6-16-09

To Goldfield

I stopped along the highway to use a little shithouse at a campground and when I came out there was this guy waiting to go in and touch up the paint inside. I visited with him for some time as he used to ride and just recently had some eye problems and has had to sell his bike. It sure is a shame to have to give something you love up especially after doing it for over fifty years like this guy. He asked where I was going and when I told him I was going to fish lake valley he surprised me when he knew where it was and even was related to one of my friends who has since died there. It is a small world.

Sheep being herded by a shepherd and two dogs. This high country used to run thousands of sheep but I think it is hard to find shepherds anymore that want to stay out with the sheep.

This was early morning so I could get a photo of the Sierras before the afternoon thunder storms got going.

The old store at Benton was not doing well. I think they might be developing the hot spring for public use but didn’t stay around to find out for sure. It was kept private for all the time I was living around here.

The old whorehouse on the road up to Montgomery Pass.

The sign out front……

I pulled into Dyer and found this guy cooking up some ribs at the Boonies saloon. I was hungry and they were great!

I went over to visit with my good friend Rita and had to apply a BMWDOG sticker to her car.

This is Pete’s old BMW that some dogs tore the grill out of thinking there was a rabbit in there. They drove this little car for years until it started to smoke. It needs some work……

They have a great place after years of hard work. They built the house a few years ago and it is so snug and solar friendly.

Rita hasn’t done much with the garden this spring as she thinks she will be leaving to go back to school before harvest so why bother? The neighbors will be disappointed…….

My old farm. The trees and bushes I planted look like they are doing well. The fields I worked are now brown as I guess they let the water rights go back to the state.

When I got to Goldfield I got hooked up right away with my neighbors Tom and Karen. They had just recently returned after teaching the winter down in Las Vegas. Tom has a new bike and first thing first, we went for a ride over by a really nice back road to Silver Peak. I love these Nevada roads. This is the normal view of Tom when you ride with him….. dust…..

We found Kenny and it is always good to see him again. I told him I would be back the next day for a visit.

We rode up out of the valley and stopped for me to take a photo. Wow, I love this country.

On the way back we stopped at Alkali Lake for an extended play period on the dry lake. You can go as fast as you want here and as it is level and smooth for miles with little islands in patches across the flats. Here is Tom about to blast off.

Tom is a expert rider on dirt bikes and this new KTM 400 is sure a feisty little bike.

We stopped for a rest and talk and he offered me a ride on the little bike. It is so light and fast, it was a real hoot to blast around the dry lake.

When we got back Karen had gotten some of the local construction guys to come over and extend the bank by their house and have them put rocks along the side. They have some really nice tools and that big loader made easy work of moving big rocks for the hill side.

This was a pretty cool little rig that they were running around with. It is a 1100cc four cylinder engine and sure looks like it would be a blast to run around in the desert.

I made a run out to Alkali Hot Spring for a soak. Wow, what a nice spring. It is so hot you cant stay in for long and when I got out I was a bright pink and steaming. Ahhh, it doesn’t get much better than that. I like my hot sprigs hot rather than warm.

Bad news the next morning. Tom said that the sewer had backed up….. ugh…..

I offered to go over to Silver Peak and get Kenny and some tools to get it cleaned out. Here is Kenny under the floor of the house trying to figure out what was wrong. We determined that it was where the construction guys had broken the sewer line and fixed it when doing the rockwork. It was a series of events but we finally got the county to come out and see what could be done to fix it as the constrution guys had gone back up to Utah and wouldn’t be back for a couple of months.

Up town there was a new building going up and with a neat little home built locomotive along side.

There are some guys building a train museum over by the Santa Fe Sloon.

Kenny and I had a good time in his old Chevy truck checking on the gates up on Montezuma Mountain. Everything looked good and the view from the top of the mountain was great.

I stopped in at the Silver Peak Library and Christine the librarian let me use the computer for a little bit. She and her husband Bruce Bum ride Harleys and rack up quite a few miles every year. I had quite a few emails and didn’t have time to read them all. I cant use my cell phone to hook up to my computer as verizon doesn’t operate in this area. It sure is nice to have these public libraries.  

When I got back the county had started work on the plugged line.

I blasted off in the morning for ???