The maiden voyage of the truck camper I built

After 9 months of laboring away on my post-retirement camper building project, I finally got it completed at the end of March, 2023. For its maiden voyage, I met up with friends in Pahrump, NV, Tecopa, CA and Goldfield, NV.  I also took a solo side trip for a couple of days through Death Valley National Park.

My rig performed flawlessly and I could not have been happier.

Beatty, NV

For the first night out in the new rig, I stayed at Bombo's Pond, which is a free camp area

just a few miles south of Beatty, NV.

Pahrump, NV

Sander's Winery in Pahrump is a cool little place with great indoor/outdoor seating and a nice,

fun vibe.  The wine's great too.

They allow free camping on the winery grounds.  There are no RV hookups, but it's hard to argue with free.

This outdoor space would fill up later that night with a live comedy show.

If the wine doesn't help your back, maybe this will.  Curt travels with this contraption.

Tecopa, CA

Death Valley Brewing Co.

I fit into the first and last category on this sign...

Death Valley Brewing's very modest brewery.  I'm guessing a 1 barrel system.

Death Valley Brewing's small fermenters.  The brewer told me that this table was salvaged from an old Chinese restaurant.  It was the wok station.

Right outside of Tecopa is the China Ranch date farm.  It was a really cool place and a beautiful littledrive into the valley where it's located.  Of course, we had to buy dates AND get one of theirfamous date milkshakes.

Out in the desert, near our campsite, we came across this cool art installation.  It really was beautiful.

Delight's Hot Spring Resort. Out of respect to all of the soakers here, I didn't take any photos ofthe people enjoying the hot tubs here, but Delight's is said to be the nicest hot spring in Tecopa andthis is an area with a lot of hot springs.

It was a nice place to soak after a really hard Sierra winter and after the last couple of days ofgale force winds that knowcked us around pretty good.  I for one, didn't wasmt to get out.

Steaks and Beer is a nice little restaurant and one of only three places to eat while in Tecopa.It has a reputation for having huge ribeye steaks.  We opted for something smaller and the Salisbury steaks were a great way to end the day.

This is Steaks and Beer's date bread with ice cream and date sauce.  It was deadly.

A campfire in the desert is always nice, but tonight we had a full moon to boot ANDthe wind had finally died down enough to enjoy sitting outside.  It was still cold because, after all, it April in the desert.

Death Valley National Park

After Tecopa, I wanted to do a couple of solo nights in Death Valley.  I have always wanted to go to the Racetrack (where the stones slide along a dried up lake bed), but it's in a very remote section of the park, so I've always put it off.  Not today.

I entered the park through its south entrance and meandered north, stopping at Furnace Creek to check out what was new at the visitor's center and to grab something to eat.

As one can expect in a national park, everything's overpriced.  After eating a $23 hamburger and topping off the tank with $7.19/gallon diesel, I made my way north.

It's 56 miles on a nice paved road from Furnace Creek to the Ubehebe Crater and then another 27 from there to the Racetrack.  That doesn't sound too bad right?  WRONG!

The road is really rough and made even rougher by all of the nasty weather the

park received this winter.  It took me over 3 hours to drive that 27 miles. 

The Ubehebe Crater (volcanic).  This is where the pavement ended and the rough road began.

Teakettle Junction is a well known landmark for obvious reasons. 

When you see that you're only 6 miles from the Racetrack, your spirits get lifted a bit until you realize that you've only been averaging about 6 mph, so you're still an hour away.

Once you get to the Racetrack, you'll see a sign that restricts camping to a certain area and that area is ANOTHER 6 miles away.  I finally made it to camp in the dark and I just tucked in for the night.

When I looked out my window the next morning, I saw this really cool overlanding rig.  Judging by the large Swiss flag on it's hood, I assumed that it was probably a Swiss rig that had been shipped overto the U.S.  I've seen a lot of similar rigs during my past visits to the park.

I'm finally here and seeing it for myself!

It takes years and even decades for these rocks to move this far.

Not all of the rocks move in straight lines.

The Racetrack's lakebed with the rock formation known as "The Grandstand" in the background.

After getting my fill of the Racetrack, I now had to make the long arduous journey back to the pavement.  It took me just as long to get out as it did for me to get in, but me and my camper made it in one piece.

If my camper was going to fail or break, it would have done so on the Racetrack road, but it held together like a champ.

Back in the park proper, I had a roadside lunch and checked out Stovepipe Wells.  Not much to see here but yet another overpriced gift shop and gas station.

I wanted to check out the little mining town of Skidoo, not just because it has a cool name, but also because it's the only place in the park where they hanged an outlaw AND they hung him twice.

Hootch Simpson was a barkeeper who was convicted of killing a man and was then sentenced to hang for the crime.  A few hours after he was hung, the town re-staged the hanging to appease the newspaper men who had wanted to cover the hanging.

Skidoo was originally named 23 Skidoo as it was a common saying at the time that meant "get out fast" or "scram."  The town dropped the 23 in the name after the post office refused to recognize the town beginning with a number.

After making another 1 1/2 drive along yet another really rough road, I finally came to the town of Skidoo.  Can you imagine how disappointed I was to see nothing left of the town but this field?

Anyway, the sun was sinking lower in the sky and it was time to find a place to camp for the night.

This a little stuffed porcupine I found on the side of the road years ago and when I can remember to do so, I take him along on my road trips.  Did you notice him earlier amongst all of the tea kettles at Teakettle Junction?

Death Valley used to have a lot more open dispersed camping areas, but the park service keeps restricting more and more of the park, so tonight I had to camp just outside of the park boundary and with rock throwing distance of the NV/CA state line.

Within 10 mins. of pulling off of the road, I had shaken my first margarita of the night.

Life's rough.

I awoke to an incredible sunrise.

Goldfield, NV

                                      

I met up with Curt, Jeff and Kathy and shortly after setting up camp, we took Curt's side by side out in search of something quaff.

The first little saloon we came across was closed.

Businesses in these little remote towns have very weird hours and it seems like they only open when they wan to.

We were actually glad the other bar was closed because the Santa Fe Club was one of the best little out of the way bars I've ever been into.  Established in 1905.

Having an ice cold beer on an original Brunswick bar that dated back to the early 

1900's is really, really cool.

Notice the ashtrays?  Almost everyone was smoking.  I don't care for cigarettes myself, but I love living

in a state where you can smoke if you want to.  The Santa Fe Club also had slot machines and allowed

dogs.  Take that Calilfornia! 

I've come to realize that every old "middle of nowhere" bar has at least one mannequin.  The

Santa Fe Club had three, but I only took a picture of this one because she's the most beautiful

mannequin I've ever seen...

 As we left the bar, we were approached by this old eccentric nut, who wanted to ramble on.  As

soon as I got the chance, I snuck away leaving Curt there to die alone.  Sorry buddy...

Goldfield had kind of a ghost town feel to it.

We explored Goldfield in Curt's side by side and stumbled on this art installation.

It was time to leave Goldfield behind and start making my way back to Reno.

Tonopah, NV

We all stopped off at Tonopah Brewing Co. in, you guessed it, Tonopah, NV.

This is a very cool little brewery with a lot of beers on tap and some really good BBQ.

After a beer and some eats, I headed back to Reno and Curt, Jeff and Kathy went back to Goldfield for one more night.

My drive back was uneventful except for the high winds that buffeted me all the way back home.

This was a really fun trip and a successful maiden voyage for my new camper.  May there be many more destinations to come.