Note: If you want another take on this trip go to (bobs eyes.net) and check out his blog.
We left our camp off I-80 around 10:00 and drove to Winnemucca where we spent an hour in Walmart getting some last minute items.
One of the things I was looking for was a Battery Isolator. It is a device to allows the charging of two car batteries at the same time. I discovered that the one in the van wasn’t working. It was not sending a charging voltage to the auxiliary battery so I can’t run the refrigerator in the van on electricity.
I didn’t find one there so when we left Walmart we went to the Napa store across the street and I found one there.
Next we went to the flying “J” truck stop to look for a steering wheel cover that will fit the big steering wheel on the van. They hade one that was 18” in diameter so I bought it and we headed toward the east side of town where we topped off the fuel tanks in the vans. Once that was done we headed east on I-80 to the Golconda exit. Here we turned north on a paved road and followed it for a half hour or so eventually stopping for lunch near where the Midas mine road turns off.
After lunch we got on the Midas road and headed for Willow Creek Reservoir.
It took us about an hour and a half to get to the dam on a fairly good dirt road except for the last 5 miles or so which was pretty washboardy and rough.
We camped along the creek just a few hundred yards below the dam. The last time I camped on Willow Creek many years ago. It was just a narrow little trickle running through the gully. Now since the beaver have moved in and made dams all along the creek the area has become very lush with a lot more wildlife around.
We took a little walk down along the creek. 
The sun was just setting.
We had a steak dinner and sat around for a while until it got real cold. I decided to go in side my van where it was still warm from the day’s ride.
End of day 2. A good
Day 3; some repairs and paddling on the beaver pond.
It got pretty cold last night. When I got up this morning and went to do my duty there was frost on the ground. The day warmed up fast and by noon it was nice and warm.
I hung out in the morning just enjoying the day and working on the blog.
Around 11:00 Bob took off down stream in his kayak for a little paddle.
By noon there it was getting pretty warm and there was no shade except for under the van so i decided that it was time to install the battery isolator in the van. It only took me about an hour or less to install the isolator. I checked it out and it works fine.
Next I installed the steering wheel cover. it was about 2” to long so i cut 2” off it and wrapped the cover around the wheel and taped it together. I think it will work for a while. I would still like to find a wheel cover that would actually fit the wheel.
We have been having trouble communicating with our CB’s fortunately Bob brought an extra complete CB setup.
We tried the extra antenna on each vehicle with no result. Next we tried swapping microphones,
No help.
Next we put the new radio in Bobs van. Still no good!
We decided that it was my radio that was messed up. We replaced it and now we can hear each other crystal clear.
Around 5:00 Bob took a hike so I decided to take a little paddle on the beaver pond.
It was a very pleasant paddle, not very long but enjoyable none the less.
For dinner Bob fixed one of his excellent stir fry meals.
After dark we had a small fire so we could stay up later. AS soon as the sun sets the temp drops quickly so the fire is welcome after dark.
We will leave here today and proceed to our next camp.
End of day 3.
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