'19/#14 I Know Why It's Called Death Valley

Beatty Nevada is not a major cultural center. In fact it is not the center of anything except nowhere. It is one of the entrances to Death Valley so we decided to take a ride and see what it was all about. An hour or so later we had driven through some mighty desolate country. There were some pretty colors in the rock formations and the vastness of the whole thing was impressive but not much to see or do for these travelers. The winters can get pretty cold and the summers are famous for it's extreme heat. Highest recorded temperature on the face of the earth is 134 degrees in Death Valley. I know it is a "dry" heat but so is an oven. Try trading places with your next Thanksgiving turkey.

One of Beatty's Prominent Citizens

On the way back we stopped at a ghost town called Rhyolite. It was a gold mining town that lasted for about 15 years with a population of almost 10,000. Then it just disappeared. There is one building mostly intact and the rest are little more than foundations and partial walls. Again not a lot here but it is part of the story of how and why the west was settled by adventurers look to get rich.

Having seen all we wanted to see we set out to continue our journey towards California. We headed north towards the Lake Tahoe area for our next stop. The roads seem to go on forever and there is very little in the way of civilization along the way. After an hour on the road we stopped in Goldfield NV for breakfast at a place called Dinky's Diner. If the speed limit hadn't dropped to 25mph in town we might have missed it. Breakfast was good and reasonable and we were on our way after a couple of pictures of the towns highlights.

Like I said there is not much civilization along the way, therefore there are not a lot of fueling opportunities. Today was a 300 mile day yet I stopped for fuel three times. When I saw diesel pumps I stopped, especially if the price was reasonable. We did well as far as price was concerned keeping the diesel prices under $3.10 per gallon. That will change once we get to California.

In between the forever straight roads we also had a number of small towns, and I use the term "town" loosely. Not much more than abandon mines, scrap yards, and cat houses. Yes cat houses also known as houses of prostitution. Mary was amazed that this was going on to the point that she looked them up on Google. Big mistake! Now she is on their mailing list and they want her to review it on Yelp!!! I hope this doesn't follow her around for long.

We finally made it to Minden NV and the Carson Valley Casino,Hotel, and RV Park. This will be our home base for a few days while we explore the Lake Tahoe area. So I am signing off from our Home in Minden Nevada because.....

Home is where we park it,
Frank and Mary