Saturday in Ely Nevada

Ely downtown at dusk

Introduction

Saturday was going to be a busy day.  I've itemized everything I did below:

• Ran the Take It to the Lake Half Marathon
• Explored Cave Lake State Park
• Quickly grabbed a bite to eat
• Headed on over to the Northern Nevada Railroad for a nearly two hour train ride.
• Before a storm arrived, drove out to see the Ward Charcoal Ovens.

After the ovens, we headed back to the hotel.  To say the least, I needed a break!

Evening in Ely

We arrived back at the hotel just after 5 and I wasn't quite ready to hit dinner.  Itching to take advantage of the pool, I quickly changed into my bathing suit and hit the whirlpool.  It really helped me recover and I wound up meeting a guy from Casper.  We exchanged stories about Wyoming and I explained I had run the Casper Marathon.  Pretty cool to get travel tips from him, should I opt to run that one again.

Pool at the Prospector Hotel and Casino

After cleaning up we headed to the downtown area, which was about a 2 mile drive from the hotel.  Easy parking too -- I just pulled right up to the outside of the Jailhouse Motel and Casino on the main road and I was in the heart of the downtown area.

I had gotten some dining tips from people at the race and we did a bit of exploring before settling in on one:

1) Jailhouse Motel had a nice restaurant and the people at the race said that was reputed to be the best

2) A restaurant at the Ramada

3) The lady working the spa at Montego Bay told me that Hotel Nevada's cafe had good food.

We sauntered into the jailhouse and looked over the menu.  It was a bit on the pricey side and the theme of the restaurant was that you were served in cells -- probably from the original jailhouse.  I saw something that struck my fancy but I wanted to check out the Hotel Nevada.

Jailhouse Motel and Casino

We walked across the street and the Hotel Nevada's cafe was bustling and the food was affordable.  I saw something on the menu I wanted more (I had a major hankering for fries) and so we jumped into the cafe.  I ordered the salmon dinner and Shari ordered a pizza.  

The food was good and I really appreciated the large portions.  This was also my first meal of the day (more or less) so I was ravenous.  I wound up eating most of Shari's pizza.  The pizza won't win any awards any time soon, but it was good.

Dinner at Hotel Nevada

After eating, we decided to gamble.  I found an Invaders from Planet Moolah, one of my all-time favorites.  I plunked a $20 in, and got a really nice bonus round netting a profit.  I spied a Fu Dao Le and dropped another $20 in there and quickly turned another profit.  I was on a roll!  I even won at Multi-Strike video poker.  The casino was the only one in town with live gaming (including pot limit Texas Hold'em) and their selection of slot machines ranged from older to new.  I was really impressed with their selection and it wasn't terribly busy either.

A nice $50 win

We also checked out a lot of the memorabilia on the walls.  The Hotel Nevada dates back to 1929 and was once the tallest building in Nevada.  There are pictures of famous people who have stayed there on the walls throughout the hotel as well as western artifacts on display:

After stuffing my wallet with my newly made dollars we headed on over to the Jailhouse.  I want to say this motel had a good selection of machines, but they were mostly older ones.  I found a Mr Cashman and plopped a $20 in there.  I thought I was finally going to get skunked when I hit a jackpot and won $40.  

I headed back on over to the Hotel Nevada but my luck had gone south and I wound up losing about $20. 

Shari wanted to check out the final casino in town, the Ramada, so we went over there.  I wound up gambling there for about 30 minutes.  I think I left with a $4 profit (literally).  It was a tiny casino though and they didn't have any of my favorite machines.  One of the weird things was that the hotel's pool was located just below the slot machines.  So while you were playing, you could watch the kids screaming and swimming.

At that point, I could hardly see straight on account I was exhausted, so we drove back to the hotel.  I spotted this car in the parking lot:

 

I wound up meeting the guy who owned it in the morning.  Turns out he was a CSULB graduate (like myself -- although he graduated about 15 years prior to me).  That little gem runs about $150K and he was planning on racing it in the desert race in the morning -- at a speed of over 200 mph.  In fact, the entire town was littered with muscle cars, Porsche's, Corvette's and race cars.  Just outside of town, a highway gets shut down for a race where contestants get nearly a 100 mile stretch of open road to race on. Sort of like a Cannon Ball run, but all legal.

