Road Trip part 3..........Getting Lost in Nevada

The trip through Death Valley was meant to be a short cut on the way to northern Nevada. You see I had heard that in northern Nevada the plains are full of wild horses, the mountains teaming with wildlife, and every valley has a creek full of trout. Our destination was the Humboldt River valley around Elko, and parts thereabouts. The plan was to stay the night in Tonopah Nevada then go exploring the next day. My Dove and little Joshua could stay in Tonopah, a mountain town with lots of touristy things to do. RIGHT! There is nothing to do in Tonopah, absolutely nothing, unless you consider exploring abandoned mines,




hotels, and trailer parks (yes.........abandoned) something to do. My Dove did not, so we lit out at first light. There was however a fine dusting of snow, so we had a snowball fight before leaving, then we left.

We headed north, as I remembered the map showed us going north. I had not mapquested this portion of the trip because I was quite sure I knew which way north was. So we headed north for a few miles, until the road veered west, and stayed west for a piece. I kept thinking it would veer back north anytime, but no such luck, and soon we had gone a hundred miles west. Time to look at the map. Seems I had missed a very small jog to the east in Tonopah, that would have put me on the road north. Do you have any idea how fast a hundred miles goes by when you are doing 90 mph? We were not about to turn back and waste two hundred miles, so we decided to visit Hawthorne, home of the largest Ammo Dump in the world.

When speaking of ammo, the word "Dump" does not mean disposal, it means storage. Go figure the English language. The valley Hawthorne is in would be very pretty, if there were not thousands of Bunkers everywhere. Literally thousands of bunkers full of ammunition and ordnances were everywhere you looked. The town seemed like an afterthought. However, Hawthorne is home of the Ordnance Museum, so we decided to make the most of our mistake and ventured inside.. We were the third, fourth, and fifth visitors in the past week (my Dove declined to participate in this educational experience or she could have been the sixth).

Well, Bishop California was just down the road a couple of hundred miles, and I know there are trout creeks there because I've fished many of them, so we headed south and west back to familiar country.

Did you know that Golden Eagles are "opportunistic eaters"? Well let me tell you about it. Tyler, a fine road trip driver, spotted a large bird feasting upon road kill and asked to go back for a looksee. I told him "Sure, but don't be too disappointed when your Eagle turns out to be a Vulture". That silly bird let us drive up to within ten feet of him (it could have been a her), then gave us that old "Get away from my dinner!" look before spreading his majestic eagle wings and flying away. It's true, Golden Eagles eat carrion, in this case Coyote, and we have proof.


You may be asking yourself "Why did senorlechero change the subject from Getting Lost to Golden Eagles?". Well, I'm a guy, and guys will do anything in order not to admit they should have asked directions.

Enough said, check back later for the last installment of Road Trip