Day 134 - Monday - Into Nevada

 

We finish breakfast in the hotel and then get a call from Scott at the RV shop.  The problem was the starter.  He's able to replace it and works with our extended warranty company - the new starter is covered.  We do have to pay a deductible but the good thing is the warranty will also pay for the hotel.

So we pack up everything in the room, pay our share of the RV starter, hook up the car and pick up where we left off on Friday.  I thought we would have to backtrack through Cedar City but it turns out we can just drive up UT 18 North and it will eventually meet up with UT56 which is the road we[d planned to take anyway.

The journey north takes us from the red rock country through several canyons and up into white rock country - always spectacular.  We reach Rte 56, go west and 24 miles later we're in Nevada and have picked up an hour as we're not in the Pacific time zone.  We decide to stop for lunch in the first town which was a good idea, but the town has nothing but gas stations.  We're now on a new section of our old friend US93, and Vicky checks the map.  About 14  miles up the road there's another town - Pioche - which doesn't look any bigger than the last one, but we'll give it a try.

Just south of Pioche a sign informs us we can take a 3 mile detour to find it, or continue 113 miles to the next place with any services.  We take the detour.  What a surprise!  It's a cute former silver mining town with some cool 19th century buildings.  We find a cafe and enjoy a basic, but tasty lunch.  We're the only customers not wearing camouflage as it's now hunting season.  We chat to a couple of them and then I find some books on the history of the town.  We peruse them while waiting for our food and I'm disappointed when the food comes because the books are so interesting.

In its heyday in the 1880's this town was more lawless than any of the more famous "rough spots".  Both Tombstone AZ and Deadwood SD never had more than 5 murders in one year, and neither did Dodge City, KS.  Pioche NV, in contrast, had 15 killings per year for several years.  The difference appears that the other towns had famous characters like Buffalo Bill or Wyatt Earp, or locations like the OK Corral.  This one just had people killing each other!  Today it[s a sleepy little town with at least one good cafe!

After lunch Vicky takes over the driving.  US93 is more or less dead straight for 80 miles or so - e[re in the middle of a long valley with mountains on either side.  Eventually we see Wheeler Peak on the right.  This, at over 13,000ft, is the highest mountain in Great Basin National Park, a place that will remain on our bucket list for another year at least.

Eventually we join US 6 and US 50.  These, along with 93, stay together for the last 25 miles or so into Ely, our destination for tonight.  It's a challenging 25 miles for Vicky as we go up and down over a  7,500ft mountain pass.  We've always found Nevada to be a geographically boring state, at least in the south, but the mountain scenery in this eare is breathtaking.

We check into a KOA campground and Vicky prepares dinner.  Our plan is to ride the local railroad tomorrow but a brochure we pick up in the campground office says they don't operate on Tuesdays.  I check online and the website is happy to sell me tickets for a 9:30am Tuesday train, so we deicde to drive into town, get some ice cream and check out the station.

Two strikes!  The ice cream shop, along with everything else in town except the casinos (this IS Nevada!) and a gas station, is closed.  So is the station, and the sign says they're closed on Tuesdays.  We're both tired after a long day so we decide to check on the train in the morning.