Words of Wisdom

Now that we have everything done on our end for the house, I've had quite a bit of free time. So I decided to go out exploring and actually stop places! I'd just been driving around looking for places to check out later, so today I actually checked them out!

I picked a road and just started driving. Pretty soon I was leaving the city, and headed towards the open desert. I was surprised to see a lot of traffic on this 2 lane highway, so I decided to keep driving until I found out what was on the other side of the hills. After driving and driving and driving (swerving to miss more roadkill than I thought was normal) I finally found an area to pull off without the possibility of being side swiped. Out here, it was just hill after hill, all covered in desert brush, nothing else to see. I got out of the car and wham! The smell of the desert, real desert, not like in the city, hit me and I was in awe. I didn't realize how much I had missed that smell. Sure, Cedar is kind of high desert-y, but this was like home. I just sat there for a few minutes and soaked it in. I shot this picture with my phone to commemorate the moment :) I was pretty happy.

Then my stomach started grumbling, I didn't have the stamina to find out what was 10 miles down the road, I'll check on Google maps ha! So I headed back into town for some eats. I'd seen a little shop that looked like it would be a cute lunch place one night when we were at Machi's (the restaurant next door). But I thought it was abandoned because it looked like half of the sign was missing and there are a lot of abandoned businesses around there. But I still wanted to check it out. So, here is my new favorite lunch place: Donuts N More. See? only half the sign haha but they had an open sign and I saw some people milling about inside so I decided to check it out.

And I'm so glad I did! They have AMAZING donuts, AMAZING homemade bread on AMAZING sandwhiches :) Just goes to show that some of the best places to eat look like abandoned buildings! So I took my lunch and headed to the park. Here is my picnic gear: My trusty jean blanket that my wonderful Mother made for my husband and I (which I always keep in my car so I can have spur of the moment picnics any time I want); my camera for people watching, and moment capturing; my sketchbook and pencils, for all those crazy thoughts going through my head; a delectable glazed coconut covered cake donut, and a homemade sourdough club sandwich. The only thing missing from this perfect picnic was Jared but I can't help it if I make spontaneous picnic plans with my blanket in the middle of the day.

The thing about parks in Elko- there are a lot of bums here. I mean, a lot. Apparently there are always bums at the Railroad Park- it has an engine and car off of an old train and a bunch of grass around it. I have yet to photograph this park because there are always creepy homeless guys there and although I don't mean to be judgmental, a lot of muggings happen there so I won't go near it alone. But anyways, when I went for my picnic there was only one bum hanging around and it's a really open park surrounded by busy streets so I felt alright. Although at one point, this kid came from out of nowhere and started walking toward me, seriously out of a huge park he walked past me with about a 2 foot distance. When he got closer though, I realized he couldn't have been older than 12 and was smoking. Really though. It was sad. I think I'm a little over paranoid here because it's new haha it should wear off right?

Here I am with my sandwich. I know I know, enough about the sandwich, but it was amazing. Look at how thick that bread is? And it was so soft and yummy! And the bacon was just crispy enough for crunch but not burnt and charcoal tasting. Ya I think I fell in love with a sandwich. "I feel like I just found out my favorite love song was written about a sandwich" Ha, isn't that how the quote goes?

This is turning into a long post but today was actually very eventful so I have a lot to say. After my awesome picnic I went driving and decided to stop at the dollar store to see if they had cheap wooden pencils so I wasn't using my sketching pencils for writing- I've begun writing in my sketchbook as a journal and writing in pencil, not pen. For anyone who knows me very well, this is odd that I am preferring pencils over pen. I guess I just want to erase my mistakes :) In the parking lot outside of the store I saw a Romney Ryan bus! I didn't know who was going to be speaking so I went into the store to ask the cashier. She said it was one of Mitt's sons, so I decided to stay and listen. Here is a picture of Josh Romney:

It was a great speech! He had two of his sons with him, and he talked a lot about family and more about the personality of his Dad than the politics. Other people spoke about the politics though, but we were all just cheering like crazy. I can't wait to see how this election turns out!

After today, I remembered some words of wisdom a lady told me when I was out wandering the city, and I really think it's true, not just about Elko, but about anywhere. I can either love it or hate it here, but it's my choice. I won't forget this lady's advice:

And yes, those are my moccasins again, sorry for the all the shoe pictures but my face always takes up a whole picture and I don't need that many pictures with my face in it. I have a mirror.

Have any of you ever had interesting experiences moving to a new town? Learning how people work there? Learning what parts of the city to avoid, and where's the best to eat? I'd love to hear about them!