Hawthorne Nevada

So, the goal today was to drive from Fallon Nevada to Tonopah in order to get us half way to Pahrump.  We're driving along, and pass Walker lake, which looked beautiful and had a lot of campgrounds (not sure if they're free or not).  There were steep dirt roads leading down to the camps I saw, though, so we kept going.

We got to Hawthorne Nevada along the 95.  I see a sign for a casino with RV parking.  I just glimpsed it, though, and couldn't pull over until we got to a McDonalds with a dirt lot across from it.

My mom and I go into the McDonalds to buy something fattening and I talk about maybe staying here for the night.  There’s a museum across from the McDonalds I’d like to check out.   

Also, Hawthorne has a nicer vibe than Fallon... 

While I was at the casino in Fallon there was a lounge where they had large screen TVs showing Fox News.  When Trump’s speech came on it was standing room only.  The entire casino went into the lounge to bob their heads up and down at what he said.

Now, I know you don’t read this blog for politics, but the climate in America today is one rife with political dogma.  When you hear people saying ‘ban all of this group,’ and ‘deport all of this group’ it becomes an us vs. them mentality.  And who am I?  I’m a them.  I’m Hispanic.  My mother is full-blooded Puerto Rican.  We don’t like a ‘clan’ of people nodding their heads enthusiastically when their leader is talking about doing bad stuff to the ‘them.’ 

Fallon, and to a lesser extent, Carson City, is a heavily white area with an aged population.  We got groceries in Fallon before leaving today and most of the other customers were single, elderly men.  I say single because men this frail would not be the ones shopping if they had a significant other to do it for them. 

They were rude.  They cut off my RV when I was slowly maneuvering the parking lot.  In the store one of the men on a motorized scooter practically ran my mother over to get past her.  He didn’t say excuse me.  

In the Fallon Casino restaurant two men were eating together to take advantage of the 'Two for $20' deal they have on Tuesdays.  One of the men placed a tip on the table.  They both headed out.  Moments later the second man came back and snatched the tip off the table.  As he was returning to the other man I heard him say, "Found it."  As in, he lied about needing to go back to the table for something to steal the tip.  These were men in their 60s.

The last, and most hideous event was when we had first arrived at the casino and hadn't turned our walkie-talkie's off yet.  We were picking up a conversation from two other drivers, as we often do.  One of them referred to a man walking on the sidewalk as the n-word.  And apparently all that man was doing was walking, minding his own business, and being black.

I dunno.  I like the weather and amenities in Carson City, but it’s Trump country, and that makes me and my mom feel unwelcome.  My mom likes to think she can strike up a friendly conversation with anyone without having them sneer at her for her accent.  That’s not how it was up here.

Reno was different.  People are around other ethnicities.  They’re their friends, neighbors, and coworkers, so the fear is gone.  They’re no longer a ‘them’ but part of the ‘us.’  Sadly the homogenized small town areas give off an unwelcoming vibe.

Anywho, I digress.  Our Garmin was useless in finding this magical casino that offered RV parking.  Thankfully Hawthorne is such a small town that driving through the main strip brought us to the casino.

El Capitan casino!  It has a huge dirt RV lot in back with a dump station!

So we’ve set up for here for tonight.  @-@  We’ll finish the way to Tonopah tomorrow.  Hawthorne is a small town, but it’s more racially integrated than Fallon.  I saw multiple races at the McDonalds and everyone was talking to each other like it wasn’t anything special—because it isn’t.  

Southward Migration

When I last updated I was boondocking in an abandoned mine area off Highway 50 between Carson City and Dayton Nevada. 

While we were there I had a friend stop over for a night on his way south.  An overnight guest?  But where would he sleep?  Turns out my office can double as a spare bedroom.

Here is my office in office mode.

And here it is when the fold up bunk bed is flipped down.  Our guest slept fine there.  (Scrappy is modeling the bed).

