START 2020: Conelly's Oasis 6/17 - 6/18 2020 START at GREAT BASIN is Officially Begun

From: casarollnotes.blogspot.com 

Tim and Linda Bunyan


Travel Tour 2020 - The "Rock Stars"
Everyone's "Corner of the World"

We have been at Sam and Kathy Teresi's Cameron Park "field of dreams' during our layover in Sacramento (mid-May - mid-June 2020).
Kathy and Sam have entertained in their home and have invited us for delightful dining.  Kathy's unique talent for food preparation includes herbs from her own garden and recipes from her Italian Grandmother.  The vinegar from the old country continues in a vat located just next to the ravioli board.

We retrieved CasaRoll from Phil and Tracey's house in Folsom.  They were on their own 5th-wheel travel trip while we were in Mazatlan.  Tracey prepared dinner from their 'Blue Apron' food delivery for our overnight and the next day we rolled into

 our stay at Cameron Park.

 Phil and Tracey surprised us with their new 5th wheel they purchased while on the road.  Their new RV has two baths, the master bath has two sinks and a sliding barn door feature.  The trimmings look like a real house and a family room with couches that make into comfortable beds for their family and the two grandchildren.

 Departing Folsom to Cameron Park via the Johnny Cash Trail

This period of time: The Covid-19 virus warnings began around March 2020.  New we see the Folsom Pavillion shopping center closed; this makeshift stand on the corner is in business selling masks.

One of our priority stops is a visit with Kevin and Gordon.  They invited us to dinner at their house.  During dinner, they announced they will be joining us in Travel Tour 2020 to Moab!  We are so excited and they too.  Gordon is installing big wheels on their Rubicon.  

Kevin and Gordon's house has many updates.  New carpet and paint.  The back yard looks expanded and inviting for us to sit outside under their covered area...right next to Gordon's new shop.  The flowers and the hot tub made the back yard into a Shangri-La.  Many good wishes for those conversational hot tub moments! 

 We shall see you on the road!

 Our friends in their corner of the world:

Here in Cameron Park dining in Sam & Kathy's park-like setting at their back yard.

 
 Kathy treated us to her home
made ravioli with Kathy's care, the burned butter is layered with freshly grated parmesan.  The ravioli is pillow-soft, and delicately thin morsels that melt in your mouth.

Kathy and Sam's herb garden with peppers, tomatoes, and radishes.  It is green and watered. 

CasaRoll at "Field of Dreams" side yard.  I weeded their garden.  It was a delight to do it.

Outdoor rotisserie is working fine with cornish game hens proving this cooking dual teamwork.  Tim supplied a dedicated cord to the outdoor kitchen.

Cap't Sam and Shipmate Kathy take friends on their boat "Whiskey Business" to the, now open, Virgin Sturgeon.  Social distancing is enforced inside, yet we are happy for cocktails and lunch on the outdoor patio.

The girls Stacey and Christine are happy and having fun 'in the driver's seat'!

Sacramento Yacht Club Commodore: Sam Teresi

Shipmate, Kathy, ready to tie lines at the Virgin Sturgeon boat dock.

Matt and sis Morgan.  Matt is congratulated as he is accepted at the Merchant Marine Institute, a California State System University.

Tim's evidence of life; STRS building on the Sacramento River.

 Monique telling us of boating plans on the Intercoastal Waterway!

  Vice Commodore Matt going along for the ride and fun of the party!

 At Sam & Kathy's kitchen with her girlfriends (Annette and Jo) from Rio Americano days!  The three of them get together about every five years for the past 30!
 

CasaRoll at "Field of Dreams"! Tim installing the solar panels on top.

Sandra and Rich Solis surprise Tim and me by inviting Paul and Alicia for dinner at their house.  We had a great Saturday with our close friends.  Thank you, Sandra and Rich!

 
 The girls of 'the Heights': Alicia and Linda and Sandra Solis at Cameron Park.

Pink flowers from Alicia

Deb McPherson at her house in Sun City, Roseville.  She gifted us a book on Alberta, Canada we will use for our next scheduled Canada travel tour.  We helped her prop up a tree in her front yard.......she said she may just take it out!

 

Tim has prepared and installed CasaRoll with solar panels to keep the battery charged.  This eases Tim having to ensure the generator is on charging the batteries. 

Here are some of the supplies, in bins, to go on the road.

 Tim is installing the control panel for the solar panels.  Woodstock is Supervising.

