Until Dad told me, I thought we were only going to six states too. So if our seventh state is a surprise to you, imagine what it must be like for me.

Not that I’m complaining, Nevada has always been on my list of states I want to go to and I have been far from disappointed. The landscape from Boise to Wendover was absolutely stunning and from a geology perspective, fascinating. So far I have seen rocks ranging from (what appears to me with my limited knowledge) basalt to micrite.

I picked up one rock that I couldn’t identify and will post pictures of soon. It is crystalline and equigranular with a texture that doesn’t resemble granite. It is light grey in colour and has several crystals of a glassy mineral that looks like quartz. Finally the outside surface is heavily weathered and has a thick oxidised crust in a dark red colour. We picked it up right in the north of Nevada—anyone know what it is?

In Elko today, we went into a proper country outfitters and had a look at hats. While I didn’t see a hat there I like—I’m looking for one with a much more folded brim—I did have fun trying on hats and now know that my hat size is seven and a quarter. When we get to Salt Lake City I’m going to look around for “my hat”.

We took a bit of a poke around Elko, stocked up in Walmart then after lunch in a little place in town we hit the road for 109 miles of awesome (and it is quite something for me to use that word) scenery. I already love Nevada although the casinos and brothels make me slightly less than comfortable.

Feed the bears