This boondock served us well for the 14 days we were allowed to stay there.  On 9/11, the last night we were there, we had a scare when many cars blocked us in.  We heard music and people speaking in Spanish.  There were lots of cars, and in such a remote dirt road area, late at night, that's frightening.  After a while it became clear they had come to our choice camping spot because they wanted to party.

I came out of the RV and attempted to greet them in Spanish.  Was that smart?  Probably not.  But I heard female voices among the crowd and that made me believe they weren't as nefarious as one might imagine.  A little while after I yelled 'Hola' to them the cars all left.  We slept through our last night with no more incidents.

This praying mantis on our ceiling is another visitor we had during the boondock.

My mother's medical stuff is as done as its going to be.  It's just too hard to get stuff done in Reno.  She's going to see her more accommodating doctor in Las Vegas.  I'm going to be a guest at a convention in October and they're flying me out of Vegas.  So Pahrump, near Vegas, is our ultimate travel goal.

On 9/12 we moved to the Washoe State Park.  I thought it would be a cheap night's stay where we could shower and maybe do some bucket laundry.  Since it was $15 per vehicle and we moved both our RV and car there, it was way too expensive.  But anyway, we got showered, dumped, got water, and did one bucket of laundry.  

I didn't take any pictures of the park, but it's a beautiful place to dry camp.  Large, spacious, level RV spaces that are spread out on two loops.  There's a lake there also, but it's too dry for boats to use the dock.  I didn't actually check out the water.  We just showered, dumped, the usual. 

The only problem with the state park, and the boondock, is that Juniper trees REALLY STINK.  I don't know if they always smell this pungent or if it's some special blossoming happening now, but they reek.  The park is full of them.

I'm trying to get to Tonopah, to a boondock we stayed at a year ago.  Tonopah is halfway between Reno and Vegas and there's a Passport America campground nearby where we can shower and do the rest of our laundry. 

So did we start heading towards Tonopah?  No.  We didn't.  We went east back to Fallon to stay at the Bonanza Casino again.  Because we suck.  We wasted money as usual.

During cold weather our cats Sultan and Scrappy will tolerate being near each other.

Tomorrow we will be making the long drive to Tonopah in one trip.  That's 4 hours to the boondock.  We'll stay there until we need to dump and then will check into that campground I mentioned.  After that, we're going the rest of the way back to Pahrump.

It's all familiar places right now, but we will be getting off the beaten path soon.  More on that later.

Quickie Update

We've been happily boondocking at the choicest spot in the maze of dirt roads of Highway 50 between Carson City and Dayton.  Many a camper has passed us hoping for our sweet parcel.  Sorry!

They get revenge by doing target practice a short distance next to us.  I know I'm paranoid, but I get so tense when I hear gunshots.

Today we went to the Washoe County state park to shower.  It was nice, and only $4!  Extremely nice staff there.

There's a dump station at this park, but it's 7 miles from us.  The park in Dayton is only 2 miles away.  So tomorrow we will dump there.  I will get three buckets of water to do our laundry again.

We started doing laundry in the RV with the 'Breathing Washer Stick' and a 5 gallon bucket from Home Depot.  Two buckets, actually.  One for washing one for rinsing.

https://www.amazon.com/Breathing-Mobile-Washer-Handheld-Non-Electric/dp/B00WVTXVMC

It worked out for us.  I don't like sitting around at laundromats unless it's absolutely necessary. 

My mother will have finished up her medical stuff at the end of the month.  We'll start our migration south then.  This is a good place to stay for now.

If you're interested in my writing here is the latest book I put out:

https://www.amazon.com/Ensnared-Bride-Yamila-Abraham-ebook/dp/B01LEVC40W/

Back to Boondocking

We didn't have to check out from the RV park until this morning, but we left last night.  We were anxious to get out of there.

We've moved to a BLM boondock between Carson City and Dayton a mile off of Highway 50.

