Monday, 17SEP, we drove to Wells, NV, to spend the night. We have expressed our opinion several times in this BLOG how the interstate highway system and the “national” store chains have destroyed small town America. There are no national store chains in Wells (except the dollar store) but you can clearly see how each improvement of the USA transportation system has slowly destroyed businesses in town. The first businesses were on Front St because it fronted the RR tracks and station. Then when US93 was created two blocks off Front St, the businesses on Sixth St flourished and the buildings on Front St are now fenced off, missing roofs and falling down. With the building of the Eisenhower Interstate System the only businesses still making money are located next to the I80 off-ramps and the buildings on Sixth St are boarded up. After dinner we head to the only casino left in business, The 4-Way Casino open since 1954, where we were given one free dollar. Dan doubled his money putting him $2 ahead, we won’t tell you how much Corrie set us back! 
Tuesday morning started we the drive to Great Basin National Park near Baker, NV. Heading south on US93 we soon realize how remote travel in NV can be - 115 miles to next gas, no radio, no cell phone. We made it to Baker, NV, at lunch, set up camp, ate lunch and headed to the Great Basin National Park Visitor Center for the requisite watching of videos and procuring informational brochures. One thing we knew wanted to do, was go on the guided tour of Lehman Cave, but turns out you need to go to the Lehman Cave Visitor Center to sign up? We are not sure why this park needs two visitor centers, but off we went; signed up and paid for the 9AM tour tomorrow. Dan needed his shoes decontaminated because he had been in other caves with them in the last year; decon consisted of placing the soles of your shoes in 1/2 inch of disinfectant for five minutes.
Then we drove the Wheeler Peak Scenic Drive starting at 6500 ft and ascending to 10,000 ft. They say for every 1000 ft gain in elevation it is the same as driving north 600 miles. You start at a sagebrush steppe, then pinyon-juniper woodlands along aspen lined creek beds, thru shrubby mountain mahogany and manzanita, into deep forests of englemann spruce and douglas fir, ending the drive in subalpine forest and alpine meadows. The only park environment we did not experience was stands of bristlecone pines, which takes a four hour round trip hike at 10,000 feet to observe. Then it was back to town and to the only grocery store to get the last container of sour cream for stroganoff. Note – it appears that literally every business in town is for sale! Thankfully they remain open, but every business we visited (including the RV park) had a Realtor sign on it. 
Trivia – there are four deserts in North America (discussed a couple of times in this BLOG), which is the only “cold” desert?
After dinner Dan and Gumbo headed out for a walk-about & discovered several examples of “folk” art that always seem to occur in remote areas where people might have too much time on their hands? 
Wednesday morning it was back to the Lehman Caves Visitor Center for the 9AM tour; in a word – fantastic!Dan wasn't prepared for the coolness of the caves and had to buy a sweater at the gift shop; the lady at the gift shop said they make a lot of money on sweatshirts even in the middle of the summer! Then we headed in the Toad to find Strawberry Creek campground road, so Dan can do a little offroad driving and then some easy hiking at the end of it. After two false starts we finally found it, only to discover that the road was closed after driving half of it! Dan then took Corrie back to the RV for R&R; stopping at the Fremont Native American archeological site on the way back. Dan then drove back into the park to hike part of the Osceola Ditch Trail. The Osceola Ditch was an 18 mile attempt by gold miners to bring water to the mine site by digging a ditch, tunneling, & building a flume; unfortunately it was completed just as a drought hit. 
http://www.nps.gov/grba/index.htm
http://www.nps.gov/grba/index.htmDinner that night was at the Silver Jack Inn and LectroLux Café. Turns out the only employee to show up was the owner; the proverbially one armed paper hanger! Still a great meal, even if our choices were limited because of missing personnel. As we walked back to the RV we noticed several people dressed as pirates and wenches headed to the local bar. Turns out it is international “Talk Like a Pirate Day”, aka TLAP Day (arrr!). In fact, it is the tenth anniversary of this internet created “day” that was thought up by two guys in Oregon. It looked like to us that the entire town of Baker was in costume and celebrating?
http://www.silverjackinn.com/
http://www.talklikeapirate.com/piratehome.html
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