Ontario, Oregon, Jerome, Idaho, Evil Knievel Jump Site, Wells and Ely, Nevada, and Waterskiing at Lake Mead, Nevada

After leaving our friends,  we drove to the Desert Sage Event Center in Ontario, Oregon. 

The fair grounds were not being used during our visit so it was nice and quiet.  We were only there for an overnight.

We walked around the fair grounds a bit but it was creepy with no one around. 

We were on the move the next day and entered the sate of Idaho and drove to the Fairgrounds in Jerome.  

 

Along the way we filled up with diesel at $4.79/gallon. 

We are on the right.

Again it was just one night and the place was mostly empty.  

The next morning we stopped off at the Perrine Memorial Bridge in Twin Falls, Idaho.  The river below is the Snake River.  We parked the truck and RV on one side of the bridge and walked across.

Snake River

On September 8, 1974, with much media fanfare, daredevil Evel Knievel tried and failed to leap the mile-wide chasm of the Snake River Canyon on his specially engineered rocket motorcycle. His drogue parachute malfunctioned and opened on take-off. Evel and his contraption floated to the bottom of the canyon, landing on the riverbank directly below his launch ramp (If he'd gone into the river, his safety harness probably would have drowned him).

It was a less-than-auspicious milestone for Evel and the city of Twin Falls, but Evel's fans loved him for at least trying.

There was a nice path along the river so we went for a walk.

We noticed some people hanging out at the center of the bridge for a long time. 

Then one of them jumped.......with a parachute!  Yikes!

They landed on the target below on the edge of the river.

We watched several people jump from the bridge.

Here goes another one!

Some kayakers were getting a different view.

On the other side of the bridge was the Twin Falls Visitor's Center.

At the dawn of the 20th century, this stagecoach belonged to Twin Falls founder I. B. Perrine and served an important role as a mail wagon and a passenger coach.  

It took up to six horses to pull the fully loaded stagecoach up the steep grade out of the canyon. 

Also in the visitor's center was a mini museum of Evel Knievel items.  I remember Evel and his dare devil stunts as a kid so this was fun for me.

Well that was a fun stop.  We continued on in to Nevada. 

We spent the night in the huge parking lot of the Alamo Casino in Wells, Nevada.  We found a nice big tree for some shade and parked beside it.

We are slightly visible on the left behind the RV and the tree.

 

 

Al took this nice sunset photo of our truck.

Our next night was spent in the parking lot of the Hotel Nevada Casino in Ely, Nevada.

 

 

We aim to arrive at our destination in the early afternoon and we did at this location so there was a lot of open space to park.  

 

 

We went walking around the downtown area.

When we returned to the RV, quite a few other RV's and a truck pulled in for the night.  We ended up moving away from the truck because it was making so much noise and we didn't want to hear that all night!

We moved away from that truck!

The next morning we went into the hotel for a Super Slam breakfast. 

 

and walked around town some more.

Downtown Ely, Nevada

They must get a LOT of motorcycles, because there was a basket with rags for people to clean their bikes.

There were stars on the sidewalk just like in Hollywood.  Here are some of the names I recognized.

The RV and Truck parking lot was about a block away from the casino
(the building with the rabbit mural and the US flag.)

Front side of Hotel Nevada Casino

 Some more murals around town.

 

The next morning it was about a 5 hour push to get to the Elks lodge in Boulder City, Nevada.  It was time to do some water-skiing at Lake Mead.  Our friend, Bill, joined us.

The water level was so low at Mead.  Before the Labor Day holiday, the park service was going to do some work on the launch ramp at Heminway Marina so we took a road trip to the location where we've launched our boat for many, many years, Temple Bar Marina.

This was so depressing to see the water level so low on August 31, 2022.

The dock where we used to launch our boat and sit and watch the stars at
night completely out of the water.

The water is SO far away from the launch ramp.

We walked around to get a different angle of the launch ramp.  The truck is parked near the dock.  The water is not even visible on the right in this photo!

Years ago the park service extended the launch ramp with more cement which is visible with the patchwork sections.  When the water level was beyond the cement, pipe mat was installed to get traction on the silt to get the trucks in and out of the water for launch and retrieval. 

The end of the launch ramp is found by following the big patch of greenery up.

Boardwalk to the marina

Temple Bar Marina

Oh, wow!  That was so depressing to see the water level so low. 

The next few days were spent skiing from Hemingway Marina.  The launch ramp at Hemingway was also extended with rock and mats for traction.  Only two lanes were open and this was the only launch ramp open at Lake Mead during that time!

 

View of the launch ramp from the water

It was interesting to launch the boat from a different ramp but the skiing is much better from Temple Bar since fewer people venture to that area.  Hemingway is closer to Las Vegas so it gets much busier.

We have so many photos of us skiing but here are a few.

 

Al

Bill

Al

We even went by Callville Bay Marina which is close to Hemingway.

Our boat

Lunch break!

After lunch float while our food digests.

Floating in the nice cool water with the ski rope attached to my life jacket.

Remains of an old boat uncovered with the low water level.

Getting ready for my turn to ski

Well, at least we got in some ski time although it sure wasn't the same conditions at Hemingway.  Let's hope we get some good snow in the mountains to raise the water level next summer!
 

We left Boulder City, Nevada and drove to Bill's house in Prescott Valley, Arizona.  Instead of parking in Bill's driveway, this time Al threaded the needle and put our trailer in Bill's side yard.  When I say threaded the needle, it's amazing how Al can back the RV into any spot!  He had only inches to spare!

 

We made a quick trip from Oregon to Nevada with only one night stops along the way.  The ride down eastern Nevada was much prettier than expected.  Then it was nice to get in some water-skiing on Lake Mead. 

Here is the area covered in this entry:

We're leaving the RV at Bill's house for a couple of weeks to fly to the east coast.  More on that in the next entry.  Thanks for following along......