Yes, more tales of woe from on the road!
We left Bryce Canyon bright and early heading for US Hwy 50
(dubbed the ‘loneliest road in the U.S.!) on the 13th and began to
enjoy a long ride of empty roads and not much else! It definitely deserves that name! Anyway … we stopped for gas a fairly
large-ish service station/Burger King/Gas Bar to fill up in a ‘lovely’ town
called (of all things) Beaver, UT. While
filling up, one of the guys from the service station wandered over and offered
to check our tire pressure as they looked a bit low. So after filling up we pulled over to the
service station and while checking pressure he noticed there was more going on
than low pressure … the rear tires were pretty much shot! Now … we were aware they were in rough shape
… when we were in Albuquerque we were told during our checkup at Camping World
that they were bad but would ‘probably’ make it thru the trip. Well, seeing the cracking, blistering,
crowning and serious lack of tread this fellow told us we were taking an
enormous risk of blowout on this gigantic stretch of ‘nothing’ road. We decided he was right and as they could do
it right away … and gave us a AAA discount, we decided to go for it.
So. Lunch at Burger
King (yum!) waiting. We were called over
after a few minutes … the guy was checking the pressure on the front tires
which at first glance looked ok. He
noticed that the ‘inside’ section of tire was wearing away! What from???
He looked up and saw our shock on that side was rusted, broken and
leaking fluid which was dripping on the tire and eating away the surface. So …. The front tires DID need changing PLUS
we needed a new shock.
Linda is now in ‘shock’ herself! I laughingly told the guy “don’t look at any
more stuff … please!!!” Unfortunately,
he did and saw the rear shocks were in equally as bad a shape … rusted and
broken. So … we changed those as
well! They were fast, I gotta say that
for them … they had 3 guys working on Rosy and in 2 hours all was done … with Bruce
& Linda U.S.D. $2,615.00 ‘greenbacks’ poorer.
The good news is … all our steering problems … Bruce driving
as if he were in constant danger of skidding out of control … was gone!!! No wonder it was driving so poorly … bad
tires, no shocks … it’s a wonder we hadn’t gotten into some serious trouble
trying to drive like that!
So … “Here’s to Beaver” … if we hadn’t of stopped there we
might have had a serious blowout or accident!
(But all I wanted was gas ……..)
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| Lehman Cave Campground |
We finally pulled into our destination for the night at Great Basin National Park at around 4-ish. We really didn’t know what was there but it
seemed a good place to stop for the night. (It was the ONLY place to stop for the night!)
We found a very cool campground at the Lehman Cave Campground. (Bonus - only $6/night fee!) Didn’t even know there was a cave there! We took a tour at 9 am this morning (15th)
and it was awesome!
Small in comparison
to Carlsbad etc, but FULL of neat formations.
And the ranger (Ranger Steve) gave a very informative and fun tour –
lasting about 1 ½ hours.
 |
| In Lehman Cave |
After that we drove up to Wheeler Peak parking lot
(elevation 10,260 ft) with the thought of taking a hike to some alpine
meadows. However … the elevation was
such that there was a LOT of snow on the trail … snowshoes would have been
awesome … but with just summer boots and no proper clothing/equipment it soon
became apparent that trudging thru snow up to our knees just wasn’t going to
work. Not to mention Bruce is quite sick
with his cold so it was a good excuse to head back to camp and some much needed
rest.
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| Trying to hike on Mt Wheeler |
The campground is awesome (not many spots but VERY cool) (and no
hookups but batteries are working fine!) right on a creek. We sat out drinking scotch listening to the
sound of the water till twilight last night.
So … poorer in $$ but richer in experience!
Today we drove to Fallon, NV still … on the infamous Hwy 50
which is SO long and boring … ("How long and boring is it you say?) Well, so boring it’s a
delight when you see a plastic bag stuck
on an old fence post … a marvel when you spot a cow … and indescribably
amazing when you actually see another car on the road! That's BORING!!!You pass several ‘towns’ on that almost 300 miles … some of which have restaurants and gas stations … some of which are even open!! Not many tho!
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| A whole lotta nothing! |
We’ll spend 2 nights here as there’s a wildlife refuge close
by that is supposed to have some great birding.
Then possibly on to Lake Tahoe.
Very tired now … I'll say good night!
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