Laughlin to Goldfield by Greg

We had a leisurely morning, starting on the road at ten. Not a bad drive even getting through Las Vegas. North of there the traffic was very light and we drove until 8:00. As it got later the wind was gusting up to 30 or 40 miles and hour. We had planned to drive to Toponah, which is something like 50 miles past Goldfield but we had a problem with our awning. While driving I had heard a huge thump but thought it was something that had fallen off the bed in the back of the motorhome. Von had gotten tired of staring at the back of the motorhome so she had gone ahead. She pulled over to wait for me in Goldfield and she saw that the awning had come part way unrolled and was flapping in the wind. Those heavy gusts had caused the spring mechanism that rolls the awning up similar to a window blind to break. We pulled into a vacant lot just past what little downtown area Goldfield has. We both saw a faded wooden sign that said “Flea Market.”

We secured the awning as best we could but it was dark, windy and gold as a witch’s….err you know. We drove a quarter mile back to the downtown area and went into a small general store to get toilet paper since we were running out. We asked the counterman if he thought it would be alright to stay overnight in the flea market area. He gave us a puzzled look and said he didn’t know of any flea market but that he thought it would be okay. He went on to suggest that we check in with the County Sheriff dispatcher across the street, in the back of the large building we could see there in the dark and also suggested the Northern Cafe for food.

I parked in the parking lot behind the building and I went in to talk to the dispatcher. Told him again we were in the flea market area and got another puzzled look. He also didn’t know of any flea market in town but said that there was a rest area in about the same area I was describing and urged us to use it instead. I resisted because the winds were truly horrible by then, just howling cold. The elevation was over 4000 feet. I was worried about damaging the side of the motorhome if I drove at all. He relented after I gave him my song and dance but only reluctantly.

Feeling better that we were unlikely to get rousted out at 3 AM by the local constabulary we then went to the Northern Cafe. Wow. The counterman had called it a fine dining experience and we kind of laughed about it when we pulled up since it looked like your typical very small town tavern and cafe from the outside. But when I opened the door it was a beautiful wood, possibly rosewood with an ornate Italianate handle. Then the bar. Whew. Clearly unique and also Italianate. You see these huge beautiful bars often in these smaller towns but this one was something else. We had entered the bar side and sat at the bar. The seats were very very nice with new upholstery. There were three grizzled old men sitting having drinks and a woman bartender. We asked if we could still eat (it was again about a 9 pm dinnertime) She said sure, we could go through the door at the back of the bar or eat at the bar. We chose the bar so Von could smoke.

The menu had a lot of hamburgers in the the $7 to $8 range and a New York Steak for $15. I ordered the steak, Von had a grilled cheese sandwich. She can be a cheap date at times.

My steak was excellent as was the dinner bread and the baked potato which cost another $3. Quite a surprising experience for this town of a couple hundred people, if that. While eating we asked the bartender about the bar. Turns out it was imported from Italy in just the past few years. It was originally built in the 1660’s and the owner (a woman) had even had to import Italian labor to put it back together after it was shipped. She has spent hundreds of thousands on refurbishing the place. I can only assume she is a retired madam with nothing else to do with her money. I doubt she can recoup that kind of investment in a fine dining restaurant in this remote and tiny rundown town.

We went back to the motorhome and had a fitful night. The wind continued to be horrid but the awning wasn’t getting any worse and I had turned the motorhome so the wind was hitting the other side.

Then we got up to appraise the damage at 6 AM. Damn it was cold. The wind chill had to be 20 or 30 below. I had decided to use some cam straps we always have along to roll up the awning and cinch it down. Von remembered she had seen some zip ties in one of the tool boxes and that seemed like even a better idea. So we got the step ladder off the back of the motorhome and up I climb. Remember that witch? It was even colder now. Colder than a well digger’s errr, you know that one too. I had had to zip two or three of the ties together to get enough length to go around the awning and I realized I would have to cut the awning to be able to get the ties around it. I got down off the ladder after being up there all of two or three minutes and had to go back in to warm up my fingers. Jesus it was cold.

I did not have any second thoughts about cutting the awning fabric since we already had decided we wanted to replace this stained one with a new top of the line ZipDee brand. So I got out the leatherman tool and a pair of pliers to help pull the ties through. One of the plastic ties broke from being so hardened by the cold temperature. That was the only thing hardened by it I can tell you. It took four trips back into the MH to warm our fingers and tushes but we got done and it has held up since then.

This is getting lengthy but there’s a bit more. Remember the Flea Market? Nope, even though Von and I both saw the sign, we were actually in the Rest Area the Sheriff had wanted us to use. All we can figure is that somehow our lights showed through to the paint under the actual sign we saw that next morning.

And Goldfield itself. We found out that it was the largest city in Nevada for just a few years at the turn of the century. Much of it has since burnt down or been flooded out but there are still a few remaining buildings that testify to the exuberance of the former gold mining town. We got some photos of them and I will be posting them soon.

Greg