Signs

Gotta write about something.  Don't I?

Well, not any more!  I can just post a bunch of pictures of stuff, bind it with some sort of what some people would call a "theme," and limit my actual typing to wry comments and a weak intro.  Wednesday night, here I come!!!

Nevada has a lot of signs that not only raise the ol' eyebrow, but also serve as a reminder to me that...yeah, Nevada is awesome.

For example:

 The road dipped about three inches.  We still yelled "Wheeeeeee!!!"

(Clayton Valley, East of Silver Peak on the Goldfield Road)

(Yes yes!!! That one!)

Trying to get to Divide I had to take this road. 

The road tasked me with its original Eisenhower-era asphalt.

(Old US 95 South of Tonopah)

This is either when you know you're alive...or you find religion.

(SSR 82 cut-off from NSR 376, heading to Belmont and Monitor Valley)

An elk bit my sister once.

(Steptoe Valley)

OK, I admit I was taken aback when I saw this South of Denio

(in what is technically a part of the Black Rock Desert near the Quinn River).

But antelope really aren't that rare in the lowlands of Nevada and we

could probably use more of these.

Besides...an antelope bit my sister once.

I wish I could say random signage like this is rare.  It's not.  

Just ask Iowa (I'm on West 320th street and I've seen corn for the last 2.5 hrs!?)

Seeing this as a turn-off from the Soldier Meadows road onto a Jeep trail?  

Worth the time it took to get unstuck from the mud to get the picture.
(Black Rock Desert, Humboldt County)

The only remains we could find were a pile of asbestos.

Seriously.
(Flanigan, Washoe County)

This has always been one of my favorites, especially since it was

almost an accident that I found it...which I wouldn't have if some 

guy from Idaho hadn't tried to run me off the road on Adobe Summit.
(Mountain City Highway, Elko County)

I...I...think it speaks for itself.
(Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park...Near the Mass Ichthyosaur Grave)

A Note on "nəˈvædə"

I'll bring this up now so it can be settled once and for all time.

Nevada is often a house divided: North vs. South; urban vs. rural; left vs. right; &c. &c. &c.  Nevadans, however, can always rally around the pronunciation of the State's name - say "NevAHda" and you invite intense wrath.

Defenders of the "incorrect" timbre make one argument: it's a Spanish name, use the Spanish pronunciation. But here's the thing:

Take a name where the pronunciation is ambiguous - I'll use "Cara."  Seeing it in writing, is it "CAH-ra," or "CARE-uh?"  The truth is that it's however the person chooses to say it.  The parents, when baby Cara is brought into the world decide upon their pronunciation.  As our figurative Cara grows up she (or maybe he) may decide to change the pronunciation; that would be her (or possibly his) right to do so.  How our Cara decides to say it is Cara's decision and it is right regardless of how you think it should be, or how another, different Cara pronounces the name.

So it is with Nevada.  Nev-A-da..."A" as in "cat."  Yes, it's an anglicized pronunciation of a Spanish word.  But it's a Spanish past participle that has been adapted into a proper noun - our (Nevadan's) proper noun.  And as with figurative Cara up there, it's ours to decide how to say it.  The town in Iowa calls itself "Ne-VAY-da."  To say nothing about "TAY-has" (read: Texas). Their right.  Our right.

Our proper name, in IPA, is nəˈvædə, and for a non-Nevadan to argue otherwise is pure arrogance.

There, I said it.  And now back to our regularly scheduled programming and pictures of cows and stuff.

Like the Best of White Pine County!

(Ward Charcoal Ovens State Historic Park, nəˈvædə)

Nevada Mag's Best of 2013

This is Moffett.  Moffett loves Nevada, but has one little problem: you see, he really wants to vote in Nevada Magazine's Best of Nevada 2013 survey, but his paws are just too big (and his special 'dialing wand' hasn't come in yet).  So he's imploring the readers to vote in his stead.

Best of Nevada 2013

And the way I see it, the more access the survey has the greater the change for accuracy and the greater the chance the Central Nevada Museum will win again (shameless plug from a member, although I could live with the Eureka Sentinel Museum taking the crown).  Hence why I have no problem throwing in an unsolicited assist.

