Genoa & 139 miles of wind

It was time to mosey on down the road this morning and the weather forecast for wind wasn't the greatest.  It actually turned out worse than forecasted, but by that time we were committed to make the drive.  One thing you can depend on out here in the west is that windy days are common, so you have to deal with it.  It was 30+ mph winds with gusts in the 40+ mph range.

We did have an interesting motorhome pull in yesterday with a special toad behind it.  What do you think, would this make a nice "tiny house"?  

 Rt 95 south of Fallon, NV was a busy highway today and had numerous trucks taking the shortcut to Las Vegas from the Reno area.

 One of the numerous dirt devils we saw today on the trip.  Some were larger than this one and close to the highway but we managed to avoid them all.

One stretch of US 50 had signs up warning to be on the lookout for wild horses and we did see 4 or 5 of them about 50 yards from the road.  It looked like a recently born colt was standing next to the mother as she lay on the ground.  Hope everything is fine with them.

We finally made it to our campground in Minden, NV and set up the motorhome and rested for a while, but it was early so we decided to mail a letter in Minden and check out the area.  The RV park is located on US 395 and we were shocked to see how heavy the traffic is on this road.  (Really, this time!)

After driving around Minden we decided to head back to the RV park but got sidetracked into checking out Genoa, NV which is the oldest white settlement in Nevada.  Here is some history of Genoa:

Mormons first settled at the Mormon Station around 1849 and others joined them shortly.  The town name was later changed to Genoa after the city in Italy because many early settlers were from Italy.  The Mormons left in 1847 to return to Salt Lake City due to US Federal troops marching toward SLC.  

The town survived by providing a trading post, tavern, blacksmith shop and other businesses to the gold miners in the Comstock lode. 

Old Courthouse, now a Museum.

Mormon Station State Historic Park   <======= Double click to read more info about the park.

State Park on site of old Mormon Fort.

Genoa has been used in movies over the years and one time they added new "old" buildings to the town and then removed all traces of the buildings when filming was completed.  A number of movies have been filmed here including "The Shootist" with John Wayne, "Charley Varrick" with Walter Mathau and Joe Don Baker, "Honky Tonk Man" with Clint Eastwood, "Misery" with James Cann, Kathy Bates, Rob Reiner and Richard Farnsworth, and most recently, (last summer) "Till the River Runs Dry" starring Ann-Margaret.  Mark Twain was a frequent visitor there when he was a reporter for the Territorial Enterprise.  Lots of history in these old  buildings that are still here.

Oldest tavern in Nevada

125+ year old tree.

You looking at me?

 Concrete water tank being filled from a small creek and it looked like the tank was being used to water the backyard of a house.

Old manure spreader

That was our day, how was yours?