At least it'll take them longer to aim and fire ...

Breakfast in Elko

Last night when I was out shooting, I spotted a little donut shop. Luckily, I remembered it this morning, groggy and lusting for coffee. Verdict: Good coffee, and the cinnamon bun is out of this world, and an apple turnover is yet uneaten, but here are some photos (after the break):

And for those Harley-lovin friends of mine, this is the side wall outside of the Silver Dollar Club:

Elko Nightlife

Zoo and I ate a family-style dinner at the Basque restaurant BilToKi. It was amazing. Very farm-style food. Started with a tomato/onion/cabbage soup, some awesome bread, then a trio of sides: Beans, Steamed (soft) veggies and some pasta with red sauce. Then came the meat (sorry for the quality - it's a phone):

A perfect, giant-sized pair of filet mignon, and high-heat seared-to-perfection pork chops. And fries on the side. Needless to say, neither of us cleaned out plates. Holy bloat. So, we headed back to the hotel to ride out the food coma and blog.

Apparently, Elko has the highest concentration of Basque in America. Thank you! Dinner was outstanding.

Wednesday night in Elko is neither dead nor hopping. At the suggestion of the gal behind the counter at our hotel, we headed over to G's for some drinks. What was that noise as we approached? Karaoke. You know it! We had a few brews, sang some songs and enjoyed getting to know the locals better. Friendly people, but kinda stuck... Stuck in circumstances, stuck in beliefs that they will never escape.

Take the glitz and glam on Las Vegas, mix in a rodeo, the Basque, some mexicans and Native Americans (lots of mix blood around here) and you get a really interesting cross-section of cowboy gambling drinking farmer young stuck in the town feeling. Kind of desperate, but resigned. It's charming if you like gritty (and I do), but as I mentioned in my night shots post, it had a slight edge of danger because a few people had a chip on their shoulder for out of towners.

We popped out heads into three brothels, just to see what it was like. Zoo Broker will be going to Amsterdam shortly.

Now we head off to... (to be posted)

Day 5: Elko

When you get out on the road with no specific destination, sometimes you have to make some hard decisions.  As we approached Bozeman two nights ago, it became clear that although Salt Lake City has great potential for "griefing" religious zealots (and/or corrupting young Mormans, Orgazmo style), it puts us in a tough spot.  We don't really like to backtrack on our path -- seems like a waste of time -- and we don't like to get stuck in the middle of nowhere either.  Sleeping in a car with Spammer's snoring would be like trying to apply lipstick on a roller coaster. So we took an easy day, ending in Pocatello, to stage for our run ... and after hearing only positive things about Elko, we pointed the Hyundai and hit the gas, thinking that we'd have a quick driving day with some fun in Nevada.

Now, as technologically dorky as Spammer and I are, we didn't pore over Google Earth prior to setting out ... we sort of pick roads at random ... and what we found along the way was no less than the most amazing road we've ever seen.  I've road tripped more than 30000 miles in my life, and what we saw today was pristine, awe-inspiring and just a little bit scary.   Check out the pictures, and if you have the chance, get to Jarbidge, NV.

Oh, so there will probably be some drinking and checking-out of the brothels ... possibly gambling. Stay tuned.

Night shots: Elko, Nevada

After dinner and carousing this evening, I headed out for some night shooting. I must say that this is the first place I felt somewhat uncomfortable showing gear alone at night, but nothing happened, or even threatened to happen. Must have been the hard shoulders on the slackers at the bar or the crazy guy we played pool against who was getting all drunk rowdy. Anyhoo, Elko is awash in neon from the casinos, bars and brothels. Makes nice light for Spammer to capture with pixels.

Pocatello, Idaho to Elko, Nevada

Pocatello, ID to Elko, NV from Sir Arthur SpamZalot on Vimeo.

The Most Amazing Road on Earth

When Zoo and I headed out on our 1st road trip from LA to Denver, we made on little side trip in Arizona. We cut north of the mountains to get to Sedona and ended up in Jerome - high up on the rim of the mountains surrounding the area. It started with a cattle gate and ended during dusk. It was a moving experience and I exclaimed THAT was the best road I had ever been on. Scratch that. (It was and still is amazing...) Today, we took a side road that cut through Humboldt National Forest. It starts in southern Idaho and ends 40'ish miles north of Elko, NV. It changed my life, and we guess that no more than 10,000 people have ever seen what we saw today.

Gobs of photos after the jump.  First we drove past the Salmon River Reservoir: 

and on into the Bruneau Desert flats

And then into a jaw-dropping canyon. And I mean CANYON. 

Zoo took a moment to throw a stone...

And then, since I was driving this leg, into the base of the canyon. We drove along at 20 mph, wondering how far it really was to Jarbidge, because we were nearing a half tank of gas... Nothing like a little uncertainty to make you enjoy things more ;)

So we stopped and shot up into the canyon walls a few times. Zoo said, "Fuck Arches! [National Park) And fuck the tourists! This is awesome." I soooo agree.

After stopping for lunch and gas (what a relief) in Jarbidge (see post) Zoo took the wheel and we drove higher and higher...

When I dreamed of road tripping this time of year, I saw in my mind's eye the aspen and birches turning yellow... and I got it. Stunning.

And the landscape changed for the third time. Now the mountains were carpeted with scattered trees.

And then the landscape changed yet again, now getting into desert-like conditions with jutting rocks on mountainsides here and there...

And then Hunboldt ended.

The desert became even more desert-like. The mountains squashed down into hills.

We were on private land, and cattle ranches surrounded us... but not much cattle.

 

And then 5 1/2 hours later, we hit pavement again. Did I mention that it was 95% dirt roads? Yeah, that's a road trip! 

Dirty Hyundai. Love ya!

See the whole trip as time-lapse

Day 5 Break: Jarbidge

There are small towns, and then there's Jarbidge, Nevada. There appear to be three ways into town, all on treacherously winding one lane dirt roads. It looks as if there's one open eating establishment -- another appeared closed. The population: 16 (plus or minus).

This is a town that has seen better days, and although there seem to be some spirit left, I wonder how many towns like this will survive into the next century.

We had lunch at the Outdoor Inn, two great burgers and some good company.  We had tried to get gas, only to find that the gas station owner was having lunch.   We got some suggestions from him and a couple other travellers.  That's him below.  Can't you just hear him saying: "Boy, I ain't seen a shirt that tight on a man since them crazy days of disco!"  By the way, the dog was super friendly, just flea-infested.   I mistakenly threw the dog's favorite stick in the brambles.  Oops.

more pics:

the cheeseburger

the patty melt

Day 5: Progress

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What Happens In Vegas...

...is sometimes hard to remember. I remember the indescribably delicious steak dinner at nine, complete with beautiful being carnivores, like well-dressed velociraptors.

I believe there was other stuff after that, in fact I am sure, but I decided to combat by hangover with hair of the dog, so it remains fuzzy memories rounded at the edges.