Once we got checked into our room, we had to go to the grocery store for a few things for the next few days. We could have ordered sack lunches from Front Sight but for what they cost and consist of, we decided to take our own. We made sandwiches and took fruit, vegetables and yogurt as well as water for our lunches.
When I was there in 2018, the temperature was over 100 degrees every day. I'd never been in southern Nevada the 2nd &3rd week of September and had no idea it was that warm that time of the year.
Beautiful sunset at Pahrump.
We were in a time zone two hours earlier than home, so it wasn't a big problem getting up in time. The weather ended up being about 100 degrees the first day, then 95 the last 3 days. However, there's no shade in the desert except for the shelters they use to shield everyone from the sun. Use a lot of suntan lotion and hydrate every chance we get. Each range (Front Sight currently has 50 ranges) with students has ice water in 5 gallon coolers brought in several times a day.
The first morning there was quite a line of vehicles at the gate. Everyone who was starting a class that day had to get checked in and have their weapon and ammunition checked. We were then directed to the range where our class would begin. Classes started at 8 AM.
Our instructors came from all walks of life. One of our instructors was a lady who was a retired doctor. We had about 24 people in our class; several were women who were taking the class with their husbands. One of the women was from Mesa, Arizona who was a leader in an organization called The Well Armed Woman.
There were enough instructors on each range to be able to give extra attention to anyone having problems. Of course, it's ALWAYS SAFETY FIRST!!
At the end of the first day Jan threatened to not go back. Her hands hurt and she had a hard time performing some of the drills. I continued to encourage her and told her each day would get a little easier. Not sure that she believed me, but she did return each day. The other women in the class also encouraged her. Jan even got to shoot a couple of the other womens' weapons to compare them to her Smith & Wesson Shield.
At the end of the four days, the instructors set up a competition between students. There were two firing lines with three targets on each firing line. The first target was closest, but it was a hostage taker. If you hit the hostage you automatically lost. You shoot until you hit the hostage taker, then you go to the 2nd and 3rd targets, shooting until you hit each one. The person with the best time without hitting the hostage moves to the next round. A woman won the overall competition. I told Jan that we should return in 2020 and with enough practice she would have a chance to win.
The last two pictures above were of the area on the Front Sight property. This has been developing for over 20 years and will eventually be a resort type of place with a hotel, grocery, etc. It's a long, gradual process. In the near future, Front Sight will have trained 1 million people!!
Going into Pahrump on the last day, I got these pictures of the sun going down as well as the street to where we stayed.
Leaving Pahrump on Tuesday morning, we rode into bright sunlight. We had the slowdown for construction from just west of Mountain Springs to a couple of miles west of Blue Diamond road. We also saw the signs warning motorists to watch out for wild horses and burros on the road. That's something we didn't see. Traffic through and around Las Vegas wasn't too bad. I just needed to be sure to be in the correct lane to go where I wanted to go. Wasn't lost, just a little bewildered.
Going back to the east, we would be losing an hour when we crossed from Nevada into Arizona. One huge improvement over the first time I travelled that highway is that the highway now bypasses the Hoover Dam. Traffic on Hwy 93 to Kingman has always been light when I've gone that way and this time was no different. It's a bit of a boring ride; not a lot to see except a lot of sagebrush and sand.
Made our gas stop and lunch break at Kingman, then kept on heading east. Weather was decent and not much wind to fight. Gas mileage was a surprise as it was better than I had anticipated. From east of Seligman to Flagstaff the scenery is awesome. The grass was still green, and in several areas there were signs warning of elk on or near the highway. We made our next stop at Flagstaff for gas then back on the road. Hadn't decided yet where we wanted to stay for the night but had an idea of when we wanted to get off the road. If I can help it, I try not to ride unfamiliar roads in the dark.
We stopped for gas at Winslow and checked to see how much farther it was to Gallup. We decided that we could make it there at a fairly decent time; next was to find somewhere to stay. Expedia.com showed a list of places and I found the El Rancho on Rt 66 in Gallup still had vacancies. Got our reservations online and headed out.
What a surprise when we got to Gallup! The El Rancho is a historic hotel where the movie stars stayed in the 1920-1950's era of westerns being made. The rooms are small and appear to be much like they were during the heydays of movie making in that region. Each room has the name of a star that stayed in that particular room. Our room had Robert Mitchum's name over the door. I just hoped he would not show up and want his room while we were there.
We were greeted by John Wayne on the left side of the lobby and the check-in counter was on the right. The rooms actually had REAL keys!! After getting our luggage to our room, we ate in the hotel restaurant, then made the short walk to the bar and had a quick beer before turning in for the night.
It rained a little overnight so the morning started off a bit cooler, I put the chaps and leather jacket on and Jan wore her leather jacket. Topped off with gas a block from where we stayed, then continued for another mile or so on Rt 66 before we had to get back onto I-40. As we rode east I thought about how travel had changed since I went to California with Dad & Mom in 1960. No cell phones, no GPS, no interstate highways. You always made sure you had change for the pay phones - you remember those?? No booking hotels ahead of time on the internet. When you were tired you looked for a motel with a "Vacancy" sign.
Stopped for gas at the Rt 66 Travel Center just west of Albuquerque. The weather was great and I packed the chaps and leather jacket away. Bathroom break and cold water out of the cooler and we were on our way. Got through Albuquerque during noon hour and made a stop at Santa Rosa's Love's Travel Center. I wanted to stop in Tucumcari at a little restaurant I'd eaten at before so after filling up, it was less than an hour to Tucumcari.
Something of note along I-40 east of Santa Rosa is a ghost town called Cuervo. Part of it is on the north side of the highway and part is on the south. I googled it and found it is one of the "most haunted" ghost towns in New Mexico. The last official count showed 58 residents.
How many of you have watched "Rawhide?" The first episodes of this series were filmed in the Tucumcari area. Riding along Rt 66 in Tucumcari, one hotel has a sign proclaiming "Clint Eastwood slept here."
The place I wanted to eat at closed at 2 PM, so we snacked out of the cooler and headed out. Once again we took that long, boring Hwy 54 to Dalhart, stopping there for gas. Stayed at Guymon, Oklahoma that night, then made it home about 6 PM Thursday evening. Round trip - 3,200 miles.
I forgot, on the way to Dalhart the first day, we were starting to think we shouldn't have tried to go that far. If we had not already made a reservation at Dalhart, maybe we could have stayed here.
