Ely, Nevada

We started our day with more headwinds and uphill driving.  Does the United States have any downhills?  Actually we're very near the Continental Divide so it does make some sense but that is small consolation for trailering.

Last nights sunset was not terribly exciting but a brief rain shower did give us this rainbow.  I like to think that our trailer is the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.  In many ways it is because that's where all our money is!

We left Twin Falls, Idaho in the rain and wind and headed due south to Nevada.  The weather improved and we ended up in sunshine by the end of the day.  We stopped in Schellbourne, Nevada at a rest stop.  Apart from a small store which always seems to contain a discout liquor store and slot machines in Nevada that was pretty much all there was to Schellbourne. 

An interesting note about this area is the Pony express.  The origin, and the reason, for a horse and rider delivery system between east and west can be summed up in two words- slow mail.  Prior to the Coach and Pony Express mail delivery, time from the east portion of the United States to the west- by ship down through the gulf of Mexico, across Panama by mule, then by ship again up to San Francisco- might take eight weeks if the winds were off (at least six weeks with everything working perfectly).

And yet, only once, in the eighteen months that the Pony Express was in operation, did the mail fail to come through when a horse and rider were both killed.

In October, 1861, the Pony Express was officially terminated-though some mail was carried in November.  The telegraph wire system was complete from east to west; messages that took eight weeks by ship, ten days by Pony Express, now took only four hours by wire.

From Ely we'll be heading almost due east to Moab and our home for 9 days while we enjoy red rock country.  We have beeen seeing a few patches of red rock here and there but tomorrow we'll be well into it!