Our Amtrak Destination: Elko, Nevada

Our destination: Elko, Nevada

Elko, Nevada is where our daughter and son-in-law currently live. Through visits to Elko in summer 2005 and now in fall 2006, we have come to really enjoy this town. It has a lot to offer tourists and townsfolk alike. When most people hear we are going to visit Nevada, the first thing they think of is gambling. (That's the last thing we think of!) There is so much more to Nevada than gambling! I thought others might enjoy reading a little bit about Elko and some of our favorite places there.

An article a few years back in National Geographic presented Elko as a rather gritty town with many questionable elements. The casual reader might have looked at this article and reached the conclusion that it wouldn't be an interesting or even a safe place to visit. We haven't found that to be true at all.

Elko is located in the northeastern corner of Nevada. It is situated on the Humboldt River and is halfway between Salt Lake City, Utah, and Reno, Nevada. Elko's elevation is 5, 060 feet and is considered high desert. It doesn't get quite as cold in winter as here in New England, but Elko gets its share of snow and ice. We found summer there to be very hot, but it doesn't feel as hot as New England because there is no humidity. Fall in the high desert is absolutely beautiful and the temperatures are mild.

One of the most interesting things about Elko is the people who live there. Some of our country's largest cattle ranches are in northeastern Nevada, so you will see cowboys. There are also Shoshone Indians, Hispanic folks (many of whom originally came to the area as vaqueros) and Basques who originally came here as sheepherders. In addition, of course, there are people from all over the world who've come, through the years, to work as cowboys , on the railroad, or in the mines. We've found the people of Elko to be very friendly, hospitable, and welcoming.

I must hasten to add that my puny little thoughts are in no way to be taken as a truly in-depth picture of the people or the city of Elko. These are just my own impressions and are very much on-the-surface ones. I am sure there is much, much more to this city and its people for one to learn in a longer time span than what we have had.

One of the first things we did on our 2005 trip was to take a walking tour of Elko. It was really neat to see the oldest buildings in the town. It was very much a reminder of the newness of the West in comparison with New England. The oldest home in Elko was built in 1869. By contrast, our town back home was incorporated in the 1760s!

Next I want to list a few of our favorite places in Elko so far. We look forward to revisiting these in the coming years, and also look forward to finding some new favorites. These are in no particular order -- they are all just places we have visited and enjoyed. Obviously, there are many other interesting places that we haven't visited yet. Some of these have websites, so do visit those for more information.

The Northeastern Nevada Museum -- This museum has many fascinating displays on gold mining, Old West life and history, the Basques and Chinese who came here, a rebuilt Pony Express cabin, and much,much more. Bing Crosby owned a ranch near Elko, so there was even an exhibit about that. The museum's Wanamaker Wildlife Wing is also very interesting, with its many displays of all sorts of wild animals in natural settings. (www.museum_elko.us)

Sherman Station Visitor's Center -- An easy walk from the museum, this unique visitors' center is composed of an old ranch house and outbuildings which were moved to this in-town site from Huntington Valley, NV. Sherman Station is definitely worth a visit. The outbuildings include a stable, the blacksmith shop, the creamery, and a one-room schoolhouse. (www.elkonevada.com)

Western Folklife Center -- We love this place! It's located in the historic Pioneer Hotel and is "dedicated to the preservation and presentation of the traditional cultures of the American West." When we visited in 2005 we thoroughly enjoyed the fascinating exhibit "From Vaquero to Buckaroo". The Western Folklife Center has a wonderful gift shop where we always find great things to take to family and friends back east. (www.westernfolklife.org)

J.M. Capriola -- This wonderful store features Western clothing and accessories. It boasts over 70 years' experience in saddle and leather crafting. It is also the home of the famous J.S. Garcia bits and spurs. If you go upstairs in this store, you are likely to find a saddle being made -- a fascinating process to observe. (www.capriolas.com)

Anacabe Elko General Merchandise -- Another wonderfully old-fashioned store. We found some great souvenirs, postcards and note cards here, as well as a very friendly welcome, on our first visit. This time, they were closed on the afternoon we chose to stop by.

Cherished Friends -- This store sells probably the best selection of scrapbooking supplies I've ever seen in one shop. As well, it has a wonderful selection of cards, and gifts in all price ranges. I always find things here to bring back to friends and family. (www.cherishedfriendsgifts.com)

Cucina Fresca -- The kitchen store to end all kitchen stores. Nice kitchenware and gourmet items, all displayed so attractively. A perfect place to buy gifts -- but I always see things I want for my own kitchen, as well.

Hayley's Fine Gifts & Antiques -- A beautifully arranged shop. It makes me think of being in the pages of a really fun catalog, like Gooseberry Patch or Tender Heart Treasures. I always find special, different gifts here. And it smells so nice!

