Jackpot! Well not money, just where we stopped today.

We were watching the soccer game last night, Columbia vs Chile, played in Chicago and the game had to be stopped for TWO hours at half time because of dangerous weather. So the TV replayed Tuesdays game USA vs Argentina. That Messi is unbelievable.

Just a pretty Ely day. Blue sky and puffy white clouds. 

Sunset was interesting from the campground. As the sun was going down it turned the mountains across the valley a pretty pink. 

 And this weird little pink cloud. Looks like a tooth root. Maybe it's the engines from an alien ship heading for home.

 Just playing with the camera, an oil painting and an illustration setting. 

 I like this one. Might use it as a header someday.

The more time we spend in this RV the more I wish we had kept the Alfa. It’s a good thing it is gone or I’d want to keep it.

Just little things that are different. The noise from the engine when we’re traveling. The Alfa’s engine was in the back and we never heard it. The noise of the roof air conditioning – the Alfa had basement air and was very quiet. This coach has an on-demand water heater, which sounds like a good idea. But either I’m too dumb to figure out how to set the shower faucets or it just hates me. When taking a shower the water switches from hot to cold without touching the faucets. Then back again. Not fun and hope I figure it out soon. We had an on-demand - tankless - waterheater in Indiana in the house and I hated it there too. 

Also discovered the kitchen sink is plastic not ceramic. It melts if something hot touches it. Don't ask! But it is something to look for if you are RV shopping Also cannot use comet or ajax powder on it. Things we’ll have to get used to. For experienced motorhomers we sure didn’t do our due diligence before buying this. But we will learn to live with its foibles. There were things we didn't like about the Alfa at first too. 

We left Ely this morning at 8:00, stopped for gas. We are so far averaging 8mpg. One more gas up and I'll have better averages. We had planned on stopping in Wells at 140 miles, instead we just stopped there for lunch and continued on to Jackpot. Staying at Cactus Petes for $22. Site is level, gravel with grass on both sides. Some of the sites have shade trees. WiFi so far is good. Good TV reception. Ended up doing 206 miles - the most we've done in this RV in a day. We opted for no trees for the satellite TV

 Lots of trees in this row. 

About the only thing interesting for the day was seeing all the snow still on the Ruby Mountains. 

 And three sections of "one lane only" construction. 15 minute waits at two of them. Short red light at last one. 

 This truck is transporting holes, shouldn't weight much. Or maybe they are hula hoops?

Walked over and walked around the casino. Bigger and nicer than I thought it would be. I sure don't understand the new slot machines. Seems like you'd need an engineers degree to use them. This one was 3D - made me dizzy watching it. 

Walking back to the RV we passed the Jackpot National Forest., between the casino and the campground.

Tomorrow we'll be going to the little town of Hagerman just west of Twin Falls. Hopefully we can get TV - as it is road race weekend and the final Copa America game with Argentina vs Chile.

Ely,NV- just riding around town.

We are a little further north, it is a little cooler - mid 90's and higher elevation at 6437 feet. We left Pioche around 10 o'clock yesterday and followed US93 north. As we left the area I got a quick shot of the old mine mill. 
As we continued north we began to see snow on the far away mountains. This is Mount Wheeler at 13,000 feet. 

Also did some climbing. The RV worked really well, we of course are towing the Jeep and we had the AC running the whole time. Nothing heated up. 

And then we started downhill and the road got a little twisty. Scenery was pretty. Lots of greenery.  

We got to Ely - pronounced ee lee around noon. Ely was founded as a stagecoach station along the Pony Express and Central Overland Route. It has a population of around 4200 and is 6437 feet high. We are staying at the KOA - in one of their only satellite friendly spots. Level sites, good WiFi and our satellite TV works as does our cell phone. Nice grocery store just up the road. 

Next to the last space in the park. And no trees. Today by mid afternoon it got really windy. Glad we are not on the road. Sitting tight to be able to watch the soccer game tonight. We watched the one last night too - sorry for the USA, but Argentina had the much better game. 

This morning we left  for town to look around. Neat building with nice old car out front. 

Ely has quite a few murals and I found the web site about them. The Ely Renaissance Society has facilitated more than 20 outdoor murals and sculptures.
This one is called United by Our Children Mural. 

This mural depicts the role of the Basque people in the community. The sheeperders were recruited to the West from the Pyrenees Mountains to herd sheep. Many stayed and ended up owning the ranches where they worked. 

No information about this one. It is rather strange. Touring an underground silver mine.

A cute donkey on the side of the Hotel Nevada and below it a mural showing the charcoal ovens not far from here. 

