Traveling-with-TLC

Day 2: Through Ely and Beyond to Utah

The plan was pretty simple. We were scheduled to take our time breaking camp, drive a couple hours to Ely and have lunch with an old friend. From Ely drive 2 3/4 hours to a lake, set up camp and have time for fishing in the afternoon.

Well….it started out as planned! We stopped at the first town so Ted could make a work call. I went into the grocery store to buy a banana (maybe we will start a tradition). Raine’s in Eureka, NV is the only “supermarket” within 100 miles so they have done it up big with hardware, sporting goods and just about anything else you can think of. After wandering around for way too long, we purchased some bolts to raise the car topper. After 45 minutes in the parking lot we managed to get about half of the project completed. We still had 90 minutes of driving and only 30 minutes before lunch. Sigh….

Ted’s long time friend, Fred, was quite patient and he and his wife agreed to wait until 1 o’clock to have a late lunch when we got into Ely. Whew!

We set out on another 80 miles of the “loneliest road”. It is exceptionally clear this week out in the desert. We saw something on the road far away. “Ted, it looks like there is a person standing out there in the middle of nowhere.” As we got closer, we realized it was two people with bicycles. We drove past, since we had no room and were already late. Our conscious’ got the better of us how could we leave anyone stranded so far from anywhere? So Ted started backing the trailer up and the couple started riding their bikes towards us. They are from France and left San Francisco 9 days ago on their way to Montreal (YES, the one in Canada). Just in case you thought we were crazy to camp across America with a bed on wheels interspersed with timeshares, I introduce you to Marie and Louis. Marie had an injured knee and Louis was worried about her trying to make it the next 50 miles to Ely. Somehow we managed to get 2 bicycles and a bunch of gear on our bed in the trailer and two people in the back seat. They were grateful and we had a nice chat.

We finally met for lunch at 2:30 with Fred and his wife. It was a splendid visit but we were not back on the road until 5:00 with another 2 3/4 hours to go. At about 6, I started fantasizing about a shower. We turned off of Highway 50 onto Highway 21 and soon we were in Utah. This stretch of road makes the Loneliest Road seem very crowded in comparison. Goodness! There are literally only 4 houses in 80 miles of open road. At about 7, Ted began to think a shower would be better than a spit bath at a primitive campground. So, we drove 30 miles passed the destination and are very clean in a nice little hotel for the night.

A fun day, but not quite as simple as planned!