Day 1: Eureka and Ely, Nevada

Made great time crossing the Sierras on I-80. Stopped briefly in Truckee. Drove right through Reno. Then abandoned the itnerstate for US Highway 50 (aka "The National Road", "The Lincoln Highway", "The Loneliest Road in America"). This was the first paved road across America (built in the 1930s) and parallels the route of the old Pony Express.

Its a 2 lane highway and it's pretty empty. We're able to drive 65-70 mph most of the time. The highway goes through some spectacular scenery. This is the Great Basin. Basin and Range. The pattern is simple: mountain range followed by valley, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat.... We must have crossed a dozen separate mountain ranges, a dozen separate mountain passes today. But it's not too bad. The valleys are about 6000 feet and the mountain passes are usually around 7000-7500 feet, so there's not too much climbing.

Our first stop was Eureka, Nevada.

This little town is nestled in the mountains. It was a big lead-mining town in the 19th century. Today it's sleepy and quiet, but still quite pleasant. The old county courthouse still stands. The county includes two active gold mines, whose taxes make the county government one of the richest per capita in the United States, so the high school and elementary school are modern and beautiful. The old 19th century opera house was rennovated (again, with county funds) in 1993 and now is a charming throwback to the olden days, a real theater and community center.

We got almost all the way across two large states in just one day. In fact, what was supposed to be a twelve hour drive according to Google maps only took nine hours of driving!

Ely is the largest town on US 50 so far, but it's still pretty small. It has an old main street, some tall brick buildings from the 19th century, and a handful of casinos.

It also has a historic railroad (the Nevada Northern) which runs steam train excursions.

The setting for this town is beautiful, nestled in a valley, with vistas of wide open plains and dramatic tall mountain ranges in the distance.

Weather is beautiful too.

So far, so good.

My mom put a quarter in the slot machine at the casino, and got $3 back. I told her to quit while she was ahead.

They've got legal brothels here, this being one of the lesser populated counties of Nevada.