Tuesday, February 27: I had a 3 1/2 hour drive that was mostly monotonous desert in a valley between two mountain ranges. The weather was cloudy but very little wind and no rain or snow.

As I drove I couldn’t help but think about the settlers that crossed those mountains and valleys. I passed a couple of lakes in the Pahranagat National Wildlife Range so there was probably water elsewhere, but it had to be pretty scarce. There couldn’t have been anything to eat besides the wildlife, nothing of the green variety anyway, but I don’t think they ate many greens back then anyway. There is mostly creosote bushes, white bursage, and Joshua trees as vegetation along the route.

Driving picture

I passed east of the huge, secretive Nellis Air Force Range, chief location of the US aircraft and missile testing program and also home of Area 51. Area 51 has long been a place thought to harbor aliens and other science fiction myths. I didn’t see any flying saucers or strange beings, but I looked!

I filled up at a gas station about 20 – 30 miles north of Las Vegas even though I had a half tank of gas. I wasn’t sure where the next gas might be and figured even if there was gas along the stretch I was driving today it had to be more expensive. I paid $3.12 at a Love’s station. Then as I went through a couple of very small towns in the middle of nowhere, I saw it for as low as $3.03! Fooled again.

Misty was a pretty good traveler today. She meowed a bit at first (used the litter box in the back seat for the first time) and when I stopped for fuel she sat in the window and meowed. One of these times I will have to take a photo of her because all you see is her open mouth and white teeth. I meow back, of course, but don’t think she could hear me as they were power washing the gas bay next to me.

After going through the small town of Caliente, which didn’t seem to have a grocery store, I pulled into Cathedral Gorge State Park around 2:30, paid my fee, and found a site. There were only about 5 other vehicles in the park. Cathedral Gorge was one of Nevada’s first four state parks in 1935. The original picnicking facilities were built in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) and are still being used today.

Volcanoes, earthquakes, water and erosion created the spires and buff-colored cliffs of the Gorge. It is really quite beautiful. The park is nicely kept and has power but no water or sewer, fire pits, BBQs, and shade ramadas at each site. The sites are gravel and well raked. I saw a ranger come through and rake all the sites that had been used overnight.

Cliffs of Cathedral Gorge State Park

My campsite

The sun came out shortly after we arrived and it is fairly warm. The area has a very fine sandy dirt and, of course, Misty immediately rolled around and around in it. Once I got the camper leveled and plugged in, Misty and I went for a walk around the campground. She is really starting to walk pretty well on the leash!

Misty Rolling in the dirt

Misty walking along, not slinking!

There are enormous black-tailed jackrabbits all around and the poop to prove it. I am looking at one now that seems to be eating off the dry bushes that are around the campground. It has ears that are almost as tall as its body and I think it outweighs Misty! Will try to get a picture of one if it is close enough. There are also supposed to be cottontail rabbits, kangaroo rats, mule deer, coyotes and kit foxes that might be seen in the early or evening hours. I did see some prints when we were walking that definitely weren’t rabbit, but could have been dog, I suppose.

Ha, ha, just after I wrote the above paragraph, this little visitor hopped up about 15 feet away from the camper and shortly after there was another one 50 feet away. There must be hundreds since there is a hell of a lot of poop all over the area.

So far, I love this park! It is the quietest place I have been so far – no traffic noise, no airplanes or helicopters going over, no people noise. There are very few people so I am in an area all by myself and can leave the shade open tonight for Misty to look out. She loves to do that and I sometimes leave one open a small amount so she can peer out.

Holy moly! A few hours after writing about the quiet I was putting on my pajamas and there was a BOOM BOOM that shook the camper. At first, I thought it was someone banging on the side of the camper, then I heard a jet noise. I think it was a sonic boom. I have only heard one once before in Seattle (when some dumb pilot got into air space with the Air Force One and two F18s were sent after it) but this was much louder and seemed right above me. Scared the crap out of me. Note: I looked up in the morning to see if there was anything online about this but could only find a couple of similar happenings in the past – unexplained booms across the tri-state area.

I had purchased 1 gig of wifi here at the state park and that isn’t much so I couldn’t cruise the net or watch TV on my ipad. I went to bed early, it was also getting very cold and I didn’t want to turn on the heat, and listened to my book. I woke a lot during the night, partially because my feet would be cold, and the water pump would kick off every now and then. I hadn’t had to use it for weeks so was not use to the noise.