We have been on the road for almost 3 weeks now. We have only paid for a campground 3 nights now.  They usually cost about 40-45 a night, so about 1300-1400 a month. I guess we avoid them partially because of the cost, partially because we are to the point that we do not need them, ( we are getting by just fine on our solar power,  our 100 gallon water tank, propane for the stove, and a generator when all else fails(rare) ), but mostly because of the gorgeous spots we get to camp…… and the wild life..

Not a great shot, but there is a coyote there, and Tucker is barking like crazy about it.

…. and the burros. Strong winds, and I just missed a few of them rolling around in the sand kicking up the dust.

We have had several days of strong winds, COLD winds.  It has been interesting having our son Josh taking geography this term, learning how weather systems form. It seems as though the dreadful winds we have been experiencing through West Nevada, is in effect a high pressure system associated with the Santa Ana winds that  fuel the fires in Southern California.  The western part of Nevada, into California is called the “great west basin” . Here is an excerpt I found in Wikipedia.

“The Santa Anas are katabatic winds—Greek for “flowing downhill”, arising in higher altitudes and blowing down towards sea level.^[4] Santa Ana winds originate from high-pressure airmasses over the Great Basin and upper Mojave Desert. Any low-pressure area over the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, can change the stability of the Great Basin High, causing a pressure gradient that turns the synoptic scale winds southward down the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada and into the Southern California region.^[5] Cool, dry air flows outward in a clockwise spiral from the high pressure center. This cool, dry airmass sweeps across the deserts of eastern California toward the coast, and encounters the towering Transverse Ranges, which separate coastal Southern California from the deserts. The airmass, flowing from high pressure in the Great Basin to a low pressure center off the coast, takes the path of least resistance by channeling through the mountain passes to the lower coastal elevations, as the low pressure area off the coast pulls the airmass offshore.”

So yesterday was the first day we have noted a lessening of the winds, and the news said also that the Santa Ana winds had decreased.  So perhaps they will cool down and we will warm up.

One of the places we explored was Rhyolite, a ghost town from the gold boom.  It was dreadfully windy there, so we thought if we climbed closer to the mountains we might get out of the wind….. and we did.

If you look at the spot up near the V,  we got out of the wind there 🙂

…and this is the view from there. The flat part is Death Valley, and California in the distance.

The entire valley is riddled with mining shafts like this one.

Gold was discovered here in 1905, and in 2 years it was a town of 12,000 people. It had banks, newspapers, gambling halls (of course gambling halls, it is Nevada..) … and even an Opera house.  3 Railroads had lines built into Rhyolite, but by 1911 the ores had begun to play out. Too bad they did not have RVs back then…… they could have just moved on to the next bonanza 🙂 .

The one building that is still standing is oddly the Kelly’s bottle house, made entirely of bottles.

I believe this was the school.

There was also “the panic of 1907”  which saw the stock markets fall 50%, so there was much less money to invest in mining, yet another factor in the demise of Rhyolite.  Interesting to read about Charles Schwab as a major investor in this.

seeing the remains of this building I was wondering if the bars were to keep someone in (jail), or keep someone out (bank). Turns out it was the former.

And we can hardly have a day with out something going wrong with the motorhome, and this is what our motorhome looks like when the hood is up…. the engine is under the bed, and some spring dohicky broke off that keeps the engine from over revving or something like that. Ken managed to gerry rig it back to being hooked up again and all was good.

and Tucker now has booties, now that we are into the cactus. So we do not have to use pliers to get the thorns out of his paws.

Where we stayed last night………

So that is where Ken and Tucker and I are now

Much love