March Hot Springs – Down

A few days ago I realized that this Thursday will be March 31, which means that the first Thursday of April is a whole week away! In my own peculiar way of thinking, that means that I have time to take a little trip and still be in Reno for the April First Thursday art party. So here I go!

My start was postponed a day due to a freakish spring snowstorm. Of course in Reno in the spring, “expect the unexpected” is the motto. After sunny, mid-60’s sunning by the river weather on Saturday, we awoke on Monday to anywhere from 6 to 14 inches of heavy wet snow. I’d say we got 8-9″ at my place. Our usual weather pattern is a Pacific cold front smacking into the Sierras and having most of its moisture leached out by the altitude before it reaches Nevada. But this pattern is what the locals call an “inside slider”, because of the rotation of the low pressure cell it hits us more or less from the north, so we get the full brunt. In fact having the mountains right to our west tends to concentrate the weather right on us!

It snowed most of the day (very pretty) but the temp was in the mid-30’s so it was noticeably melting faster than it was coming down.

Tuesday (Mar 29)

The next day most of the snow is gone, all 10″ of it! I pack the van and even take the time to back up my hard drive, and even so am on the road with enough time for a big breakfast at Big Ed’s on East Fourth.

The plan is another Death Valley foray. I was on the early edge of the epic wildflower bloom last time, and will be on the trailing edge of it this time, but even so I am looking forward to some kind of closure in getting back and doing a better job of it this time. I went counter-clockwise last time – down 395, then east and up 95. I quite enjoyed my two stops on 95 in Nevada, Baileys and Walker Lake, so this time I am going clockwise – east on I-80, right (south) at Fernley through Yerington to Walker Lake from the north.

It was a pretty drive. The Truckee River east of town is quite scenic to look at from the interstate. The low mountains still had a dusting of snow from yesterday. Driving due south from Fernley was one of those desert winter phenomena, where I saw quite a lot of patchy snow in the fields in front of me, but almost no snow looking in my rear view mirror … because a little patch was lingering on the north side of every scrubby mesquite bush, but was long gone on the south side. I love that kind of thing!

This route takes me through Yerington. A coupla miles north of town is this gigantic earthenwork barrier that extends for a mile or so, holding something in, but I don’t know what. i googe it tonight, and ot is the toxic sludge pit from the Anaconda Copper Mine, closed in the 70’s, but leaving a mess for the feds to clean up forever after – yuck. The one funny thing is that the little company town they built in the hills is called Weed Hills, ha ha.

Last time I was here there were three campers in the whole place, this time there are at least eight. What a difference a month makes!

I’m kind of bummed about the wind. I got here early enough to enjoy the spot, but instead I am enjoying the inside of the van.  I guess I will take a little walk in it, but hanging out outside is out of the question.

Wednesday

Gloomy day here on Walker Lake. It looks like pictures of some remote firth in the Scottish Highlands. Last night’s forecast was for “wintry mix” and sure enough, about 11 pm I could hear rain and maybe sleet pelting the van for a while. But the steep uphill road outta here is dry this morning. It is windless!  I do take a few minutes to enjoy the outdoors at my spot.

The restaurant in Hawthorne looked pretty nice on Yelp, but they don’t serve breakfast after 11, and their lunch sucked. Oh well. I did get my daily wifi hit though…

A lot of miles today, but I am mostly enjoying it. The sky is beautiful, lot of clouds and rainstorms in the distance, dramatically lit vistas in every direction. I drove through many “occasional showers”, and for a five minute stretch, a straight up downpour.

I haven’t driven through Tonopah for years. I stayed here a few times in the days when I moteled on road trips … the Jim Bridger Inn is still there, the Mexican restaurant I walked down the hill to is now a karate studio :(  Goldfield is always fun to drive through. I’m always on the way from somewhere to somewhere, so I’ve never really spent time there. Didn’t today either.

Real nice evening. Quality time in the medium tub at Bailey’s. Since last month they have acquired alpacas (or maybe llamas… does anyone know the difference?). This is such a funny low-end trailer park-y kind of place – roosters crowing and barnyard animals braying at all hours of the day and night. The check-in dude presents like some kind of of camo and multiple large knives survivalist. He’s polite enough, but I get this “on the edge” vibe that is a little unsettling..

The tubs are really, really excellent and once you’re signed in they leave you alone, which is all I ever really ask, but it’s just so … funky.

Thursday

Didn’t sleep great, but better than the night before. I woke up and turned over often enough to hear the alpacas complaining multiple times. They sound sort of like very large kitties doing that “mwah!” thing they do to let you know they need you to do something, except in a very deep voice. Even for a non-pet person such as me, I’ve had enough life with cats that that preemptory tone of “serve me” from a large animal woke me up a little each time.