I hit the sheets just after 10pm.  I wound up sleeping extremely well and woke up really refreshed on Sunday morning.  You know you've lived to the max when that happens.

The Trip from Salt Lake City to Ely Nevada

Prospector Hotel and Casino Ely Nevada

Introduction

On Friday, 9/19, I rushed home from work as quickly as possible.  I had a long night ahead of me and I wanted to get as early as a start as possible.  Being that the trip to Ely was a good 3 and a half hours and I had to be up somewhat early for the Take it to the Lake - Ely Half Marathon.  Shari had some last minute packing to do, but all in all, we were on the road headed west towards Wendover by 4:45.

I made excellent time and other than a bit of traffic west of the city, it was smooth sailing all the way there (although there seemed to be a bit more traffic than usual heading to Wendover).  We got to Wendover by 6:30.

Route in Blue

Wendover

Along the way we were discussing what to do about dinner.  We decided that we'd decide once we got to Montego Bay Casino in West Wendover.  If the casino's restaurants were busy we'd hit up Subway or Burger King and then head south out of town for the next 120 miles.

Montego Bay was pretty empty.  They weren't offering any goodies as far as comps, so maybe it was expected.  We were there mostly to eat, maybe throw in a $20 bill into a slot machine and move on.

Shari and I hemmed and hawed about where to eat.  We thought about going to the Italian restaurant, but that was almost as expensive as a buffet (although the Italian restaurant there is pretty good).  Shari was on board with eating at their cafe but she encouraged me to hit up the seafood buffet as she knows how much I love their buffet.  Let's just say it didn't take too much encouragement for me to readily agree!

Shari jumped into the cafe while I hit up the Oceano buffet.  Normally the buffet is about $28 for Friday night, but you do get crab legs, fish and plenty of seafood.  I used my comps and knocked down the price of admission to $20.

Sadly, the line for the crab legs was long.  I was starving at that point and I had to wait a good 15 minutes before it was my turn to grab my share.  Luckily they were really good about refilling the bin with freshly steamed legs but the people in front of me were really slow.  They picked and dilly-dallied over the legs and like I said, it took a good 15 - 20 minutes before I made it through the line of 15 people.

I showed everybody how it was done though.  I grabbed two plates, slopped on heaping loads of legs on each plate and went back to my seat.  Bam, I was done in about 25 seconds. I am not a 20th level buffet master with Plates of Power +5 for nothing: 

I was surprised but that amount of crab legs sufficed.  I wound up getting some more food as well.  I didn't eat as much as I normally do on account I was racing in the morning and I've made that mistake before: eating too much before a race and either having to hit the bathroom a ton of times or feeling like a two-ton Tessie.

I love the made-to-order tuna steaks!

Gambling in Wendover

After inhaling enough food, Shari and I met up.  I tossed in $20 in a Fu Dao Le slot machine and managed to eek out a $5 profit.  I gave Shari a twenty but the machines were cruel to her and she handed me a cash-out ticket for about 13 cents.  Being I wasn't getting very good comps and we really wanted to hit the road I pulled out my money and took the $20 over to the sports book.  

I went up to the guy and said "I'd like to bet on number 454"... picking Dallas over the Rams at -1.  I looked at my ticket and it said Dallas vs Rams.  Good enough and put it in my pocket. 

When I got to Ely I looked at it and the guy must've heard, "I'd like to bet on the under for 454" (not number), which meant that the score had to be less than 44.5 points.  While that wasn't what I wanted I figured it would be a slow scoring game.  I am very sad to report that Dallas won the game, but the score was WAY over 44.5 points.  Lesson learned boys and girls: check your ticket at the window!  So I would've won if I had looked over my ticket more closely and I got a lecture from Shari about how sports betting is stupid.

Wendover to Ely

If you look closely at the map above, there really isn't anything between Wendover and Ely.  Not even a gas station.  If you want, you can count the village of McGill, but that is just a half marathon shy of Ely itself.

