For 19 years, I worked for the Nevada Department of Transportation. During that time I made numerous trips to Elko County Nevada while working on the Interstate 80 Freeway when it was under construction through Carlin, Elko and Wells. Many of the NDOT employees I met in Elko became good friends of mine and I knew several of the resident engineers who worked on the freeways when I was there. One time in Wells, I got hit in the head with a bar glass and had to pay a visit to the Elko hospital to get stitched up.
When the Carlin tunnels were under construction, I toured the tunnels several times before they were completed. In the 1970s, my wife, children and I made a trip with a camp trailer around northern Nevada and visited Angel Lake near Wells one Fourth of July, thinking we could dive into the water to cool off. Unfortunately, there were still big chunks of ice floating around on the lake, but we took a quick swim in the icy water anyway.