It's close enough to Reno to continue with my mom's medical treatment, but free, quiet, remote, peaceful--just how we like it.  However...it's clear from the trash that this is a popular spot...

My mom told me to check the cooler to make sure there wasn't a dead baby inside.

Meh...whatever.  There's no one here now and we feel relatively safe.  We just hope someone from the Bureau of Land Management doesn't come by and think we're responsible for all this trash.

While we were at the RV park I got to talking to an elderly man who was very sick.  I was petting his dog and fussing over her the way I do with all animals I meet.  He asked me to take her.  He said that he needed three surgeries, one of which he was told was impossible, and that he was probably going into Hospice Care. 

My mom and I discussed it.  As much as we wanted to help the guy, we're just not dog people.  I sleep late and my mom has too much trouble walking to be taking the dog out to do his business when I'm asleep. 

I told him I couldn't take the dog, but I did put up a post on Craigs List for him.  If you're in the Reno/Carson City area and want a very sweet dog, please check it out: 
http://reno.craigslist.org/pet/5755313367.html

Here she is:

Looking Forward to Boondocking Again

There's nothing wrong with this RV park.  The staff is friendly, the spots are large enough and level, the showers and laundry are great, the price was acceptable, the location was convenient.  But after two weeks my mom and I are wishing we could leave now.  We paid for a month, and thus, shall stay for the time we paid for.

I appreciate the convenience and not having to tear down every four days to dump.  It's just that I'd rather be somewhere out by ourselves.  It's noisy here.  If we don't have the fan or AC running we hear voices, people yelling, motorcycles, dogs... 

And some of the people are scuzzy here.  I heard a man say 'Shut up, bitch' to the woman sharing the RV with him.  And when I went to to take the trash out some yokels drinking beer in front of their RV beers said some insult and laughed at me.  You know...like high school bullies.

Which is really just a minor annoyance, but it's still an annoyance.  It's not like I'm going to bury my head under a pillow and cry, but it would be nice to be able to go outside without ignorant eyes on you.

Today we drove to the Carson City boondock that I would have gone to if the issue with the car hadn't devastated us so much that I insisted on 'treating' us to a month at an RV park.  The boondock looked so nice!  I really wish we had just gone straight there instead of an RV park. 

The boondock was just a bunch of dirt roads and trails going through BLM land, but I really like boondocks like that.  I long for the peace of Parowan Gap, where only the odd sheep would come to harass you. 
When I was planning to full-time RV I intended on boondocking all the time like RV Sue.  I wanted freedom with out RV Park expenses.  However, I started out with a travel trailer and it just wasn't practical.  The thing was a pain to tow, and hitching and unhitching was a big to-do. 

So then I got this motorhome in February and suddenly had less hassle and more mobility.  It's really easy to drive this thing, easier than I thought it would be.  I can back up without jackknifing.  I never have the fear of 'getting stuck'.  And I don't need help to back into an RV space anymore.

I thought, NOW.  Now I can boondock all the time.  But in the back of my head I feared I wouldn't do it.  I feared I would continue to stay in RV parks.

However, once we hit the road we were always boondocking.  And it was great, for the most part.  I was able to research and put us in places where I actually wanted to be. 

We had the hiccup in June and July.  I took a month in an RV park to regroup.  Now I just want to go back to boondocking.  I'm not socializing with the people at this RV park, so it's not like I'm missing any companionship by being out in boondock boonies.

We're getting itchy wheels at this RV park.  Yes, we want to get all the packages we need shipped to us, get all the laundry done, and etc.  But I am ready to GO. 

That said, we will be staying in the vicinity of Reno for a while.  My mother is catching up on all her medical needs.  The big one is a painful lump in the crook of her elbow.  We aren't going to get an ultrasound until the end of August, and then will probably take many more weeks for whatever treatment she needs to resolve it.

That's fine.  There's plenty of boondocks for us to cruise around to, and we like this area.

We just have to make sure we head south before winter comes...