Leaving Las Vegas

Originally Posted On Just We Family Blog

Vacation Blog – Day 12

I went for a short walk before we hit the road, to take some shots of the park before we ventured back into the desert. It was an early start to the day, with 7.5 hours of driving ahead of us. Barring any unforeseen road blocks, this would be our longest day trip through our 15-day vacation.

Early on in today’s excursion, we passed an area that looked like a water reservoir but when we got closer, it was the reflection of the sun off of thousands of solar panels. It was something else. It’s called the Dry Lake Solar Project.

There have been tough things to see and research about our path, from all of the homeless in L.A. and knowing that there were over 1,000 homeless living in the underground tunnel system in Vegas. I am also pretty sure I saw a dog on the side of the road that looked recently deceased but we were traveling too fast with nowhere to stop to go and check. It looked like it might have been a light brown bully breed of some sort.

There were more scary climbs and terrifying descents, but the ‘what the’ of today were signs frequently telling you to keep your headlights on for 70 miles, and then another 80 miles, and this trend continued for much of the trip. Perhaps it was because we spent much of the day in the clouds? Although there were some eerie clouds, and we did hit rain for a short stint, the signs weren’t really anything to be afraid of.

Tara makes a great co-pilot for many reasons from awesome music playlists, to encouraging me through those high elevation curves, but I love that she is researching sites we are passing, including San Jacinto which is a ghost town that you pass before you hit Jackpot, Nevada. Jackpot itself sits on the Nevada-Idaho border and just like our entry into Nevada from the west welcoming you to the state with a Casino, we were enticed one last time by a Casino leaving the state. It’s a neat town to pass through but there was no stopping. We were on a mission.

There were other beautiful sites along the way from the ghost white ash trees in Ash Springs, to a cute little town named Ely at the halfway point where we stopped for gas and a few other supplies. Ely was a welcome site after another intimidating mountain climb. It turned out to be nothing, but unfortunately since the surprise of Mt. Hood and then Mt. Shasta, anytime we climb I tend to fear the worst.

We pushed through the day pretty hard, arriving once again in the daytime to today’s one night destination. It is another KOA but this one isn’t as fancy as Palm Springs although I am sure it is nice in warmer months when the pool is open.

The KOA office was already closed when we arrived – which hasn’t been uncommon on our adventure, but they left instructions including how to plan for the anticipated freezing temperatures much later in the night. The rules were to unplug from the water system by 9pm, to ensure their pipes didn’t freeze. On the advice from another RV’er I approached, we also filled our onboard tank so our water didn’t freeze. It was a little nerve racking hoping nothing happened to the RV, but the advice I found on the internet about these kinds of conditions was to open all cupboard drawers under the sinks, and turn on the heat.

Let’s hope for the best.

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Back to Day 11 – Olive Garden and New York, New York

Day 13 – Deadman’s Pass