Following the previously noted windless sleepless night we last toured the upper pond [which may well disappear in a sea of cattails before we return] and the Park, loaded up the ice-chests and took the right fork of the driveway to the road formerly known as CR 33; eight miles on right again on 447 to the Gerlach Post Office, a last sighting of Willey Courtney on his cell lurching around behind the Shell and we’re out of town to Empire, further on passing a last drifty remnant from the Fourth of Juplaya down along Lake Winnemucca; Wadsworth P.O.[not open yet] and finally, successfully, the one in Fernley.  After a first gas stop in Fallon L. drives out of the crowded metro area and across the flats…though not readily apparent there was actually quite a lot of traffic for Highway 50 as well as fire crews, helicopters and tankers all stashed at Cold Springs Station; a hot and hazy day into the center of the state;

Long valleys and short passes to Austin, lunch at the Hickison Petroglyphs, where this little visitor kept an eye on our leftover salad greens and steak, though the dogs beat him/her/it to the remains…

After that interlude, warm but not unpleasantly so, it was Eureka, many passes, a couple of intense storm cells [astounding rains], gas in Ely, and, two more passes later, Utah, losing an hour to Mountain Time at the border [“Delta 88”]. Linda took the wheel once we were through the twisty canyons of the Snake Range; Sevier Lake off to the right, then Delta, Holden, Scipio…gas in Salina, I-70, more mountains [7880′, surprisingly] and the slickrock plateaus with their varied rest stops and points of view; Ghost Rock; Moore [no services]; Spotted Wolf…

Eleven + actual hours since Wall Spring we were in Green River, 99 degrees at 8:15, having dinner by the river at the recently renovated Tamarisk, and a night of rattly motel airconditioning wherein I at least slept better, if sporadically, to 6:30 a.m….

Bridge over the Green River, Green River, Utah; sunset + morning…

Morning in America; into the sun with a mug of Motel 6 coffee to the Trail Through Time [Rabbit Valley; two miles inside Colorado] to momentarily free the dogs; an hour later a not particularly great breakfast in Delta…

[Lefty at the Trail Through Time, with rock.]

[A not particularly great breakfast]

Negotiating the Gunnison with its motorhomes towing their ancillary  vehicles was less a problem than it might have been, and Monarch Pass was no problem at all; by noon-thirty we were provisioning in Salida, finishing up with a happier lunch than the above under the awnings of the Ploughboy.  L. drove down the Arkansas to Cotopaxi, a hard right up the hill…right again at Westcliffe and into Huerfano county…

Just for symmetry’s sake we stopped at the Gardner Post Office [closed twenty minutes before]…and so to Libre, where dogs run free…

…and so might we…

 

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