 Here are some of the new wires.  It all works!

 Tim's tunes and his homemade baffle box for enhanced sound.

 The batteries are fed energy with solar panels.

 New inside chairs that recline for the RV.

 The truck is all clean.  We've completed our appointments with skin doctor, eye doctor, and dentist.  The truck has the oil changed and a new filter.  Ready to GO!

Visit with Mike G and Sherry ......and their new truck!

 Mike G and Sherry just got a new truck.  Tim and Mike ride around the Cameron Park airstrip.  Sherry and I go for a walk and meet up with the guys.  The neighborhood is having an 'open airplane' afternoon

 Jason and Erin visit as Jason installs an exterior wooden canopy he built.

 

We visit Lee and Angela at their house to celebrate Father's Day, Birthday for Jeff and me, and Mother's Day, Jason and Erin's wedding anniversary!  We spent the day with Angela and Lee quite the hosts.  Grand Son Jeff made his guacamole; he used cumin in the recipe and Angela sent some home with us.  Delicious!

 Angela fixing ingredients for Jeffrey to combine.

 
Our Grand Son Jeff is grown to a smart young man with the generous spirit to help Tim set up the garage to store the Lexus for the Summer. 




Lee, Jeff, and Tim with the job done!

Angela fixing dinner in her kitchen with Erin and Jason.  Lee BBQ'd a Tri-Tip and corn.  Delicious!

 Summer dinner is served; it is nice enough we can eat outside on the deck!

 Our neighbors, Deb and Don Hunts, from Fair Oaks, are now living in Cameron Park.  We dined poolside and Deb and Don's Grandchildren were there for a visit and swim.  

 

In Cameron Park, Ron and Frannie come to join in at Field of Dreams.  Martha, Sherry, and Frannie.

 Tim, Frannie, Larry, Sherry, and Martha....The gang is all here.  Ron and Frannie's new rig in the background 26' travel trailer: Imagine.  Lovely!  Ron is taking advice from Tim and ordering items to take it on the road.  They are going to join us in Moab on our 2020 Travel Tour.  Mike G and Sherry are joining us too!!!

 Here is "Living in Aluminum" at "Field of Dreams".  Sam & Kathy are boating.

We celebrated Ron's Birthday!  We are here with Larry for Martha's Birthday!

 Frannie in her new Rig: Imagine!

Here is the group Martha, Larry, Frannie, and Ron

The nest day cocktails at Larry & Martha's and they treat us all to dinner!

The coat of many colors: We say goodbye, Ron is in his robe his Dad gave to him. 

 He has worn it every day....almost all day long!  (just sayin').

 Tim has everything updated, repaired, and cleaned, and checked.  He is ready to rock and roll down the road.  We have changed our plans from Canada (Covid Canceled) and then planned a Habitat for Humanity Tour to Durango to visit friends.

 The Habitat for Humanity was Covid Canceled.  We began to determine our course would be into the Rocky Mountains to see Moab (where our inlaws frequent) and travel only as far east as Aspen to avoid the high Rocky ridges of Denver area and Rocky Mountain National Park.  

Here is our place to carve out this 2020.  We are as we are (with facemasks in supply) begin the CAT (Covid Avoidance Tour) on 2020 "Rock Stars" Travel Tour of the SouthWest Rocky Mountains.  

Our first overnight is in Reno at Rob and Sandy Connelly's High Desert Oasis.

Rob and Sandy Connelly's High Desert Oasis in Warm Springs surrounded by mountains in the green-hued Palimino Valley (Elevation: 4500').  We launch our Travel Tour 2020.  Looking back at last year's travel tour, we launched from Rob and Sandy's! 

 Rob and Sandy announce the happiest recent news: Patrick and Amy are engaged!   
Rob explained it this way:  "He and Sandy are happier than a tornado in an RV park"!  

Sandy and LindaSandy's Rock Art

Travel Tour 2020 to the "Rock Stars"

Tim and I and Woodstock set off heading to Fernley to gas up at our "Go-To" largest operator of travel centers and travel plazas in North America committed to fueling life's journeys:                                         The Pilot Flying J.  

The road is Interstate 80 to join U.S. Route 50, the loneliest road in America section in Nevada. 

The name originates from the remote areas which it goes through.  We drive through Fallon, an agricultural community, and home to the Navy's Top Gun Flight school.  It is evident this air space of WiFi and airplanes fully compete without contention.

