Tonopah, NV

Well, here we are - back in the land of the Muckers!  How would you like to have that as your high school mascot?  I guess if you live in the mining country, you go with the mining terms.

Started out from Reno this morning with a slight delay because the Jeep had a stuck thermostat, so I had to take it down to A-1 Radiator to get it fixed.  Wasn't a total loss because it gave Vi a chance to get organized and catch a few extra Z's.  Didn't think it was a good idea to take a chance on the Jeep overheating.  There isn't anything worse than being in the middle of the Nevada back country waiting for AAA .

Beautiful drive through Nevada - because of the recent rains, the hills were tinged with green and the Truckee was flowing full.  On the way to Tonopah, I wanted to take a side trip to Silver Peak, an old mining town.  Actually, it has an active gold mine and lithium mine, but there were a lot of old deserted buildings from the boom periods back in the early 1900's.  Normally, there is a route south of US 6 which goes to Silver Peak and then another road east over to 95 and back to Tonopah.  However, this year they are doing some road construction on the east route and we had to back track back to US 6/95.  Hate to do that, but my driver didn't want to take a chance on the "Closed Road" sign being inaccurate!

We did talk to a woman who has lived in Silver Peak (population 107) for twenty-six years.  She was a fount of information and interesting to talk to.  Guess if you live in Silver Peak for twenty-six years, you take advantage of any opportunity to talk to outsiders :-).  Took some pictures of the old buildings and historical signs which we'll include in a separate One Drive post.  Fun side trip, but didn't see any place we wanted to move to.

We're staying in town at the Tonopah Station where you get to roll the dice for a free room.  Guess who didn't  have any luck there, so it must be building up for Las Vegas.  Yeah right!  Had a drink at the Mizpah Hotel - great old hotel from 1907 which has recently been renovated and reopened.  Then went to dinner at the Tonopah Brewery which has gone through a few changes since Tim & Kathy were there with Vi and I.  Good brew and dinner.  Talked with the bartender who moved from near Pensacola to Las Vegas and then over to Tonopah.  He told us that the Tonopah Brewery is owned by the same people as the Mizpah and they are planning on opening a casino just north of the Mizpah in May.  We'll have to come back and check it out then.

Tomorrow we hope to get an early start and have breakfast in Beatty and then head into Death Valley.  Looking forward to seeing the Superbloom - hope we don't get disappointed.

Enough for now.  Take care and stay tuned.