I also enjoy being able to visit "Western" supermarkets, in particular Raley's and Albertson's.

Sierra Java -- A very nice coffee shop. It has a wonderfully informal, cozy atmosphere and features art by local artists on a rotating basis. When we visited this time, a members of a quilt group were enjoying coffee as they hand-stitched on projects. (www.sierrajava.com)

Machi's -- A unique restaurant, legendary for its variety of soups, sandwiches and salads. My daughter took me out to lunch here on our first visit, and I've been trying to figure out the secret of their 2-bean salad with French chutney ever since.

The Coffee Mug restaurant -- We had a wonderful breakfast here. The prices are great and the food delicious. Mr. T. enjoyed the "Sink Omelet" which contains "everything but the kitchen sink"!

Bil-Toki -- A Basque dinner house. This meal was so unique and the experience so fascinating, I'm going to do an entire post just about this meal.

The Star Hotel -- another Basque restaurant. We enjoyed the steak sandwiches, a specialty here.

The Great American Grill at the Hilton Garden Inn -- This is my son-in-law's favorite restaurant in Elko. After our visit there, I can see why. The food is very good and the atmosphere quiet and relaxing. We will definitely eat there again.

Well, this post has gone on long enough. These places I've mentioned are all right in Elko, but if you venture outside the city limits you will find many other fascinating places to visit, many of them in the great outdoors. The natural beauty here is astounding. On a hike in Lamoille Canyon last year, I remember just sitting on a rock and feeling as if I had stepped into the pages of Country magazine. The scenery is simply breathtaking. The Ruby Mountains have been described as "Nevada's Alps". If you ever get the chance to visit Elko, and have time to get out into the outdoors as well as to enjoy the wonderful shops and restaurants, I'm sure you'll enjoy this unique place as much as we do.

Menu Plan Monday

Here's my plan for this week. There are a few repeats due to leftovers and menus not used last week.

MONDAY -- Nevada Chili-Albondigas Soup (leftover from Sunday); Cornbread

TUESDAY -- Spinach Lasagna Roll-Ups, Mixed Vegetable Salad

WEDNESDAY -- Macaroni & Cheese, Green Beans, Applesauce

THURSDAY -- Seafood Chowder, Whole Wheat Bread

FRIDAY -- Chicken Bruschetta Bake, Italian Mixed Vegetables

SATURDAY -- Veggie Calzones, Spinach Broccoli Soup

SUNDAY -- Cranberry Pork Chops, Mashed Potatoes, Asparagus Stir-fry Vegetables

There you have it! Looking forward to seeing others' ideas!

My Favorite Cleaning Supplies

Oh, I really like this idea, so I am going to join in and share my favorites for cleaning supplies. Thanks to Susan Godfrey for the idea.  

For Windows (and also shining sinks/faucets): WINDEX in the Mountain Berry scent. For years I just used the generic store brand window cleaner and thought it was good enough. Then I noticed I could often find $1 off coupons on Windex. I bought some Mountain Berry Windex and loved it. Now that's all I buy, and I always use a $1 off coupon. It does a good job and makes the room smell nice at the same time. I've tried the Windex wipes but haven't found them as satisfactory. 

 For Laundry: PUREX. It's cheap and does a good job.  

For Fabric Softener: WHITE VINEGAR in the rinse water. (Just put it in the fabric softener dispenser.)  

For Spots & Stains on Laundry: ZOUT.  

For Dusting: Either PLEDGE LEMON WIPES or PLEDGE GRAB-IT DRY CLOTHS in the Orange scent. I find that in some areas the dry cloths work better than the wipes.  

For Floors: For simple everyday mopping, as in the bathroom or entryway, I use GENERIC WET FLOOR WIPES that fit my swiffer. The generics do a fine job. For my kitchen floor, which unfortunately is not a no-wax one, I use MOP & GLO Triple Action. For doing a serious cleaning job on bathroom floors, I use GREASED LIGHTNING in water. For wood floors (living room and master bedroom) I use MURPHY OIL SOAP in water.  

For Tub/Shower: TILEX FRESH SHOWER daily shower cleaner. A daily cleaner is a must with our hard water. For scrubbing tub/shower once a month, I use GREASED LIGHTNING. 

 For any ingrained dirt: MR. CLEAN MAGIC ERASER. 

 For scrubbing sinks: BARKEEPER'S FRIEND. 

 For a general-purpose spray cleaner: LYSOL ALL-PURPOSE CLEANER in the Lemon scent.  

For quick cleanups and swiping down my bathrooms each day: Either LYSOL or CLOROX DISINFECTING WIPES. 

 For dishes: AJAX dish detergent in the Ruby Red Grapefruit scent. For scrubbing pots and pans, SCOTCH-BRITE CAMPWARE COMPANIONS.  

