We woke up fairly early because we had a full day ahead driving to Carson City. Our Best Western Hotel, Tonopah, had a great breakfast which we enjoyed. After checking out we headed north on Route 95. The drive was beautiful. There were massive ranges of mountains in every direction. The scenery adjoining the road around us was distinctly categorised as being 'green desert'. The month was May and to us is was surprising that everywhere looked so green.
By the time we were approaching Hawthorne, Nevada, we were thinking a cup of coffee would be nice. Now our experience is that one never knows (looking at a dot on the map) how big or what businesses are to be found. Well as we headed down hill towards Hawthorne, our attention was quickly diverted to a very rugged terrain and it didn't take Ace long to figure out that what we were looking at, for as far as you could see, were ammunition bunkers...thousands of them. We found a McDonald's and stopped there for coffee after driving through a delightful town adjoining Hawthorne Army Depot. We soon learned that around us was an ammunition storage site. Construction began on the facility in 1928 and it served as an ammunition staging area for World War II. It is said to be the largest facility of its kind in the world, covering more than 147,000 acres. About Hawthorne, Nevada
After coffee I had my picture taken with a huge American flag in the background and off we headed north continuing up Route 95. We soon approached beautiful Walker Lake and then onto Alternate Route 95 through Yerington and then at Silver Springs we turned left onto Route 50 (The Loneliest Road in American). More about that later.
It was time for something to eat again so we stopped outside Dayton at a little shopping center, had a burger, went to the grocery store and stretched our legs. We were nearly there.
The last bit of our drive, about 30 minutes, took us in to Carson City via Route 50 and onto South Carson Street. We found our hotel, Best Western Carson Station and Casino located in South Carson Street. I must say we loved our hotel. It has a small casino and it close to many local historical sights, all within walking distance. After we checked in we went out for a walk and found a great 'blue line' walking tour, fantastic historical homes, a museum or two, State capitol buildings, and more. We had a drink at a local bar before dinner and then ate at our hotel.
