Susanville Ca to Utah via Austin Nevada and the US 50

23 October

Left Susanville at 11:00AM, quite late for some reason. Must have slept in. Gee, I wonder why?

Today we would be heading towards Utah, aiming for Cortez, Colorado with likely two stops along the way. We have taken the I-80 route several times, across the Bonnyville Salt  Flats then down through Salt Lake City. We have also once taken the US 50, known as the Loneliest Highway. We were pretty sure we wouldn't get through Nevada today no matter which way, so decided on the 50.

At Reno we picked up the I-80 to the US 50 at Fernley where after a couple of hours on the road we stopped at the Flying J for fuel and were pleased with the price, then a few miles later saw it at the Fallon RV Park for 35 cents a gallon cheaper. Always the way.

Once eastbound on the 50 the landscape changed to high desert.

At 2:40 we were getting a bit peckish so we stopped at a wide pullout where we noticed this sign.

After lunch the terrain continued pretty much unchanged for the rest of the day.

Just before 5:00 PM we stopped for the night at the Pony Express RV park in Austin. Very basic, no public washrooms but for $22.00 and 50 Amp power we had no complaints.

24 October
 

It was however near the bottom of a very long and fairly steep hill, and by 9:30 we were grinding up it.

But soon we were back on the long and flat desert country. This area known as the Great Basin. At one point we clocked more than 35 kilometers without a curve.

Driving through Eureka later in the morning we had to take this photo through our dirty windshield of the Eureka Opera House and the Jackson Hotel, Saloon and Cafe.

As we crossed the border into Utah we lost an hour as we moved into the Mountain Time Zone as the rain began to fall. We joined the I-15 North bound in fairly heavy rain for a few miles then called it a night at the Flying J in Scipio.