Addendum: Best of Rural Nevada Part 1

I have seen the light!

After my friend made the suggestion that, perhaps, the TA Travel Center, Mill City may trump the Carlin Pilot, I decided I'd better take a closer look. It had, after all, been nearly a decade since I'd stopped there.

AM Gold and Jefferson Starship CDs, along with a completely unnecessary package of bills of lading definitely trumps the music selection at the Pilot as well as the selection of erotic cows at the Flying J in Winnemucca.

It is also the only place I've yet seen with Obama's tax plan inscribed on the wall of a men's room stall. Think about it!

However, Flying J does have their Flying J E-Store. I had no luck finding their online selection of bovine erotica, but perhaps my humble readership will fare a bit better than I.

Best of Rural Nevada Part 1

A few of my most basic favourites...

• Best Basque Food: Let's not kid, this may seem weird to many from out of the area, or even newcomers to our metropolitan centers. For most of Nevada,though, persons of Basque heritage are as common as (often more so than) Irish, Hispanic, English, German, Portuguese, or even Russian, and Basque-style food is just unworldly good, as long as you're willing to eat parts of the cow (or pig, or goat) you've never even seen rendered into soap (cast off your shackles, people! sweetbreads are the new porterhouse). Now my personal favourite Basque restaurant is the Santa Fe here in Reno, so I just had to plug them. However, that's really not entirely fair since this is a "rural specific" list.
  
  Therefore, my categorical favourite goes to the Nevada Dinner House in Elko. I know this comes as sacrilege to many Northern Nevadans, especially those in Elko itself, most of whom believe that the Star Hotel is king amongst the Basque eateries. Sorry, folks, perhaps I the runes happened to fall just right for me, but I found the Nevada Dinner House to be far superior. In fact, just in the Elko area alone I think that the Star places third to the NDH and Biltoki. Sorry, gotta call 'em as I see 'em.
  
  
• Best Radio Station: I have to give this a technical tie. First in the running is KELK in Elko (I'm not just plugging Elko here, I promise). Granted, they're geared toward a mostly female core and play some stuff what I would consider to be suspect at best, but they get mad props for carrying local athletic events as well as my beloved Wolf Pack.
  
  Take those props out of the equation, however, and this is an open-and-shut case. Hands down, the best station out there is KGFN 106.3 FM Radio Goldfield. There aren't a whole lot of radio stations outside of the metros, granted, but it would be hard to beat this station. They have to have a lot of heart to be able to do what they do out there, and they broadcast just about everything. "Solid Gold," they call it, from 1940 to 1990. Nothing vulgar, but how many other stations will broadcast ol' fashioned blues, then some bluegrass, then Tina Turner, then Benny Goodman, then Disco, then some bad country, then Blondie? Radio Goldfield is a must-tune-in the next time you're driving U.S. 95 through Esmeralda County (see right). Can't wait that long? Click the link above, they have a live stream!



• Best Truck Stop: I have always been partial to the Flying J in Winnemucca, what with their selection of Buckwear. However, while their music selection became legendary amongst my circle of friends in the late nineties, they have gone downhill a bit in recent years. Who has picked up their slack? The Pilot in Carlin. The Flying J in Wells is still pretty dern good, though, but while the Pilot isn't necessarily the cleanest truck stop by the strictest definitions, it still gets the nod thanks to their selection of truly awful Techno, &c. Depeche Mode, anyone?



• Best McDonald's: Why not add this category? It's easy, anyway. The McDonald's in Ely is probably the nicest, but I can remember having McPizza and McTacos (can't find much on those things) in Tonopah. Is it a coincidence that McDonald's has their test site near where the Feds have their test site? Anyway, case closed, Tonopah McDonald's wins.



• Best Sandwich: Owl Club in Eureka, dead, done, best sammich. And, while you're there, ask them about their infamous W.R.A.N.G.L.E.R. shirts. Not everyone has surrendered the Sagebrush Rebellion.
  


• Best Non-Sandwich Non-Ravioli Hot Food: International Cafe in Austin. They have good reading while you wait, too. They're in an older building on the NORTH side of the highway.



• Best Ravioli: Bruno's Country Club in Gerlach. Yes, it is worth mentioning both Gerlach and Bruno's if for nothing other than the famous ravioli. World-ending, second coming of Christ-style, Soviet Union collapsing good, they are, and definitely worth the gas money to drive out there.



• Best Cold/Frosty Beverages: Toiyabe Cafe, Austin. Fine vittles, too, don't get me wrong, but their treats are unsurpassed.



• Best Margarita: El Marques, Tonopah. Food is good...good, not great. Fine people. In my humblest of opinions, they make the best margarita in the state of Nevada, flat out. If you follow the link, the map seems to put the place in Manhattan, a mountain town nearly an hour to the north of Tonopah with no services, so don't pay attention to that bit.

Okay, that's enough to put me to bed for this evening. The next time you find yourself traversing our great state, I hope that this list (and those to follow) provide modest assistance.

Whimsical Item of the Day

I have seen a moderate increase in traffic of late. The funny part is that at least 80% of the new traffic (and welcome, folks!) are all people searching then coming across a picture I have a few posts down.

Now I am nothing if not accommodating for people. Hell, I'll damn near bend over backwards for anybody, so long as they use their turn signals when they drive and don't officiate Western Athletic Conference football. So here it is again, so that, at least for a week or two, it will be easier for our well-intentioned yet misguided friends to find.

I will at least take the time to point out, once again, just exactly how much this design resembles Soviet propaganda posters of the 1930's through the 1950's. The question remains: inspired by neat proletarian artwork or a chilling view of things to come?
Aaaahhhh...that's better.

Now I am going to move on to something completely different in upcoming blogs. I will throw in the occasional reference/link to nice things like Gallup and the Sarah Palin fan club, but I have decided to run a periodic series chronicling my personal favorites from the non-metro Nevada I love ever so much. Stay tuned!

FOOTBALL!!!

Thanks be to the Almighty that it's time for Football once again.

And once again, I'm riding the coattails of my most esteemed friend.

Of course I'm not saying anything new here, just something what needs to be said, again and again, with FIERCE conviction. Now, I LOVE football, and I love "acting out" as it were at the games. For someone like me, it's cathartic; it makes me feel like I'm a part of something greater to be able to bring adaptations of my eccentricities to the field. They work for me, people like them (by and large), they don't hurt anyone. I am a fan, and a rabid one at that, going to games as a sense of release, to be a part of the community, to be a part of something far greater than I alone. That aside, on a fundamental level I go for the same reason as everyone else: to enjoy football and enjoy the experience.

Some, however, attend for all the wrong reasons. Meu Amigo (follow the link above) gives an excellent diatribe relating to the antics of some attendees whose substandard decorum infects the experience of those around them. Please read the link, he does a fine job.

Please, when attending games, remember the Golden Rule, that's all I ask. Ridiculing someone because their shirt is a little older than yours (ask the person, there may be a good reason for it!), or because it's a little bit faded, or because someone cheers or supports their team in a manner somewhat different from the manner in which you "support" them, or because he...or she...wears one brand over another, or because they happen to use proper English (or don't use the "F" word every third syllable), or because you assume that, merely due to a physical trait, such as flowing locks of blonde hair, that someone has had one or two or fifteen sexual partners and "calling them out" on that 'fact' is deplorable. Act your age(s), for God's sake!

It's what separates US from THE ANIMALS.