Travel Bug: U.S. Hwy 50 Bugged Us Today

Saturday, July 29, 2023

U.S. Hwy 50 Bugged Us Today - Friday, July 28, 2023

"Happy Birthday!" to my sister Janyce. Enjoy your day. I love you so much.

Before we leave Eureka, Nevada, I'd like to tell you more facts about it. I was too tired to write them all last night.

Eureka is at an elevation of 6,485'. Population: 480. Eureka bills itself as "the friendliest town on the loneliest road." We found this to be true.

The town was discovered in 1864 by silver prospectors looking for the next big mining bonanza. They found rock containing a silver-lead ore in what became the state's second-largest silver strike after Virginia City.

Joyce, the aforementioned (in yesterday's blog) curator of the museum, mentioned underground tunnels in Eureka. Residents used the tunnels which connected many of the town's businesses. It's not clear who built the tunnels. Oppressed Chinese miners may have used the tunnels as a place to socialize without being harassed, or bootleggers could have used them to ensure regular deliveries of booze during high desert winter months. The tunnels have recently been reopened to visitors, but an appointment is needed to descend into them.

Exciting Eureka news is that they have been experiencing a gold boom since 2010. This link shares the latest (2023) news on Eureka's gold mining operations.

We think this little town is definitely worth a stop. Speaking of stopping reminded me that we were going to park on the street in Eureka across from the county courthouse to see the interior. Joyce strongly encouraged us to visit the courthouse and explore the different floors. It has been completely restored. We totally forgot this morning as we drove through town. I guess we'll have to go back on another trip.

U.S. 50 was the view through our windshield all day long. We carefully crossed many mountain summits. Some of the slopes were 6% to 8%. Whee! Then we drove through miles and miles of high desert. I was driving when something was different about the road. From my perspective, it looked like little black chunks of something all across the roadway for a long distance. Bob thought it was pieces of asphalt breaking off the sides of the road. That didn't make sense because it was very random where we saw this black stuff. It didn't really look like dirt that fell off a truck because it wasn't brown; it was very black.

I kept on the lookout and saw more areas with the black chunks, only they looked like they were moving! At first, I thought it was baby tarantulas because they were so black. Then Bob noticed they were taking short hops. He thought they were baby frogs.

Because we were on the loneliest road in America and no cars were in sight, I stopped to take a look. They were like big locusts or a cross between a locust and a beetle. We were flummoxed having never seen anything like these anywhere else in our travels.

Bob took a photo of them out the car door. I told him not to step out because he might bring some in with him and that would not be good!!!

This evening, I Googled "swarms of large black bugs on US 50 in Nevada today." Lo and behold, I found out what they are! They are "Mormon crickets." The bugs are technically called shield-backed, short-winged katydids, according to the University of Nevada Reno's website. You can click the link above and read all about them. Here's a link to another article from the UK Daily Mail.

We changed drivers shortly thereafter. When we walked past the 5th wheel, we could see masses of dead bugs all over the front support legs. Ugh! They were also on the lower part of our 5th wheel in the front. Then and there, we knew we'd stop at Blue Beacon Truck Wash in Fernley, Nevada, to have our 5th wheel and truck cleaned!!!

When we arrived at Blue Beacon, we only had one truck in front of us in line. That was amazing. By the time we left, the line was quite a bit longer.

After Blue Beacon, we took our 5th wheel to Safari RV service department in Reno for the 1 pm appointment to have our black water tank valve replaced. They got to work on it immediately.

We had to drop the trailer and put the cats into carriers to take with us. Amazingly, both cats went into their carriers without a problem. We went to Wendy's drive-thru for lunch. The cats were quiet. We sat in a Costco parking lot and ate lunch. Bob did a little shopping at Costco while I stayed in the running, air-conditioned truck. The cats were quiet. We made our way back to Safari and were given their okay to bring both cats/carriers into the waiting room. Not a peep out of the cats for 45 minutes. They seemed to enjoy the new experience.

At 5 pm, our 5th wheel black tank valve handle was fixed. Yay. The cats went back into the 5th wheel.

We made the 1/2-hour drive to Sparks Marina RV Park and checked in for two nights. It will be wonderful to have a break from driving for one day.

We last stayed at this park when it was new 11 years ago. The trees have grown a lot! The one thing I remember so well about our stay in the winter of 2012 was the artificial turf. That's right, no grass here. All sites have artificial turf. In the winter, you are expected to sweep the snow off your artificial turf! I have never forgotten this! Yes, I swept the snow off, but apparently, no one else read the rules. I didn't see anyone else trying to sweep snow off the fake grass!

Here are photos of our site at Sparks Marina RV Park.