Somewhere in Utah
When my friend Tony texted and asked if I was interested in driving with him across the country to San Francisco, I jumped at the opportunity. I’ve never been to many of the central US states and driving across the country was always something I wanted to do. Tony is in the process of moving to Italy for a year and no longer needed his car–the idea was to drive from NYC to San Fran to sell his car to his mother-in-law and to pick me up in Louisville along the way.
The plan was to break the drive up into 4 days: Louisville to Kansas City, KC to Laramie, WY, Laramie to Elko, NV then Elko to San Fran. We were a little concerned with the Laramie snow forecast but it turned out to be a minor storm and all four legs of the trip went swimmingly.
I wish I had some super-thrilling stories to relay but spending most of the time in a car doesn’t typically yield much excitement. Still, we did have a great time catching up and we did manage to visit many good restaurants and see some things that were a bit out of the ordinary—most notably, a hotel check-in gentleman dressed as a Christmas tree.
Highlights of the trip were:
- Great barbecue at Jack Stack in Kansas City.
- Tour of the Lincoln, Nebraska Capitol building.
- Waking up in Laramie to a minor snow storm.
- Finally seeing Kansas and Nebraska.
- The long stretches of emptiness…which were mesmerizing in their own way.
- Toki Ona restaurant (see more below).
- Lake Tahoe.
- Best of all was the Christmas party hosted by Tamaron’s (Tony’s wife) grandmother. I want to thank Tamaron’s family for making me feel so welcomed and at home.
A special mention goes out to the Toki Ona restaurant in Elko, Nevada. As we perused Trip Advisor for an eatery in Elko, we stumbled upon a review that described Toki Ona as, “Not Japanese.” We weren’t sure if that was a contemptuous or flattering remark, but it caught our eye, nonetheless. It turns out that Toki Ona is a Basque influenced restaurant—who would have guessed such a thing existed in small-town Nevada. We shared a few dishes and were glad we did–portions were very large and the food turned out to be surprisingly good…definitely not Japanese!
As usual, here are some photos from the trip…enjoy:
Hello, David, I am enjoying your travel blog. Interestingly, the name “Toki Ona” sounds almost Japanese! I wonder if Native Americans and Ainu (indigenous people in Japan) have much in common? well, maybe not, Japanese are Mongoloid according to anthropologists.
Hey Kanao,
It’s great hearing from you and I am glad that you are still following the blog. Basque is actually northern Spain so that is why we were so surprised to see it in small town Nevada. I would venture to guess that the Ainu might have even less in common with the Basque but I know next to nothing about anthropology.
Where have your travels taken you recently? Hope to hear more from you soon.
Dave