!

We drove through such beautiful country!  And there wasn't a whole lot of traffic.

Going in and out of the canyons, going up and down all the mountains.

We drove for about 3 1/2 hours.  We didn't hear a peep out of Lucy or Ethel, and we pulled over once for the little boys and little girls room in our home.

Take a peek at these photos!

The roads were in pretty good shape, and like I mentioned before, there was hardly any traffic.  I noticed a lot of people left the park where we were, on Easter Sunday.  Our rule of thumb is not to drive on a weekend, and especially not on a holiday.  If we were to break down, everything would be closed.  So we travel during the week, when shops, towing companies, and everything else is open.

At one time we were driving next to Virgin River.

I forgot to get the Welcome to Nevada sign, so instead I got the first casino sign, a mile from the state line.

We are now out of the canyons and mountains, and I think the desert is coming up.

Not only are we in the desert, but it is 84 degrees.  Way too hot for me!

And out in the middle of the desert is something called Coyote Springs.  I think it was a golf resort.

We made it to Alamo about noon.  And since then, this park has filled up!  The owner told us that it was all the snowbirds going home to Canada.  We are staying at Picketts RV Park, and we will be leaving Wednesday.

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter.  We stayed home and relaxed and had leftover Chinese food for dinner.

A Boy and His Dog

 

The Phan family left us yesterday morning.  We already miss them!  Sal was such a good dog for being almost 4 months old.  Very smart dog.

Here is Murphy playing with one of Sal's toys.  He is pretty smart too.  Such a fun age, playing with his spider man, and all his other men.  Too many to list here.

I thought this was a cute photo.  This is on the morning that they were leaving.

They are both pretty cute!

Here is the family photo.  Thade is missing, but the Phan's are almost home so Thade will be so happy to see his family.  (Except maybe not happy seeing Sal.)  😂

Grand Design is represented here at the park.  Probably more than we have ever seen!  Solitude's on the ends, and two momentum's in the middle.  It is nice talking to other Grand Design owners.  They always have something good to say, as do we.

Here is Ethel Louise and Tully relaxing.

Here is proof that it has been below freezing this past week.  Lots of ice on the machine that waters the fields.  I guess you would call them sprinklers....all solid ice on the machine and the ground.  We are past the freezing temps and we are now in the upper 30's during the night, and 70's during the day.

We leave Monday for Alamo, NV.  We will be there only a couple of days. We are getting serious now for heading north to see some kids!  And friends!

Kids and Pups!

 

Ang, Ly, Murphy and new pup Sal made it here Sunday night.  How exciting!  They set up a tent a couple of motorhomes away from us over in the tent area.  The weather has been windy, and it has been below freezing at night!

I'm not sure what Murphy was doing here.  He is a fun little boy to be around, that is for sure.  The things that he comes up with!

Thade was left with Ly's mom since he isn't a camping dog, but Sal is loving it!  Plus, she has lots of body warmth at night!  Ang is teaching her to sit, lay, and all of that, and for being almost 4 months old, she does so good!  She is so soft, and is already up to 35 pounds.  She is such a love bug!

Here is Ang and Ly.  The weather during the day has been between 50 to 60 degrees.  Kind of chilly.  The Phan's went hiking today and then they will visit Bryce Canyon for nighttime sky viewing.

It has been so windy!  One night it even rained, and then when the wind picked back up, it covered our windows with dirt.  Road Hog had just cleaned the trailer windows right before we got here, and now we can't even see out of them.

Tully follows the sun.  She is solar powered.  Doesn't she have a cute little face?  She sends her love to Gene and Aune who are sick at home.  Take it easy you two!!  I can't wait to see you guys!

Traveling Day

 

Today was traveling day.  We took our time to pack and got on the road at 9:45 am.  Houston, we have a problem.  We got into town at about 10:05 am.  We had talked to the office yesterday about coming in early and they said sure, come in at 11 am!  We didn't get permission for any earlier!  Oops!  But then the most hated miracle happened.  We crossed into Utah!  Utah is one hour ahead!  We got into our space shortly after 11 am!  The ONE time I didn't mind the time change!  In fact, we aren't even going to do the time change.  We aren't changing the clock on the microwave, the tv or our phones.  Lets see how this goes....We are going to stay on what I call 'Western Time'.  No more changing clocks.  For a while.  Maybe.

This photo above is the view out our bedroom window.  Utah is beautiful!  

It got up to 77 degrees today and it just gives Tully another reason to nap.  It will get down to 40 tonight, but then it will start getting even colder at night.  Just as long as we have a sunny forecast, and no rain, we are good.