I stopped yesterday's blog entry without talking about dinner. We ate at the Star Hotel, which is a Basque (an area of Spain) restaurant. The Basques helped settle this area. If you are any where close to Elko, Nevada, you shouldn't miss this restaurant.
Steve ordered one of the specials, the bacon wrapped fillet, for $18, while I had the salmon for $20. Then they brought out the bread, soup and salad, all served family style. We tried to pace ourselves, because we knew there were side dishes coming, but we weren't ready when they started bringing the food. Here's what our table looked like:
My salmon is in front, with green beans, red beans and white beans, the Basque bread, french fries, spaghetti and at the other end, Steve's fillet. And everything was delicious!
We could have gotten 3 servings at least out of each of our entrees. And since we're on the road, there's no point in doggie bags. I might have to break down and get a cooler.
Friday morning we headed for the local museum, the Northeastern Nevada Museum. Part of the reason we came through Elko was that one of Steve's distant relatives donated a wing to this museum. He was a big game hunter and wanted to give his trophies to a museum so that others could enjoy them.
I hadn't given this much thought when Steve mentioned it , so I wasn't really prepared to see taxidermied endangered species. We're assuming they weren't endangered when he hunted them.
One thing I found neat was the Pony Express cabin they had out front. I had not known that the company had cabins for the riders. I assumed they stopped at stage coach stops.
After the museum, we hopped in the car and headed for Arco, Idaho, the closest town to Craters of the Moon National park. We stop in Wells, Nevada for lunch at Bella's Espresso House, recommended on Trip Advisor. Good recommendation. The small towns of Nevada seem to consist of casinos, hotels and restaurants. There was even a casino at the truck stop.
At this point, we leave I-80 and head north on US 93. The scenery changes to more rolling hills. We're in an open range area and there are bridges for the cattle to cross the road.
As we near the border with Idaho, the valley floors seem to be a little greener but there are still only trees around buildings. And you can no longer tell where streams are by a row of trees. The last Nevada town seems to be less than a mile from Idaho and has hotels, casinos, and restaurants. And I'm not sure it's as big as Mulberry. Oh, and RV parks. They get a lot of traffic from Idaho, where gambling is illegal.
As we cross over into Idaho, the scenery shifts a bit. Its greener, especially around towns and the valley floors aren't flat, but gently rolling. I see actual cowboys! There are maybe 50 cows in a fenced area and four guys on horses surrounding a pickup truck. We stop at the Salmon Falls Creek rest stop and take a picture and then stop at a historical marker a few miles away.
For those who don't want to strain their eyes, a dam was built across the creek in 1910 to create a reservoir for irrigation. Someone miscalculated - the reservoir didn't fill up until 1984! But irrigation is the key difference between this area and the Nevada we passed through. There are farms here, but anything that isn't irrigated is brown. And we still have mountains to look at.
We make it to Arco, Idaho, and get ready to tour Craters of the Moon National Park tomorrow.
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