Day 26 - Got my quarters!

This trip is slightly asymmetric as today is the hump day of the trip and we are still not on the West Coast.  We left Salt Lake City where you cannot see the Lake and went down route 80 where you can.  We had thought it would be good to go to Antelope Island which is the biggest island in the lake and has a large park with many wild animals but they had just finished putting out a big fire there yesterday so we decided against it.  There was still quite a bit of haze over the lake and in fact we had noticed it in the city and thought it was smog.  We have tried to remain isolated from the news as none of it seems to be good so we did not know about the fire until we were looking up going there and everything that Google gave was about the fire.  The lake is not really that great although there were a few birds around it smelled bad and there were millions of brine flies which Michelle chased around for a while.  Later we stopped at the Salt Flats which were much less buggy, in fact they were quite lifeless but amazing to see.

The Great Salt Lake

Bonneville Salt Flats with Michelle showing how big they are

We are staying in Elko, Nevada where Eric and Larry first tried slot machines on their cross country sojourn 4 years ago.  They had hoped to use the quarters they had brought to feed parking meters, having not spent them over the course of the trip, but alas could not really find a machine that would take them even if we did put one in the credit card slot.  They ended up resorting to dollar bills and quickly lost three of them before leaving what was a very depressing casino.  The people in Elko should be impressed with Larry's change of status over those 4 years as last time he arrived in a roaring Volvo (see Introduction) and this time he glided in silently in the Tesla.

Hoping to find a machine that will take these

We got to Elko early to charge so we could take a hike at a nice place Eric and Larry visited.  We did not find that place but after about 15 miles on dirt road we did find a decent area to get out of the car and hang out with birds and butterflies plus a few biting insects.  We then bumped slowly back to town and had a nice dinner.

Cows on the dirt road

Spring fed water in the Ruby Valley

A random piece of rock.  Note the nice blue sky.

Statistics Corner

States involved: We finally add to the count of states by entering Nevada.

Charging

West Wendover NV - 1 hour - Wendover is in Utah and has a large Air Force base.   West Wendover is in Nevada and actually has a casino right on the state line.  There was also one across the street from the chargers.  We went in for lunch.

Elko NV - Twice for 45 minutes each but it is conveniently located right next to the motel.

Regular Features

Song of the Day: Blues for Gamblers - Lightin Hopkins - I cannot get over how unhappy people in casinos look. 

Coolest Car of the day: Another bagged Chevy pickup but without a roof and with a good paint job. Even the truck towing it had custom paint.

Church of the day: This one is a very attractive Lutheran Church on a hill overlooking Elko

Coolest Thing of the Day – Larry -  How dirty we got Hobson

Coolest Thing of the Day –Michelle-  The salt flats