Carson City to Virginia City

Today we took a driving tour that took us first to Nevada's capital, Carson City. Once we got out of Reno, this was our view. We took 395 to the capitol. Carson City is a typical narrow valley town, narrow and long. The main part of town is picturesque, consisting mainly of original historic buildings and some restored buildings. Carson City was established for a year before the Comstock Lode was discovered. The Lode was responsible for transforming this little town into a bustling supply and shipping center for the mine.

This is the capitol building. We walked down the main street taking pix on our way to lunch at a local diner called Mom and Pop's. The food was ok and priced about the same as the Nugget Casino lunch counter, but much quieter and not smoky. Apparently it is the favorite lunch hangout for the government workers, since they only have to walk across the street.



This building is actually two historic hotels. It is across the street from the Capitol Building and across the parking access from our diner.

Before we took our walk, though, we started here. This is the original Carson City Mint, which is next to and connected to

the Nevada State Historical Museum. This is a large complex which includes the upper two floors of the original mint with displays about the mint. The basement, which originally held the minting machine, is now a hard rock mine tunnel, and the street of a gold mining ghost town. The new building houses displays of native Great Basin inhabitants, including video memories of some of the older native residents. There were many other exhibits including a historic guns, gems and minerals, vintage machines, clothing, and everyday artifacts, etc which reflect the area history and most of which were donated by locals.

For our friends Froggi Donna and Stu

Gatling gun

This exhibit of the earliest geologic history included nearly complete and beautifully preserved skeletons of a mastodon and a horse. They are from different geologic periods, but reflect the changing weather conditions as cool, wet weather regularly alternated with warm, dry conditions throughout the ages.

Mummified cat found at an abandoned miner's camp

Silver dollar minted at Carson City Mint. The mint was the brainchild of the local populace who decided that they needed one to mint all the silver coming from the local mines. It took over ten years and many trips to Washington for approval and money before the building was completed and put into operation. It was unique because the silver was assayed, smelted, cast into blanks, and stamped into coins all in the same building. Over the years it was in operation, it minted over 44 million dollars in silver and gold coins.

One room of the museum was dedicated to the first gambling machines.

Coin stamper

After our tour of Carson City we had enough time left to make the drive up the mountain to historic Virginia City. This is the town that the Comstock (silver) Lode built. When the town burned, the Lode rebuilt the town. It also built a lot of San Francisco. When the town burned, a lot of the wealthiest people relocated there.

We left Carson City, drove through the town of Silver City, and out the other side. We started up the mountain through Devil's Gap. This is the entrance to the canyon where the Comstock Lode was discovered, although it took miners 10 years of mining this canyon before the Lode was actually discovered.

The town (6000 ft up) is all rebuild because the inevitable fire destroyed the town. The town was quickly rebuild because it was October and no one had any shelter. Many of the buildings were never rebuild, though, so it doesn't stretch to the mountain as it did before. The town boasted a population of about 30000 to today's total of 400.

Click on this pic to read the signs in the upper windows.

It is a typical tourist town with the usual trips, museums, shops, saloons and eateries--much the same as when it was first started! The town is like Jerome, AZ in that it is built right on the hill, with the main street and parallel streets level and connecting streets going up and down hill. There is plenty of free parking, including one boon docking lot for rvers, although only small rigs are recommended to tackle the steep grade to get there. The town is fun to visit. To see it all, though, we recommend two days. We also recommend visiting during the summer season, which starts on Memorial Day. Today there were some museums and tours open, as well as most of the shops, but some venues we would have liked to see were closed.

There was a nice tram tour, but today several schools were visiting, so it was full. We had a nice walking tour. We visited the visitors' center for information. We discovered that if you buy tour and museum tickets there, you get a nice discount.

After our tour, we tramped back to our truck for the ride home. The trip down the mountain was just as breathtaking as the trip up. The road is really snaky and the views unfold until you see Reno spread out below.

Back in Reno we caught up to the present time and made our trip to Bordertown without incident. Time to rest up. Tomorrow we tour Reno.

More later,

Louise and Duane

Sacarmento to Reno

Since we got home early enough to eat dinner at home Tues evening, we were rested for our next day of touring. Wednesday our friend John Laffey joined us for a day in Old Town Sacramento. We went primarily to visit the California State Railroad Museum. This took most of the day, so we split it with a short walk around the old town.

This is a shoreline view of the the Sacramento River. We liked the contrast of the two styles of buildings.

Old Town looks like this with modern shops in the old (looking) buildings. As with most old towns like this most of the original buildings were burned or swept away in floods. Many were rebuilt more than once.

We don't know anything about this bridge except that it is a vertical draw bridge.

