How does that saying go? "Go big or go home," right? Well we didn't go very big so we decided to continue on our way home. We almost decided to give it one more go in the casino this morning, for the heck of it, but couldn't figure out what to do with our luggage so we headed out of the biggest little city.
As we were in the parking garage loading our luggage in the car, I noticed something rather curious. In the distance on the side of a seemingly random mountain was an enormous letter "N." Finding it endearingly unique I snapped a picture of it and we were on our way. Curious.
The next "big city" is Sparks, NV. As we neared the city I saw it again. The letter "S" on the side of a mountain overlooking the city. I missed taking a picture of the Sparks "S." I didn't realize it would become a pattern. Apparently, you cannot have a city/town in Nevada without having the first letter of the town name emblazoned on the side of a mountain. Every major city had it's very own letter mountain...Sesame Street would be proud.
Also on this drive we had the privilege of stopping in the city of Elko, Nevada. My family happens to own about 10 acres outside of Elko.
Actually, the property is part of Landers County which belongs to the city of Battle Mountain. Battle Mountain is 80 miles to the west of Elko. After inquiring at the Elko Assessors' Office in the Elko Courthouse I was informed by one of the nicest public servants I have ever met that in fact I would have to drive an hour west to get the maps and exact location. Unfortunatly, Mark and I were on a bit of tight schedule and couldn't backtrack quite that far but, we did get the number of the Lander County Assessor and passed that information along to my parents who will most likely be receiving maps of our property very soon in the mail. Truthfully, we probably saw the property as we passed it on the highway and most of that area looks something like this:
The drive through Nevada had a rocky start. It was more of the arid desert setting we had come to detest driving through New Mexico and Arizona. What we found interesting about this piece of the journey was that as we got farther from the coast the mountains became greener and sustained more life (by that I mean trees instead of the rocks and shrubs of the desert). Also, when we crossed into Utah we entered the Great Salt Desert which is exactly like what the name implies -- vast expanses of white "earth." One cool thing which I begged Mark to stop and let me do was the same that many people who have traveled along this same route have done and that is to leave their mark on the Salt Desert using rocks to leave messages on the smooth surface. Mark wouldn't stop -- he thought they were silly. I pouted. By the time we arrived in Salt Lake City I was swept away by the breathtaking vistas and had changed my mind about the Eastern half of Nevada.
So we spend tonight in Salt Lake City. Tomorrow we will spend the morning touring this mighty city of the Mormons before heading off to the Mile-High City -- Denver, Colorado -- while we're there we will be attending a Rockies game which I'm very excited about because I have always wanted to see the Rockies stadium! GO ROCKIES!!
OK, so two final thoughts:
1) The bugs in Nevada are HUGE!!! We had one strike the windshield of the car and get stuck in the wiper blade. Mark was so excited he just
had to get a picture of it. So, when we stopped for lunch he snapped this shot:
2) This is probably the second or third "no duh" sign we've seen on the trip but, it's the first I've been able to take a picture of:
No comments:
Post a Comment