The first 50 miles or so is through the south Wendover desert.  It is desolate, twisty-turny kind of driving and there was NO moonlight.  It was white knuckle driving for me as I saw warning signs  reminding drivers to be careful of crossing burros, sheep, and other critters (I do think I hit a mouse or something at one point).  The speed limit is also 70 mph.

To make matters worse, just as the lights of Wendover were fading in the distance, my check tire  light went on.  I was like, "oh crap" ... I just had my tires checked and had scheduled maintenance done earlier in the week so this made me extremely nervous.  After all, there is NO cell phone connection in a large part of the desert and I was heading out there in the pitch blackness where there was only another car coming into view every 5 - 10 minutes or so.

Luckily the check tire light lasted less than a minute and I am happy to report it never came back.  I am not sure what triggered it unless the tire weight is on the borderline low side.  I do know I have problems with it in the winter.

The trip to Ely was largely uneventful after that.  Although my car was literally covered with squished desert bugs.  I could hardly see out the window it was spattered with so many of them.

Unfortunately, I couldn't really appreciate what I was driving through.  I could vaguely make out the mountain ranges, but for the most part it was inky blackness punctuated by the occasional passing car.  I was in awe when I drove back on Sunday, but that's another story.

Ely

We arrived in Ely just after 9 and we were both relieved to get there.  There is always that lingering doubt that you are going to get run off the road, have car issues, or what not.  Having those kinds of problems in the desert without cell connection is just bad news.  Also, even if you could get help, it would be at least an hour before anyone even got to you.

We stayed at the Prospector Hotel and Casino on the east end of town.  This place was very clean, comfortable, and affordable.  There was a major sporting event in town and I suspect a lot of the hotels were filled and charging extra that weekend.  This hotel was very reasonable and the rooms were excellent.  Highly recommended. You can read my review on TripAdvisor here.

Our room - notice the candies on the bed.

Me hanging in the Lounge with my dogs

Shari with the dogs

Friday Night Gambling in Ely

After settling into the room we decided to scope out the hotel's casino.  I was REALLY excited to see that this wasn't a dive and had a lot of modern machines.  There's no live gaming here and to collect your winnings you get your ticket and go to a cashier's cage (none of the Ely Casinos had dispensing machines).  I was even more ecstatic to see Fu Dao Le unoccupied and ready to be played.

I jumped on and turned $20 into $60.  I got a 3-wild bonus round where I get to pick a bunch of symbols.  I got it to the point where I had the Maxi, Major and Minor and Mini all needing one more pick.  The Maxi was at 8.8K and the mini was at $25.  Well, you can guess what I won, but at least it was something.

We really weren't in Ely to gamble (much).  We don't have any loyalty cards there and to be honest we aren't going to go back but once a year (if I can find a friend to call to Mt Wheeler with me) so we'd rather take our gambling dollar to Wendover, where at least we'll get a little something back (and that Sunday was 7X comps).  

The guy next to me on the Red Phoenix machine was on a roll though and he was up a good $400 - $500, but he was betting aggressively.  Turns out he was from McGill so I got a chance to ask him about it and learn something about the area and life in McGill.

We turned in after 10PM.  Luckily they provided a free tooth brush in the room.  In my haste of leaving Salt Lake I had completely forgotten mine.  This hotel really had a lot of little niceties (even a rubber ducky in the bath tub). 

It wasn't the hotel's fault, but I slept poorly.  I think the stress of driving, the mystery flat tire, a busy day at work, and the anticipation of the race had me up half the night (plus it was warm).  

But I was ready to rock in the morning...

Morning Run in Ely Nevada - 9/21/2014

Downtown Ely Nevada at about 6:30AM

Introduction

One of my favorite things to do when I am in a new town is to take a run and go exploring.  I had gone to bed pretty early the previous night as I was exhausted from my half marathon and all the sight seeing I had done the previous day.  Not only that, I had spent most of the evening wandering around the older casinos.

I actually slept pretty well and was up just before 6AM.  I tossed and turned a bit debating on whether I really wanted to go for a run.  After about 15 minutes I threw on my shorts and headed out.  I needed to get some miles in, I needed to burn a few calories in anticipation of eating some buffets later in the day and I really wanted to explore and get more photos of Ely.

