DAY ELEVEN, part two: South Lake Tahoe, CA to Ely, NV

DAY ELEVEN, part two: South Lake Tahoe, CA to Ely, NV


WE’RE BACK TO THE LAND OF STRAIGHT ROADS!!! YIPPEEEE!

Route 50 through Nevada is called “The Loneliest Road in America” and I know why. Tiny towns in wide open tan fields of brush are all we pass through. Carson City was just a small speck. I was excited to see what “Stagecoach” would look like. Would it be like an old west movie set? An old mining town? Nah, it was 5 mobile homes and a fence. Seriously.

We passed Fallon and the range that John has flown to a few times and eventually we came to a huge expanse of flat land surrounded by mountains. As the sunset, we were able to make out that this was desert land. In the final remnants of light I could see that it was dusted in snow. How amazing.

My heart sank as I looked at the mileage until Arches. All the climbing out and around Yosemite took muuuuuuch longer than it should have, and in the dark, at 5pm, we still have 600 miles ahead of us and a time change that will cost is an hour. We had planned to be home on January 1st. We may need to push that to the 2nd if we want to see Arches without rushing.

By 5:30 the sky was black. Sometimes on this lonely highway we were the only car for as far as the eye could see. John wants to pull over around 8 or so and shut off all the lights just to experience the dark of night. My only wish is that the rain stops so that we can see some stars. I’ll bet the sky out here is simply astonishing on a clear cold night.

We spoke too soon, because before we knew it we were back to climbing mountains. In the Shoshone Mountains we were back up to 7200 feet. The snow was falling pretty heavily, but you could still see the road which was a good sign. Over 7000 feet in the Sierra Nevadas was feet of snow. Here in Nevada is was hardly a foot at its deepest. Coming down mountains on dark snowy roads in an RV with someone else in control is very difficult.

But once again I spoke too soon. I don’t want to write too much about the experience other than it was overwhelmingly frightening. The road wasn’t lit nor was it plowed. There was no cell reception in areas, and we hardly ever passed other cars. The towns are very small and very sparse. Even if we wanted to stop, there wasn’t a breakdown lane to park in. The winds blew snow and made it near white out at times. We could see the rumble strip marking the center of the road. John kept that centered between the tires to keep us from blowing one way or another. I followed the map closely, and with each successive peak, John and I groaned. We crossed Robinson peak, over 7600 feet, which was the highest elevation to date.

In Ely, Nevada we stopped to eat and regroup. To my chagrin we hit a McDonald’s. Everything else in the town was closed due to the blizzard. When we got inside, it hit me how sick I felt. My body won’t stop moving and I’m dizzy. John felt the same way. We were operating on high alert for 120+ miles.

We pulled into the grocery store parking lot where some semi trucks had also chosen to stop. It was level ground and we parked facing the wind. The forecast calls for more heavy snow tomorrow. We may be forced to take an extra day on this trip. This was not part of the plan!