Jackson Hotel (closed) and the Eureka Opera House (open)
I had a bad night’s sleep again due to my sleeping pad leaking air. Long ago I had strained a groin muscle and occasionally it will bother me. Waking up, I could feel it a bit. So I decided to take a rest day. Jian and I had breakfast, and then he took off and I figured out what to do with myself for the day.
Luckily, Eureka is a somewhat interesting town. It had a population of over 3000 compared to just 650 today. It has a museum and the chamber of commerce prints up a walking tour guide. So I hopped on my bicycle and did the tour. Eureka in its earlier history was a bigger town and fairly well off from the silver mining and related business. The slag heaps from the smelters sit at either end of town; at one time there were 16 smelters in town and the air was black referred to as “the Pittsburgh of the West.” The town has some nice older buildings. I like older buildings and would look at some that were not used and wondered what I would do with it if I bought it. The town suffered multiple fires in its early years and had to be rebuilt a few times.
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Sentinel Museum
US Route 50 — the Lincoln Highway — was one of the first coast-to-coast highways going from Maryland to San Francisco, CA. Along Route 50 it seems that back in the early heyday of the automobile and people first taking trips around, there were a lot more gas stations, motels and diners obviously from the 1940s to 1950s or there about. Most are shuttered now. I wonder if better cars braking down less often with better mileage was their demise or was it just the interstates.
My favorite buildings on the walking tour were the Colonade Hotel, Skillman House, and the old Methodist Church.
After my walking tour and visiting the Sentinel Museum, I went to the library to download my GoPro memory cards. I was there from when it opened at 4 PM to almost when it closed at 8 PM downloading the cards. Now I have another week’s worth free.
I had wanted to eat lunch at the Pony Express Deli which I had heard has the best sandwiches and lunch food in town. But it opens early (05:30 and closes early (13:00) so I missed lunch. So I had lunch at a diner at the south end of town — hot dog and fries. Filled me up but was nothing too special. Dinner was La Fiesta again. I probably should have gone to the Owl Bar just to mix it up.
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