Apricot Trees in Santa Clara,
Got up before 6 a.m. showered, dressed for the drive and washed my sheets. Got all my “stuff” in a pile to be loaded in when Debbie arrived. She got there a little before 8 and loaded my bags for me while I finished getting myself ready. We left Beverly’s house about 8 a.m. just as planned. Decided it might be a while until lunch, so stopped for sausage McMuffin. Debbie took me on back roads through more beautiful new neighborhoods to the 215 and then onto I-15 heading north.
In about an hour we were driving into Logandale, near Overton and Lake Mead in the Moapa Valley. The Muddy River runs through the valley, and its not much bigger most of the time than Muddy Creek at home. We easily found Dick and Doreen’s house, although we hadn’t been there for many years now. The trees and shrubbery had grown gigantic in the intervening years, but the house was exactly the same. We all had big hugs, and it was just so wonderful to see them once more. Maggie their daughter Debbie’s age, came after we’d visited about an hour. We went over all the old memories of our friendship ever since we were freshmen in at Basic high school in Henderson. You’re not going to believe this in a million years, and neither could I, but I forgot to take in my camera and get pictures of us. I was so disappointed.
Soon it was time to be on the way and next stop was Mesquite. I called Betty and we planned to meet at the Mexican restaurant for some lunch. We visited over lunch and got caught up since we had talked on the phone a couple times a week while I was down in Vegas. Then over to her house where I had left my car. We unloaded everything out of Debbie’s car and into mine, and the whole back end is pretty well packed solid as higher than the windows. Debbie is leaving her car there at Betty’s right in my old parking spot. Curtis will come in their truck to Wyoming to get her in about 2 or so weeks – Beverly may come too. Then when they go back they will stop at Betty’s and take Debbie’s car home. It seemed that would be the best plan of any we could think of and we went over every possibility.
We went “over the hill” via Beaver Dam AZ to Ivins-Santa Clara-St. George and up to Snow Canyon, where we went in to the campground on their scenic drive and took photos there. Very beautiful black lava flows over white and red sandstone, and medium spectacular sandstone formations. Then to Gunlock-Veyo-Enterprise. It was quite amazing the miles of green ranch and hay fields we drove through in the Enterprise Valley. Amazing what you find that you didn't know about when you get off the beaten path. Also the temperature had been falling all afternoon and it was about 25 degrees cooler up there. It’s been maybe 30 years or more since I’ve been through there and then it was very primitive, even dirt roads back in there (western Utah up against the Nevada border). We drove some ways in the pinyon pine/cedar forests through the mountains.
I kind of thought we’d come out about Caliente. (Our problem on this trip has been that we aren't prepared with better maps.) But we got to Panaca and Caliente was 25 miles south + or – 10 miles depending on who you talked to, but in the wrong direction. We wanted to head north, so missed Caliente. Darn. As we got to Panaca there was a little country restaurant named Cindy-Sooz, all neat and clean with good food. And we found it was the only place to eat between there and Ely so had dinner. It was 6:30 by then. Debbie spent some time looking in the phone book for motels and any we called were already booked full. We finally found one in Ely that had a vacancy and she reserved a room - $90. So past 7:30 by the time we left Panaca, and more than 120 miles to Ely. We had been going to at least see Pioche again - a loop off the highway, but figured we’d better keep driving as the sun was heading down. The road is straight as an arrow through that long valley, but full of deer and then elk, so at dusk we had to be on our guard. There is about 20 miles or so on a curvy mountain road down into Ely. Debbie drove for about 85 miles and doesn’t like to drive after dark, so I drove the rest of the way over the mountain. She had driven all day until then.
It was about 9:15 and good and dark when got to Ely and found the motel; drove right to it. It’s nice and clean, so we’re snug in for the night. There is no wireless or internet connection, so will have to post the blog and a few pictures later.
