Day 68: Salt Lake City to Elko, NV

Since I decided to stop in Elko for a night a break up my trans-Nevada drive into two days I had more time in Salt Lake to poke around. I went up the the Utah Capitol building first. It looks a lot like many other state capitols on the outside. The inside was very grand and I like the marble or granite that they used for most of it.


It was Saturday so while the doors were open, the senate, house and court chambers were all locked up and no-one seemed to be working there to ask about tours.


Next I walked down to Temple Square to the Joseph Smith Memorial building, formerly the Hotel Utah, for some lunch at the Cafe Nauvoo. It was much grander than I was expecting. The stained glass ceiling was done by Tiffany. The cafe was very nice, they hand carved the meats for your sandwich!
That's the Mormon Temple behind me. Since it was a Saturday in July I walked by no less than 4 wedding parties.
Once I hit the road I passed through the Bonneville salt flats. They were long and barren but not as bad as Kansas. I stopped in West Wendover, NV for some border town gambling and didn't do very well.
Then I got to Elko and did much better. I stopped into what looked like the center of town at the old looking casinos and didn't do very well there either. Supposedly the nation's largest Basque Heritage Festival going on while I was there but I must have missed the festivities. I went back to the Red Lion Casino which was next door to my hotel and got some dinner and did a little more gambling. I'm glad I did because I won $1,350 on a $0.75 slot pull. Only downside is that in addition to the cash they handed me a W-2G form so I will be paying taxes on my winnings. Never had to fill in that part of my taxes before...

Next: Reno, breifly, and on to Minden to meet up with the family.