April 24-28, 2026 Hawthorne to Topaz Lake, Nevada to Susanville, California

 70 degrees and sunny.

Desert dandelions blooming on the way to Hawthorne. 

This is an internet photo of a boat attached to a building in Mina, NV. I didn't get a photo. It no longer has the signs, except the Don't miss the boat one and is closed. It used to be a lobster restaurant. The owner raised crawfish out back and served them up here. The government said it was illegal to sell them directly to the public, he was supposed to sell them to some kind of distributor and then buy them back  back. The owner said screw you and kept serving them. So they came in and confiscated his lobsters and poured bleach into his tanks. Boo. The bus at Whiskey Flats RV park in Hawthorne. Over the last week I have had 3 episodes of atrial fib. I felt terrible. So the next day I had chest pains, was dizzy, nauseous etc. and felt really bad. So John took me to the Er.  I had another episode in the ER. They did a bunch of tests and I was fine. Just the a fib probably from not getting enough sleep being dehydrated and the altitude. Dr told me to rest and follow up with my dr. So we are going to fast track to Oregon, leave the bus and drive back to Colorado in the truck.

Dinner at the Whiskey flats RV park. The weather was very pleasant.  Sunset from the RV park. 

Walker Lake outside of Hawthorne. This is the cheapest diesel we have seen so far, on the Paiute reservation in Yerrington. We stopped and topped off the tank.

On the way to Topaz Lake. The GPS took us on a dirt road. Boo. But it was only for a mile and a half and ok. 

Off the dirt road we got to see this nice green pasture full of cows wearing these things.  I looked them up and they are cow smart collars. They have a GPS in them, work like an electric fence and monitor the cows health and help the rancher monitor their herd. They are solar powered. Never seen those before. The bus at Topaz Lake Casino RV park, with a view of the lake. Only $30 a night. There is a big snow storm in the Sierras, so we are going to wait it out for the next three days before crossing over the mountains. John does not drive the bus in the snow. 

It was cloudy, it is supposed to rain here while the Sierras get a couple feet of snow. So sunset was just a bright spot in the clouds. Snow on the Pine nut mountains to the east of Topaz Lake.

We are at the Topaz Casino RV park, diesel is $6.25 at the casino, poppies curled up for the night and a cut quail. Not quite sunset over Topaz Lake.

John got fuel for $5.75 in Reno, too bad the tank was pretty full. In Susanville, California it is $7.39. No Welcome to California sign, but we did have to go through the fruit police. So we knew we were in California. We didn't have any offensive fruit or firewood, so they let us by.

The bus parked at Susanville RV park. Your basic commercial RV park. I talked to my  Dr this morning. I am going to pick up some meds in Oregon when we get there and I can get the diagnostic test done when I usually get home. So not in a hurry now to get back.  We went to the Pioneer Cafe, which last time we were here was a brewery and nice restaurant. The brewery is gone now and it is a BBQ place. The BBQ was ok, but all the fun decor was gone. They did serve beer so not all was lost. John had ribs.

Beautiful historic downtown Susanville. Sunset from the RV park.

April 22, 2026 Shoshone California to Tonopah, Nevada

  High in Tonopah was 51 degrees, partly cloudy and windy. Brr.

We stopped at Longstreet in Nevada to get fuel. It is over $9 a gallon in Shoshone, California. There is an interesting collection of things at Longstreet. Among other things a giant cow and pig. The diesel was $6.39 a gallon.

Flowers in Shoshone, the athel trees and mesquite bushes and a couple onery looking folks at Longstreet. Nevada view.

Joshua tree forest. Welcome to Tonopah. We had wanted to stay in Goldfield, but all their parks are full of gold miners since it $5000 an oz now. John got the last spot in Tonopah. Big race this weekend. 

John did not want to unhook the truck, so we walked 4 miles in below 50 degrees and windy weather. round trip into town. Our first stop was the Clown Motel. A few clowns in the doorway. It was too cold to take the Clown Motel ghost hunt tour. 

Some clowns in the clown museum at the Clown Motel.  Downtown Tonopah.

Last trip here we went to the mining park. Excellent museum This is a silver town, surrounded by mines. A boy walked up to this cupid and told his mother that it looked like Michael Jackson!!

 One of the mines around town. We had dinner and brews at the Tonopah brewing company. The wind gave  John a clown hairdo.

Me with Belle and Jim Butler, the founders of town. Yes it was cold. View from our RV park.

The bus at Tonopah RV Park. It was surprisingly quiet considering it was right off the highway. Sunset from the RV park. 

April 18-21, 2026 Las Vegas, Nevada

 High of 78 and sunny. Not that I went outside, inside in classes from 9-5. 

I took an advanced glass clay class. The instructor made the one on the left. I made the one on the right. It still needs to be fired. We spent most of the class with the instruction and I didn't get as much time as I would have liked working on the piece so it has some ragged edges, but maybe they will smooth out when it is fired. Lots of fun and I will be working some more with this at home. My second class was the Calligraphy of vitrograph. We learned how to make things like petals and leaves from the hot glass as it came out of the kiln. This piece was made by the Kory the instructor. Some of the flowery things on the bottom are what we learned. This is three kilns full of hot glass on top of a huge rack. There are holes in the bottoms of the kilns and we pull the hot glass out of the bottom.

Kory our instructor making a fiddle head. It was  really fun class and I will be making many components for my pieces when I get home. This is the 30th anniversary of the glass expo, so the Sat night meet and greet was extravagant. Dinner and drinks out by the pool. 

Anita, Lois, Shirley and I with a couple Las Vegas dancers.  Fire dancers and lighted hula hoopers. 

And Elvis! Shirley, Anita and Lois with Elvis.

Anita with Jack Storms , we  took classes from him and Dan who owns Covington engineering that makes the machines we use for cold working glass. Me, Lois, Elvis, Anita and Shirley.

Shirley, Lois, Anita and I at the official photo booth for the event. I loved this display. It is a field of lavender blooms. They are sold individually, but look great together. You can kind of see in the background the photo of the field of lavender. The artist is from France and he says these represent fields of lavender in France. The expo is over. I am exhausted. It was a great time, but I am ready to go home tomorrow and sleep for a week.

My computer is overheating and not charging while I use it, only when is is asleep. And it is not holding a charge very long. The battery is on it's last legs. So today I purchased a new one. It is an updated version of my old Microsoft surface. Way updated. It is sapphire, and this is what it looked like in the box. And setup. Of course the color is on the back, the other side is just a screen. My new phone that I just got is the same color. I am so wiped our from running 9 am to 10 pm for 4 days, I went to the pool. It was 85 degrees. I laid on the lounge chair and instantly fell asleep. 

John took me out to dinner in the Italian restaurant at the casino. This is our waiter Fausto tossing our caesar salad. I picked up my fired mandala I made in the glass clay class. It came out pretty well considering I made it so fast, all the pieces were ragged. Looking forward to playing with the clay in my studio. 

Back home to the RV in Shoshone, Dinner on the patio. Sunset. 

Sunset the following night.