After we thoroughly visited the railroad museum we walked next door to the little historical museum. We only had an hour and a half until it closed, but that was enough.

This was only one of the many interesting exhibits. The irony of this method of mining was that it killed itself. The monitors washed the mountain into the rivers which raised the water levels and flooded the farms and towns. Public pressure stopped the miners.

We have remarked that we always forget to take pix of our friends. We did it again! We did get our picture taken by John, though!

There were several historic trains on display. This is a box car.

Scene of camp of Thomas Judah who spent years finding the route through the Sierras for the Southern Pacific Railroad.

There was so much snow on the route that the company built long sheds to keep the snow off the tracks.

After our museum visits we met our rock hounding buddies Dale and Shirley (whom we met in Deming) at a little local cafe for dinner and a bit of catching up. Dale is working in the area and we were lucky to be able to meet up with them before we left. All five of us had a good time doing what Escapees do best--eating and chatting. Like us, Dale and Shirley use their found rocks to make silver and wire-wrapped jewelry. Dale showed us all the jewelery he has made. True to our bad habit, we forgot to take their pictures!

Today we left the small but charming Imperial Court Mobile Home Court and rv park in Citrus Heights and headed up the mountain for Reno. Needless to say the views were spectacular. There is still lots of snow in the upper Sierras. We drove through Donner Pass with our truck performing admirably.

Although the views were great, we could only get glimpses so were glad to get some good pix. There were no pulloffs here, only emergency stops and in some places only to put on snow chains. This is a wooden flume we think is for gold mining.

Truckee River.

Lots of snow left here even though the breeze was mild and the sun was hot. Some places had several feet left.

Donner Lake

Reno

Welcome to Nevada!

Our new home at the Bordertown rv park. We opted for this park although it is 17 miles outside Reno. Our Good Sam's discounts nets us $28 per night. Parks closer to Reno are closer to $40. This is a nice quiet park on the top of a hill with nice views over the tops of the other rvs. After we set up we relaxed the rest of the day. We walked next door to the little slot casino. While we were there, Duane won and lost a dollar on video poker, we bought a paper at the gift shop, and we checked out the breakfast menu at the little restaurant. We walked down the access road for not quite a mile to the CA border and back again. Now you know why this town is called Bordertown. We read, and watched tv and relaxed in general. Tomorrow, more touring!

Enough for now,

Louise and Duane

COLOMA REVISITED

Touring Day today. We packed our lunch and headed out into the wilderness. Our goal was the Marshall Gold Discovery State Historical Park, otherwise known as the gold rush town of Coloma. We were here last in 2007, entering the park from the Placerville end. Today we came up scenic Rt 49 and parked at the other end of the park. On the way down into the valley we pulled off here and found a fantastic view of the north fork of the American River.

Since we entered the park at the opposite end, we found this spot we had not found before.

The sign below is the one above. This is the exact spot on the southern fork of the American River that Marshall found the gold that started the Ca gold rush. To read it, click on it (or on any pic) and it will enlarge.

This is what is on the other side of the wall. The river is high and swift thanks to the spring snow melt. Cold too!

Sutter's lumber mill (to supply building material to San Francisco) was originally located on the river. This exact replica was built on higher land according to Sutter's original notes.

This is a representation of one of the many houses and buildings that made up the town after the gold played out and the miners moved on. The post office received and sent mail three days a week to SF so there were plenty of people left to make this a thriving community.

The park relies on volunteers to open and interpret the various buildings for the numerous school classes and other visitors. The blacksmith shop was manned both times we were here. While Duane chatted with his fellow smiths, I sat next door in the Miller home and chatted with the volunteer there. The Gooches were black slaves who moved here with their owner and were forced to leave their three-year-old son behind. The son was bought by a man named Miller. When CA became a state in 1850 it declared itself against slavery so the Gooches were freed. They worked at various jobs until they could buy their son, his wife and two children and move them west. When the parents died the Millers lived there until Perlie, one of the Gooches' grandsons was the only one left. He sold the farm to the state for the park. The inside consists of two open rooms divided by a wide archway and set up to display what women did in the area at the time.

After our visits, we found a shady picnic spot for our lunch, then finished up our tour of the town. There are a couple of original brick or stone buildings left but most are gone. Some of the reconstructed buildings are made on their spots with salvaged original materials, most are more modern reconstructions. The original town was made of tents, of course. As the merchants made money they build more substantial buildings. Most of these eventually burned. Some plaques show vacant grassy areas where buildings once stood. When we finished our tour of the town we took this road to the Marshall Monument.

This is our view from the top--part of the town in the valley.

This monument is huge. The first row of stone is my height and the statue is larger than life size.