For toilets (which I swish each day): LYSOL TOILET BOWL CLEANER WITH BLEACH. 

Whew! That's quite a list! I've worked cleaning houses, and also clean our church quite frequently, so have some pretty definite ideas of what products I prefer. Hope this list may be helpful to others. Thanks to Susan for suggesting this. 

By the way, has anyone but me ever noticed that the product names on most cleaning products (not all) are printed with an upward slant? I'm not sure if it is supposed to make us feel positive about cleaning, or if it's supposed to point to the effectiveness of the product, but I'm quite sure it's not a coincidence!

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 4

The above are just a few of the scenes we observed as the California Zephyr wound its way through the mountains of Colorado and Utah.


Part 4 -- First Class on the CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR

As mentioned before, the California Zephyr is a Superliner train. The cars have a second level. Here's an excerpt from my journal:

October 11 -- "Our room on this train seems a tiny bit smaller and there is no sink or toilet, but the bathrooms are very close by, and there's a nice shower (much larger than on the previous train) just a few steps away from our door. This train has an upstairs, and we have to go up there to access the dining car. So far, it's a very nice train!"

On that first day, we spent some time in the observation car and enjoyed it very much, even though the sights so far were nothing compared to what they would be in the Rockies. One highlight was crossing the Mississippi River in Burlington, Iowa. Even though the afternoon was gray and drizzly, it was still a majestic sight.

That night, I had the salmon fillet for supper. It was absolutely delicious. Mr. T chose pork shanks. One of the dessert offerings was chocolate bundt cake, which I assumed would be just a slice of bundt cake. Not so! It was -- as I observed from dessert trays being delivered to other diners -- an individual chocolate mini-bundt cake, covered in chocolate ganache and drizzled with white chocolate. We didn't have time for dessert that evening -- we should have ordered it at the time of ordering our meals, we discovered after the fact. Oh well -- we probably didn't need the calories, anyway!

The dining car staff is absolutely amazing -- they manage to feed all these people on a moving (sometimes lurching) train, and they do it so efficiently and graciously. There are white tablecloths, cloth napkins, and -- on the California Zephyr, anyway -- real flowers on the tables. We found that when the trains are full, you don't usually need reservations for breakfast, but for lunch and dinner a dining car staff member will go through the train and ask people to make reservations for the time they prefer to eat. It seems to work out pretty well.

We had a better night's sleep, in spite of several stops during the night when passengers boarded the train at various stations along the way.

October 12 -- Breakfast was French toast for both of us, with pork sausage patties on the side. Our dining companions were a nice couple from Minnesota.

We spent the rest of the morning in the observation car, enjoying the scenery from Denver on. We both chose the Angus beef burgers for lunch -- very good -- and enjoyed chatting with a lovely couple from Kansas City celebrating their 50th anniversary with a wonderful train trip -- a gift from their children.

Here's an entry from my journal:

3:45 pm, October 12 -- "The passing scenery here in the Colorado Rockies is absolutely incredible. I suppose the people who live here are used to it, but it's hard to imagine becoming used to such majesty. I'm here in our roomette, enjoying some quiet time for reading and study. I view these mountains and am moved at the power and majesty of their Creator. I'm reminded of the words of the hymnwriter: "I sing the mighty power of God, that made the mountains rise...".

We got off the train for a 10-minute stop in Grand Junction, CO. It was so nice to get off the train for a few moments and to stretch our legs. We walked through the station and around the other side to where there was a mailbox. Here we mailed some postcards (bought on the train) for our grandkids back home.

At some stops there isn't even time to get off the train, but whenever there is, passengers are reminded to heed the train whistle and the car attendant's call of "All Aboard!" Failure to heed this will result in being left behind -- and it does happen. As the car attendant reminded people while they were getting off, "The next train is in 24 hours!"

Our sleeping car attendants on all four trains were excellent. These folks work so hard to make sure their passengers are comfortable. Gwendolyn, the car attendant on this train, was a standout. We were sad to find she would be off duty on our return trip!

We went to bed around 10, setting our cell phone's alarm for 2:45 a.m. since we were to get into Elko, NV at around 3:20 a.m. The first thing that happened was that the alarm went off an hour early, since we had been in Mountain Time when we set it, and Elko is in Pacific Time. Then, the train was greatly delayed after Salt Lake City -- a common occurrence, according to Gwendolyn -- so we didn't get to Elko until 5 a.m.

The conductor came down to let us off, but prior to that a flustered Gwendolyn also appeared -- she had to make up our room for someone else who would be boarding the train at Elko. We quickly vacated the room so she could do so, and chatted with the conductor while waiting. We pulled into Elko, and he helped us off with our bags. On the platform, our friends waited with welcoming smiles. What good sports they were, to get up in the middle of the night to meet us!