Up 8-ish. For all the above, it still counts as a good night’s sleep since I passed out 10-ish last night. Hit the mildest (that is to say, the least hot but still plenty hot) pool for a while around 9:30-ish, soak up my fill of that yummy free wifi for an hour or so and leave 11:30-ish. In the abundance of riches department, the only restaurant with wifi in 100 miles is 4 miles away! But of course I don’t care since I’ve had my fill already. I still go there because I liked their earnest sincere vibe (Gema’s Cafe in Beatty) but I do it old school, bringing in NO devices and spending my time writing with a physical pen in my physical notebook, and reading a physical book … while feeling superior to the nerd couple in the corner thumbing away on their phones :).  Turns out they’ve driven 50 miles from their campground in Death Valley just to check their email. I really enjoyed my little slice of last century living :)))

After yesterday’s long driving day, this was a very short one, only 3.5 podcast’s worth. I take my time … going 63 miles/hour where the speed limit is 70!! Even the giant RV’s were passing me. A win-win from my p.o.v.

I must remember that sometimes my van creates an overwhelming first impression that negatively affects my check-in experience. I had a long running feud with Harbin Hot Springs check-in because the first time I went there in my new van the dude entered “RV” in the Harbin database which meant that for ever after I was supposed to park in a far away corner with the large campers running generators. I never did, but I always feared the knock on the door by the Harbin parking nazis.  Come to think it, their database was not burned in the fire so I can look forward to resuming that dispute when they re-open. … BIG sigh …

Anyway, this afternoon I ended up paying $4 extra at Tecopa because the new dipshit who checked me in was determined that my vehicle could not be allowed to camp at the tent rate. He thought that it was ridiculous that I would even want to park down in the trees because my camper is so big. I’m still pretty annoyed. I will say that I had an extra good time in spite of, or maybe even because of this. I felt that I had the moral advantage and Right was on my side, so I for the time I spent there I had a kind of honey badger “don’t f— with me” edge that was fun!

I parked in the shade of trees anyway – surprise, no one was overawed by my huge camper – till almost sunset, then moved over to my view spot on the edge to enjoy the frogs croaking and the ducks in the sewage pond and the magnificent view.

Every time I would see that dude I would think “$4 extra”, and you could tell that he was thinking that I was thinking that, so I pretty much worked my moral advantage for maybe even $4 worth :)

Friday

Great morning.I enjoyed the tubs again, took advantage of the last chance to wash my hair for four days, then got in the van and drove 120 yards down the road to the new place that Yelp told me about that I was incredibly excited to visit, the Tecopa Internet Cafe!

It was everything I dared hope it would be. I believe in the future this place will change my Tecopa life! Good coffee, meh cookies, a very tasty breakfast sandwich, and wifi! There is not even a hint of phone bars out here.  Heading west I will not see internet again till Lone Pine two days from now, so this chance to freshen my podcasts and online sudokus is exciting! The place has a nice homey vibe also, band equipment is set up in the dining area for an open mic night, there are games and puzzles – a really nice addition to the community.  If Tecopa has teenagers (all I see is leathery old men), this is where they will hang out.

The Death Valley weekly wildflower recording told me that the bloom was off the valley and was only to be found only in the higher elevations, such as the drive to Dante’s Point. I wasn’t too excited about checking out Dante’s View agin, since I went there last month, but I did drive about half way, to 7000′, where I got some nice pics to prove that I saw flowers.

Now on day FOUR of exactly replicating my trip of seven weeks ago in reverse. It continues to be excellent not just as a thing in itself, but as an education in how different things are two months later in the progress of the seasons and in the opposite direction :) Last time I was in Death Valley it was Saturday night in a 20-year wildflower bloom. So this Friday night after the bloom isn’t really more crowded than last time – but it sure is HOTTER.

I took the time to explore the campgrounds near Furnace Creek and made an important discovery – Texas Spring looks like the place to be. It is the only one of the main valley campgrounds that looks remotely interesting, and that includes Stovepipe Wells, which I am pretty much over. Texas Springs is up a few hundred feet above Furnace Creek, at the edge of the eastern side of the valley. Awesome views, and it looks like you could walk into the hills out of the back of the campground … and sadly it was utterly full, every site taken at 2 pm on Friday afternoon. Oh well, now I know for next fall/winter/spring. I am done with Death Valley and this whole part of the country till November I hope. I really, truly hate the heat. I was just braving snow and wintry gales three days ago, and I’m just not ready for this 93° s–t.