Tonopah Station RV Park

... real hero driving. I had offered to drive the ET Highway, (120 miles of deserted long straight road!), but he refused and revved us up there.

We were all relieved when we got to Mono Lake, which we'd visited last year, as we could feel the end was in sight. We stopped for an ice cream in Lee Vyning, and then headed into Yosemite National Park across the Tioga Pass, which we'd loved last year. Spectacular views of Half Dome from ...

Remember the all day playing in casino arcades while your parents gambled???  The beginning of these times were spent in South Lake Tahoe, in one of the four casinos on the main strip of the border of Nevada and California.  Now arcades are of the past and we have grown into slot machines and roulette.  Before the snow starts to cover the city of Tahoe, the "San Antonio" crew made a trip ...

Well, our last full day in Mammoth ended up pretty much like every other day! We chilled nearly all day, whilst occasionally breaking out into a little packing frenzy, before finally getting out at about 4pm. We ended up doing a little bit of shopping in some of the outdoor pursuit shops. Wow, good job we hadn't explored them earlier!! I ended up with a new Prana skirt & top, and Lyn had a new pair of sunglasses. We ...

... expensive and everything in between. The weather is hot, hot, hot. And we are looking forward to the cooler weather in Canada, where we're off to on Friday. I think we picked the wrong time of year to visit here, as it is very uncomfortable outside and smoking is still allowed inside.. So its either cook in the sun or choke to death in the cigarette smoked aircon. It is extremely busy here, lots of families and groups and the streets are packed night ...

... quite proud of ourselves. We went via the park bus to a few more outlooks, and then got back on the road. We took the scenic route 12 which was beautiful down towards Zion National Park. At one point the road goes along the top of a ridge. There are beautiful vistas to either side of the road, but I unfortunately missed a lot of it because I was laughing so hard I had tears in my eyes - the road along the ...

... and wrap around glass so had excellent visibility. We flew over Lake Las Vagas which is about a 30minute drive from Las Vagas and a popular place to live and for picnics etc. We then flew over Lake Mead which has been created by the damming of the Colorado River by the Hoover dam. Once we left the flat valley area where Las Vagas is, the land became brownish -red rugged desert country dotted with cactus. We landed on a shelf 3,500 feet into ...

I have left Ratna Ling and am making my way slowly back to NM. I spent a couple of days camping on the coast, savoring every bit of ocean beach hiking, tidepool viewing, and seal watching that I could. Now I will be retracing my steps back thru Nevada to Phoenix to spend some time with my mom, and then meet Bill in Flagstaff for his remaining week of vacation. We'll spend some time at the Grand Canyon and vicinity, and I'll be home the end of September. It ...

... the Groom Lake Facility at Nellis Airforce Base (aka Area 51), home of the US military's experimental aircraft test site and as some would have you believe, where they have crashed alien spacecraft and other aircraft built with recovered alien technology. Allegedly ;) Ok maybe not.. but they do have a 7 mile long runway (long enough to land 3 space shuttles without brakes according to the ...

... kurzen Gespraech sagte sie, wie unglaublich gut unser englisch sei, das sei doch nicht normal fuer Leute aus Uebersee. Es gaebe ja Leute (vermutlich meinte sie Latinos oder andere Immigranten) in den USA die nicht einmal richtig englisch sprechen koennten. Dieser Kommentar hat mich nicht ueberrascht, befinden wir uns doch in Cowboy- Gebiet...

... locker. Apparently bears have a very good sense of smell and will go after anything smelly. We are very conscientious people though, so as long as they didn't have a penchant for methane, we knew we'd be OK. The second day here was a bit of a damp squib. It rained constantly from the second we awoke - and to compound matters, the mist gave us a visibility of about 10 metres. As such, we took the decision to give our proposed walk a miss and head off to the ...