For the next installment, I want to share a little bit about Elko, Nevada and some of our favorite places there, before returning to the Amtrak adventure. Stay tuned!

Homemade Applesauce

Carrie asked if I would post my applesauce recipe. Well, Carrie, you already have this recipe, I think; it's in the Carpentry Cuisine cookbook. But I will share it here just in case anyone else would like to have it. Applesauce is one of those things that one doesn't really need a recipe for, I guess, but I do use one as a guideline. This recipe is originally from my pastor's wife. It originally called for 1/4 cup honey in addition to the brown sugar, but I leave this out.

Homemade Applesauce

3 lbs. apples (about 12 medium apples, I think -- use Macintosh, Cortland or other cooking apples)
about 1 cup water
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (or less) nutmeg -- I prefer to use about half as much nutmeg as cinnamon.

Peel apples and cut them into chunks. Place apples in heavy saucepan and add water. Cook, covered, over medium heat until apples come to a boil; turn heat to low and simmer 45 minutes or until apples are very soft. Remove from heat and mash apples with a potato masher. Add spices and stir well. Serve warm or cold.

This makes about 8 cups of applesauce or so. You can easily cut the recipe in half, which is what I've been doing when I use our smaller wild apples.

Enjoy!

Unexpected apples

The apple tree wasn't here 32 years ago when we built our house. Somewhere in the intervening years between then and now, it sprang up. I've made many an apple pie and plenty of applesauce in those years, and often dump the apple cores and peelings "over the bank" to enrich the soil. We can only assume that our spindly apple tree got its start from one of those seeds. One early summer, we noticed a sprig of apple blossoms on the tree. An apple tree! We were excited to see it, but knew better than to expect much of it.

The next spring, there were more blossoms. And the next year, more. 2005 and 2006 were banner years for our apple blossoms -- and yes, we had apples. We tasted them and, even though they aren't much to look at on the outside, they taste pretty good!

Last week I went out and picked up a few and made applesauce for my parents. It tasted so good that the next day I picked up a large bowlful of apples. Mr. T discovered that our apple peeling/coring machine works fine on these windfall apples, and I've made 2 more batches of applesauce since. What a sweet, unexpected bonus!

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 3

Our Amtrak Adventure,
Part 3: Union Station,Chicago, IL Chicago, not far from Union Station

OUR AMTRAK ADVENTURE, Part 3

Union Station

We were scheduled for a four-hour layover in Chicago, and looked forward to exploring the station and maybe going up the Sears Tower. (I will admit that my husband was much more gung-ho about this possible adventure than I was.) The weather was ruling out the Sears Tower as we approached Chicago, being gray and drizzly. Time was also ruling it out... as mentioned, our train was over an hour late at this point. Time became even more of an issue at the baggage claim.

Since the station we would be getting off at in Nevada was an unmanned one, we had to claim our baggage at Chicago and bring it to the next train with us. It would ride on the sleeping car with us from here on out. We had only checked 3 bags, and 2 of them came through quickly. We had quite a wait for the third bag, however, and time was rapidly ticking by. But once we had all our bags, help was in sight!

One of the wonderful perks of riding first class is access to Amtrak's Metropolitan Lounge in Chicago. (I believe the stations in Boston and New York also have them, and maybe other stations as well.) We were so thankful we had this nice place to wait, and a place within the lounge to store our bags. You check in when you first arrive, and the nice people at the desk write you up a pass which you will use to get in and out of the lounge. They also write on this pass what time your train will be boarding, and it serves as your boarding pass as well.

The Metropolitan Lounge is a very large waiting area just filled with comfortable couches, chairs, loveseats, and coffee tables, end tables, even tables with chairs to work or eat at. There's even a fireplace. There's a large TV screen and also monitors to check arrivals and departures of trains. There's plenty of free soft drinks, coffee, tea, water, and snacks. We quickly found a nice loveseat with its own coffee table and settled in. Then, since we knew we wouldn't be getting lunch on the California Zephyr, Mr.T went out of the station to Potbelly, a sub shop previously recommended by a friend. He brought back some yummy subs and we enjoyed them with the complimentary Pepsi provided there in the lounge. While he was gone, I people-watched and got lots of cross-stitch done. The lounge really filled up during the time we were there. It was encouraging to see men giving up their seats for ladies and younger people offering their seats to older folks.

Another really neat thing about being in the Metropolitan Lounge is that when your train is ready to board, you can get redcap service right there from the lounge. So when the California Zephyr was ready to board, we found a redcap right at the door of the lounge waiting for us. A speedy little baggage vehicle whisked us right to the train!

Next installment: First Class on the California Zephyr