Last night we went to Buck’s for dinner and sat out on the patio. It was Prom night at the local high school and the kids were all spiffed up with their dates having dinner when we arrived. The owner chef was a local guy who left town years ago to go to culinary school in L.A. and got early training at a Four Seasons. After being head chef at a couple of upscale restaurants, he came back to Moab and opened his own place. He has quite a reputation. The food was superb.
Wind, wind, and more wind! All night we had gusts that felt like the Manor was going to move to the next site! By the afternoon the air was so thick with dust that the sky was brown. Grit got in my mouth, nose and eyes. It was terrible! On top of all the wind, it was hot so we had to have the windows open to sleep. The Manor had a layer of red sand everywhere. It was our worst weather on the entire trip. Luckily the wind in town was a little better for the Art Festival. We had a fabulous breakfast at the Jailhouse Café. Among other things in the building’s history, it had been a Court House and jail. It reminded me of my restaurant in Cambria, Creekside Gardens, with lots of outdoor seating, great food, and friendly service. We listened to some of the music at the festival and enjoyed walking around the booths. It was a mixture of quality and funky. The last thing on our list was to take the short 18 mile ride out Hwy 279 toward the potash beds. One area along the road was lined up with people rock and cliff climbing. It looked like a great place to learn. The road followed the Colorado River as it continued south toward Canyonlands NP. We saw dinosaur prints! With all the rock movement over the centuries the big slab of rock is now on a slant and the prints were easy to see. We scoped out the restaurants in town and decided on having an early dinner at Zak’s. With nothing else to keep us in town, we headed back to the campground and miracle of miracles, the wind soon died down. We spent a good deal of time wiping down the Manor to get rid of the thick layer of sand that was covering everything. I think the sand will keep showing up for a while. When we got the cards out for our nightly games, the cards had grit on them!
May 30
After four months of travel, we headed back west across Utah to Ely, NV. We were dreading the trip thinking it was going to be long with boring scenery but were pleasantly surprised with a beautiful drive. As we came over a hill before crossing the border into Nevada, we had an amazing view before us of the gorgeous snow covered mountains in Big Basin National Park. Mt. Wheeler is over 13,000 feet and the tallest mountain in Nevada. We stopped in Baker for lunch before driving up the Visitor Center. We stopped at one of two places in town for lunch and were offered a choice of a meatloaf sandwich or a burger. The meatloaf was really yummy. Some college age kids were sitting there with their computers and books taking their lunch break from their jobs with the Conservation Corps. The National Park looks like a great place to spend a couple of days. It has a tour of Lehman Caves and the road up Mt. Wheeler must be beautiful. Nevada is the most mountainous state in the U.S. with the entire state forming a big basin with all the river water flowing to the center. None of the rivers drain into the Pacific or the Gulf of Mexico. It actually has over 90 basins with one mountain srange after another. Diving through Nevada will be up over a summit and down into a valley time after time. The area is so green and the mountains are snow covered and beautiful!
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| Casino From the Good Old Days in Ely |
We had another pretty drive today driving across Nevada to Carson City. We have been traveling on "Hwy 50 - The Loneliest Road in America." It was a pretty lonely area of the U.S. with only a few ranches off in the distance and not many cars on the highway. We were there in time for lunch. We didn’t feel like visiting a museum so Chris and I did a little shopping in the afternoon. Chris found some new hiking boots that seem to be a perfect fit. She can try them out in Yosemite. We got a recommendation to try Red’s Old 395 Grill. The building itself was an architectural treat with a western look. Inside was a real museum of wagons, buggies, large farm equipment and old fire wagons hanging from the ceiling. They Had a huge restored 1923 Monach Steamroller that is one of two in existence. This one was used to pave what is now Wall Street in New York City. They moved it onto a cement slab and built the restaurant around it! The Host Stand at the front was salvaged out of St. Francis Hotel in San Francisco following the earthquake in 1907. The list goes on and on. The “Greatest Bar on Earth” features 101 different beers. Norm had a great nut brown beer from England. The food was just as great as the atmosphere. It turned out that our server was the niece of the builder and had lots of info for us. The owners are three guys from Chico. Among other restaurants, they own The Bear in Chico.
Had a short drive along Lake Tahoe and down to Jackson on HWY 49. Tahoe was beautiful but we had snow! Some of the homes along HWY 50 looked like they were still snowed in from the harsh winter. We had hoped to drive over Tioga Pass and down into Yosemite but the road is still closed. It usually opens by the third week in May but they had almost record snows this year so we took the long way around. It is raining today but we got our groceries for Yosemite and had a quite afternoon. We are staying at the Jackson Rancheria Casino and RV Resort.We staryed at this delux spot in October when we were exploring the gold country along Hwy 49.
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