Winnemucca, NV

Let's face it - the town name is fun to say.  It's a decent sized city (pop in the 7,000 range) and offers a few choices for RV parks.  We decided to stop for a couple of days here and enjoy the comfort of full hook-ups at the Winnemucca RV Park after our couple days of dry camping.

The most ironic thing about Winnemucca from my perspective is that they include in their tourist brochure that they are at the beginning of the "Winnemucca to the Sea Highway."  The route they outline is the EXACT route we took to get here in reverse!  So funny...and then they have a coastal redwood driftwood as a highway marker in town...It makes we wish we were still on the coast with the Redwoods.  I am going to be dreaming about that place for a year (until I can go back)!

The road between Lakeview and Winnemucca is barren.  It is over 200 miles of absolutely nothing (Denio is in the middle and offers the only gas station).  Here are some of the pics I took along the way when I was the passenger (please excuse the glare from the windows)...

We averaged around 10 mpg when driving through California, but between Lakeview, OR and Winnemucca, NV we got 12.5 mpg!  While there were some grades, it was less than what we experienced in California...it is a good thing we got the extra mpg's too because we did not stop for gas in Denio - the last opportunity for 100 miles.  When we finally got to Winnemucca and filled up we had only 3.5 gallons of gas left in the truck!  I was sweating bullets...always something to stress out about!  So...if you ever make that drive be sure that you can travel 210 miles or stop in Denio!

We ate at an amazing Mexican restaurant yesterday and are going to go back today for dinner.  We eat a lot of Mexican food in AZ - but this was something special.  It is called Marisgos El Rey Authentic Mexican Food.  Everything we ordered was amazing.  Also, the salsa is good and spicy.  Fantastic.  

Today is a lazy day.  We took the kids to a park and we are watching movies and playing games.  It is nice to take a day off of driving.  We'll get back on the road tomorrow and find a place to dry camp/boondock tomorrow night. 

 I'm teaching an online summer class starting in July.  Last night with cell/data I was able to get some work done prepping the course.  It's almost ready to go - I can't believe we have been on the road for four weeks already.  Though I am happy to have the extra income from the summer class, I have also enjoyed the freedom of our explorer life!  For the second half of the summer we have to have access to cell/data so that I can teach as well as explore!