Day 2 - The Loneliest Road

We woke up early headed over to Heidi's for some breakfast. The staff were friendly, the decor was charming, and the breakfast yummy. They served us almost instantly.

After breakfast, we took a nice walk down to the Tahoe Regional Park.
We didn't stop in Carson City or Virginia City. We rolled on until Austin. We saw lots of salt flats like this one. We had pie in Austin, but it was disappointing - from frozen. We were glad to stop and stretch and make use of the "Free Public Restrooms" but the pie was definitely a let-down. (Maybe the fact that the restaurant's largest advertisement was for the restroom should have been a clue.)
These are the Toiyabe Mountains. This view loomed and we had to get out and take some pictures. It was then that I noticed how many tiny wild flowers dotted the desert. They weren't visible from the car at all.
I thought Nevada was pretty much flat, but it is loaded with mountain ranges. We must have passed at least eight summits today. The valleys between and flat and the road is straight in those areas, but it's not the flat nothing I thought it would be.

Look at this beautiful valley. This view may have been the same for millions of years, although I understand some of these areas held large lakes many millions of years ago. Because we live downtown, in a valley, under total tree cover, these broad views are amazing to us.
We had a nice "walk in nature" (aka hike) a the Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Area. Many lizards posed handsomely for me.
The petroglyphs are almost all curvilinear, with only one example of an animal shape. No one knows exactly when these were made, but there are lots of prehistoric hunting and living sites in the area that date back to 10,000 BC.
There is a self-guided tour with a handy brochure. The trail leads to several petroglyph sites and the brochure also points out examples of plant life and how the indigenous peoples used them as resources. It was almost surreal to be looking at these ancient communications and receive a phone call from my daughter in NYC. So, while standing near the summit of a mountain, at nearly 7000 feet elevation, in the middle of a park in the middle of nowhere, I was able to hear all about the lobster roll she ate for lunch. (Like mother-like daughter!)
We made a planned stop in Ely at the Red Apple Family Restaurant. Joanne, owner, baker and local County Clerk, took our picture after serving us our dinner. I had their fried chicken and Dwayne had meatloaf. Our experience here more than made up for our frozen pie from earlier in the day. The mashed potatoes were delish - red potatoes with the skins still on and seasoned expertly. The chicken was crunchy and well seasoned. The only thing I passed over was the corn. We are so fortunate to live in an agricultural area where fresh produce is always available. I can wait for this summer's corn. Besides, I had to save room for pie.
Joanne's bakery case was a work of art. Everything is made by her from scratch. She even uses the same kind of old-fashioned Pyrex pie pans that I use.
I had something called the Sinful Pie. I may be working up a copy-cat of this. The filling is sweetened condensed milk, cream cheese and cool whip. Not healthy, but OH MY WORD! The topping is something close to brittle made with butter, sugar, coconut and nuts. She then drizzles it with caramel syrup. The crust was perfect. To my surprise, she said she only uses 1/3 cup of shortening per 4 cups of flour. I don't know how she got the crust so tender and crispy with so little fat. Thanks to Joanne for being so generous and willing to talk over her recipes with me.
Dwayne had a banana-coconut cream pie. This shows the crust, which was also loaded with coconut and perfectly tender.
Joanne and her husband, Bruce, were so nice! They were short staffed, but still took the time to talk with us about our trip, share recipe secrets and they also helped us find a place to stay. Ely is unusually full due to a road race this weekend.
After dinner, we took a nice walk around the town. We were able to stroll the entire town in 30-40 minutes. This guy is pretty famous, so I took his picture.

Tomorrow we're heading to Big Basin National Park, Lehman Caves and then on into Utah. Dwayne has done 100% of the driving so far, and really I'm glad, as I've been terribly drowsy. I hope we have a good night's sleep here in Ely.