Stopping for the night in Elco, Nevada
After a brief stop in Reno, we are heading east on I-80 towards home. We stopped in Elco, Nevada for the night, and the four of us had a nice dinner with grilled flank steak, fresh squash, Potatoes, and a bottle of Syrah from the HillCrest Vinyard in the Umpqua Valley (click for link). The dinners prepared by Barbara and Dana in the rigs have been wonderful; better than most of the restaurants meals we have had.
The drive across northern Nevada has been much more picturesque than I remember; even mostly in overcast or light rain. The remnants of the country's first titanium mine can be seen in the gost town of Comstock just off the road. Between 1916 and 1947, at its peak it produced most of the world's titanium.
We traveled to the coast more or less along the Oregon trail and some of the Lewis and Clark route, and we are returning along some of the Northern California trails. Earlier in the day, we had in about 40 minutes by motorhome crossed the "Forty Mile Desert", a dry stretch of alkali desert first crossed by the Walker-Chiles party in 1843 (click here for a link to diary entries of emigrants). Despite the hazards, this was the dominant trail used for the immigration to Northern California until the 1860s. This was a tough task to face after having just made it across 6,143' Emigrant Gap. In addition to the loss of thousands of mules, horses and cattle, there were at least 953 graves recorded along this short stretch of the California trail.
This is a really big country; I will die without seeing all of it (though there is no harm in trying.)
The drive across northern Nevada has been much more picturesque than I remember; even mostly in overcast or light rain. The remnants of the country's first titanium mine can be seen in the gost town of Comstock just off the road. Between 1916 and 1947, at its peak it produced most of the world's titanium.
We traveled to the coast more or less along the Oregon trail and some of the Lewis and Clark route, and we are returning along some of the Northern California trails. Earlier in the day, we had in about 40 minutes by motorhome crossed the "Forty Mile Desert", a dry stretch of alkali desert first crossed by the Walker-Chiles party in 1843 (click here for a link to diary entries of emigrants). Despite the hazards, this was the dominant trail used for the immigration to Northern California until the 1860s. This was a tough task to face after having just made it across 6,143' Emigrant Gap. In addition to the loss of thousands of mules, horses and cattle, there were at least 953 graves recorded along this short stretch of the California trail.
This is a really big country; I will die without seeing all of it (though there is no harm in trying.)
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