4th Day | September 1, 2018 Virginia City - Ely

Rain in Nevada early in the morning! - but no, what came towards us as cool water through the open window was only the sprinkler system right outside our window with mountain view. The horses also liked it and enjoyed the juicy green grass as breakfast a few minutes later. You can be woken up worse...

Today's day is meant as a transit route and we want to cover a lot of kilometers. We are planning to drive about 500 kilometers today, most of which can be driven on a freeway at around 70 mph. That's good progress.

We drove on Route 50 for large parts of the journey, which is known as the "loneliest road in America". And we soon found out why.

By the way, the route is also known for something else, as it was the famous Pony Express Trail from St. Louis to Sacramento, where mail riders and stagecoaches carried important information from station to station. Another piece of American explorer history. We spent the whole day traveling through the Nevada steppes, and the road was almost like a straight line, as curves were scarce. We once looked at the clock and drove straight for twenty minutes at 70 mph, which is about 115 km/h, without any bends. It was almost like driving on a ruler. That's how it was for most of the day. Only when we had to cross from one valley to the next did the road become more varied. Especially beautiful behind Eureka, where we took a little stop.

Even before that, we passed Sand Springs. - The highlight - a sand dune that sure piled up about 100 meters high, which was used today on Saturday to drive up and down with quads, buggies, motorcycles, or other spectacular vehicles.

You could watch there for an hour without having to pay anything. Those who wanted to know more camped with RVs right on site, giving Sand Springs a special atmosphere in the middle of nowhere. A true man's playground... I even had to be careful not to get our Chevy stuck in the parking lot. Mom even asked if you could rent vehicles there, but unfortunately you couldn't. Nevertheless, it was an interesting spectacle.

In the afternoon, we arrived in Ely. A city that grew in the early 19th century when large copper deposits were discovered here. At that time, it was still inhabited by Shoshone Indian trackers, who are still at home here today. Many old buildings on the classic main street, and the largest building in the city is the six-story Hotel Nevada Gambling Hall.

That's where we wanted to sleep tonight. Today I have my own room, as there are only rooms with a double bed here. The rooms are very nice according to American standards. A large flat-screen TV with ESPN makes my heart beat faster. We then took a walk up and down the main street and then picked up our welcome margarita at the bar.

From the window, we could also hear the whistle of the ghost train, for which you can buy tickets not quite by magic. Very authentic and really well done, but someone who has the Molli waiting outside the door at home might be a bit spoiled here.

Tomorrow we have changed our plans a bit, shopping and another visit to Olympia are on the agenda. Stay tuned.