Monday May 1st 2017

I got underway from the Las Vegas RV Resort about twenty minutes after ten this morning. My nemesis the wind found me shortly after I left the Las Vegas valley. It made for a challenging travel day.

The forecast was for an eight to ten mile per hour sustained wind with a few higher gusts from the north. The actual winds were measured at twenty sustained with gusts toward forty. I followed US 95 north out of Las Vegas. The road climbs gradually for many miles. With the head wind, the RV transmission was rarely in overdrive on the gradual climb. When I got to the real climb up the mountains, I was down into second gear. My sense was that the wind was causing me to run one gear lower than normal.

My view from the hidden Gas station.

The wind wasn’t the only challenge today. I started the day with between a half and three quarters full on the gas gauge. I had previously scouted my escape route from Las Vegas for a suitable gas station without much success. The plan I formed to deal with this dilemma was to buy gas at a station about fifty miles north of Las Vegas that I found on Google maps. Guess what, the station was deserted and I had already passed the best alternative. I wasn’t terribly worried because I new I could easily reach the town of Beatty NV.

Beatty NV is an unincorporated town at the intersection of US 95 and NV 374 the primary eastern route into Death Valley. I passed through the area several years ago on the way to Death Valley from Las Vegas, so I knew it was large enough to support a gas station or two. Coming into town the speed is reduced to twenty five miles an hour giving me plenty of time to locate and enter a gas station. The first station I came to had a roof over the pumps with a warning of twelve feet six inches of clearance. That is exactly my listed height. I decided to pass on the opportunity to prove the accuracy of my height and the guy who measured the gas station. After turning right at the center of town I kept looking for another gas station. The next thing I was a sign leaving Beatty NV followed by a sign that said next GAS 94 miles. My gauge read one quarter, I couldn’t take a chance. I needed to get gas in Beatty.

View of the road from the rest area.

It took two and a half miles before I could find a place to turn my motorhome around. My plan was to check the road to Death Valley from Beatty for a gas station and if that was unsuccessful to attempt the low clearance station on the far outside lane. On the way back into town I saw a station I missed on my first pass. It was squeezed in between a casino and a convenience store. It had plenty of room to fill my RV home with sufficient clearance.

I put in fifty three gallons of gas. That means there should have been around 25 gallons left in the tank. With the head wind and the mountains yet to be crossed I was probably getting 5mpg. It would have been enough to make it the next stations in Tonopah but I would have been a basket case.

View of the mountains to the southwest of the rest area.

At Tonopah US95 merges with US6 and travels west for forty or fifty miles. The head wind was now a full blown cross wind. Keeping the RV straight in the lane required a good 45 or 50 degree continuous pressure on the steering wheel. After about 20 miles of that I gave up. There is a nice rest area that allows overnight RV parking that already had a handful of RVs in it. I joined them about 3PM. I have fine cell service but no over the air TV. If I get bored, I can put up my satellite dish, but probably will just go to sleep and get an early start.