Today we continued our journey east along Highway 50, the Loneliest Road in America. One thing I have found interesting are some of the roadside traditions out here in the west. One is spelling out you name with rocks in the sand ridges along the road. The first chance I got, I added M for Myers and B for Buzz. In the hills by the towns, people have added the towns’ initials or at Carson City, a flag. In the morning we went from Fallon, NV to Austin, NV. It was 111 miles between gas stations! Always fill up when you’re out here! We saw this tree from a long distance. When we got up to it we noticed hundreds of shoes hanging in it. The story goes that someone wore out their shoes getting to this solitary tree in the Highland Desert and threw them up into the tree. Years passed. Then other people started throwing their worn shoes into the tree top. Now it’s a famous landmark. Some of the elderly of the community do not like this landmark tree in the desert being treated this way but things are the way they are. The Salt Flats look like a lake from a distance. When you get close there are large areas of land totally barren of life. I can only imagine what the pioneers went through as they tried to find their way west! We took pictures of the pony express stations that were along the road. In Austin they had a Pony Express Museum. As we were getting close to Austin, we began smelling something musky along the road. Almost stinky, musky!

Then we noticed the hundreds of crickets or locusts all over the road! They were hopping everywhere (Except those squashed by cars!) Thousands of them! They were all over the town of Austin. There we stopped at a Jewelry Shop. I bought turquoise stones for my class and a beautiful necklace made by Loretta Cox. Her friend in this picture cut and polished the stone. The turquoise stone came from the Blue Gem Mine which is no longer open. I got some other neat things for my class there about the area mining business. It was another 60 miles to Eureka. (This is where I left our initials.) We’re spending the night in Ely, NV. I read where 80 % of Nevada is public land. There were places posted free range and had placed up caution signs for wild horses. I have lots of pictures for my class so we can study the different types of land we are seeing as we travel. We love you all. As we often say, love, peace, and chicken grease!