Day 16: To Denio Junction, Nevada

In the morning, Daryl and Ben decided to try to fish some more in the river right by the camper.
It was clear and pleasant, no more evidence of smoke, the wind must have shifted somewhat.

 We had already eaten all the blackberries they picked last night, so after breakfast, Alex and I took a bucket down to the river and after taking a few photos of the fishermen, we picked more berries!
They were abundant! We could have picked for hours! So big, juicy, and yummy!

I guess Daryl must have lost track of time, because I had planned to leave the campsite before noon, but it was approaching noon and he was still at the river! So, Elaine and I decided to change the food plan and save all the sandwiches I had prepared for lunch for supper instead and cook a quick lunch before leaving. I started cooking and sent Alex to fetch the others from the river.
Well, we double-checked the check-out time (assuming it was 1) and found it was 11 am! I ran up to the office and explained our predicament and the nice lady, Georgia, said it would be okay if we stayed until 1. Then around 12:30 (we were just going to sit down to eat, with Daryl just out of the shower, Ben still in the shower), she told us the next party had arrived early and we needed to vacate the site immediately. It was a bit of a  hassle, but in the end they let us park up near the office to eat the food that was hot on the stove before leaving. We left right around 1 pm with a good 6 hour drive ahead of us to our target destination, Denio, Nevada.
I had not made a reservation, but according to the website, there was a full hook-up campsite there associated with an opal mine, which sounded kind of cool to see. If we had left sooner, I was hoping to make it to Winnemucca, along I-80, but that was not going to happen, since it was about 1 1/2 hours further along and we got a late start.
Well, after we got out of the Crater Lake/ Klamath Falls area, which was very smoky from ongoing wild fires to the north and south, the skies became clearer and the terrain more desolate. We entered kind of a desert like area with not much other than sage brush and rock.

We went through and over some more seriously steep mountain roads, intense inclines for the truck and camper, scary views of the desert below!

Closer to the Oregon/ Nevada state line, it became really desolate. I don't think I quite understood the phrase "in the middle of nowhere" until now! We literally drove 100 miles or so seeing only maybe 1 or 2 other vehicles. There were no houses or any other evidence of life, just us, the road and the desert!
Then Daryl blew right past the sign to the "Royal Peacock Opal Mine". I pulled out my phone to call him, but had no service (...big surprise), so I put on my hazards and started flashing my headlights. A few miles later, he pulled over and I said that the sign told us to turn right. He said he was just hoping to make it 20 miles to Denio, since that was the nearest gas station, the truck was getting low.
Apparently the big red gas can was empty, too, since all through Oregon they had full service gas stations and Daryl did not want the hassle of having an attendant fill it. He thought we'd fill it in the next state!
We decided to go back to the opal mine sign, and find out more, thinking we could go on to Denio in the morning for gas. When we got to the intersection, it said "opal mine 10 MILES!" and it was a winding dirt road with no evidence visibly of any life at the end. We contemplated the option of me driving 10 miles there in the van and back to see if it was really a campsite, but decided against it.
 Denio showed on the GPS to have a gas station, a motel ... we figured we could stay the night there for sure, even if the gas station was closed for the night. The 20 miles to Denio were more desert, I kept thinking "if the truck runs out of gas, we'll just go the last few miles in the van and come back for the truck, no big deal. We even talked about siphoning gas from my tank for the truck or generator if needed.
So we made it to Denio Junction and there in fact was a building with a couple of gas pumps out front, a few pick-up trucks, and a light in the window reading "Closed". There were people inside, so I went up to the window and the lady came to the door.

 I said "I see you are closed, where is the next nearest gas station?". She said there was one 25 miles north, but it closed at 6 pm. Going South, the nearest is Winnemucca, about 70 miles. The place did have a store/ bar (maybe?), and apparently a motel. There were 3 motorcycles parked out front and one light was on inside one room's window. On the side of the building was painted " The Denio Junction: Bar, Gas, Cafe, Grocery". :)

 I asked "when do you open in the morning" (half thinking in our desperation they would just give us gas now despite being closed), when she said with a laugh "Oh, we haven't had gas here for 3 years!" Well that was a shock! I asked if we could camp overnight in their huge dirt parking lot and she said sure that would be fine. This was our view in about every direction.

Daryl was confident the truck had enough gas to get another 25 miles in the morning, apparently it was not as low as he had made it sound. Also, though the red tank was empty, the generator was pretty full of gas, so he thought it might last all night if we did not run the a/c. All we really needed was for it to power Elaine's O2 and their C-pap machine. so we set up camp. To add to the effect of being in a bad dream, the wind picked up and started blowing sand around us fiercely. It rained for a few minutes, then stopped. We had a few more short intense wind/ rain storms like this overnight, each very short lived.
So we tried to use minimal lights and power, ate yogurts, cheese and crackers, and got ready for bed.
Well, at 3 am, the generator sputtered a bit and stopped, out of gas. :( Daryl immediately said he would drive to Winnemucca for gas. He did not want to try to siphon from my van, he did not want to wake up the folks at the motel/ store. I thought for sure they would let us run an extension cord for $20 or so, but he had his mind set and left a little before 4 am, 70 miles there, 70 miles back... Yikes!
In the mean time we got Elaine hooked up to her portable concentrator. She had 3 batteries, supposedly good for up to 4 hours each, but as it turned out, they each lasted about an hour or less. It was a crazy night! I never did get back to sleep. Elaine got up to change the battery and slipped off the bed and fell. Leroy and I had to help get her up from the tight space beside the bed. Then the concentrator kept beeping, because it alarms when she's not breathing through her nose. Then the next battery ran out and she decided she wanted to go without it to save the last remaining one for some other emergency. Unfortunately, some of the heavy meds she is on make her a bit confused, especially at night.
Fortunately Ben's phone actually worked (mine was dead!) and I texted back and forth with Daryl, who by then was on his way back with gas. He advised me to wake her up and use the last battery, which I did. An hour later, I listened to the last battery die while Elaine was sleeping and texted him again, he was 10 minutes out. He got back here right around 7 am, 3 hours of driving for a tank of gas! After we got the generator back on, sleep was futile. Daryl did not even try. He went for a walk in the desert. He said he had dodge over 30 jack rabbits while driving through the desert night!
Soon the "store" was open and we bought coffee. The lady explained they just recently bought the place, which had been vacant. No breakfast being served yet, but there were bathrooms and we all had coffee, lots of coffee! :)
A few pre-teen girls belonging to the family were hanging around and they talked to Leroy about how their school was only a few miles away, 15 students total! They also said they recently found and killed a rattlesnake with a shovel. Fortunately we did not see any rattle snakes!
Seriously, this place was like from some old Wild West movie!! Unreal!