These two murals recognize the efforts of Italian workers who built the Ward Charcoal ovens to provide charcoal to operate the smelter in the Ward Mining District. The second mural recognizes the efforts by a second group of Italian workers who built the railroad that hauled the ore. 

A historic interpretive art style used for this mural tends to evoke powerful emotions from viewers as they gaze on the faces of miners from all ethnic groups who labor to retrieve the copper. 

Couldn't find any information about this one. Wish the picture was better, but took it on the fly. 

Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall opened 1929 and was the tallest building in Nevada well into the 1940's. It was the stat's first fire proof building. 

One of the smaller museums in town. 

Love this house and it's decorations. 

This is part of a Sculpture Park. Giant ore triples used in the mines creat this giant sculpture resting next to a metal basin and range mountains. 

Ely Renaissance members created this replica of the 1950 station. This station is complete with a truck, coke machine, and gas pumps!

All the supplies showing in the windows are painted. 

Even the car up on the ramp is painted - front view. 

Same car, side view - cute. 

Not a mural, just a business. Hum...? In Ely?

These panels tell the story of the Pony Express and the telegraph lines as they crossed through White Pine County.

The Nevada Northern Railway Museum. 

The station master's office. 

The back of the station. We did not go in the museum, just walked around outside. 

Some metal sculptures outside of McDonalds.

Again no information about this mural. 

An exciting montage of communications over time, this mural spans the telephone's invention by Alexander Graham Bell and delves on into the modern technology of today. 

There is actually quite a bit to do around here. Including hunting for and finding garnets. But because of the heat and the altitude we more or less did what we could while in the car. 
For more pictures of Ely and of the Railroad museum click here

More Pioche and Boot Hill Part 2

Continuing on with our day in Pioche. There now is a population or just over 1000. It is the  county seat of Lincoln County.

 Back to where I left off - the almost Million Dollar court house. The jail is right behind the court house. This is looking from the jail to the court house. This town really need a jail when the mining was in full swing. 

 The main room of the jail looking towards the back. 

 Looking towards the front. The cells are on the right side. Check out the ceiling. The cell door were heavy wood with big bars to lock the. No windows to outside . 

 The bunks in the cell.

 Outhouse up the hill from the jail and courthouse. 

 Of course I had to go up and check it out. 

 Back inside the courthouse. I would love to have one of these.

 The office girl at her desk. This room was full of old typewriters - about 100 of them. All brands and ages. 

Also a voting booth

 The building next to the courthouse. The Mountain View Hotel

 Just a really old building - miner's cabin? storage cabin? Built into the side of the hill. 

 Up the hill towards the mine. looking down over town. 

 This was originally built in the mid 1800's and was The Pioche Bank. The vault is still in the rear of the building. It is now a bar.

 Originally built in 1900 it was destroyed by fire and rebuilt to look more modern. At one time it was a clothing store. Eventually became the museum

 Out on Highway 93 the ore buckets cross the road.

 Filled buckets went to the mill - can see the smoke stack in the background. 

One of the old buildings near the mine. In 1864 a LDS missionary was lead to the silver by a Native Paiute. In 1868 San Franciscan Francois Pioche purchased claims and constructed the smelter. 

The ore buckets passed almost right over the town. and across what is now Highway 93.

This is where the buckets got loaded.

The loaded buckets went up over this hill then down across town and roadway to the mill. 

I think I mentioned this was a really wild and rough town at the height of the mining. Some said even worse than Tombstone or Dodge City. Over 10,000 population. Hired gunman were imported at the rate of about 20 a day during the boom times - they made $20 a day!
It has been reported that 75 men were buried in the cemetery before anyone died a natural death.
This is a list in the court house of murder victims.

And here is Boot Hill. The murderers were buried away from the regular citizens. All in a row along the back fence. 

Murderer's row.

The ore buckets go right over the cemetery. 

Some scenes from the civilized part of the old cemetery. Average age at death between 30 - 40 Bill. was really bothered by that fact. 

Some of the more fancy "good peoples" graves. 

Yesterday I put in a link to a magazine that had a story about old Pioche - just realized I didn't put in what pages the article was on 
http://www.dezertmagazine.com/mine/1972DM03/index.html  pages 16-17 "They Didn't Have A Chance." Very funny reading. 
We left Pioche this morning and are now in Ely, NV for a couple of days. At the only place in town - a KOA. They do have good internet and temps are not supposed to go over 95 - boy have to get out a sweater. And we are still over 6000 feet high. In fact we can see snow on the mountain right behind us.