ROUTE 50 & THE LEHMAN CAVES

May 16, 2013…More Motorhome Blues … and Greens!

Yes, more tales of woe from on the road!

We left Bryce Canyon bright and early heading for US Hwy 50 (dubbed the ‘loneliest road in the U.S.!) on the 13^th and began to enjoy a long ride of empty roads and not much else! It definitely deserves that name! Anyway … we stopped for gas a fairly large-ish service station/Burger King/Gas Bar to fill up in a ‘lovely’ town called (of all things) Beaver, UT.

While filling up, one of the guys from the service station wandered over and offered to check our tire pressure as they looked a bit low. So after filling up we pulled over to the service station and while checking pressure he noticed there was more going on than low pressure … the rear tires were pretty much shot! Now … we were aware they were in rough shape … when we were in Albuquerque we were told during our checkup at Camping World that they were getting to the end of their life but would ‘probably’ make it thru the trip. Well, seeing the cracking, blistering, crowning, this fellow told us we were taking an enormous risk of blowout on this gigantic stretch of ‘nothing’ road. We decided he was right and as they could do it right away … and gave us a AAA discount, we decided to go for it.

Gas Station Repair Shop in Beaver, UT

So. Lunch at Burger King (yum!) waiting. We were called over after a few minutes … the guy was checking the pressure on the front tires which at first glance looked ok. He noticed that the ‘inside’ section of tire was wearing away! What from??? He looked up and saw our shock on that side was rusted, broken and leaking fluid which was dripping on the tire and eating away the surface. So …. The front tires DID need changing PLUS we needed a new shocks.

Linda is now in ‘shock’ herself! I laughingly told the guy “don’t look at any more stuff … please!!!” Unfortunately, he did and saw the rear shocks were in equally as bad a shape … rusted and broken. So … we changed those as well! They were fast, I gotta say that for them … they had 3 guys working on Rosy and in 2 hours all was done … with Bruce & Linda U.S.D. $2,615.00 ‘greenbacks’ poorer.

The good news is … all our steering problems … Bruce driving as if he were in constant danger of skidding out of control … was gone!!! No wonder it was driving so poorly … bad tires, no shocks … it’s a wonder we hadn’t gotten into some serious trouble trying to drive like that! In hind sight we certainly should have done all that before we left Victoria. Maybe our ‘patron saint of travelers’ picture we bought in Las Cruces was paying off!?

So … “Here’s to Beaver” … if we hadn’t of stopped there we might have had a serious blowout or accident! (But all I wanted was gas ……..)

We finally pulled into our destination for the night at Great Basin National Park at around 4-ish. We really didn’t know what was there but it seemed a good place to stop for the night. (It was the ONLY place to stop for the night!) We found a very cool campground at the Lehman Cave Campground. (Bonus – only $6/night fee!) Didn’t even know there was a cave there! We took a tour at 9 am this morning and it was awesome!

Lower Lehman Creek Campground

Lehman Caves

Though small in comparison to Carlsbad Caverns, Lehman is FULL of very neat formations. And the ranger (Ranger Steve) gave a very informative and fun tour – lasting about 1 ½ hours. Definitely recommended!!

Lehman Caves

After that we drove up to Wheeler Peak parking lot (elevation 10,260 ft) with the thought of taking a hike to some alpine meadows. However … the elevation was such that there was a LOT of snow on the trail … snowshoes would have been awesome … but with just summer boots and no proper clothing/equipment it soon became apparent that trudging thru snow up to our knees just wasn’t going to work. Not to mention Bruce is quite sick with his cold so it was a good excuse to head back to camp and some much needed rest.

Wheeler Peak

Hiking in the snow at Wheeler Peak

The campground is awesome (not many spots but VERY cool) (and no hookups but batteries are working fine!) right on a creek. We sat out drinking scotch listening to the sound of the water till twilight last night. So … poorer in $$ but richer in experience!

Today we drove to Fallon, NV still … on the infamous Hwy 50 which is SO long and boring … (“How long and boring is it you say?) Well, so boring it’s a delight when you see a plastic bag stuck on an old fence post … a marvel when you spot a cow … and indescribably amazing when you actually see another car on the road! That’s BORING!!!

Route 50, NV

Route 50 -Loneliest Road in America

You pass several ‘towns’ on that almost 300 miles … some of which have restaurants and gas stations … some of which are even open!! Not many tho!

Baker, NV on Route 50

We’ll spend 2 nights here as there’s a wildlife refuge close by that is supposed to have some great birding. Then possibly on to Lake Tahoe. Very tired now … I’ll say good night!