Trip, Part Two

After our visit to Ogden and Promontory Point, we headed out the next day for Ely, Nevada. Once you get outside of Salt Lake City as you head west, There's not much of anything out there. The two photos above are typical of the scenery. One is on the way to Wendover, which is on the Utah - Nevada state line. The other is on the trip from Wendover to Ely. The was a road sign warning of open range, as well as signs warning of deer and antelope along the way. We saw a few of each but not much wildlife of any kind. When leaving Salt Lake you skirt the Great Salt Lake and much of the area was under water that's too salty to support wildlife.

Unfortunately, that high water included the Bonneville Salt Flats. I was all set to take the rental truck out for a run but no go. Breedlove, Arfons, Vesco, Thompson, and Shop Teacher Bob. I've been wanting to go to Bonneville for a long time both as a spectator and as a competitor. Probably just as well I couldn't see the track. I don't need to be thinking about that.

The little Nissan was a mostly bare bones rig but drove nice. Those two lanes in the top photos had a speed limit of 70 mph. The interstate had a speed limit of 80. Salt Lake City to Ely is about 240 miles. Not too tough a trip traveling on nice, smooth roads with very little traffic at those speeds. The little Nissan was a gas guzzling machine, though. Seems like every time we arrived at one of our destinations we needed a half tank of fuel. I imagine traveling at 80 had something to do with it as well as the fact that we were in some high altitudes. Ely is above 6,000 ft.

Here's my number one reason to come to Nevada, besides marking my territory, that is. Live steam. Cuzzin Ricky and I got into town with plenty of time to spare, so we checked into the hotel, I made a wee-wee so I could officially claim Nevada as number 49 and then we checked out the town a bit. The two largest employers are a copper mine and the state prison. It was hunting season, and Ely looked to be the jumping off point for the hunters. It would make sense, seeing that Ely is the only town around for miles. I think I could learn to like Ely without much trouble. In fact, I saw in the local paper the railroad was looking for a guy like me. If I was willing to relocate 1000 miles from home and was about ten years younger, might be a perfect fit for me. And I'd be only about 130 miles away from Bonneville. Win-win there, amigos.

We saw lots of old cars and trucks while out in the country. These two were actually young pups compared to many we saw. The Ford single axle dump had a bed that was manufactured by Gar-Wood. I was aware of Gar-Wood from reading Wooden Boat magazine for many years but didn't know they made truck beds. Rick knew about that end of the biz but that was the game he used to play.

The train ride was great fun, It lasted about 90 minutes and went through some cool scenery. There was a running narration during the trip that gave a good history of the area and the history of the rail line. For rail fans like Rick and I, couldn't ask for anything better.

One more stop and a few comments about rail travel yet to come.