The Journey Begins

I was hoping to blog each day, but with the traveling, just unable to do so. Left our house at 11:00 am on Saturday, Oct. 31st. Over the Santiam Pass and on to Burns. Jim and Linda Hedlund were an hour behind us on their way South, so we planned to hook up down the road. Stopped for the night at a little wayside rest area just outside of French Glen. Beautiful country - that morning a herd of deer and 2 huge bucks just across the road.

I am driving the pickup with one quad and Gary has the Side by Side on a trailer behind the motorhome. We are driving down the middle of Nevada good roads and very little traffic. I was thinking of driving 5 hours a day but the men had other ideas so we made it to Tonapah that evening staying in a casino parking lot.

Off to Death Valley the next day. We split up with our friends as they are heading into Arizona. Into Death Valley - first stop Scotty's Castle which is an oasis in the middle of the desert. We were planning on camping at Stovepipe Wells, but on arival, didn't look to esthetic so on down the road or I should say up the road. We went from 5 feet to 5000 feet in 20 miles with no break and then of course down the other side. We were glad the pickup was not being towed There were many exclamations from me on the CB of "I can't believe this" "Are you doing ok" etc. We decided to go into Ridgecrest and camped at the Elks Lodge which has full hook ups.

Elks Lodge Campground

Scotty’s Castle