Day 11:

Breakfast of Champions

 

The Nevada Hotel in Ely is a place of extremes. On the one hand the rooms are cheap, clean, and comfortable. On the other hand the casino has a very depressed feel about it, the water temperature fluctuates wildly (there were three signs in the bathroom warning the unsuspecting patron - it is either scalding hot or freezing cold, - certainly never lukewarm), and the fire alarm goes off when you take a hot shower (as it did for me this morning).  The hotel has a restaurant (a sandwich costs nearly the same price as the prime rib) where I opted for a large taco salad for breakfast.


 

After leaving the hotel we headed back onto US 50, the loneliest highway in America.  After hours of driving we passed through only two towns, Eureka and Austin. We stopped at the International Hotel (I guess clients come from all over the globe) where we had a pop and talked with the young woman who was working in the dining room. It was a bizarre place where everyone, save the server, seemed withdrawn and burned from the blazing wrath inflicted by the unforgiving desert sun. I asked the server where children from the town went to school as Austin was literally hours from any other town. She said Austin had a school, and while she wasn’t sure about the current enrollment when she graduated two years ago there were 24 students K-12.

US 50 - The Antisocial Highway

 

 

 
 We didn’t linger in Austin and headed back down US 50 toward Fallon, Nevada. A few miles before Fallon we spotted a massive sand dune in the distance. We drove back the road to the dune and found a good number of people driving dune buggies on the dunes. The sand was so thick on the road we nearly got stuck. Many people were also camped at the base of the large mound of sand. While the sand was nice, much like the sandbox variety, I am not sure how anyone would find sitting around in a camping trailer in the desert sun to be a relaxing getaway. Then again most people would probably not drive across the country to meet a 115 year old woman on their vacation.  Below is a picture of a local Berber man who is largely insane from the desert heat.

 

 

 

 

 

After passing through Fallon, the so called “Oasis of Nevada,” we headed for Virginia City. Virginia City is of course where the 1960s television show Bonanza was set. The town boomed in the days of silver and gold. It possesses many fine buildings which to a large degree reflect the golden age of Virginia City. That being said the place is super touristy. Sure it has boardwalks and the buildings display a vintage motif, but the town is also full of junk shops - touristy stores trying to sell you the next doodad or knickknack you do not need. There are also many saloons on the main drag which attempt to capture a bygone era. Interestingly enough the town slows down about 6:00 PM and so if you want to come to take in the museums and trinket shops you better get here early.  Fr. Doug is not a fan of Virginia City. He has reported that he feels personally hurt by the fact that the lush Ponderosa depicted on Bonanza is really a howling wasteland. Moreover I think he fails to see why Mr. Cartwright, Hoss, Adam, and Little Joe spent their lives defending a city that is a tourist trap. I am rather detached I was always a bigger fan of Gunsmoke and have long felt the plots of Bonanza are too fanciful.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We are staying at the Silver Queen Hotel. An authentic hotel from the heyday of the Comstock Lode (i.e. what put Virginia City on the map), today it is too pricey for what you get (they don’t offer two-bed rooms so we had to get two rooms at a cost of $60.00 each). The place is supposedly haunted; if the ghost shows up I am telling her to haunt the owner until box fans are put into the rooms. For supper tonight we ate at a decent Mexican restaurant located just outside of town. It is hard to find a place to eat in Virginia City; everything was closed by 7:00 PM except for the Mexican place and a Chinese place which had no customers and was located inside of a brothel museum. We opted for Mexican.  The restaurant had three large windows in the front that were open which not only brought in a pleasant breeze but also gave a great view of the mountains.  Tomorrow we saddle up and head for Frisco.

 


1955 Oldsmobile, just like Hoss drove to the prom