Guy Fawkes Night

Thursday 5 November

So, Thursday dawned bright and sunny and I was still in the same site, just! The wind blew a hoolie all night and I didn't fall asleep until gone 4am. I honestly thought the camper might get blown over so I turned it to face into the main wind direction but it was very gusty and coming from different points of the compass.

Apparently it has been known to turn over trailers here in the past!!  It is still blowing hard now, but bearable and quite warm. The alkali is being rousted up from the dry lake edges and is pouring across the lake to the extent it is obliterating the hills on the horizon. It looks like steam being boiled off the lake surface but actually is incredibly fine alkaline particles.

It stayed warm all night (10oC) which was a bonus I guess. Still, the sun is shining now and the rejuvenating waters in the bath house beckon so see you all later......

Ohhh yessss, definately need half an hour in a hot spring at least once every day. I feel incredibly mellow, all warmed through and no pain!!  (Mind you, it could be the very low humidity too?). 

I reluctantly took my leave of Summer Lake Hot Springs, Katherine and Jonnie the managers and set off south once more. There is no fresh potable water at the Springs campground as the only water available is the hot (113oF) spring water, so 6 miles down to Paisley and the Ranger Station there that has a water faucet outside. (Thanks Katherine).  Looked in on the Ranger Station to check it was ok to use their water spigot, filled up the tank and then carried on US 31, more south-east now, with the hills on my right and alkali lakes to the left with great plumes of alkali dust blowing toward the far horizon.

Trundling down the highway at my usual 80kph, I see a line of three vehicles coming toward me all flashing their headlights?? Now three vehicles in a line is an unusual sight in itself (there really isn't that much traffic around here), but with headlights flashing!! Maybe a police speed trap I think or???  Anyway, despite traveling under the speed limit anyway, I slow down even further and then see the reason.  A family of about a dozen mule deer bounding alongside the road, hopping 4 and 5 foot fences and gates so gracefully, with seemingly effortless bounds. Some look across disdainfully my way and then carry on across the front lawns in the small town as though they owned it. Which I suppose they really do! We humans just borrow their land and stick fences up to create our own little alloted space that no-one else should trespass upon, whilst those that have been here for so long understand more about sharing without boundaries.

At Valley Falls I joined US 395 south and reaching Lakeview, filled up with gas before crossing the border into California between New Pine Creek and (old?) Pine Creek. Before reaching the first town in CA the road is barricaded off and everyone has to drive into a shed at the border checkpoint. RVs get their own special lane! Guess we tend to harbour more criminal produce that folks in their family cars and trucks.  I had to undergo the ubiquitous Californian border checks for illegal produce by a guy with more tatoos than bare skin!! Apparently the last two apples I had bought in Penticton, that had been chilling in my fridge, were possible harbourers of some dreadful fly so whoosh, confiscated!! Mind you, I did get 2 leaflets in return explaining in great detail why.

Coming into Pine Creek there is a traffic advisory sign flashing. OK, better find out what the problem is,  so I tuned in to the radio station and sure enough, it is advised that RVs and vehicles towing trailers park up and do not travel. Hmm, well I've been ok for the last hour so I'll try a bit further yet. As I leave the town there is another traffice advisory sign, but it ISN'T flashing. Confusing....and you know it doesn't take that much to confuse me!

Now going around Goose Lake and the winds are still blowing but Goose Lake is on my right and I can see that ahead of me the alkali dust is blowing directly across the road.  As I enter the cloud the sun darkens and there is an erie light all around that is strangely familiar. Then I remember watching a solar eclipse years ago. Not exactly the same but very similar.

Coming into the town of Likely, I decide to stop and have a piece of pie. There is only a general store, restaurant and gas station to choose from, so pick the restaurant. The aroma of cooking was too much and ended up having dinner there and jolly well cooked too by a young lad who was both cook and waiter.  In the back of the menu, there is a page written about the ties this Likely has with the one in BC.  Apparently they correspond frequently with updates of local goings-on.

I asked about local places to camp out and he reckoned there were some good places about 6 miles to the east. Well, what with the dinner being so tasty, as was the banana cream pie he whipped up (literally), that it was dark when I was ready to leave. Didn't fancy dirt tracks in Warner Wilderness Park in the dark so he told me that the restaurant also had an RV site for $15. Sounds good to me, so I was directed around the back and hooked up for the night. (After firstly parking in completely the wrong place and finding no power at the outlet). Mind you, the voltage in the actual site was so low that I nearly disconnected again as I didn't want to damage my wiring. In the end I stayed connected but didn't run too much.

GUY FAWKES NIGHT - Remember, remember the fifth of November, gunpowder, treason and plot......!

I just don't remember the rest! Does anyone?

NO FIREWORKS HERE.....(very few people even know about Guy Fawkes over here, fireworks are STRICTLY controlled and seem to be used by folks in a much more contained way than do the hooligans in the UK)

Friday 6 November

Well, it rained overnight and I awoke to dull skies and spitty little bits of rain trying to get together in a gang and look big. I took a wander to the general store and opened the door into Pandora's box! Most of the general stores both here and in the smaller Canadian towns cater to large communities and carry diverse goods, but I have never seen one like this before. I honestly think it was the epitome of the saying, "if it's not here, you don't need it"! After wandering around 2 floors of goods, I bought some bread and milk for breakfast and a couple of paperbacks for the dark evenings.  I asked the owner if he had an inventory of all the items he had in stock and he said after running the place for 37 years he had a pretty good idea in his head!
On the way back to the camper I made the mistake of popping my head in the restaurant to say goodbye. Ohhh that smell of bacon and eggs......

So, breakfast finished and an hours chat with a couple from Salem, Oregon driving south to Arizona for the winter in their double axle diesel pusher Discovery and three truckers driving south with Hyundai parts!! and off we jolly well go. South on US 395, clouds breaking ahead of me and sun streaking through, then bursts of rain that smelled so clean and fresh.  It actually cleaned the dust off the camper without a trace.

At this point I crossed into Nevada and back onto wonderfully smooth, well maintained roads. A little like driving between Kent and Surrey really!  How CAN California be so broke?

Down through scrub pine again with patches of sandy desert but mainly sagebrush, bypass Susanville and around Honey Lake, aptly named as it was dry with honey coloured soil/sand?

Driving down a long hill off the plateau, through sweeping bends and Reno comes into view sprawled across miles and miles of basin. Huge monolithic, futuristic buildings housing casinos and hotels and traffic pouring onto the roads put me right off so I just drove straight through on the freeway and out the other side!
Eventually I stopped at Carson City to gas up again then decided to have a bite to eat and make a cuppa in the store parking lot.   OMG it's 4pm already.  As I start off down the road again I realise I am in the old part of Carson City and see a small Casino ahead, the Nugget. Aha, casinos have parking lots and often welcome RVs to park up (as do most Wal-marts), in the expectation people will spend money there (sorry Nugget, not me!). This is only a small casino but I spot a few RVs up a block and find they are in a small lot reserved just for RVs (lot #4). How thoughtfull! Having found a spot to pull in I made some dinner and once again found a Wifi network to connect to (I think provided by the casino, thank you!)

I plan to have a walk around the old part of town tomorrow and saw a museum just back a couple of blocks so think I might be here tomorrow night too. We'll see.....

Goodnight all!