Monday, August 27, 2012, Eureka, NV

Monday, August 27, 2012, Eureka, NV

This morning was the first time on this trip that I have set an alarm.  We are meeting friends for breakfast in south Reno and I wanted to get fuel before meeting them.  Ed had suggested this gas station as having the cheapest diesel around Reno.  He was right the diesel was $3.99 a gallon compared to other stations in the area for $4.40+ .  We used a little over 77 gallons for the trip from Las Vegas to Reno.

We got to Peg’s first, Gail and Ed arrived a little later.  We talked for quite awhile, old stories about people we had worked with.  Wow, what a breakfast they serve at Pegs.  Ed had Huevos Rancheros, they were served in a skillet about 12” across.  The rest of us had Hash and eggs, also large portions.  The hash was made with shredded potatoes and slices corn beef with a unique seasoning and a piece of really good cantaloupe.  We spent about an hour and a half over breakfast and left the Reno area at about 11 AM.

Our route today was planned to be east on US-50 through Fernley and Fallon and on through Austin to Eureka.  US-50 is billed as the loneliest road in America.  We did pass two cyclists traveling east and one traveling west.  All were solo and a long way from towns.  There are no towns between Fallon and Austin.  The road goes sharply up to the town of Austin which is at 7400’.  Of course any road that goes up must come down, there was about 10 miles of 6% grade approaching and leaving Austin.  We stopped in Austin to take a few pictures, and arrived at Eureka and the Silver Sky Lodge RV park at 4 PM.

Downtown Austin, NV

Some of our trip was a backtrack along I-580 to I-80 to go east.  The fuel prices and the company at breakfast made the extra 10 miles worth it.  I had downloaded 10 caches in the Fallon area hoping to make one of them my find for Churchill County.  It occurred to me that parking in town might be a problem so I located a cache west of Fallon that had a wide turn out and bagged it.  We didn’t stop in Fallon.  The drive east of Fallon to Eureka was new territory for us.  The last time we were in Eureka we came west from Ely.  Upon reaching Austin we stopped in town for some pictures.  We didn’t get a good one of a city limit sign, no place to pull off the road.

Is Austin the center of Nevada? 

I had also downloaded 10 caches in Eureka to complete Eureka County, thus finishing my quest to find a cache in all 17 Nevada Counties.  As it turned out the first cache we came to was at a rest area 20 miles west of Eureka.  I bagged that one and we continued on into town.  We stopped for some pictures before arriving at the Silver Sky Lodge RV park south of town.  By my calculation I have completed my quest.  But I can’t verify it because the geocaching web site won’t fully load.

Eureka, NV Opera House

Today was a fairly easy drive of 260 miles in 5 hours.  Of course we had no traffic east of Fallon.  The RV park cost $20 for the night.  After the engine cooled down we opened the windows.  The park owner forecast a temperature in the upper 40’s tonight.

Gerri retired to the bedroom and her computer at 9:30.  We still have no DirecTV, I think the dish is shot it just makes a whining noise and doesn’t lock on to any satellites.   My list of repairs for Kevin is growing, looks like we will be going to Quartzsite in January.  I followed Gerri to bed at 10.

Today marks a week since my mother’s death.  She left a large void for such a small person.  I am comforted by the thoughts and prayers of family and friends.  I am also comforted with the knowledge that she can no longer suffer and is in paradise with the other departed saints.

I have done a cache in each Nevada county