Creepy Clowns and Artful Autos [251010]

(Posted 260512) "Art is in the eye of the beholder" would be a good theme/motto for the sights planned for today.

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The van was rocked by winds throughout the night again last night, and despite the nighttime low being "warmer than recent" (56 degrees outside, 59 inside) we were awoken fairly early by the combination of cold feet and noisy neighbors. We were up by 8, and while doing our morning routine we witnessed yet another vehicle pulling in perpendicular across multiple spots, instead of using the designated RV/oversized spots in the middle of the parking lot; must be a "Love's thing".

Today was scheduled to be "just a travel day", with a couple of quick stops just for fun - the first of which was just down the street: the (World Famous) Clown Motel (self-proclaimed as being "America's Scariest Motel").

We'd describe the Clown Motel as part amusing, part weird, with a dash of creepy. We're guessing that to see the truly scary stuff you have to check in to one of their "themed rooms", but we opted to just settle for the Clown Museum in the lobby.

Adding just a bit to the creepy factor is the fact that the Motel sits right next door to the Old Tonopah Cemetery.

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Our next stop was 28 miles south (through a considerable headwind) in the town of Goldfield to see the Goldfield Art Cars.

As interesting as the Art Cars were, we didn't quite feel the need to also visit the nearby International Car Forest of the Last Church, although some of the vehicles were visible from the highway as we drove past.

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We continued another 67 miles south - still fighting a headwind, and seeing an occasional dust storm in the distance . . .

. . . to the town of Beatty, being somewhat surprised to pass a small herd of burros as we entered town. After getting gas, we headed down the street to the Space Station RV Park and got our spot for the night.

We took advantage of the on-site showers and laundromat (only $1.75 for the washer, and $1.25 for 45 minutes of dryer!) before making lunch. Since we had full hookups and lots of time, Tom whipped up a batch of his "Malibu Chicken Nuggets".

After lunch and dishes we decided to walk up the street to Eddie's World, to see if the burros were still there. They unfortunately had moved on by then, so we just took some (inexpert hand-held) selfies outside by the water features before going inside to check out the extensive collection of candies, jerkies, and other goodies within.

Then we headed back to the Space Station for a dinner of Tuna Pasta, and spent the rest of the evening working on the McGill blog post before heading to bed at around 11:45.