I’m getting lazy, I haven’t posted for nearly a month. Sorry people!
I had to go to the VA hospital and get a shot to my knee and on the way back, I stopped at this wide spot along the 4-lane highway NV-160 on the LV side of the mountains just as the road starts to get steep to check it out. I’ve passed it numerous times over the years and I’ve always been curious about it. Anyway, turns out it has to do with the ancient Spanish trail from New Mexico to Los Angeles.
I didn’t see any explanation of why it’s called the ‘Late Night Trailhead’ so I’ll just assume it’s a trail that gives hikers a nice view of the Las Vegas lights late at night?
Las Vegas is just a few miles beyond this rise…
Tried to get some shots of this display but the sun was making it difficult. I wanted to read it later.
The trail apparently is there on that lip you can sorta see in the middle of this hill.
I wasn’t going to walk up there to explore what with my new knee shot and all.
Not the most inviting place to be so doubt the Spanish stayed in the area long. After that short visit, it was on to Pahrump and resting for three more weeks. The Doc told me to be careful of the knee for a few days after the shot so it would work better and I did. The entire 3 weeks I was careful with it. Still was able to get out and about, not like I stayed still, but I was careful.
And then it was time to head north. The weather was turning uncomfortably warm and I wanted to get out of Pahrump. I’d pretty much seen and done everything I wanted to do so, time to move on. And off I go heading north. Heading towards Beatty, the gateway to Death Valley, where I stopped for sugar free candy, $35 worth.
Got lots of candy and made munching on that my lunch.
Then this time, I decided to take a different route as I headed out of town. Taking the north west road this time. And at Tonopah, I took US 95 towards Fallon instead of my usual route of 376. Just for the experience.
Fallon will be my first stop. Those that have never heard of Fallon, it’s a medium sized town 60 miles east of Reno. Farming community. It’s where I stayed several years ago when I worked at an Amazon distribution center.
I’d researched and planned on staying at the city RV park on the outskirts of town directly off the highway I was on. After I arrived at the park though, I found that Wednesday’s were they day they virtually flooded the RV park with irrigation water. I got there around 3 pm on a Wednesday, and they had run the water in the AM but it was still flooded. Huge puddles up to a foot deep. Wide areas that were all soft and squishy. Like the caretaker messed up. Drove around 3 times trying to find just a damp place to park overnight. I didn’t want to sink into 12″ of mud and get stuck. Did find a high spot, but my car was in 9″ of water and I couldn’t figure out a jockeying scheme that didn’t put me in 6″ of water when I plugged in the power.
So I gave up and headed west just a few miles to an RV park I’d stayed at years ago. Turned out they’ve gone money crazy and ask for $48/night. By the time I got there though, I was fed up with driving and messing with searching for RV parks so went ahead and stayed the night there. Never again.
Next day, had the GPS set up to guide me out of town and around 2 miles from downtown and the main road interchange, it directed me off the highway. I assumed it was taking me on a shortcut instead of through downtown. Turned out it had no idea where it was and guided me up to a dead end loop! Had to backtrack several miles out of the residential neighborhood it had trapped me inside, until I found a likely road that took me over to the highway, which is US Rte 95. Once on that, the GPS was back to normal.
Several miles north of Fallon there’s this lake along side the highway. Very curious it’s there in this dry desert area. I can tell it’s shrinking from the old and now dry shorelines here and there. Hard to tell how long it’s going to survive but I bet the water engineers know. Toulon Lake. It’s part of the Humboldt Wildlife Management system and it’s a transient lake apparently.
Even though people are well aware that it’s a transient lake, there’s still a lot of construction in a few places around it. One area was a state park but it’s like 300 yards from the water now and when I passed there was very little activity on the lake or at the parks nearby. Of course this is still a Covid year.
There is a small river that feeds the lake from the North that an Indian tribe’s reservation surrounds. I only saw the river a couple times through the trees alongside the highway and it didn’t look very wet. Eventually in a small reservation town, passed over a bridge and the river is now pretty much just a creek. Waiting for some rainfall for sure.
