Day 39 – Elko, NV

To those of you wondering what happened to yesterday, the answer is simple; nothing.  I went nowhere, and nothing happened.  The day was a big nothing.  I laid out on the grass and watched people go by, but not many.  Geri and Don messed around the rig, but I don’t see that they accomplished anything major.  Nothing.  Then they went into town to play with those silly machines.  What did they come back with?  Nothing.  So, when it came time to do the blog, what did I have to say?  Nothing.

Today was much different; after our short but brisk morning walk, Don came back and made us a proposition; how about we get in the truck early, while it’s still cool, and drive up Lamoille Canyon, which is only about twenty miles away?  Geri and I both thought that it might be fun and interesting, so we quickly agreed.  By ten o’clock we were heading up the road south of Elko toward the canyon.  The desert and ranchland landscape rapidly changed to a rocky and mountainous terrain, with bright yellow and orange tree leaves turning to fall colors covering the hillsides.  The road climbed steadily, and the scenery became more spectacular; we stopped at a turnout to read some signs about how two glaciers formed the intersecting valleys we were looking at about a quarter million years ago.  Don is always particularly pleased to read signs like this, and he marvels at how the people who lived back in the time of the glaciers left such detailed notes for our present day geologists to figure out.  We kept on climbing through the rocky landscape until we finally reached the end of the road, where there were a bunch of horse trailers were parked; the trails around here are popular with the horsey set.  Don asked Garmy what our altitude was, and she told him we were at about 8900 feet! 

Fall colors

A big piece of ice did this!

Rocky Mountains!

As we walked about the parking area, another couple were getting out of their truck, and approached us.  Geri and Don started talking with them, and found out that they were from Visalia, California, and the wife had recently been to Ventura for a meeting of the Native Daughters of the Golden West.  It also turned out that they knew the Huddleston brothers in Visalia, guys that Don had gone to High School with in Benicia; small planet!  Don wanted to know if there was a Native Sons of the Golden West, as he might be interested in joining.  She said there certainly was, but they didn’t have a Ventura Chapter, so he could actually join the Ventura Parlor of the Native Daughters.  Don looked interested.  Anyway, they had a nice chat while I laid in the shade near them.  We finally loaded back into the truck and headed back down the hill, still marveling at the wonderful scenery. 

Please hurryup!

Ruby Mountains

We drove into the small town of Lamoille, where there was a hotel, a restaurant and tavern, and a few houses.  We stopped at the tavern/restaurant, and Geri and Don went in for lunch.  I should say, on their behalf, that they had given me my lunch while we were up at the top of the canyon.  They were also nice enough to let me stay on the porch of the tavern to greet people as they entered and departed, allowing me to get a lot of adulation.  They said the hamburgers were great, and they loved the french fries.  We cruised through the village, and spotted some wildlife that were worthy of  photos.

Oh, Deer!  In the front yard!

Pet Turkeys

So, back to the rig, where Geri did the laundry that had piled up for a few weeks, and Don immersed himself on researching a lot of useless things on the internet.  I happily laid out on the grass, watching people and dozing.  It became obvious that there would be no dinner prepared tonight, due to the enormous burgers that they had consumed at lunch.  I got my dinner, my treats, and they were off to visit their machines again.  They came home fairly happy, so I assume the machines processed their money satisfactorily. 

Tomorrow appears to be a travel day, to where I’m not exactly sure, but it should be somewhere in Nevada.  When we get there, I’ll let you know!