It depicts Marshall pointing to the spot where he first found gold. As happened a lot in the gold rush times, Marshall dies penniless. The merchants that supplied the miners were the ones that made the most money. From here we drove to the community of El Dorado to visit this little museum. Unfortunately it was closed on Tues, and we won't be back to this area again at this time.

The afternoon was getting on so we made a quick stop for a few groceries we forgot, and a soda for the road and turned our truck toward Citrus Heights and home.

Basta,

Louise and Duane

Back on the road

Just a short post to let everybody know we have hit the trail again. We left our family behind to see places we have not been. After pulling out of their driveway we headed north on I 680. It cost us $11.25 to get the rig across the I 680 bridge. We proceded to I 80 and then on to Sacramento. We found a Passport America rv park just a little ways out of town. The site we are on is a pull through, the only one they have here. We were lucky that the the people that were on it left a day early, so we got it. This place is a trailer park with some overnight rv sites. Nothing to brag about, but CHEAP as far as California goes. We paid $37.50 for 3 nights. All the other parks in the area run between $40 and $50 dollars a night. I think we can put up with the tight sites for a savings of $110.00 After we got set up, it was off the grocery.

Our friends John and Anita (I worked with John in Texas for 6 months) are staying down the road a little ways. They both work with the Red Cross and we were hoping that they didn't get deployed to help with the southern tornado damage. John just got back from AZ. so he didn't get sent, but Anita did. I guess getting to visit with one is better then none. John is coming by tonight for a visit. While we are in this area we will visit "Old Sacramento", Placervile, and other sites around here. We may stay a little longer than the 3 nights we have signed in for, don't know for sure.

Till next time
Duane and Louise

CHICKENS AND GARDENS

We are really enjoying our visiting and playing here in sunny Walnut Creek. We have done a lot of shopping and eating out, and some touring, but most of our time has been spent at home with Matt, Beth, Jack, and Katie. We do the ordinary daily stuff like swinging kids, chores, cooking and eating, catching up on tevoed tv favorites. After bath time and children are in bed we have adult time for talking or playing games. We play Mexican Train dominoes, Hand(s) and Foot (Feet) cards and 31 (cards). Recently Duane has been teaching the rest of us to play Muggins, the kind of dominoes he learned at GM. This game is played with double sixes, so with four people there is no draw pile. The strategy is rather complicated, but points are counted in fives and multiples of five.

Katie charming grandpa in our garage.

Since the weather is mostly sunny and mild we spend a lot of time outdoors. Matt and Beth leased this house partly because we could fit in the driveway, but also because of the (relatively) large yard and several different patio areas. This is part of the L shaped back patio. It offers protection from the chilly wind with shaded and sunny sitting and eating areas and space for the children.

This is the long part of the L. The children love to eat their meals out here.

Part of our driveway "rent" was to help Matt with some larger chores. My "job" was to plant this herb garden and the tomato and pepper garden below and help plant flowers.

Duane's "jobs" included fixing up the old chicken coop in the corner. Matt and Beth bought six different breeds of chicks to raise for a learning experience for the children, to harvest eggs, and because they think chickens are cool. They kept the chicks in an old Pack-n-play in the garage until they had enough feathers to move outside. Matt and Duane built nesting boxes, a roosting perch, and a manure box from old kitchen cupboards. Add wood shavings, a feeder, and a waterer and you have chicken heaven. Since the polts aren't quite ready for the chilly evenings yet, the warming light was moved with them. Duane also worked on tightening up the swing set by drilling and adding bolts to it. Some of the old ones kept backing out. He also helped moved the patio stuff to the patios and fenced the garden to keep the chickens and the kids out.

These chickens all have names: Repecka, Professor McGonagal (sp ?) Mrs. Peabody, Little Bo Peep, Princess Lay-a, and Daisy. The names are hopeful. When the chick are hatched, they are sexed before they are shipped to the garden store. Most of the time they are correct, but sometimes a rooster will show up. With these chickens, it is a matter of wait and see and hope, but that's part of the fun.

The chickens really like being out of the Pack-n-Play and in their spacious coop. They have the run of the yard during the day and are penned in at night.

The wood blocks are for their feeder and waterer, but they are too little to reach them there right now. They were unable to get chickens that will lay blue eggs. Four of these will lay brown eggs, one will lay dark reddish brown, and one white.

Katie likes to hold and kiss the chickens. Jack likes to hold Bo Peep (below), but likes to chase the flock.

Our time here is almost over. We will be packing up tomorrow and pulling out Monday morning. We are looking forward to hitting the road again because we are full-timers, but we are also sorry to be leaving. We have really enjoyed our three-week stay here and will be looking forward to our next visit.

That's plenty for now,

Louise and Duane