Continuing on, the second days travel plan was to end up in John Day, Oregon after a 6 & 1/2 hour drive. Most of the way it looked like the first few pictures.
And then it started to look like this as I entered Oregon from Nevada.
And a hundred miles later, this. Of course this was in late May so not like during the heat wave we’re having now.
But eventually it let up. There is a RV way out in the boonies south of Burns where I stopped in and asked for a spot for the night, but they were full up. Didn’t look like they were much interested in many RVs as they have acres of land, but haven’t developed most of it. It’s a hot springs and they could have double the visits if they had more room. Really didn’t look all that busy either. Most of the RVs looked like contractors rigs and everyone was off working.
Well, whatever, I just kept driving as it wasn’t that late, and soon enough got to John Day.
I picked my spot at the county RV park, paid for three nights and got all set up. Headed on over to the Outpost for dinner. Yum! I guess they have pizza too, but usually I get and old fashioned dinner, like meatloaf or fish.
So here’s where I was parked at first. But the 2nd day, the manager made me move because someone had reserved the site plus the one next to it for 2 nights. Well, they arrived, and stood outside talking for a couple hours. Didn’t need to be right next to each other for any reason that I could tell. Didn’t need pull though sites either because they had Class C rigs and weren’t pulling any cars. If they’d needed to work on each others RV’s I could see making me move, but they weren’t, they were just standing around talking. Then, they left the next day instead of staying for their full reservation. Grrrr. I love this park, but really dislike their reservation system. It just doesn’t work very well.
Next day, I was driving around and hey, John Day has a golf course. So went up and visited. It’s up above town, nestled in a small valley up there. Pretty nice grass. Not the best course layout I’ve ever seen, but not bad either.
So that’s all for now. It’s getting late and I’m going to watch some TV for a while.
Thanks for reading!
Don’t forget the park at Prairie City that I think I told you about awhile back, but it’s 1st come, 1st serve and only 20 sites:
https://www.prairiecityoregon.com/prairie-city-oregon-depot-rv-park.html
Then there’s the nice little Bates State Park a ways east; relatively new, but no hookups and also 1st come:
https://stateparks.oregon.gov/index.cfm?do=park.profile&parkId=109
I’m sorry to hear the hot springs RV park is now less than a great place to visit. You might check out the one at Frenchglen next time through, but it’s been over a decade since we stayed there. Prices have gone up everywhere in the 4 1/2 years we’ve been sidelined… on top of our health issues, it discourages ever using our coach again.
https://steensmountainresort.com/reservations_tentsandrvs.html
Forgot about those recommendations you’d made before. I really would like to visit Prairie City and French Glen.
Yeah, I was pretty disappointed that hot springs park was full. I was hoping that this time I’d be able to stay there, no such luck. Like I said, looked like a bunch of contractors or construction workers were staying there. And I spotted a bunch of construction a few miles north of the park.
Next trip I HAVE to make an special effort to stop at the Prairie City park. My kind of town.
Hey there!
I was not able to find a comment box following the 2019 shower write up but since I noticed that you’d said leave a comment and you’ll write back so here’s the comment 😉
Every. Single. Problem you described we encounter in our 2003 Adventurer. Our shower valve was made by Kevco and they went out of business so Winnebago went to Moen. But it turns out the drop ell in my coach was an Alston, made by Delta. We had a near flood because the steady drip filled the pan. Never overflowed and it was totally clean water from city fill so we watered the lawn and disconnected the water. Next debacle was buying a shut off valve that wouldn’t seal so trying to tighten it resulted in breaking the plastic inside. Here’s my thoughts on the reverse water flow aka steady drip. I honestly don’t see how water could get past the diverted valve unless the valve leaked from a bad cartridge. The only drips we get at home is if the water is not shut off completely- that is until the cartridge fails. We’ve replaced a few. But that said, I have no idea how water can go back up the shower hose and down the upright portion to the valve and then reverse direction and leak. It’s just plain weird. Well it’s now 2021 and the drop ell we had can’t be bought anywhere so we bought one on Amazon along with a good valve to put between the hose and the ell. Crossing fingers. Currently we’ve been simply turning off the pump at night if dry camping and closing the park water supply when we aren’t.
