Delta Utah to Ely Nevada

We left Delta at 6am under dark skies and a promise of daylight. We had lots of water as everyone had warned us about the lack of water, Doug was following in the mini, Malcolm and Dan would join us later. As we were driving out of the lot Nancy and I saw a woman at McDonald's watching us so we drove over to inquire if they were open yet. They were so we did a quick drive up to order two large cups of tea, then Dylan requested a stop at 7/11 where he came back out with a HUGE Rice Krispie treat. I guess he had his own worries about the desert.

The road was quiet and the skies were lightening with the coming daylight. We drove at a brisk 40mph through lovely stark country. We saw nothing but each other. We drove for about an hour and then the mini flew by. Fifteen minutes later we rounded a bend and there was Doug standing by the side of the road. He was parked at a spot where old 50 took off north. We stopped to rest the cars and eat a light breakfast of blueberry muffins and milk. Then off we went again. As we started our first climb into a small canyon two Navy jets flew overhead. They were amazingly loud in the silence. It seemed as if they were trying to figure out just what we were moving so slowly across the desert because they flew over us a number of times, tipping and turning. They were quted graceful in the sky but really really loud.

The passes were not too bad although they seemed to go on and on. The car was working hard with another person in it but when we hit the downhills it wanted to race on. Dorothy's T is much faster on the hills so we lost her for a while. This is common, more so when there are hills, so we each end up traveling alone and sometimes the only car we see is our own. I am sure this country is much the same as when Alice drove through here. I can't imagine this drive on only a dirt track. She was a very brave woman.

The mini spent the day zooming up the road between me and Dorothy, Doug seemed to be having too much fun driving the long open road.We decided he was our little Border Collie, herding us along, keeping us moving in the right direction.

Up and down, long open road, that was our day. We stopped at the Nevada border at a small gas and gambling casino and watched a nasty storm moving across the mountains where we were headed. We grabbed another cup of tea and waited. We were hoping to wait it out but another storm was close behind so we bundled up and tried to out run it. We almost made it but did get pretty soaked in spite of our speed. It was all up hill and the Cadillac just couldn't get us out of the path in time. We did miss the worst of it but got enough rain to get soaked into the dry parts before it stopped. Then it was a long climb, up and a fun ride down all the way to Ely.

We found great camping at the Ely KOA and were in early enough to do some work on the cars. There is always something that needs to be done and it is really nice to have daylight to work in. The fan is still blowing through bearings so they needed to be replaced. I hope it will make it to the end. We went to dinner and through a small seried of events including torrential rain, we ended up in a different place than we had planned and ate the best ever (really) Chinese food at the Twin Wok. I would almost consider doing this drive again just to stop there for dinner it was that great. We have another long day ahead of us with more climbing tomorrow.