We just returned from a 10 day, 1700 mile trip from Kingman Arizona to Reno, then on to Winnemucca, West Wendover, and Ely, Nevada and return. The first night we stopped overnight in Hawthorne, NV and stayed at the Whiskey Flats RV Park. Very nice, good WiFi and cable TV.
The second day we drove to the Sparks Marina RV Park just outside of Reno. A very nice and well run place to spend a few days. We were there for four days and loved every minute. All the amenities you would expect in a first class RV park.
We then headed for Winnemucca and stayed at the New Frontier RV park. It was also pretty nice with the exception of the casino and restaurant which were way to smoky for us. Visiting the Historical Museum is a must...it's free with donations excepted. We spent two hours there seeing all of the artifacts.
While in Winnemucca the lower hinge on our 2 year old Norcold refrigerator broke. There was just a sliver of plastic keeping the door from falling off entirely. Having read on this forum about the many problems with the hinge we never traveled with anything stored in the door. Luckily we made it home without it falling off.
Two days later we headed to West Wendover, which is on the NV/Utah border. Lots of casinos and a few restaurants. We stayed at the KOA there, which turned out to be a big mistake. We had planned to be there for two days, but left the following morning. They put us in a 30 amp site, had very low water pressure, no Wifi, no cable TV, no sewer, and Goathead thorns everywhere. Plus people were constantly walking right through our site, some even between our RV and the truck parked right next to it.
In the morning it was pretty cold and I couldn't coil up my stiff water hose, so I laid it on the picnic table in the sun to warm it up.
We then headed out, but after driving for 15 minutes my wife asked me if I had put the water hose away....OH NO! We had to drive another few miles in order to find a place to turn around. I told her it was probably a waste of time and gas because in the 35 minutes we had been gone someone had probably taken the hose. Much to my surprise it was still where I had left it, now all warmed up and easy to coil up.
Our last stop was Ely, NV at the Ely KOA. What a delightful place. The Wifi was almost as fast as my Internet at home and the cable TV was outstanding. Friendly staff and a very nice place to stay. We paid a visit to the Nevada Northern Railway Museum, which is also a must see attraction. We arrived to late to ride the train, but spent a lot of time touring the museum. A docent there named Lilly was eager to share so much information about the railroad and the town of Ely. She was a highlight of our trip.
The weather was predicted to worsen in the coming days, so the next day we headed for home. Soon we were fighting a 20-35 mph headwind. That lasted the whole trip home. Going down a 2 lane road with a 70 mph speed limit I was trying to hold at least 60 mph in the wind. There were no passing lanes and no place to pull off the road...the shoulder dropped at about a 30 degree angle. A look in the mirror showed a growing line of cars and a few semi's, plus to my dismay the flapping rubber trim pieces on both sides of the front of the trailer. That was another problem I read about on this forum that I thought would never happen to me. It was another 10 miles before we finally came to a turnout wide enough for our rig. We tied down the wayward pieces of plastic trim and continued on our way. On the way home my usual 10.5 mpg dropped to 8 and sometimes even less.
I am glad we made the trip last week because the price of gas in Nevada was always above 3 bucks a gallon. The price in Kingman has been at $2.54 for the last month, but today jumped to $2.80, so I imagine in Nevada it will soon be approaching 4 bucks a gallon.
One trick I learned with a cold, stiff water hose is to connect it to my outside shower and run hot water through it for a few minutes. Beats warming it up in the sun on a picnic table and running off without it. I have glued my bottom hinge back together, ordered the support bracket from Amazon so I am hoping it will hold together. While searching for parts I found Amazon has a whole new door for $139.60, so that might come in handy if my fix doesn't hold up.
Our Fridge Door
This was our longest trip so far this year, and at least after 10 days on the road we only had a couple of items on our fix-it list. Just hope the price of gas comes back down soon so we can hit the road again!
Happy Camping!
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