As for the rest… yes the shower head sagged. We bought an Oxygenics and it literally blasts the shampoo from the head. Very pleased. Yes a person jerked the door of the shower open and broke the latch. I got a new one and it’s not been broken yet. Yes the track dumps on the floor. We put an extra rug there and work fast.
The only annoying thing you did not mention is how the retaining strap for shampoo bottles does not restrain. I bought some white 1/2 elastic like a waistband would use and cut a piece about 3 inches shorter than the rigid plastic strap. Under the plastic one, about 3 inches below, I attached two tiny command hooks. Cut slits in the elastic and hooked it on. That’s lasted 9 years. No more driver looking at copilot with that knowing look after hearing a huge thump in the shower. We used to look at each other and simultaneously say ‘shampoo!’ I also bought fatter shampoo and body wash bottles that couldn’t escape out from under the strap. We eschew bar soap with its resultant scum so we have liquid stuff instead. Which is a good thing because shampoo and body wash are pretty much the same thing so if we run out of one it’s no big deal. We keep larger bottles in the storage underneath to refill.
No one tells you this stuff when you buy a coach. Hope to hear. My son has land in Fallon and my nephew is in Fernley. I’m not a desert person just a dessert lover and we live up near Graegle where there’s LOTS of golf!
I am sooo sorry for taking so long to get back to you! As you can tell by the wide gaps in my posts lately that I’ve not had much to show or say what with Covid raging. And that means I’ve not checked my blog for comments as regularly as I used to.
Anyway, yeah, I never quite understood why the shower head would leak sometimes but not others but I have read that they designed it that way on purpose, I forget why now. It is related to altitude and barometric pressure though and I’ve experienced that myself while traveling…I would stay a few days at altitude, and when I’d drop down into a valley, it would drip.
I’m hard of hearing so I often couldn’t hear the drip-drip-drip. That’s why I added that shut off valve just before hose. But for a while I would keep forgetting to shut off the single handle shower valve too, so later (sometimes days later) when I tried to do dishes, the water would never get hot because it would mix in the shower’s main valve. Now when done showering I turn that hose valve off first, THEN shut of the one above.
Those newer brand faucet seal kits I mentioned really made a difference for me, and my BR sink faucet rarely drips now since I installed it, even with 80 PSI supply. The shower still drips but ‘mixes’ better now with the newer kit, and I have that upper shutoff so no drips there either with that off. The kits that worked for my Moen single handle shower and bathroom sink faucets are Danco p/n 124198 and is labled as a Repair Kit for Valley II, but they work for the Moen. Available at Home Depot in their kitchen or bathroom section, I forget.
I really like the gold (polished brass) look of my BR so I’ve not changed the shower head for the Oxygenics. I do need to soak my OEM head in vinegar every other year but it works great along with the good ‘mixing’ the shower valve does now. I have all the pressure I need, and the head is not drifting down all the time like that other head I tried one time did.
Hey, I like that idea of adding a way to hold in the shampoo. Mine rarely drops but does occasionally. As far as the bar soap goes, I bought a slotted bar soap tray, and a soap stand off that I put inside the tray and then I used packing tape to hold it in place. Tape the rear of the soap tray to the rear of the shower slot made for it. There in the back it doesn’t get wet. Been several years and the tape is still holding the soap tray in place and the slots and stand off means the soap drys quickly so no goo.
I did have some bad luck and shower head clasp got brittle and broke, and there just wasn’t any way to keep that setup so I found a polished brass clamping style device that I put in it’s place, then removed that plastic grip from the shower head. Doesn’t exactly match the color but it’s close enough. I’m going to write that up soon and add that to my shower article.
Anyway, THANKS for reading and for the idea of adding the elastic to hold the soap bottle. Since I now keep my razor there, that hack is going to come in handy.