12-23-06,BC-snow,Quartzite

While I have been working on rehabbing my knee, my girl friend Sheila came out from Michigan to visit. It has been cold, gray, snowy, icy, and generally miserable back there as usual for that back east country. I was hoping for some more of the nice warm weather that I have been having, but as usual the weather turned after she got here. I wanted to take her up to Goldfield to show her how an old desert dog used to live when he was just a young pup. We headed up north and I took the daylight pass from Beatty over and down into Death Valley. It was such a beautiful day and the desert clear for a hundred miles. We could see little dust trails as pickups or what ever they were traveling on some far distant roads. It was a little eco shocking I think for her as she just came out of a forest even if the trees that she is surrounded with have mostly lost their leaves.

I had forgotten my little camera but Sheila had hers long and these photos are what she found to take pictures of.

We stopped up at Scotty’s Castle and we went through on a tour. What a joke that was on me. I thought we would go through as it was many years ago when I worked at the castle as the carpenter. Well, things have changed. We got a young woman tour guide that played the part of a woman dress in nineteen thirties costume and all through the tour she told stories of Scottie and Mr Johnson and nothing about the construction or anything about the antiques and special features of the castle. I was so pissed and grumbled all the way through the tour. I was so pissed as there is a lot to see here.

The iron work, the tile work and the handcarved wood work done by old world craftsman is fantastic, but all we got are cute little stories. I tell you when the government gets involved, things really go down hill fast. I didn’t realize that Death Valley Monument had been enlarged and turned into Death Valley Park. I’ll be damned if they didn’t scarf up Saline Valley in their new Park too. Damn, that was a really special place with the hot springs and remoteness. I’ll probably never go back there now as I don’t want to ruin my fond memories of the place.

Sheila had to take a picture of my cabin. I haven’t lived here since the early 890’s but it is still not in too bad of shape.

Sheila took a walk around town while I took a nap and came back with these photos of Goldfield. This is the famous Goldfield Hotel. It was the fanciest thing west of the Missouri River when it was built. It has the third Otis elevator built. Goldfield was a big boom town and there was a lot of money here. Several years ago a group put a lot of money rebuilding this structure and I am sure someday it will be open again.

Someone doing a little fixing up on this place.

The Tex Rickard place is probably the most ornate house in town. It is falling into bad shape and the thing that still pisses me off about one of the guys that owned the place is that it had a real brick shit house out back. It was a two hole job and it was just as fancy as the house. He dug under it to get to the hole so he could find any bottles that might have been thrown in it. That is a favorite thing to do as often some really nice bottles were thrown down those holes to keep the wife from knowing you were drinking. Hell, maybe the woman dumped her bottle down the hole to keep her old man from finding out about her drinking. Well, the story is that they didn’t find anything down that hole. It didn’t take long before the outhouse collapsed because it didn’t have a foundation under it any more. I never did like that bastard anyway as he was some kind of retired cop from LA I think and acted like a big rich hot shot. He as an asshole…..

Some nice old cabins down by the Santa Fe Saloon.

The bar I learned to drink draft beer at.

Colombia mountain and a car that need a little work.

I took Sheila out to Alkali hot springs for a dip. She was getting a little smelly and she likes to be CLEAN. After the bath we went up to Kens place on Montezuma mountain with Tom, Karen, Helena and Karens nephew. Ken had made some of his famous hair ball beans and we all enjoyed a bowl. I had two bowls of it as did some others as it was really good. Ken is a good cook when he gets his chef hat on. Ken gave a little tour and talk about his solar heated cabin and everyone enjoyed the view from the mountain. It had started to snow when we got there but with four wheel drive we were able to make it up the hill without too much problem. After beans and the tour Sheila and I went on down to Silver Peak with Ken and Sheila had a chance to see Kens place in town. We went down to the Alternative Bar that Kens son Kenny owns as well as a tour of Kenny’s house that he has almost completed. We headed on back over to Goldfield and spent another night in my cabin. This is what it looked like in the morning.

We haeded on back south in the morning and stopped along the way at the famous Cottontail Ranch. Ken said that there was a sign here that said “Closed, beat it”

It was a fantastic ride back south. It was a little slippery on the ice going over the Goldfield summit but it finally thawed out by the time we got down to Sarcobatus Flats, maybe twenty miles. It was beautiful all the way back as we were looking at the north side of the mountains and hills.

I’ll be darned if it didn’t get cold and snow down in Boulder City camp too. It started snowing early in the morning and it hung on for most of the morning. The little pod was nice to have and much better than a tent for sure. It sure would have been nice if it hadn’t gotten cold while she was here, but it is winter. Tom said that it often would snow a time or two like this in the winter.

After I got Sheila on the plane to go home I had a doctors appointment the next day. When he asked how the knee was doing I said “Excellent”. He liked that!!

I picked up a set of my medical records from his office and made copies of them as well as all the receipts from all the medical stuff I had done down here and made a packet and sent if off to the insurance company of the guy that hit me. I think they will reimburse me for the expenses, if not I will have to get my bull dog attorney Terry Hanson their case. It is interesting that in Nevada if you pay cash for medical stuff, you are required to get a 1/3^rd discount. I guess that is a state law. I’m not sure how Nevada was able to get that law passed but I sure appreciate it as I have had to pay for everything cash. It took almost two months but I was finally able to get some lots I had in Goldfield sold to Tom and Karen. The title company there is the most lame excuse for a company I have ever dealt with. It is real simple to transfer property in Goldfield with a quit claim but Tom and Karen needed title insurance on the transaction. The damn title company came up with some really creative excuses for not getting the work done I will have to admit, but I still feel like going up to Tonopah and fire bombing the place.

The day of the Winter Solstice I hooked up and pulled my little train out of town and headed for Arizona. I got stopped at the damn dam as the guy wanted to be sure I didn’t have a little bomb in the pod that would blow up that huge concrete dam. I can see maybe a semi loaded with some special high explosives might make a black mark at the top of the dam and take out some of the guard rails but really now, could a pickup and trailer be any threat to five gazillion tons of concrete? They let me through, even though my mind was plotting destruction. There must be a way…….. Maybe a motorcycle and sidecar???

I made it down almost to Quartzite that night. I spent the night along the highway at a wide spot and went to check out the two campgrounds in the morning. The furthest one from town is I think three miles long and it has a lot of room and folks are really spread out. I chose the one closer to town as I have camped here before and I think it will be easier for my friend Geoff to find me. I was going to go riding with Geoff on his vacation, but this knee surgery thing got in the way. I think he went on down into Mexico and I hope he can find me here (much easier than the other camp area) on his way back to the bay area of California. I met Geoff down in Creel, Mexico last year at the Horizons Unlimited meeting. He came up to the Stanley Stomp in Idaho this summer and we got to ride some of the back roads there.

It is really good hiking around here. This photo is of the desert pavement that is around here. The ground is mostly flat with small washes. The desert pavement is a thin layer of small rocks that have a dark brown patina on them. I think it is really good exercise for my knee going mostly on these flat stretches and then up and down through sandy washes. I am surprised that there are not more birds. I think I only saw two birds this morning on my walk. Maybe that west Nile virus has been busy down here.