Fabulous Pioche Trip

 We did SO MUCH STUFF on our recent trip to Pioche that I'm going to do this in parts.

First I'll cover the trip, then on future updates, I'll fill you in on each thing we did.

We left home i n Port Orchard on Friday, April 25, 2025 in our Dodge 3500 dually pulling the 23' travel trailer. We headed south, not knowing for sure what route we'd take but we knew we needed to end up in Winnemucca for the Gypsy Horse Fest. It was pretty cool to see a bunch of Gypsy's all in one place, all looking fabulous, but I sincerely thought there would be many more. I also think Ambleside would do really well there because shes got such nice movement compared to some of these horses. Judges asked for extended trot and all they did was speed up a bit while Amble puts on a show all her own.

They were fun to watch but we stayed only about an hour because we had time to make up since we'd had a blow out on the trailer and had to spend time changing it and going 60 moles out of our way to buy a new spare. Plus going to Winnemucca added about 500 miles onto our trip.

We did see wild horses this trip but I got no photos of them.  There were 2 mares near one mine, 3 more not too far out of town and a LOT in the Steens Mountains of Oregon.

We went on Highway 50 again, known as the 'Loneliest road in America' and this time it truly was, there were times we'd drive an hour & only pass 1 car.

We boondocked overnight just west of Austin and it began to snow early in the morning. Not heavy, not unexpected but it weas 12 hours earlier than they said. We had a few mountain passes to go over and they were in the clouds.

Somewhere along the way we passed the 'Shoe Tree' and had to stop for photos. We'd seen one of our youtube channels stopping there so we did too, next time we'll each have a pair of shoes to add to the tree.

It was kinda gross seeing all those shoes.

Finally, we reached Pioche and got the trailer parked. It will be out place to stay whenever we go down there, a place to sleep, pee, cook and have A/C or heat if needed.

This was the first photo of the house, I always like to get one. It looks like a meth house with the reflective car window things in the windows.

Lan finished his Lego Mustang car model Andrea gave him for Christmas.

On our first morning I enjoyed the sunrise through the Lilacs. They are all over town and the whole place smells devine.

We got to see friends, this is Jon, he's one reason we bought in Pioche. He is 85, a grieving widower and inventor.

And this is Maynard who lives across the street but is now our Pioche pup.

We replaced this window

with this one.

Lan built this wall, reinforcing the wall that's an exterior wall but the kitchen is on the other side now.

He added 2 walls to form the bedroom. If you look closely you'll notice the spot we saved for the fridge so we can have the classic triangle of sink-stove-fridge. 

More on walls later.

We also went into a few mines on our trip, more on those later.

We tried to take a hike somewhere every day, on this day we hiked around town then up to the Cross on top of the hill.

Here Lan is pointing to our house.

We also had to shower but not i n the teensy trailer bathroom so we'd go out to Cathedral Gorge state park and hike around and go into the slot canyons, then use the facilities there.  That is one place we definitely want to take Soren.

I'll skil to coming home. We left Thursday afternoon, May 8th and drove all the way to Jackpot, right at the border of Idaho. Stayed at Cactus Jacks hotel. Left at 9am after a yummy breakfast in their buffet.

We drove to Twin Falls and watched Base Jumpers jump off this bridge, the only place its legal in the USA. Way fun.

Then as the day got hotter I started bitching about no a/c in the truck.  We stopped in Mountain Home at the McDonalds for lunch and started staring at the new ford trucks.

And we bought this one:

Its in our backyard now, they let us drive it away without us paying a dime. We left the old truck there and felt a teensy bit bad because it took us a LOT of places but it never had A/C and I'm getting too old for that bullshit.

2025 F-350 4 door, 4x4, diesel with 20 miles on it.

I've Been Waiting

 I've been waiting months, since we got back in December, to go back to Pioche. We purchased the

travel trailer to live in while we're there, We've cleaned, painted

Sewn

and built

as much stuff as we could to make it comfortable to use. 

The truck is ready to go, minus the hay. Fresh oil & fluids, bearings greased and brakes checked. A new console cup holder, 3 more power sources, and the new air bags he put on after the September trip, for comfort. Its freshly vacuumed and cleaned out with clean windows.

We just can't find the silly neck pillows, anywhere. I've searched our bedroom including inside the luggage and closets, I've searched the sewing room, the buffet (that's where I thought I'd seen them last week), I've searched all the other cars and the other camper. My goal today is to get EVERYTHING remaining on the list into the truck or trailer so we can be ready to go at 9am tomorrow.

