Adventure in the NV Outback – Day 3



Bridget made a friend

We woke up this morning in the lovely town of Ely with a few inches of snow.  One of our neighbors was very nice and helped Bridget clean the snow off the car.  Everywhere we went on this trip people were nice to us, everyone wanted to help us and they were all very friendly.  That made me proud as a Native Nevadan to know that when tourists come to check out the Nevada outback the locals are very nice and friendly, it gives travelers a little taste of Mayberry Nevada style.  I think people in rural Nevada are much nicer to visitors than people in the big cities in Nevada.
 

After we packed up all our stuff we hit the road.  It was a blizzard but the snow wasn’t sticking to the roads.  We called the visitor center at Lehman Caves and they said that the caves were open so we decided to take the chance and drive in the blizzard out to Great Basin National Park.  It was a beautiful drive in the snow, we just couldn’t believe it was Memorial Day weekend and there was so much snow. 

On the drive we saw the most enchanting pair of Elk on the side of the road.  The Elk were standing in the snow next to some bushes, it looked like something out of a National Geographic magazine. 

http://www.nps.gov/grba/planyourvisit/lehman-caves-tours.htm

We arrived at the Lehman Caves visitor center about 20 minutes before our tour.  We had good timing because we had to have Bridget and Andy’s shoes cleaned before entering the cave.  The parks service makes people clean their shoes if they have previously been in caves or mines to try to limit the spread of white nose syndrome.  My first thought when I heard White Nose Syndrome mentioned was cocaine addiction, but it turns out White Nose Syndrome has nothing to do with cocaine, it is an illness that is hurting bat populations in America.  The bats are exposed to a fungus and it gets in their nose and ends up killing them.  It is a very serious threat to the species so they are trying to make sure people are not spreading the fungus when they visit caves and mines.     

The Lehman Caves are awesome and a must see if you can get out to the far east side of Nevada.  The cave is full of beautiful stalactites, stalagmites, and popcorn looking walls.  We took the shorter tour because the long tour was sold out.  Even though it was a blizzard the long tour was sold out, I couldn’t believe it.  I really enjoyed our tour, it felt like visiting another planet.  I enjoyed the stories our guide told us about the locals using the cave in the late 1890s and early 1900s.  He said they explored the cave as a form of entertainment and that there were stories of Free Mason initiations that took place there and that at one time during prohibition there was supposedly a speakeasy in the cave.  I loved the idea of people having a good time at a speakeasy in the cave back in the day, that story really got my imagination going.  

Our view when we came out of the cave.

Nevadans love to make political statements.
This display is in protest of the water pipeline
in the works from North East NV to Southern NV

After the tour of the cave we got back on the road and headed to Austin.  We ate lunch in Eureka got the stamp for our survival guide and then we were on our way again.  Since we already suffered the loss of a tire and there was a blizzard we limited ourselves to fun on paved roads which in the Nevada outback really limits your options.  We were lucky though because it was a spring snow and it wasn't sticking to the roads.  We arrived in Austin and checked into our hotel the Stinkin Lincoln, then the only thing left to do was to get a drink.

This picture was taken on Friday when we got
to town, the blizzard was on Sunday.

We had our first drink at the International Bar which was right across from our motel.  The bar had an interesting vibe, the minute I walked in I wanted to remodel it and fix it up because it had so much potential and it was obvious the place is neglected.  We met the owner/bartender and ordered our drinks.  The owner/bartender wins the award for most awkward conversation of the trip.  So we had a drink and played some pool, then we decided to move on to the next bar.  The next bar was the Silver State Bar where we had drinks the first night in town.  It was nice to see our friends there again.  So we had a drink and then kept on moving for our Austin blizzard bar crawl.  The next bar was The Owl Club and the owner Mary was behind the bar.  Mary is a great lady and a local legend.  She told us stories about the town and the history of the bar.  The bar was once a morgue, and at one time a movie theater, and now it is a bar so Mary had a pretty crazy history lesson for us.  We had a great time chatting with Mary and the other few people in the bar but the highlight was when Mary treated us to a shot of Brandy with a peppermint floater, it was really good!    

Us with Mary at the Owl Club Bar

After we left the Owl Club we decided to go up to the Toyobi café and have dinner, the bar crawl started around 3:30pm and we had been to every bar open in town, yes all 3 of them, so it was time for dinner.  After dinner we headed back to Silver State Bar.  This time we sat at the bar and chatted with the locals as if they were our old friends.  Everyone was really nice and friendly.  After our first round of drinks a guy at the bar bought everyone a round.  I have never seen that happen before where someone buys the whole bar a round, it was great!  So we had one last drink with our new friends in Austin before we called it a night.  Since it was around 11pm we felt like we had a very successful bar crawl. 

Picture of the trip!