Day 10: Elko NV to Reno NV

Thursday, September 11, 2008
Day miles: 342
Trip miles: 2459

We awoke to a beautiful clear day. Before heading for Reno, we visited Sherman Station, a set of restored buildings moved from outside Elko into the city. The buildings include a school house, a creamery, a stable/livery and a large home. The home serves as a museum and information center. Note the sod roof on the school house.






Our final destination was Reno, but we wanted to visit the ghost town of Unionville along the way. Unionville is an old silver mining 'town' in which most of the original buildings are gone - only foundations remain. It is not the typical ghost town you think of where old dilapidated buildings still stand and no one is around. A few people still live in Unionville in more modern buildings. We had to travel several miles on a dirt road.













In the pictures below you can see foundations of old buildings.










We found this one very modern home - a resident told us a retired doctor built the home. This is a very remote area and most of the residences we saw were old trailers or very modest houses. The picture to the right is an old mine shaft Dale discovered.










Near the end of the road we found this small park. Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain) came here to prospect for silver in 1861. He quickly realized he did not want to live the life of a prospector. The picture to the right may be the remains of the shack Mark Twain and his fellow prospectors built. As soon as we got off our bikes, an old man came hobbling out of a building across the street. He used two canes to get around. He is 89 years old and wanted to talk - told us all about his life in the Navy, his wife and kids - all in language liberally sprinkled with the rough language of an old sailor. It was really a riot. Johann discretely took some video of our conversation with him.











To get back on the highway we had a choice of backtracking quite a distance or continuing on dirt roads for about 15 miles. We chose the dirt roads. This is in the middle of nowhere!!



















Our bikes and clothes became covered with dust. We arrived in Reno late in the evening - very tired, thirsty, hungry and dusty. After a quick clean-up we headed for a restaurant. My meal was a chicken salad, bar fries and a good cold stout!!