October 7-10, 2016 Summer Lake Hot Springs, Oregon

Another wonderful day of 70’s and sunny. Very relaxing here.

Our neighbors last night (three groups) were  on their way home from Burning Man. They have been there since August 11th. Running the show and then doing clean up. There was some breezes, but it looks like there was a lot more in the valley, this is blowing dust and salt on the dry lake bed.

I sorted my giant bag of needles I collected yesterday and put them in bundles.

Not a bad haul. We spent at least an hour in the hot springs this after noon. We are pretty noodley. John at the outflow of one of the pools.

I made this basket while we were driving across northern Utah and Nevada. I don’t usually get up for sunrise, but I saw this outside the window, got up, took some photos and went back to bed.

I am working on a new basket. It has a piece of glass I made in the bottom. It has golden aspens and a deer on it. and so far I have two of the 4 aspen leaves I am putting in. Stay tuned. I boiled some of the new needles in glycerin. I like the color it makes them, and it makes them more flexible so I don’t have to use them wet.

Looking west you see this plume of dust in the valley.  I had to move the lawn chair to the lee side of the bus. All this soaking in the hot springs has made us very relaxed. Progress on the basket, all four aspen leaves and the yellow wrapped coil. Going to do some blue beads and blue wrapped coils. Or at least I think I am, the baskets kind of have a mine of their own.

Sunset was spectacular tonight. Kind of a 360 degree one. Here are a few shots.

Other views of sunset. We found the meditation  labyrinith at the resort today. Walked in lots of circles to get to the middle.

In the middle of the labyrinith was this circle of stones with the heart shaped stone. There are a number of wood carvings around, found this owl today. There is a controled burn across the street, looks like we are burning up. The air was really smokey all day.

Added the blue wrap and some blue beads to the basket. Stay tuned for progress. The sunset was firey tonight.

Sunset with some old farm equipment and sunset over the pond.

October 6, 2016 Orovada, Nevada to Summer Lake Hot Springs, Oregon

Another 233.6 miles drive today. Most of it through very rural country.

Highway 140 is in the middle of nowhere. Right off we took a rock to the windshield and got a crack. This is the same side that was just replaced this summer because it cracked. John put scotch tape on it, he claims that will stop it from spreading.

Swordfish mining adopted part of this highway, Virgin Valley  Black Fire opals, Denio must have been the only town, we turned off right before it. Lots of animals to lookout for on this stretch. Wild bulls. I would really hate to be on this road when it snows, looks like white out country. Nevada is basin and range geology- we drove over lots of passes. We drove the length of the Sheldon National wildlife refuge. It was established mainly to protect antelope habitat.

Wild burros, Royal Peacock mine, antelope and feral horses. I only got part of this herd of antelope as it raced away, it was huge.

Sage Hen Hills summit, Finally we made it into Oregon, rfree range cows and big horn sheep. Going down from Doherty summit was scary, it drops about 1000 feet in about a mile. Very narrow, no shoulder or guard rail. I was glad we were going down, not next to the sheer drop off.

Came around the corner to a semi in our lane going around this  cattle drive in the road and pine trees.

What a find, a ponderosa pine that was cut down. Lots of long straight pine needles that had never touched the ground-no dirt or mold on them. I grabbed a leaf bag and started collecting. Yellow cliffs-no idea what caused it.

Paisley, Oregon, home of the broncos, John st. The road is part of the Oregon Outback scenic byway. We arrived at our destination, Summer Lake hot springs. Wide open views by a mostly dry lake bed. The bath house was originally built in 1925. The springs first operated in hollowed out logs for baths in the early 1900’s.

The bus at the RV park. Very quiet and dark at night. Full 50 amp hookups. It is in the 70’s and very pleasant. John in one of the outdoor pools.

Inside the historic bath house. Another view of the outdoor pools. Very relaxing.

Mermaid by the pools. Horses in sunset.

Bathhouse in the sunset. Lovely place. Well worth the long drive. We will stay here all weekend.

October 4-5, 2016 Wellington, Utah to Orovada, Nevada

We ended up driving 300 miles today. Way more than we usually drive. We did not want to go to the big city. Provo was not very far and there really was nothing west of Salt Lake City, just salt flats, no towns or RV parks till we got to Nevada. So we just drove.

Leaving Price, Utah in this lovely canyon. Provo,Utah with a nice back drop.

Salt Lake City, nice mountains to the east that are not in the photo. The Great Salt Lake and a pile of salt at a plant by the evaporator ponds.

We saw this 5th wheel dragging it’s sewer hose. I hope they don’t need it tonight, I don’t think it will be intact when they get there. This scuplture was in the middle of the salt flats. It’s title is the Tree of Utah. The artist created it after he had a vision of a tree while driving across the Bonneville Salt Flats.

Bonneville Salt Flats. Most of the salt flats were flooded from the recent rain. There is some BLM dispersed camping in this area, but who wants to drove on this, we would sink up to our windows. So we kept driving.

Wendover, Ut/ West Wendover, Nevada. The state line is marked on the street. Looking east (lower left) into Utah, and right into Nevada. We didn’t want to stay at a Casino, so we kept driving. The Balanced Rock in Price, Utah. I loved the vintage signs in Wendover. Wendover Will welcoming you to Wendover, Red Garter and Rainbow Casino.

We are now parked at the Welcome Center RV park outside of Wells, Nevada. Nice shady, quiet (except for the highway noise), cheap RV park. Nice to not be driving.

Across the road from the RV park at sunset. Another long 200 mile day. There really is not much in this part of the country. The view driving west on I-80 in northern Nevada.

There were all kinds of interesting sites. Deeth Starr Valley, Pumpernickel Valley, The BM for Battle Mountain above town and Winnemucca, the Gateway to the Pacific Northwest and the Black Rock Desert.  Street scene in Winnemucca.

Melarkey Street in Winnemucca, The Vapor Trailer, and who wouldn’t want to eat at the Wonderful house, or the Pig?? This old gas pump in Orovada was retried in 1993, and the price of a gallon of ethyl was 74 cents a gallon, a bunny in the RV park and cool wheat.

Poor John had quite a day. First as we were getting ready to leave I remembered that the door on the car was not latched the day before and the battery was dead-so it had to be charged up,then the awning had not rolled up right , so he had to fix that before we left. Then in Orovada the car was dead again, it is charging here. There is some problem with the drain pipe  on the washer and the gray tank odor filled the bus, so he had to try to access it and fix it. What a man.

The bus at the Key Sawtooth RV park in Orovada, Nevada.  The view across the street from the RV park. Lovely place.

Wheat in the afternoon light. This mural on a wall in Winnemucca had a stage coach with an appropriately placed door, and darn, I can’t hang my dead game or put any hides, or entrails in the dumpster according to the rules of the park, and put the Win in Winnemucca!

The wheat in the sunset.