Life in Pahrump

We have been enjoying beautiful spring weather here in Pahrump for the past few weeks. I've been using the spa & sauna in the fitness center alternating with the swimming pools, reading on my Kindle and socializing with our RV friends. Several of our friends from the Havasu Falls RV Resort followed us here to Pahrump and it has been fun having them here. They have all moved on now to their respective summer homes and we will be pulling out next Monday for our trip back to Michigan for the summer.
The last to leave were Hank and Eva Syberden from Cochran, Alberta who left this morning. Eva and Teddy share an interest in geology and Hank is a retired television engineer so we also have common interests in technology. Last Wednesday the four of us took a day trip to the old "ghost town" of Rhyolite, Nevada. Rhyolite is about 50 miles Northwest of here on the Eastern edge of Death Valley.
According to a volunteer host that we met there, in the early part of the last century it was once the third largest city in Nevada, teeming with people and homes, two banks and a railway station all supported by a gold mining operation that failed in the big market crash of the 20s. All that remains now are a few crumbling foundations, a preserved home made with glass bottles for walls, the aging railway depot and several standing building ruins including two large concrete edifices that are the remains of the two banks.

The Cook Bank, Rhyolite, NV

The old RR Station

The Bottle House

Standing at the entrance to the town is an odd collections of sculptures apparently put there by a frustrated  artist looking for a place to exhibit his art.

This strange collection of

ghostlike figures was titled

"The Last Supper"

And here Teddy seeks protection

from one of the "Disciples".

 

While I relax on this

giant ceramic couch.

We had a lot of fun and of course being "rockhounds", Teddy and Eva managed to bring back several pounds of rocks that they collected.  ;-)

"Remembrance of things past."William Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

Now that Teddy and I have finished our farmhouse remodeling projects for the summer we are taking some time to relax and enjoy ourselves before heading back west for the winter.
With that in mind we took a day trip downstate to visit some of our old growing-up stomping grounds. We traveled south from Leelanau county on Hwy M22 which skirts the eastern shore of Lake Michigan from Northport in the Leelanau peninsula to Manistee in Manistee county. Our first stop was in the village of Frankfort where Teddy lived in this house until moving here to the farm in the 10th grade. Teddy enjoyed driving around the town pointing out friends homes and various POIs.
From there we continued down M22 passing through Elberta, Arcadia and Onekama in succession.

Just south of Elberta Teddy snapped this pict of her Grandmother Gilbert's house, now abandoned and in disrepair. I can remember having dinner there when Teddy & I were first married; it is amazing how quickly mother nature takes back what's hers if there is no human intervention.

Onekama, on Portage Lake, is where my parents lived while I was in the 7th and 8th grade. I pointed out to Teddy the hills where my brothers & I sledded in winter and where I swam and fished in Portage Lake. My father worked for the USDAs Soil Conservation Service. his office was in Manistee some 15 or so miles south of Onekama. When I started the 9th we moved to Manistee so he could be closer to his office and we lived is a succession of rental homes there.




This is where we lived when I graduated from HS in 1956. Surprisingly, some fifty odd years later, the house looks pretty much the same now as then.

I joined the Air Force soon after graduating HS and shortly afterward my parents purchased this house three miles south of Manistee. I'm pretty sure that they weren't trying to hide from me as they did give me their new address. ;-)
It was an old farmhouse and through the years my father transformed it to a beautiful country home. It lay pretty far from the road so he built a connecting road dead-ending just past the house and donated it to the county with the provision that they pave it and build a circular turnaround at the end.



That road ended up being named, ...TA DAH...
"PAGE ROAD"







We returned home via US31 stopping in Beulah, MI for an ice-cream. It was a perfect day filled with pleasant memories.