From Fallon (livestock town) to Eureka we pass by the patch of white sand where warm winds blow: 
Sand Mountain Recreation Area a towering 600' dune, open to off-highway vehicle users.  Yes, Rob and Patrick have been here.  There is a Pony Express stop at Sand Springs Station.    

This pile of bricks indicates the foundation of a Pony Express stop.  
This brick foundation and the stories remain.

We fueled up and settled in for an overnight in Austin, Nevada (Elevation: 6600').  Fueling stations are few and far between.

The Bob Scott Camp Ground (Toiyabe National Forest 
(196 miles from Connelly's High Desert Oasis.)  
The small Forest Service campground is $10.00 per night.  Our space is a pull-thru situated atop a hill with an expansive view.

Woodstock is content caring for his new catnip gift from Angela, Lee, and Jeffrey!

Next morning for coffee and a quick stop at Love's for $2.35/gallon. Plenty of hill climbing on today's drive on U.S. 50 towing and following the remnants of both the Pony Express Trail and the Lincoln Highway across Nevada.  One of many, the Connors Pass is 7,733' Elevation.

We cross the 30-mile plateau "Bean Flat" to reach Hickisen Summit at Elevation 6546' to Eureka, the best-preserved Highway 50 town in Nevada with 19th-century buildings.  The Jackson Opera House is still open.  

 We stop for coffee at the Pony Express Deli. 

  There are salt and pepper shakers on the table and a self-serve coffee pot with creamers.

This is a comforting sign on the wall; sent to Kyle Donnan for his birthday today.

The Great Basin desert lies in the western United States.  Over 100 basins wherein no water flows to the oceans make up this unique geologic area.
 On the Hwy 50 Loneliest Road in America, there are high desert vistas, mountain peaks, and canyons.

 Climbing Little Antelope Summit, between Eureka and Ely, U.S. Route 50 is a transcontinental highway, here filled with sagebrush, pinyon-junipers, and open ranges. 

 Former schoolhouse of days gone by.

The Lucio Hay Farm in Antelope Valley at an elevation of 4970'.  Produces high-quality hay for export to the Pacific Rim

 Illpah Mining District, White Pine Co., Nevada.  Rhyolite and Wonderstone are found in the area.

Mining is Big Business here.

  

Ely is all about copper rather than gold and silver. 

 Plaza Park in the center of Ely.

 Murals in Ely, Nevada

Windmill Farm

 owned and operated by Pattern Energy.  The facility is located in Spring Valley, northwest of Great Basin National Park, and 30 miles east of Ely, Nevada.  

151 megawatts.

Cattle country

 DH Meat Company and cattle rancher.

Along the Highway, we see an Oversize Load.  There are two lead vehicles with lights, Hwy Patrol stopping coming traffic, and this white truck at the back end.  A large trailer bed for one of the mining machines is being hauled.

Onward through Spring Valley with the view of Sacramento Summitt just before our Great Basin National Park stay in the Campground.

U.S. Highway 50 across the state of Nevada, the Loneliest Road in America, topography consists of several large, desertlike plateaus separated by numerous mountain ranges towering over the valley floors.  We reach the high Robinson Summit at 7607' Elevation.  

 From the natural lands of Spring Valley, we see pinyon trees with the sagebrush at the foot of the South Snake Range.

THE GREAT BASIN - Mountains in a sea of sagebrush.

 The Great Basin National Park.  The bulk of the rocks exposed are formed of sediments like sand, mud, and limey ooze (silt and clay particles mixed with calcium carbonate).

 Baker, Nevada is the turn toward the entrance of Great Basin National Park.

The Toyota Tundra is behaving at 10 miles per gallon over the stretch of these 350 miles of mountains and plateaus.  The white peaks of Connors Pass at 7733' Elevation from the Wind Mills in Spring Valley to the final Sacramento Pass we now have traveled a portion of the Great Basin where no water drains to an ocean but drains inward.

GREAT BASIN NATIONAL PARK

We arrived in the early afternoon to the last available, with partial shade, and a cleanly paved space.  With The Beautiful America Pass, the cost is $7.50 per night. 

This mountain range is an example of a desert mountain island.  From sagebrush at its base to Wheeler Peak's 13,000' summit.

We settle in with Woodstock pleased with the campsite and watching for field mice, sun, and shade at any given moment.

Our Campsite #1.  It has concrete at the table that fills the space;

 it is clean to place our lounging chairs outside. .

