Week 216-217 - Heading to Huntsman - 10-10-2010

Friends and Family,

After leaving the awesome Yosemite National Park, we are off the to Huntsman World Senior Games in St. George, Utah. We could have gone directly to St. George by freeways and some motorhomers would have completed the 775 mile trip in one day. But we did what we do best: wander our way to friends and family. Our first stop was to visit Dar and Cindy, our very close friends that we met in 2006. We both purchased our motorhomes on the same weekend from DeMartini RV in Grass Valley, California. Dar and Cindy got a head start in traveling as they purchased a MH off the lot and we had to wait to have ours built. Then we sat home for four months before we hit the road. We managed to meet up with them several times in California and Arizona. This time we visited at their home in Twain Harte, California. We had a wonderful evening catching up and sharing memories. We can't wait until we can travel with them again.

We are lucky to have the scooter on the back of the Mothership so Ellen knew which motorhome to climb into!

Dar is a professional auto restorer. He will make this car look like the one on the right. Well, no, the Triumph TR-4 will not become a Pontiac GTO, but it will look as nice.

Speaking of DeMartini, our next stop was his business in Grass Valley. Tim built this facility at the beginning of the economic downturn. He said that if his RV business didn't make it, he could turn this building into an Indian Casino. Not gonna happen! His lot is filled with dozens and dozens of motorhomes and his eight service bays are scheduled for next couple of months.

We couldn't head out on a new adventure without visiting Emily, Chad and his family. We stayed several days enjoying food, fun and fellowship. And, oh course, we had to play some pickleball. Here Pete poses with the founders of the future Durham Community Pickleball Club. Everyone played well and had fun.

Now off to our 775 mile trip to St. George. Normally this would take us over a week as we travel about three times a week for 150 miles each trip. But since this trip was mostly through the ugly Nevada desert, we decided to buck up and take the trip in three days (a new record for us). Pete stops to clean the windshield while Ellen finds a creek and waterfall to photograph.

And this is why we don't take the freeways. We drove on highways CA-70 and CA-89 from Durham (near Chico) to Sparks, Nevada. The USA is full of beautiful roads like this but you have to get onto the side roads to enjoy them.

Three weeks before the Huntsman Games it had been in the mid 90's and weather.com predicted that to continue throughout the games. We were delighted to be rained on, on our way to Sparks, and surprised to be covered with hail at the Sparks Marina RV Park.

Highway 50 through central Nevada is billed as "The Loneliest Road in America". Obviously, these folks have never traveled the Alaskan Highway when buildings and sometimes sign posts are 100 miles apart. One stretch of Hwy 50 has several miles of signs written with stones. This best example says "Overland Hotel & Saloon, Fallon, NV".

This is not the ugly desert we expected. The variety of terrain and colors are beautiful.

Eureka claims to be the "Friendliest town on the Loneliest Road". Probably true as it is one of the only towns. It is very cute nestled in the hills.

In the early morning leaving Ely, NV, Ellen got this photo of "Jabba the Cloud". And after three long days of travel we were greeted to "Welcome Athletes" at the St. George Dixie Center.

This is the 24th year of the Huntsman World Senior Games. Our next travelogue will share about our great experience and about the games.

We have to be the luckiest people when it comes to getting good RV sites. We registered two days before the games deadline. Then we called Temple View RV Park to get reservations. The park was full. We called the Elks, who generally do not take reservations. The Elks was full. We were prepared to commute from the Washington City Walmart, when a fellow athlete told us that we might stay in an empty lot right next to the pickleball courts. From out our front window we could view six courts.

Dry camping 10 days is tough. However, the Sun River Resort developer Darcy Stewart provide the lot and allowed us to use the showers in the clubhouse. So we made the 10 days with no problems. And we had the best seats in the house. All the RVers want to say thanks. Thank you Darcy from all of us.

So now we are here, what next? Pickleball, of course, and lots of it. We'll explain the tournament and the Huntsman Games in the next, soon to arrive travelogue.

Love, Pete and Ellen

Photos from Oct 2010