Friday, August 2, 2013

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.

Thursday, August 1, 2013

Reno sits in a desert valley, surrounded by light brown hills. We start the day by looking for gas and breakfast.  I suggest Bob Evans, Cracker Barrel or McDonald's, as I know what I can eat there.  Steve checks Urban Spoon and google and laughingly tells me the nearest Bob Evans is in Missouri and there are no Cracker Barrels in Nevada.  But Urban Spoon (iPhone app) leads us to a local restaurant named Jacks which serves up a decent breakfast. 

We stop for gas before hitting I-80 east again and encounter something we've never seen before - a cash or ATM only gas station.  So we fill up.  We could probably make it to our next stop without filling up, but we know it is sometimes 150 miles or more between gas stations.

We pass from one desert valley to the next.  But unlike Indiana valleys, the valley floor is flat and goes for miles.  They look much the same at first glance, but each seems to have it's own character.

One valley looks like it might have salt flats, like they used to land the space shuttle on when it couldn't land in Florida.  Lots of flat white areas.  Near the shoulder area of the road, people have used dark rocks to spell out messages - their name or initials or Deb heart Steve.

Another valley has small patches of dark rock that seem to be almost uniform in size.  Fist sized dark brown rocks creating a scarred look.

And for most of the day we follow the railroad and, it turns out, the California Trail that the wagon trains used.  There are historical markers at the rest stops and an interpretive center that we didn't stop at.  Here's a sign you won't see at a Midwest rest stop:

 

This is open range country and the rest stops and freeway entrances have cattle gates to keep out the cows.  We only see a few cows scattered throughout, except for a herd of about 20 who were huddled together in the shade of a billboard.  It's only in the 80's today, but there are few trees.  If you see a row of green across the valley, it's probably a stream with trees and other vegetation along it's banks.

 

We keep seeing small clouds of dust near the ground and assume they are cars on a dirt road or a farmer in the field.  But at least some of them are small dust storms.  We see one ahead and I try for a picture:

 

 

It's hard to see, but in the middle of the picture is a cloud rising from the road.  That's really a small dust storm - wind kicking up the dust.  I'm sure there is a more technical name for it.



 

I'm writing this on Friday morning and Steve is anxious to get going.  He wanted to be at the museum at 9 am and we're going to be a bit late.  So I'll log off for now and tell you about Thursday's dinner later.