So take a few moments and vote for Kodos your Best of Nevada.  Moffett would, but...you know, the paws.

A Quick Word on the Banner Images

I figure I should take a moment to describe the small pictures in the title banner.

The first is the new Middlegate Shoe Tree, replacing the old shoe tree which met its end on Dec. 30, 2010.  It was a much beloved landmark on US 50 near Middlegate Station near the foot of the Clan Alpine Range.

The sad remains of the original Middlegate Shoe tree.

The second is a charming mural on the wall of the old school in Austin.  You kinda gotta look for it a bit on the back wall.

The Old School in Austin.

The third is the remains of an old stamp mill in Aurora, one of only two free-standing ruins left (not including a few rock foundations).  I've tried to no avail (in ten minutes of searching) to try to find the name of the mill.

This is the other free-standing ruin.

The fourth is one of the remaining headframes around Goldfield.  I really want to say this was the Florence Mine, but can't really back that up...yet.

From UP the hill.

Fifth we have the old school in Eureka.  It has quite the Chernobyl feel to it; looking in the windows you will see an awful lot of supplies n' stuff waiting for classes that never were.

The school is off the main drag...the town is really working wonders

restoring itself.  And the sandwiches at the Owl Club...MUAH!

Sixth is the little windmill in Jiggs behind the old brick house/hotel across from the bar, next to the community hall.

It's a brick.......hoooouse.

Seventh is the signage for the gas station in Mina.

We had to stop and use the add-on.

And last is a small section of the Mount Rose Wilderness along the Hunter Lake Road.  The fires of recent years have left their marks, but the hike is worth the effort as the trail commands sweeping views of the Truckee Meadows and an intimate look at the Northern end of the Carson Range.

I don't have access to the Hunter Lake Trail photos from my

laptop, so enjoy this picture of cows along the road from

Rochester to Unionville.

So there you have it; what I would consider to be a reasonable if unfortunately highly abridged cross-section of the Silver State.  There'll be others in the future.

Like pictures of me shooting a flintlock.

Spring is here...

...or what counts as Spring in the Great Basin.  Weather wise this is the most unsettled, temperamental season, turning a placid 80 degree Wednesday into a dank, gloomy Friday-through-Monday.  And the coming of April signals my semi-annual trip to Elko.

Twice each year I have the privilege of playing with the Ruby Mountain Symphony - each November and April.  These are both, traditionally, the worst travel months in these parts.  Oh, sure, December through February you have a good shot at driving through snow and ice.  But the aspiring traveler usually forsees these tempests and can either reschedule around them or adequately prepare themselves for winter travel.  November and April, on the other hand...you just never know what you're going to get or just how bad it will be.  I've been quite fortunate, most trips, to have unexpectedly mild weather (although two or three times the skies unleashed a white apocalypse).

But that's not the point.  Elko is a nice town; most people see the freeway, a gas station, and maybe the Burger King when they drive through.  Take a few moments to drive the neighborhoods, however, and you'll find the charming hub of Northeastern Nevada that bespeaks the blustery economy.

It's unfortunate that I only get to spend one night; traveling to Elko means one dinner and one breakfast.  There are a number of great eateries - some I've tried, some I've been wanting to for years - but if I only have one dinner, it has to be Basque food.

People always seemed to consider it sacrilege when I would say that the Nevada Dinner House was my long-standing favorite.  I can't help it.  The Star Hotel has excellent food, but between the "Big Three" (as nobody called them, as far as I know), NDH was #1, Biltoki  #2, and Star #3.  Alas! the NDH is now closed, so Biltoki has been my go-to for the past couple of trips.  In my opinion none of them compare to the Santa Fe in Reno, but it's still good food AND I'll end up bringing a lot of it back home with me for the next night. To me it would be sacrilege to go to Elko without giving in to Basque delishousness.

For Sunday morning breakfast it's Toki Ona; recently reopened, their Spanish omelet is about the best eggy food I've had anywhere.  Between my innards and the little voices in my head, I don't have much choice where to go or what to have early on the Sunday morn of another Elko vacationette, but their judgement is sound.

