End of Oct, into November…

I sent lots of time checking the weather in M-F over the last couple weeks in October with an eye to leaving before the snows hit. There had been this huge early winter storm front that dipped way south and skirted Milton Freewater and I wanted to escape to a warmer climate before I got snowed in. And I was also checking my 1st destination as I headed south, Pahrump, NV.

But first, there were some things in M-F I wanted to do before leaving…here’s how it looked before I left. No rain, nice sunshine. Cool though. Getting close to cold at night, down in the 40’s.

I did want to grab a few chunks of cheese at the Walla Walla Cheese factory in downtown M-F where my daughter works and the downtown was looking spiffy so got some shots of downtown old town and the cheese shop. Here’s a shot of the main street in what used to be the hub of the area. It’s since moved south a couple miles and many businesses in this part of town suffer from to little traffic.

And here’s the cheese shop.

They do the curd making in these vats next to the shop.

They make ice cream too.

And my daughter in her work uniform giving me an air kiss. She’s sorta sterile and I’m grungy. I had a lunch of cheese samples, soup, and a grilled Habanero cheese sammich. Yum.

And my favorite cheese. It’s so good you guys should avoid buying any so there’s more for me.

I bought extra bricks and stuffed them into the freezer for when I travel. Which I guessed would be soon.

I decided around this time to go ahead and try to beat the winter weather and leave early this year. So November instead of December. Changes year from year as the weather dictates. Last thing I want is to dump this giant RV off the steep side of a snowy road. So I watch it carefully. And then in early Nov. the NWS predicted a giant cold front that would plunge the middle section of the US into a freezer. Looking at the map, it could have dipped down into the Walla Walla valley with snow possible. That tipped my hand so I decided to leave on Nov. 12th after checking the weather at the towns and passes I’d go through on my way south. I can make it in two days, and generally what I do is take 3 days, this year though, weather had me decide to do it in two. Also this year though, the pass at Austin, NV, which is a travel short cut on the route, would have snow on the road by the 12th. So instead of abandoning that route for a long bypass, I just left on the 10th instead. That would put me into Battle Mountain, NV after 8 hours of driving and the next day into Austin and clear roads. Not fun driving for 8 hours, but the weather wasn’t too bad, the RV runs good, I was feeling good, so off I went.

This incoming storm at M-F was an inducement too.

It was predicted to get even worse. I wasn’t looking forward to cold miserable wet weather or snow in the passes so heading south was the answer…or so I thought. When I’d check weather in Pahrump, it was showing weeks of 80 degree weather. Nice.

Anyway, here we go, Toll Gate pass first, then through Elgin, eventually ending up on I-84. Then down south on the 95 highway through Winnemucca stopping for the night at Battle Mtn, NV.

I thought this tabletop mountain was pretty cool. Somewhere in Oregon. Not much traffic on a Monday in November.

First stop is at the Clark RV park in Battle Mtn. $40/nite but pull through spaces so I don’t need to unhook the car and a fueling stop just before entering the park. Filled up, got my space at the park, and had an hour of daylight to eat than onto some TV watching. Streaming using my phone as a hot spot.

Next day it’s on to Austin. Roads were clear according to the NV DOT.

After Austin, I drop down into a very long valley, it’s part of the Loneliest highway in America but this section is unnamed if you can believe it.

Eventually pass through Goldfield. I’ve been coming this way for several years now. I’ve stayed at the RV park here a time or two and visited the museums and a couple ol’ timey bars. Kind of a neat little tourist town now though there are still mines in the area. Was a boom town for a short period.

Many of the road stretches in this area look like this. Millions of years ago, this was the ocean bed and thousands of years ago, there were giant lakes here from the ice age melt runoff.

This leg of the trip is only 6 hours so I had time to stop in Beatty, NV to buy some nuts and SF candy and then it’s just an hour to Pahrump.

Got settled in, paid for a month, and that cold got all the way down here and it’s been miserable for almost a week now. Big rain storms, temps in the 40’s at night. High moisture in the air that chills me to the bone. Dammit, I should have just paid for a week, not 4 weeks. But it doesn’t really matter, because my next stops in Quartzsite, AZ, maybe Yuma, and Tucson are cold and miserable too. Maybe those predictions that we are entering the next ice age are accurate.

Well, this is all for this time. Thanks for reading!