,,, and phantastic musicians in the evening

The first big evening concert - the NCPG's two main parts are cowboy poetry and western music - took place in the Elko Convention Center and consisted of a trio of very different musicians, all of them equally interesting and all of them having nothing to do with the soft-washed, flat country music we are used to.

First performer was Gary McMahan from Colorado with more traditional Western Music and yodelling:

Second, Western Swing performed by Carolyn Martin's Swing Band. Especially amazing was the talent of one blind musician in the band, who was playing the clarinet, the guitar and the accordeon. Great dance music.

Third, and our favorite, was Geno Delafose from Louisiana. We have seen him perform a couple of times in New Orleans and at other festivals Louisiana. He is a zydeco musician (zydeco is the modern "black version" of cajun music) with a broad spectrum of songs, mostly sung in Cajun French. He is not only a musician, but a cowboy with a ranch in LA, breeding quarter horses.

Innovative Ranchers in the morning ,,,

First day at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko: about 22 deg. F., but sunny in the morning. We were fortunate and allowed to take part at the annual ranch tour, part of the program. We did it last year and were fascinated how diverse ranching can be. It’s no longer all about big herds of cattle here.

By bus we drove out to the "country side" - beautiful landscape! – to „Starr Valley“, a no-longer-existing town consisting of a couple of spread-out ranches and a Community Hall. One of the families ranching here is the Lotspeich Family, tracing back their roots to Prussian immigrants by name Grock, who settled here in the late 19th century and found a workshop to repair farming equipment and to build new machinery from scratch.

The old workshop was our first stop, old machinery of all kinds. The young owner, Dan, who has two mechanical degrees (and is a former Marine) showed us around and demonstrated the old equipment. Seemed like time stood still in the workshop.



Next stop: the Family Farm, where we went for a hay-wagon-ride to see how diversification can look like in this neck of the woods : About a dozen of cows, a herd of sheep with lamas as their watchdogs, red-tailed hawks, and: greenhouses! In the harsh climate of Northeastern Nevada the family started a business, growing veggies and berries in sturdy, wind-proof greenhouses. Starting small, they are in the meantime providing the whole area with fresh produce, especially on Elko farmers’ market. That’s the domain of Leslie, Dan’s mother, a retired teacher, and she proudly showed us her salads and peas and talked about her methods of gardening (organic, but not certified as such, because of all the regulations - sounds familiar!). Highly interesting!

After the site tour we were invited over to the free-standing Community Hall (seat of the „Starr Valley Progressive Club“, founded in 1913), where lunch was being served, cooked in Dutch Ovens. We got beef stew and biscuits and cobblers and had good conversation with the owners and two performing artists - Amy Hale Auker and her husband Gale Steiger - who were with the group and reciting some poems and singing songs on the bus.

From Mormon into Cowboy Country

Slept like a log, had breakfast at 8 am and out we drove in our brand-new car, westward from Mormon to Cowboy country. Straight ahead on I-80, vast, empty land, high desert (Great Basin), sparsely populated and framed by impressive mountain ranges. About 30 deg. F (-1 deg C) this morning and bright sun! First, we passed the Great Salt Lake and noticed the salt plants for the first time. There are several on the edge of the lake, nowadays Morton plant is probably as the largest one, founded in 1918. White salt was piling up high and it would have been interesting to get a tour through the production site.

On our drive on Interstate Hwy. 80 we passed the Bonneville Salt Flats, a fantastic dessert-like area of sand, salt and water. This densely packed salt pan is public land, and known for land speed records at the "Bonneville Speedway". This race track can't be seen from the highway but it must be quite an event when races take place! The salt flats were first used for motor sports in 1912, but only became popular when Ab Jenkins and Sir Malcolm Campbell competed to set land speed records.

Wendover(UT) and West Wendover (NV) are divided by the Utah-Nevada border and besides many casinos and open land, there is Wendover Will, a 63 ft (over 20 m) high cowboy, who could move his arms and was lit up at night. Originally, from 1952 on, he stood in front of one of the large casinos, but a couple of years ago he was moved and is greeting people now at the point "Where the West Begins." Will was made by the same SLC company who made a smaller version, Vegas Vic, for Las Vegas (Fremont Street).

The other "attraction" in Wendover is the Victory Highway Monument with its bronze eagle marker. The Victory Highway was completed in 1925 and used until the 1940s. While the Lincoln Highway is more celebrated, the Victory Hwy. was the first major through road in many parts of Nevada and Utah. Also, the California Trail, a famous emigrant trail of gold-seekers and farmers during the 1840s and 1850s passed through this area.

Pilot Peak Ghost Town, our next little detour, is a ghost town which is currently fenced in and not accessible, but buildings can be seen from outside. It was a mining town (gold, silver, and copper), in operation from 1872-1938 with a Moonshine Still, a General Store and other buildings in pretty mint condition. Outlaws visited the town on their way to and from robberies in the Wild West.

Around 2 pm we arrived to Elko, NV, picked up our media credentials in the Western Folklife Center, went grocery shopping and moved into our Red Lion Inn guestroom, our "home" for five nights! We will be attending the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering - for the 2nd time! - and are still proud of the article about it for which we won last year's IPW Travel Writer Award. Enjoyed a warm welcome here.

Howdy and Aloha!

Glad to get out, suffering from cabin fever after three hardworking months at home. Pretty colorful program this time – Elko/Nevada, Hawaii, Washington and Idaho – and, fortunately, not as many miles to drive and hotels to stay as last time in the Dakotas. Accomplished six or seven updates and one new guidebook plus a couple of articles inbetween trips and were drowning in snow in January. Haven't seen the sun for a long time!

Our flight (11,5 hours) appeared endless,especially since they asked from the very beginning to close the shutters - it was pitch-dark on the plane and got dull and boring soon. Wished they would ban this stupid policy and just distribute eye covers to sensitive passengers. Who the heck can sleep or wants to watch TV for 12 endless hours?

Plane took the Northern route over Greenland, where we had a gorgeous view over the icebergs (pic above).

Business class was packed (therefore we got no upgrade), for the rest the plane was 2/3rds empty. Food was the usual: „chicken“ or „pasta“. Arrived half an hour earlier to Houston and didn't have to worry about our connecting flight - which was over 1,5 hours late anyway.

So, at the end we only arrived to chilly Salt Lake City after 10 pm, two hours later than expected, and checked into our Super 8 Motel at around 11 pm, fortunately, with all our luggage this time! We got a brandnew Alamo rental SUV, a Hyundai Tucson, but since we were so pooped after over 24 hours on the road without sleep, we were glad that we only had to drive a short distance to the motel.

Chilly, but sunny this morning in SLC. Snow-covered mountains in the background, but no snow in the forecast (yet). Heading out towards Nevada soon.