August 17, 2010

Reno to Carson City to Eureka, Nevada.

Left Reno this morning and headed down US 395 to Carson City to see the Nevada State Railroad Museum.  Unfortunately...only open on Friday thru Monday, so all I got to see was what was outside.  That included this guy chipping rust out of a part of a locomotive tender car:

Anyway, the museum looked pretty nice from the outside.

I headed east on US50, "The Loneliest Highway in America" and it pretty much lives up to its name.  It's about 250 miles from Carson City to Eureka, NV, where I'm spending the night, and there is a whole lot of nothing in between.  I think this is the "Great American Desert". 

I stopped at Grimes Point, where there are a large number of Indian Petroglyphs carved on rocks in a big boulder field.  This was a view from the west side of the boulder field looking west, to give you an idea of the setting:

This is one of the better shots I took of the petroglyphs themselves:

Not sure what it means, but according to the information at the site, the pertoglyphs date from 5000 BC to 1500 AD.

On towards Eureka there were vast stretches of nothingness.  No trees, no houses, no Starbucks, not much of anything but low weeds and sagebrush.  This'll give you some idea of what it looked like for the best part of 250 miles:

I got to Eureka around 3:00 and took a walk around the town.  Eureka has been a boom town since the 1860's, with gold, silver, and now molybdenum being mined here.  The Eureka Sentinel was the local paper that was published in this building until 1960:

The building now houses the town museum, and no, Mark Twain apparently didn't even stop for a beer here.  The press room was interesting, though:

As you can see, pasted to the wall are a bunch of articles and old newspapers from almost a century of publication.  I thought these were especially interesting:

If you look closely (enlarge the picture), you can see that these articles date from 1898 and the run-up to the Spanish-American War.

One more picture.  This is the Eureka Opera House and the Jackson House Hotel and Saloon on Main Street:

Tomorrow, it's east on US50 to Salina, Utah and then to Grand Junction, Colorado on Thursday.  Miles today:  278.  Total to date: 9,779.

August 16, 2010

Oakland, CA to Reno, NV

Left Patrick's apartment yesterday around 8:30 and returned to our room on Concord, Ca, about 30 miles away.  Pat was leaving for the airport around 2:30 this morning and she arrived just fine (but exhausted) in Buffalo around 6:00 Eastern time this afternoon.  I left Concord headed east on I-80 for Reno around 7:15.  I-80 east of Sacramento crosses over Donner Pass at 7,085 feet.  Donner Pass, of course, is where a party of 32 emigrants headed for California became snowed-in for the winter of 1846-47 and were forced into a novel diet due to their circumstances.  Here is a picture of the Donner Pass area, actually about 5 miles east of the pass and slightly below the pass itself:

Obviously, it would have been pretty remote 165 years ago by any description. 

You can see from this that the terrain is pretty rough:

I arrived in Reno around 11:30 and went to The National Automotive Museum (the Harrah collection).  As expected the museum was absolutely first-rate with over 200 automobiles, all in running condition..  It's hard to describe how well laid-out and informative the museum is, with five galleries arranged by time period from 1890's to the 1980's.  Hopefully some of these pictures will give you some idea of the extent of the exhibit:

On temporary exhibit were two vehicles from the American Expeditionary Force in Europe during WWI:

This is one of General Pershing's Locomobile staff cars. He had ten.

This is a 1907 Thomas Flyer that won the New York to Paris around-the-world race, travelling 22,000 miles in only 169 days.  Looks like it did when it made its original "victory lap"

This is a good shot of the gallery housing vehicles from the 1930's:

I thought this beauty was really cool.  Looks like the Bat Mobile:

It is a 1938 Phantom Corsair, designed by Rust Heinz, a member of the HJ Heinz ketchup dynasty.  Unfortunately, total production was one and ol' Rust went back to squeezing tomatoes.

And, finally, for a taste of "real cool, baby", here is James Dean's 1951 Mercury:

Anyway, this is one of those "if you get the chance, you should go" places.

After being asked to leave for salivating on the upholstery of too many of these cars, I headed south to Virginia City (of Bonanza fame), home of the Comstock Lode. Virginia City is Southeast of Reno about halfway between Reno and Carson City, on Nevada Highway 341, a very nice, scenic drive up into the mountains.

Virginia City itself is pretty much a tourist trap that is intent on separating the turistas from their dinero as often as possible.  But, once you got past the feeling of being ripped off, it is pretty interesting and there is a lot of American history here.  The Comstock lode was discovered by prospectors in 1859 and eventually produced almost 7 million tons of high-grade gold and silver ore between 1860 and 1880, when the mines were played out.

These two pictures of "C" Street should give you and idea of what Virginia City looks like today:

"C" Street looking West.

"C" Street looking East.

This was interesting.  Mark Twain lived in Virginia City from 1862 to 1864, when he left for California after being challenged to a duel.  (He also seems to have dodged the draft pretty effectively too.)  When he was in Virginia City, he was a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise, the local paper.  This was his desk while he worked at the Enterprise:

It was located in the basement of the newspaper office, in the Press Room:

And, finally, this is St. Mary in the Mountains Church in Virginia City.  I thought it was impressive:

Tomorrow, it's down to Custer City for the Nevada Railroad Museum and then east on US50 to Eureka, Nevada for the night.  Miles today:  271.  Total: 9,501.