I've got my older travel journal and the new tiny one I purchased at Zion National Park in December, I've got the house journal for house things and I've got plain paper for notes or shopping lists.

Some of the cargo going down will be the electrical sockets, switches, new wire and fixtures. We're taking our bikes so we can get in a few short rides on those; there's a mountain bike ride in Caliente during the first weekend of May and it looks like fun to go watch.  We're taking a telescope with a few attachments so we can look at the stars. This morning was the 'Smiley Face' with the 2 planets and the moon, I saw the moon through the trees but couldn't see the planets and that's OK because media hyped it up to be this great thing but it wouldn't have been like that at all.

Anyway, it's high time I get my shit together, we'll be on the road in 24 hours.

One More Week

In less than a week we will be leaving on our journey to Pioche, 

not on this exact path though because we'll be going through Winnemucca to see the Gypsy Horse Fest at the fairgrounds there.

Its about 700 miles and thats too long of a drive for 1 day so we might stop near Smith Rock in Oregon along the way.

I'm just excited to NOT BE WORKING.

 

Trailer Hacks from Dollar Tree

Went to Dollar Tree yesterday and loaded up with bins for the trailer. I've been using them in the RV and camper, so its only natural to use them in the trailer as well. 

 

I got a few of each kind; these white ones I got for putting our clothes in

I hadn't ever seen these egg bin / shelves before so I got 2. This will be an eggssellent way to keep the eggs out of the way. At home we don't refrigerate the fresh eggs, they are used or given away before they are old. In the campers there just isn't enough room on the countertops to hold eggs.

The bedroom is in the front of the trailer and the bed is made. Its NOT a comfortable bed by any means but its better than a tent.

SO FAR there's plenty of storage for whatever we need to put in it but that will become FULL as we go along.

I see NO REASON to hang clothes in thee tiny closets, plastic hangers don't fit well onto the bars and we just don't hang clothing often, we're tee shirt people.

So I asked Lan to 'help' me make shelves inside and he did. They will hold a massive amount of clothing now and this is where the bins come in.

Two of the bins fit on the bottom PLUS I can stack them with the neatly folded clothing in them to save even  more room. I have socks & undies  in one bin, tee shirts in another, pants and shorts in one and flannel shirts in yet another. I put my spare shoes on the top shelf but I will be moving those to the shelf/cupboard to the right, above my head area.

These are the curtains, same material I used for the camper curtains.

 I use elastic pony tails to hold them open so then when I close them they don't want to stay overlapped so I got these...

The colors are bright & happy and pretty much match the material.

HORSE STUFF:

Yesterday Joey turned 29 years old and I gave him a good grooming because hes just not shedding out well. He has really long hairs and a lot of it and keeps getting mats in his armpits and on his chest. So I wormed him. On his birthday. Poor boy.

He looks good for being 29

This morning Ambleside and Wifi were napping when I went out to feed them breakfast.

Amble is a BIG girl

I just love Wifi

Amble is so regal

Wifi has her udders swollen and I'm a bit concerned.

I clean their udders every week or so, they get so nasty and they LOVE to get them cleaned. Last week they weren't swollen.

The off side is smaller than the near side.

Its not the teats swollen, but in front of them.

I'm wondering if its a sign of being in heat? Neither mare acts any different when they're in season than any other time of the year.

I am looking for a stud for Amble...

 

Loading Up The Trailer

I bought 4 cases of water today to go with the 3 other cases we already have at home for our trip to Nevada in a couple weeks.  I loaded them into the trailer but I'll still need to move shit around because these cases leak and I don't want water sitting on the trailer floor.

We have a nice bed mattress on the lower bunk of the trailer and I'd like for it to be up on the top bunk and storage on the bottom where I can reach it easier. 

Think easier, not heavier.

The water will go into the bathtub.

We need to drink a LOT of water while we're there, if I don't drink lots then I get dehydrated and feel icky. Plus I get static electricity and shock my ass every time I touch anything.

I got these for washing dishes and cooking. 

The actual fresh water in the trailer will be used for flushing the toilet.

These bins are great for holding stuff in cupboards and I've got a few in the back seat of the truck to hold water and other drinks, chips and snacks and one for miscellaneous things like my wallet, notebook, sun glasses and hats.

We have a few of these neck pillows we always take with us on trips, I absolutely LOVE to nap while Lan is driving on long trips. I've had mine for a LOT of miles including England, France, Pioche a few times, Hawaii and Florida.

a full MONTH ago I began packing clothes to take to Pioche to be left there and now I can't find the damn things anywhere. I sincerely hope I didn't do something stupid like donate them, that would suck.

Where have you traveled to lately?