But aside from giving me a brief respite in Elko, the purpose of the trip is playing with the RMS (one of the few opportunities I have anymore to play my very nice, very expensive doublebass). The group has usually contained quite a few students at the University of Nevada; I got my start with the group as an undergrad myself. And we used to have some epic after-after parties at the Stockmen's Hotel.  Most of that crowd are long gone now, but a few still make the rounds up there from time to time.  The after-after gatherings aren't nearly so epic anymore (I can't even remember the last time security had to knock on our doors), but we still usually have a good time. Plus I get to take the ol' bass out and stretch my hands on the fingerboard (even if it means mostly show tunes and film score redactions), and that's a good (read: necessary) thing.

As an added bonus I can stop at Mr. B's in Imlay and add to my collection of bad truck stop music!  That "AM Gold" CD is getting awfully lonely.

On the way back home, I'm sure, Spring will do what Spring always does - give me a stiff headwind to ruin my gas mileage, pit my windshield with relentless sand, and cause truck drivers to careen down the highway with reckless abandon.  But it's worth it; for me, Elko's the place to be in April...and November.

Transitions

I admit, the main reason for this post is just so the first one doesn't just sit there all lonely like.  Plus it gives me the opportunity to encourage, even motivate myself to keep going forward, not letting this blog go by the wayside. To do this I've decided to share a picture from my travels and use it as a springboard for composition.

The Desatoyas have always been my favorite Nevada mountain range.  They're high yet compact and spectacular.  I even wrote the Wikipedia article for the mountains, humble though it may be.  The old Lincoln Highway and the Pony Express trail both traverse its high passes and its wooded lowlands. 

The beautiful "hamlet" of Eastgate straddles Nevada State Route 722 (the "old highway") at the foothills of the to the west; on the Eastern slope the ruins of Carroll Station sit roadside along the same highway in an idyllic glade.  

Pictures don't do much justice.

Between them runs Highway 722...the Old Highway, the original route of the Lincoln Highway, twisting, winding, and occasionally careening up, down, and across the mountains.  Its an exceptional cross section of an impressive bit of Nevada geography that represents a transition between the more arid lands of Western Nevada and the somewhat tamer expanses of the Central Nevada Basin and Range.

The modern traveler heading East on U.S. 50 bypasses this old route for the slightly longer, slightly quicker trail over New Pass Summit to the North. In doing so one misses out on some great measure of natural beauty and pastoral serenity; trading time for experience is a sacrifice that must be weighed, unfortunately.

As my above cited article mentions, the derivation of the name for the range is unclear.  The suffix toya is a permutation of the Shoshone word Toyap, meaning "Mountain;" toyap may be more familiar in its adaption to the word "Toiyabe," the name of one of Nevada's longest ranges, in which Austin is situated, as well as the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest which, incidentally, at 5,640,424 acres is the largest national forest outside of Alaska.  Desa "...has been multifariously interpreted as 'short, low,' 'big-black,' and 'cold."

The range was earlier known as either the "Lookout Range" or the "Sedaye Mountains."  Sedaye is said to mean "no good," yet in experiencing these peaks and hills, creeks and woodlands, how it ever got that name is beyond me.

Introitus

Nevada is my home.  I was born here, and raised here, and da-gummit I'm gonna die here!  Over the years my love and appreciation for my native state has burgeoned, from a flickering understanding that this is my place in life, to a full-fledged realization that this is my place in life: my home, my soil, my birthright, and, as campy as it may sound, my soul.  I breathe Nevada air, I drink Nevada beer...

...and I drive Nevada highways a LOT.

As a part of my growing fondness for the Sagebrush State I began to take an interest in her geography; the mountains, the valleys, the woodlands, the sagebrush steppe.... And as a history nerd I developed a yearning to learn about my history, my roots...and those of my native land.  The two of course marry quite well, and subsequently I travel the highways and back roads of Nevada to see and experience the desert in all of its magnificence.

So here I am to chronicle my travels.  Between the mundane and the sublime, this is my story.

The Nevada Traveler can be found on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Nevada-Traveler/321119557936168.