The Star - News, views and advertising of the Grand Coulee Dam Area

 A short item in the Sunset Magazine caught my eye just as we were planning a quick early summer vacation.

lt featured a bed and breakfast in Lamoille, Nevada, only a few miles from where

Dorothy and I were married in Elko.

Over the years we have traveled Nevada from all directions and knew of its

beauty.

 A quick call and we had reservations. When we arrived there we became aware that you can’t always trust what you read.

They were cleaning the place, and it was a mess. They explained that they had winter guests for skiing and hadn’t cleaned up from that.

So we pitched in to help. The entire place was in disarray and we wondered if we even had a sleeping place. Late that evening, a meal was prepared, and I was surprised that they charged us for it.

The night wasn’t all that comfortable, and since we only paid for the first night we decided to end it at that and drove to Elko for accommodations for the remainder of our week-long vacation.

I initially envisioned that I would get in a little stream fishing. 

Not so.

The Ruby Mountain Range was within a few miles, so we decided to include some hiking.

Ruby Dome, the highest place in the range of mountains, stood at just over 11,000 feet.

I was thankful that you could drive up about 3,000 feet, and then walk on a good path to the top.

I had been having some breathing problems recently, and so the combination of walking uphill and the elevation took all of my energy.

My wife was not affected, so when we got to the top, I collapsed in a grassy area and Dorothy decided to explore a bit. 

The mountain top was alive with wildflowers and I remember that there were dozens of hummingbirds working away.

Going back down was uneventful but proved that we had hiked a bit to get to the top.

The bed and breakfast had a helipad just outside the building and it was used to ferry skiers to the top of the mountain.

Another day we drove to Jiggs, about 35 miles from Elko.

It wasn’t really a town, but featured a restaurant/bar.That was the first and only time that I had seen a two-headed calf, stuffed and perched on a shelf for all to see.

The population was listed as 2, so the help must have commuted from some other place.

The whole episode reminded me that it’s the little unexpected experiences you remember.

Another was our trip to Jarbridge, Nevada. The trail to Jarbridge is off Highway 93, about halfway between Twin Falls, Idaho and Jackpot, Nevada.

The trail is loose gravel applied sparingly over a rough dirt road.

I felt that I had made a bad turn when the road became a dry river bed. We had to stop and roll big rocks out of the way on several occasions.

Jarbidge had been a hot gold mining area at the turn of the last century, and at the time almost abandoned.

There was one place open. When we inquired about eating, the man said he was in the process of closing but had enough hamburger for one sandwich, and some cheese; he could make additional sandwiches. There were four of us.

Jarbridge is just under 7,000 feet elevation and there were a number of mining buildings. I have recently learned that mining has started up again.

We left one shopkeeper with a bare cupboard, but the experience reinforced my feeling that the little out-of-the way places give you the best memories.

On another trip we were halfway between Las Vegas and Twin Falls and saw a sign for Eureka, so we turned off and drove to the little town.

In a restaurant we learned that there had been a land boom there, and outsiders had been buying up every parcel they could.

It was all because of the crazy scheme that had been floated of the government putting in a rail line from there to the Salt Lake area so they could move our missiles so that any perceived enemy wouldn’t know where they were, something some of the coffee crowd present thought very funny.

Nevada is full of these types of places.