 We go for a .5 mile hike from Lower Lehman to Upper Lehman Campground.  Here is Lehman Creek from the mountains at Wheeler Peak, the second-highest peak in Nevada.

The Great Basin National Park encompasses most of the South Snake Range.  From about 1100 to 1300 American Indians (known as Fremont) lived in small villages here.  They irrigated corn, beans, and squash in the valley and hunted in the mountains.

Limited campsites (first come; first served) for RVs at Lower Lehman Creek (7300' Elevation).  Woodstock is fascinated with our site at 

Lower Lehman Campground in Great Basin.

The Great Basin centered on Nevada stretches from California's Sierra Nevada to Utah's Wasatch Mountains.  

Tim and I hiked the 3 mile Alpine Lakes Loop Trail for our full-day visit.  The moderate loop at 11,000' Elevation, nearly 3 miles, includes the famous Bristlecone Trail to the ancient tree grove. 

Monument in honor of Stephen Mather.  He was the first director of the 

National Park Service.

Wheeler Peak is the tallest mountain in the Snake Range in Nevada.  The summit elevation of 13,065 feet.  It was named for George Wheeler, leader of the Wheeler Survey of the late 19th century.

An impressive headwall above a large glacial cirque, large moraines, and an active rock glacier.

National Park Service brings the outdoors to us with this sturdy built deck and rail.  The telescopes work....no longer coin operated!

 The paved road that runs from the Great Basin National Park is lined with Aspen trees.

 The Wheeler Peak Summit Trail is a well-maintained trail.  

It leads from the end of the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive.

 Without a doubt, Tim and I choose the most scenic spots in Great Basin National Park: The Bristlecone Trail.  A superb 3-mile route passing through a Bristlecone Pine grove on the way to a rock glacier.

 We reach the subalpine zone immediately below the tree line.  Trees in the subalpine zone often become crooked wood and twisted in form.  
Ancient Bristlecone Pinesis the famous, longest-living tree in the Great Basin.  

 Some Bristlecone Pines are nearly 5,000 years old---the oldest living thing in the world.

 The great age attained by these trees is due to their unusual ability to adapt to their environment.
 The tree's needles which grow in bunches of five can remain on the tree for forty years which gives the tree branches the unique appearance of a long bottle brush.

Branches are long bottle brush in appearance.

 After death, many of these trees remain standing for thousands of years.

Born 1000BC; Died 1100 AB.

The wood is dense and resinous.  The tree's longevity is due to the wood's extreme durability.  Tim and I also visited the Bristlecone Pine Forest in the White Mountains of California where ancient habitats have been protected.

  This hollow tree is 2000 years old. 

 Rather than rot at the roots, like other trees, the bristlecone pines can endure even after death for many centuries.  Rather than rot, exposed wood, on living and dead trees erodes like stone due to wind, rain, and freezing which creates unusual forms and shapes.

 
We completed 3 miles of up and down the Hiking Trail, including 'step master' from rock to rock!


















Tim takes a photo of the Valley below, 

looking east, it is Utah.

Trail hiker......on crutches, to prove no need to be super fit for this trail!!! ??

 Hiking on the return trail from 11,000' elevation.

Tim set the table with our lunch using our travel plastic bags as placemats! 

The return to our campsite on the Wheeler scenic highway.  View of Utah to the East, driving there tomorrow to the town of Delta, Utah to stay at our Coast-to-Coast RV membership

 at the Antelope RV Park.

We've made this plan for 2020 Travel Tour "Rock Stars", as far east as Aspen and down to Durango and back up north to Bend, Oregon.  Due to covid-19, our original plans to Canada are canceled as the country remains closed.  The U.S. National Parks have been opening with limited facilities open.  The Visitor Centers are not open, so we refer to kiosk information and, of course, Wiki for reference material.
We like to know what is on our selected route, and how it became as it is today, and the why to the area.   

There is much to be explained about this least visited National Park: The Great Basin.  This travel site is our way to share our experiences and explain some aspects of this extraordinary place.
Like those who came before us, Tim and I value 'the share' with others.  These places remain set in time and we are fortunate to be a moment with it, to carve out our place.  

We are on our way to Moab where Mike G and Sherry, Ron and Frannie, and Gordon and Kevin, and Skip and Linda are joining us in their 'wagon' this Travel Tour 2020 "Rock Stars" for all their own reasons.   
Much as the brave pioneers, we search for the riches this great country is created.  We are happy to view new landscapes every day and to make .discover. meaningful to us.