The Run

It had rained in the night and the roads were all water slicked. However, it wasn't raining as I took off.  There were some really awesome cloud formations over the mountains and I quickly snapped a picture of that as I took off from the east side of Ely:

I followed the main drag west towards the downtown area shooting pictures of whatever struck my fancy.  My main goal, however, was to see what the old casinos looked like in the early morning.

I ran primarily on the sidewalk and there was little traffic to worry about.  It was like the entire town was still asleep.  I only saw a handful of people walking their dogs.

My first stop was to the cemetery.  The cemetery is right off the main street and offered a glimpse of history.  There were a few graves that were recent, but a great many of them were from the 1920's:

I rounded the corner and started to descend into the older section of town.  One of the more charming areas was the courthouse park and the White Pine Middle School.  The park had a little creek running through it and looked like a community gathering place.  The school looked like a fairly big but older building.  I am sure it had been around for a while:

Courtyard Park

White Pine Middle School

After going through the park I was greeted by the older hotels and shops, including the famous Hotel Nevada:

The famous Hotel Nevada

The famous Hotel Nevada - rear view

After running down the Ely Strip, I decided to go exploring a bit to the north.  I had spotted the brothels on the train ride and wanted to see them a bit closer.  They were closed but it was interesting seeing something that is legal only in rural Nevada counties:

Big Four Brothel

Stardust Lounge

VIP Spa Massage

After satisfying my curiosity I went along the south down of downtown and captured the Ely Fire Department and City Hall.  

 

I wound up logging about 5 miles.  Ely is a very easy town to navigate as the town spreads out from Aultman Street.  It was a really nice run and I enjoyed capturing the sites of Ely.  I am itching to explore more of the rural sections, however, and might save that for the next trip.

Ward Charcoal Ovens State Park - Ely Nevada

Introduction

After finishing our Ely Northern Railroad Museum and Train Ride, Shari and I ran back to the hotel.  I grabbed a handful of cookies to tide me over and filled a water bottle (or two).  My half marathon run had left me dehydrated and sitting on a train in the sun hadn't helped matters.

There was some dark clouds over the western horizon and I saw a few bolts of lightning emanate from them.  Also, there was the occasional drop of rain that fell -- so we knew that rain was coming. 

I really wanted to see the Ward Charcoal Ovens.  It was very easy to get to (about a 3 minute drive south of town followed by 10 miles of dirt roads).  Just about every brochure for White Pine County shows these structures.  To say that we were in a hurry to beat the impending storm would be an understatement.

Ward Charcoal Ovens

The ovens are indeed in great shape and are remnants from the town of Ward. Apparently, they were built in 1876 and were used to turn the surrounding trees and shrubbery into much needed charcoal to power the steam engines of the day.  If you read the informational sign posted at the park's entrance you'll note that the denizens of the area basically tore up everything in a 35 mile radius in order for it to be used to create charcoal.  I have to wonder what Ely and the surrounding countryside might look like today if the natural vegetation had been left intact...

The ovens can be fully explored -- inside and out.  They are in impressive shape and is a testament to fine craftsmanship to last nearly 150 years.

Looking up through the oven

Typical wall structure

Notice the lichen on the rocks

Shari posing at the Ward Charcoal Ovens.

Surrounding Trails

The surround area also has a lot of hikes.  There was a trail map at the site that identified several of them.  The area was flat and the hiking looked fairly easy.

We took a brief walk on the shortest trail, but I think being absolutely by ourselves out there freaked Shari out (and the fact that I mentioned that I had met a woman that worked for the BLM who said that there could be bobcats and mountain lions out here didn't help).  I did manage to get some shots of the surrounding countryside though and was extremely mindful for rattlesnakes (they tend to come out after rain).  We were lucky in the fact that the rain did hold off the entire time we were at the park.

I'd love to explore here more and all told I would say we were there for about 30 minutes.  We did manage to find a shortcut back to the main road, so we only had about 5 miles of dirt road driving versus the 10 we had come before.  My poor bug spattered Mazda certainly appreciated that.

Trail map

A stream running through a meadow. Kind of soupy here.