: Where is Jack, Day 66?

Jun 16, 2010

Where is Jack, Day 66?

We started out at 8 a.m. this morning because we had heard that there were wind warnings in effect for the desert area surrounding Las Vegas. Well, they were right. After passing the city, the first 75 miles were brutal. We saw tornadoes on either side of us—you know the kind you see in open spaces that blow sand around in a circle—they’re not really dangerous, although several were pretty big. Then, for a while, the wind seemed to die down. This desert is not as boring as the one in Arizona. There are mountains, and we were on the lookout for wild horses. Nancy and Rich had seen them before. It's impossible to take any pictures while driving on this highway. There was a portion of the highway where there were signs every 1/4 of mile or so. The first said, This segment of highway dedicated to WWI Veterans"; the second, "This segment of highway dedicated to WWII Veterans"; the third, "...Korean Veterans"; the fourth, "The Vietnam Veterans"; the fifth, "Persian Gulf War Veterans"; and the sixth, "This segment of highways dedicated to "The War on World Terrorism Veterans."

We were heading for Tonopah, but it was only noon when we got there so Nancy decided to keep going since the wind had died down. Nancy had already walked me three times by then, counting the time at the RV Park. When we were walking back to the trailer we noticed that the fan cover was up—the wind must have opened it. We were fortunate not to lose it. We no sooner got out of town and the wind started blowing big time. I think Nancy said we had 113 miles to get to Hawthorne. There was no way to turn around so on we went. The wind remained strong, and then we came across a sign that said, “Dangerous Crosswinds Next 25 Miles”. “Good gravy,” Nancy said, “I think we’ve been in them since we left Tonopah. Don’t tell me it’s going to get worse!”

At one point it was as though there was a snowstorm. The wind was blowing the sand so hard that we couldn’t see. The few trucks that were on the road slowed to a crawl, and then it passed. It was short, but scary.

Hawthorne, where we are staying for the night, is windy. It’s a strange town. Nancy took some pictures. I think there are more Rvs, especially old ones, than any other place we’ve ever been in. We were driving around trying to find the RV Park that was in the directory. We found it, and it was not good. It reminded Nancy of a SciFi movie where dust and dirt and tumble weed blow down an empty road in a deserted town. We lucked out and found a new place that wasn’t advertised in the directory. It’s called Scotty’s. Nothing fancy, but level, has cable, water, electric and we don’t have to unhook.

I don’t think Nancy even knows what pictures she took. She was trying not to be too obvious, but a big blue truck and a little camper are just obvious by nature.

It appears that this town goes right up to the mountains. There's still snow on some of them.

This guy was really into birds.

There seemed to be a surplus of blue paint in this town--I've never seen so many blue houses!

Pretty Catholic Church

I saw more of this era of RV in this town than I've seen the whole trip. There are also lots of very small houses with RVs that are bigger than the houses--guess we'd all want a place to go--there's only a Casino, a Quick Mart, a McDonalds, and a few other stores.