GREAT Father’s Day with Steph, Bad RV park, on to Ely Nevada

Did not get a chance to take a photo at Fort Bridger RV Park for the last post, so here it is…. nothing fancy, but sure was a quiet park.  The park in Draper is not worth showing a picture of, but that part of the story will come in a bit....

We left for Salt Lake around 9:30, gassed up in Evanston, and headed down I-80.  As we left Evanston I saw an advertisement for a Blue Beacon Truck / RV Wash. Having had luck with them washing the American Eagle, I figured what the heck….Marcia can treat me to a Father’s Day RV/Car Wash, and it was great.  For something like $50 they washed the RV and the HHR, and they put RainX on the RV.  It sure looked pretty again, and all I had to do was drive it in and drive it out. 

Back to our drive to Salt Lake area.... We quickly entered Utah, and very soon saw some of the reddish rock that Utah is know for. The drive down to Salt Lake as fairly easy, the “trailer tow” switch helped break, and at times I used the normal brakes to get us down to 40 mph again just to have the steep downward grade slowly get me back up to 55-60 again.  My RPMs hit 4000 for a very short time period, but most of the time was under 3500, which I feel is very safe to run with this Ford Triton V-10 engine.

Above is a google maps image of Mountain Shadows RV Park in Draper Utah.  Now we have not had any problems with any RV park that we called only a couple hours away from arriving.  The young man got much of my information, and could have got credit card info from me, but did not even ask.  He told me that we would have a pull-through, 50amp and they had a conversion to 30amp if needed, but I told him I had one.  We estimated our arrival at 12:30, and got there at 1:00….just to find out that they were full, and we could only have a “water/electric” only site along the front fence.  He tried to say that I had complained about the 50 amp, and this would be 30 amp, but I'd have none of it.  Since this was near Steph, we took it, and it was 1/2 price…but it was not what we had bargained for, that is for sure.  We were just about where the blue balloon is located in the picture.  A small trailer pulled in between us and the pop-up trailer that we were next too, squeezing in tighter than a beer belly Bear’s fan in a Number 9 Jersey (still dreaming of the golden days when Jim McMahon led them to their last super bowl soooo many years ago…..now I am in deep Skata with Marcia, a die hard Bears fan.)  On the other side of us there was lots of room, but they had this guy put his little trailer in this little spot....they could barely get their door open without hitting our slide out.

Above is a picture I took of Stephanie in May at Ryan’s graduation.  I did not even think of taking one yesterday, so this will have to do.  She came over to the RV Park around 2, and then we took her to lunch, and then went back to the RV where we visited until 10:30.  I cannot remember the last time I saw her on Father's Day, so it was a special treat.  Speaking of special treat, she tried a few times to take us out for ice cream, but I told her that she needed to save her money for registering her car and getting into an apartment (she currently lives with a cousin and watches their small children in exchange.)  But I sure appreciated the thought....and I did enjoy our visit tremendously.

As we left the RV park today headed for Ely, Nevada via the east-side of Utah Lake, the Kennecott Copper Mine was in plain view.  The Mine has been in operation since 1906, and was for many years the largest open-pit mine in the world.  When it started it was called, and still called by some today, as the Bingham's Canyon mine.

Above is a picture from Wikipedia showing the inside of one portion of the mine.  When one flies into Salt Lake City and the landing is “south to north”, the mine can be seen outside the left side of the airplane.

We took highway 68, also known as Redwood Road, along the west side of Utah Lake.  Provo/Orem area, where BYU is located, is along the east side of the lake.  The last time I drove this route must have been 25 years ago, and now there were many big homes along the route half way down the lake….then it becomes the normal Utah desert look.  It is amazing how much the Salt Lake and Utah Valley area keeps growing and growing.  The picture above is along highway 6 before we reach US 50.  The elevation here was around 7000 feet.  We traveled up and down along the road the entire day, hitting a low of around 4200 feet.  Ely Nevada is around 6500 feet.

As we near the Utah/Nevada boarder, you can see the mountains of Great Basin National Park to the left of the road.  We are thinking of visiting there tomorrow after we do our laundry….but we will have to drive 60 miles back just to reach the road leading to the park.  There was an RV park along US 50 near Baker…..but it was a dust bowl, so we passed.

Here is our spot at the Prospector Hotel & Casino RV Park in Ely Nevada.  I think we have the best spot in the park since we have the most shade.  It cost $15 per night, and includes electric (even 50 amp for those who need it), water, sewer, and free, fast Internet -- but no cable TV (lots of over the air TV though).  You even get access to the swimming pool and spa, but we don't plan to use them.

     

Ok for $15, and the laundry mat, which looks like it is only a few years old, is right across the street. This will be an ok stop for two nights, then we will continue our journey to the Sacramento area to visit family.   

A little tidbit about Ely….  It was a former stagecoach and pony express stop. It was later a copper mining community, and today, with the advent of cyanide heap leaching, gold is also mined.  The copper ore taken from Ely is shipped via rails to Seattle, and then by boat to Japan for smelting.