Sedentary Woman: Elko and the road...

Just an FYI - I am now home from the trip and have been since August 5! The events of this post took place July 27-8, if I should need this information to prove an alibi at some point.

You may remember we got up at 3:30 to avoid the heat. It was well worth it. We got to Elko, Nevada just after lunchtime. What is the best thing in Elko, Nevada? If you have to ask, you obviously haven't met Sallie!

Sallie is a Betsy-Tacy friend who invited us to stay with her and “scoured the coal scuttle” to make us feel welcome. We sat and talked for a few hours when we got there, as is our way. Annika proved herself to be the most patient and polite of teenagers by putting up with our nonsense.

At dinner time, we headed downtown to a Basque restaurant. If the Star Hotel is the Elko version of Cheers, than Sallie is definitely Norm! Everyone seemed to know her and she, them.

We got cocktails (well, not Annika) and Sallie introduced us to a drink called Picon Punch. Now she had been talking about it when she told us about the restaurant but both of us thought she was saying Pecan Punch. It didn't taste like pecans at all!

The place was very cute and the food was amazing! We were served family style. I thought, "There is no way we are going to be able to eat all this!" But I considered it a challenge and gave it the old college try... Even the cabbage soup was delicious, and it was made out of cabbage and soup!

After dinner, Sallie gave us a tour of Elko, including the houses of ill repute. I am not sure if they are considered to have ill repute if they are legal. Either way, I giggled like a 15 year old at the sign on in front of Inez's. Annika, the actual 15 year old, did not. She gave me the stony glare of maturity.

We also saw some pretty early 20th century houses, some of which were at one point inhabited by Sallie and/or members of her family.

I enjoy hearing about other people's family history, and Sallie is a true raconteur.

Sallie's house is at the end of a dead end street and it looks out onto an empty lot. That sounds like it wouldn't be much to look at when I put it that way, but in the desert, it is beautiful!

She also has a back deck and garden so pretty that I had to panoram it!

Before we left, we got the obligatory selfie, which isn't actually a selfie because now I had Annika to do my selfie-ing for me! She is so helpful.

Her other job, which she did with no complaining, was to remove the bug graveyard at every gas stop. We had a serious bug-death problem going east. They saw us coming and decided to end it all.

If you are a weirdo who likes driving videos and wants to see the different terrain we managed to drive through in a 48 hour period, these clips might interest you. If you are curious about what the windshield looked like encased with all matter of insects, you will also want to take a look.
I would urge you to not listen to the sound. We were listening to audiobooks all the way home and often forgot to turn them off when filming. And we are goofy as well.

San Francisco to Chico - July 26