Pioche Nevada (With the Free RV Park)

Pioche has been a treat for us because we've genuinely never been up this way before.  Pioche is on the way to no where and I can't think of a reason for anyone to want to come up this way unless it's to actually visit Pioche.  (Or you're a Mormon missionary on the way to Elko).

Why should you, the full-time RVer, visit Pioche?  Well, there's a free RV park across the street from the public pool on 4th and Hollywood that gives water, sewer, trash, and shade.  And while you're enjoying that free RV spot there's lots of touristy stuff to do/see in the small town.

Pioche is  a nice little old west defunct mining town of 600 people.

On the one hand you can claim it's like Tonopah because there's derelict buildings from the 1860s here and there.

On the other hand, it's not like Tonopah at all because it's a very nice well-maintained town that feels safe and quaint.  There's not too many eyesores.

As you head up Main Street you see the old Opera House, the old Gem Theater, and the Overland Hotel.  The Overland Hotel has a casino in it and is a tourist destination in and of itself because it's haunted and was featured on the show 'Ghost Adventurers' in 2014.

We didn't know this was the same Overland hotel we saw on that show until we read the flyer after we left.  It wasn't haunted in the casino.  @-@  My mom won $20.

Continuing up Main street (um...that's pretty much the only street with stuff on it) you get to this cafe which is inside one of the original 1860s buildings.

We had some hotdogs there today.  Here's what the inside looks like:

There's a lot of stuff from the 1860s in Pioche because that's when a Paiute Indian showed a Mormon Missionary where a silver mine was in exchange for food and clothes.  The silver mines turned out to be some of the biggest deposits in Nevada.  During the mining boom it was a town of 10,000 people.

There's lots of buildings left from the mining days.  That stone staircase is from the 1860s too.

Mining continued into the 1900s for lead and zinc.  That's when they put in tramways move ore cars.  They're still hanging all over the town.

Here's what they look like up close.

Main Street continues on, with cute touristy shops and stuff.  There were a few other tourists milling around.  A younger couple and an older couple.  So, it's not a crowded tourist destination by any means, but it does draw a smattering of people.

Living here all the time would be rough.  The closest grocery store is 12 miles away, and it's a market, not a super market.  I have no idea where people buy clothes or shoes here.  Thank God for the Internet and online ordering.  If you can't drive the only place to buy groceries is at a tiny gas station store that provides all the necessities.  It even had some expensive meats in a cooler.

 Behind said store is a mountain with a cross on it that my mom insisted I include a picture of.  Enjoy?

Oh, and below us is a yoke for oxen.  It was in the shop of the Overland hotel.  I think I took the picture because I thought it was a wagon tongue and was thinking, 'Hurr hurr, Oregon Trail.'  But I think it's actually a yoke.  So...the yoke was on me.

There's a bunch of cemeteries in Pioche.  A catholic one, a masonic one, and an old west one.  Here's the one from the 1860s.  Boothill Cemetery.

 Here's one of the graves.

. 

A FREE RV Park?!

Let's catch up! 

When we last visited with Searching Fulltime I was in my mom's pastor's yard boondocking in Pahrump.  We stayed there for two dump cycles or so and then moved into the Preferred RV Resort for three days.  It went from 85 degrees to over 100 degrees, so we couldn't boondock for the last three days we stayed in Pahrump.  We had wanted to move on, but suddenly our elusive doctors (mom's PCP and my psychiatrist) got appointments for us on the last few days, so we had to stay extra.

Here's one of the meals I make in the RV.  This is a Veggie Cheese Omelet

Here's how we do yogurt.  Vanilla yogurt from a tub, strawberry jam, and cut up apricots from our host's yard

We didn't get a kitten.  Our rational outweighed emotion.  The full-time RVing life is rough on our cats, and our house is small.  We already have three cats.  That's our max.  Besides that we would need to spay or neuter them and get their shots and yadda yadda yadda.  Just wasn't in the cards.

This guy seriously pulled at the heartstrings, tho.  Always ran up to us when we visited and would cry until she was snuggled.

Preferred RV Resort is a top notch park, very quiet, and satisfactory.  We stayed there for $16/night with Passport America.  We did our dump/water/shower/trash/laundry routine then stuck around to finish up our appointments. 

While we were in Pahrump we got Scrappy and Sultan lion shaves at our favorite groomer.  They're so much happier now.  Seriously, since we don't give them AC all the time this is a necessity.

22yo Sultan is not long for this world.  The groomer was extra gentle with him, and he likes to be groomed, unlike most cats.  As long as he doesn't seem in pain, continues eating and grooming, and continues to try to escape outside, we will keep him alive.  It's just a matter of time though.  I love him, and his death is going to really hit me hard.

Long Haired Scrappy gets extra frisky and happy after a grooming.  She's not suited to desert living, and shaves are mandatory for her. She goes from lethargic and whiny to a happy little monkey-cat every summer when she gets shaved.

Cat #3, Precious, is a young short hair who manages the heat fine and has heart attacks when we stand up near her.  She can't handle a trip to the groomer.

On the way out of Pahrump we had to fill up on propane again.  So according to this blog we go 15 days to a tank of propane.

Okay, so now it's June and we need to get the heck out of Dodge.  It was time to climb to a better climate.  I'm having a lot of trouble figuring out where to go.  California was out and we already did Reno/Sparks/Carson City. 

So North is the plan, but straight North is out since that’s Reno, and Northwest is out since that’s California.  So…Utah?  That was the thought, but St. George is the next stop from Pahrump and it’s just as hot as Pahrump.

I ended up going to Pioche Nevada.  It’s North East from Pahrump and the forecast said it would be in the 80s there.  But…even better than that…

THERE’S A FREE RV PARK!

I’m like…seriously?  That’s so awesome.  It’s a little park (RV park, not a city park) with ten spots that provide water and sewer.  That’s sweet!  We have our solar panels for electric, so we have everything we need…FOR FREE!  On top of that there’s showers across the street.  

Here we are.  Only three other campers here since it's in the middle of nowhere...but it's a high elevation so nice cool weather.  Plus we've got loads of greenery and scenery!

I couldn't get close to the sewer hole due to a boulder so I tied my short 'for dump stations' red sewer hose to my long smelly 'only use it if the other one can't reach' sewer hose and managed to get a connection.  :)

We’re going to stay the seven days here.  The views are great, even though it’s a little blink-and-you-miss-it town.  We stocked up on groceries in Pahrump.  This should be a nice quiet seven days to finish my latest novel and unwind from all the human interaction that happened in Pahrump.

Here's a public pool where it's said we'll be allowed to shower across the street from us.  ^-^

The view behind us is stunning, and this picture will not do it justice.

 

 

  You know, the Borax Bill Motorcross also gives free RV spots with water and sewer to whomever wants them for a certain amount of time.  This actually isn't the first 'free' RV park we've been too...but at Borax Bills we actually boondocked away from the free RV spots cuz it was quieter.  I'm wondering now why we drove all the way to the dump station every time we needed to dump instead of getting into one of those free empty spots.  We always had to stop at that RV park when we dumped for water anyway and the dump station was 4 miles away.  I wonder why...?