Travis did his rotation in Caliente Nevada this month. Where is that you might ask? Well I just happen to know because it's one of the many tiny little towns we drive through on our way out to go hunting every year. There's about 1500 people there and Travis gets to meet about half of them probably, while working at the clinic and hospital.
So one of the weekends I had to go visit and figured that he'd have a bunch of stuff he'd want to do and places he'd want to go. So Friday night we went to a church BBQ at Kershaw Ryan State Park. Nice park with a natural spring pool. A small banjo/guitar playing singing group was serenading us in the park. It was an interesting event. I met the people he's staying with, the Perkins, who are very nice and who have lived in Caliente most of their lives. They explained to us that Lincoln County is still considered the "frontier", meaning it's not settled enough to be considered a settlement. Ha! Crazy. Right after the BBQ it was just so conveniently twilight so we went spot lighting and found a bunch of bucks feeding in the fields. Afterwards he gave me a tour of the town which took all of 5 minutes. We also visited the hospital and I got a tour of that as well. The nurses (3 of them) were definitely happy to have visitors.
The next day we slept in and finally mosied out to a hot sunny day. We stopped by the PA's house in Panaca, Bart. Super nice guy and cute family. Then we headed off to Cathedral Gorge State Park for some hiking. Well the hiking didn't go all that well because it was soooo hot! The slot canyons were awesome to be in, but it just was too hot to really enjoy. So our event for the day was kind of squashed and we didn't really have a plan B. We soon realized that really there isn't much to do in Caliente. Ha! Not too big of a surprise there.
So we got out the map and decided to drive to the top of Mt. Wilson and get out of the heat. It was a nice ride and had great views. The road made a loop and came back down the back side through Spring Valley State Park so we got to check out Eagle Valley Reservoir. Definitely best to go there in the spring. The lake wasn't as full and was pretty merky.
That night we ate at one of the 2 restaurants in town, The Branding Iron, which actually turned out to be pretty good. We also took an outside tour of the Train Station which is now used as county offices and the town library. Very cool looking building.
The next day was church. The ward was a pretty good size with a lot more kids then I thought there'd be. I met Dr. Katschke and his family and could see why Travis was loving it there. Great people and he gets to practice all types of medicine being the only hospital and clinic in the county. Sunday school and Relief Society were pretty interesting, but I was kind of expecting it to be that way. It's kind of amusing visiting small town wards. Their comments are just so funny sometimes; like the quote of the day for that Sunday was a guy who said, "Anyone over 40 should be shot". Ha! What does that have anything to do with anything? :) So amusing.
That afternoon we spent with the Perkins who cooked a nice dinner for us. They showed us their garden and his paintings and I of course hung out with the kitties for awhile as well. It was a nice trip, but I think both Travis and I came to an agreement that Caliente is just too small for us; great for him and his job, but not the best place for us. We'll be back to visit though, I'm sure.
So one of the weekends I had to go visit and figured that he'd have a bunch of stuff he'd want to do and places he'd want to go. So Friday night we went to a church BBQ at Kershaw Ryan State Park. Nice park with a natural spring pool. A small banjo/guitar playing singing group was serenading us in the park. It was an interesting event. I met the people he's staying with, the Perkins, who are very nice and who have lived in Caliente most of their lives. They explained to us that Lincoln County is still considered the "frontier", meaning it's not settled enough to be considered a settlement. Ha! Crazy. Right after the BBQ it was just so conveniently twilight so we went spot lighting and found a bunch of bucks feeding in the fields. Afterwards he gave me a tour of the town which took all of 5 minutes. We also visited the hospital and I got a tour of that as well. The nurses (3 of them) were definitely happy to have visitors.
The next day we slept in and finally mosied out to a hot sunny day. We stopped by the PA's house in Panaca, Bart. Super nice guy and cute family. Then we headed off to Cathedral Gorge State Park for some hiking. Well the hiking didn't go all that well because it was soooo hot! The slot canyons were awesome to be in, but it just was too hot to really enjoy. So our event for the day was kind of squashed and we didn't really have a plan B. We soon realized that really there isn't much to do in Caliente. Ha! Not too big of a surprise there.
So we got out the map and decided to drive to the top of Mt. Wilson and get out of the heat. It was a nice ride and had great views. The road made a loop and came back down the back side through Spring Valley State Park so we got to check out Eagle Valley Reservoir. Definitely best to go there in the spring. The lake wasn't as full and was pretty merky.
That night we ate at one of the 2 restaurants in town, The Branding Iron, which actually turned out to be pretty good. We also took an outside tour of the Train Station which is now used as county offices and the town library. Very cool looking building.
The next day was church. The ward was a pretty good size with a lot more kids then I thought there'd be. I met Dr. Katschke and his family and could see why Travis was loving it there. Great people and he gets to practice all types of medicine being the only hospital and clinic in the county. Sunday school and Relief Society were pretty interesting, but I was kind of expecting it to be that way. It's kind of amusing visiting small town wards. Their comments are just so funny sometimes; like the quote of the day for that Sunday was a guy who said, "Anyone over 40 should be shot". Ha! What does that have anything to do with anything? :) So amusing.
That afternoon we spent with the Perkins who cooked a nice dinner for us. They showed us their garden and his paintings and I of course hung out with the kitties for awhile as well. It was a nice trip, but I think both Travis and I came to an agreement that Caliente is just too small for us; great for him and his job, but not the best place for us. We'll be back to visit though, I'm sure.
Sherb (orange) and Monk
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