Bryan and Carrie's Nevada Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving I went with Carrie, her parents, and her older brother to a tiny little mining town in middle-of-nowhere Nevada. Carrie has grandparents and a couple of aunts, cousins, and uncles out there, a few of whom work for the Cortez gold mine. It was a very memorable Thanksgiving. We helped her Uncle John build a hugenormous metal garage.



I rode a horse. Yes, Jeremy, it was as awkward as you're imagining. The horse's name was Mack, and I DID get it to canter (run), so I felt pretty good about that. The people out there in Crescent Valley live an interesting lifestyle. Carrie's aunts and uncles work at the mine and make crazy good money but they can't build a house because once the mine is abandoned they will have to move and no one will want to buy the house. There are a couple of little bars and one tiny run-down convenience store and if you need anything besides beer, milk, or potato chips, you've got to drive forty minutes to Elko. So everyone out there lives in mobile homes. Some people live without water or electricity! With no house payment to make, Carrie's uncles have lots of toys. Her Uncle John has a few nice trucks, a Corvette, a Prowler, and a sweet Kubota tractor. Her cousin Robert has a huge truck with all sorts of computerized guages and a crazy sound system. And of course they've got 4-Wheelers, motorcycles, snowmobile... toys, toys, toys! Maybe I want to live in Crescent Valley! Seriously... the mobile homes were NICE inside! These weren't like the trailers I went into on my mission in Kentucky. Being out in the middle of nowhere, you could see nothingness for miles and miles.



On Saturday we went exploring up in the hills. There are abandoned mine shafts and homes everywhere. You can also find Indian arrowheads and chinese coins and stuff. This mine shaft went straight down into the ground. Carrie's brother threw a couple rocks down into them and we never heard them hit bottom!



Carrie's family was a lot of fun. I haven't mentioned yet that we ate like kings the whole time. Care has some amazing cooks in her family. Her grandma made like a million pies, her grandpa makes amazing pancakes, and I didn't have ANYTHING that didn't taste amazing. Carrie and I had an awesome time together and I won't forget this Thanksgiving.