Cactus Kate

…but not with an achin’ in my heart.

My friend Janet and I are headed for Winnemucca, Nevada on December 10! I am very excited. Winnemucca is somewhere that I have never been. I LOVE going to places I have never been. I know, I know…’You hate the cold, Katie. Why would you intentionally travel to somewhere COLDER than Moab in the winter?’ some of you are asking. The answer is this: Our friend Julie lives there. I never get to see Julie. Janet seldom sees Julie.

I have been doing a little research on what there is to do and see there. Winnemucca is just a little larger than Moab with a few more than 7,000 residents. There are several casinos (whoopee), and there is a visitor center, a museum (which the Winnemucca Chamber of Commerce website tells me houses 13,000-year-old mammoths, antique autos, and the Edna Purviance exhibit) and an art gallery.

I looked up Edna Purviance, and apparently she was a silent movie-era actress who starred in many films with Charlie Chaplin (and was also romantically involved with him), and was from that area of Nevada. Interesting.

In addition to the excitement of visiting somewhere new, we are taking the AmTrak. The train is one of my favorite things, and I wish that AmTrak would make it easier to get where you want to go easily. To get the AmTrak here in southeastern Utah, you have to get to Green River, UT (which is 50 miles from Moab). You can only ride the train from Green River east to Denver, or north through Salt Lake City then west through Elko, NV, Winnemucca, and Reno and Sacramento to San Francisco. This means that it is difficult if not impossible to get to any of the places I travel to on a regular basis (L.A., Phoenix, Tucson, etc.).

All the westbound trains from Green River run over night. This is a MAJOR disappointment for me, as I like to look out and SEE THINGS, and it will be dark when we get on the train (5:50P), and we arrive in Winnemucca at the ungodly hour of 5:30A, which means it will be dark the whole distance, and the return trip is the same. I love the train, and I would love to be able to take it to the places that I want to go.

I am very excited to make this trip, and see Julie. It’s always nice to get out of Moab, and I can’t wait to spend time with my girlfriends!

P.S. Winnemucca has a Jack In The Box. YEA!!!