We arose at 5 am but didn’t come down until nearly 7 am and
had a breakfast of oatmeal. We headed north
on Rt. 49 through Nevada City, CA through Donner Pass to Virginia City,
NV. I was a little worried about
stopping at Donner Pass with Mary when she suggested that we have a snack!
We loved Virginia City!
So many old Western towns have the historic old buildings ripped down
only to be replaced with tourist traps that are new buildings that look like
old buildings. That was certainly not
the case with Virginia City. Most of the
town burned in 1875 and was rebuilt shortly thereafter. Those buildings are still the majority of
structures in the town. Of course, most
have been repurposed and brought up to modern code but all of the buildings are
real. The newspaper office where Mark
Twin worked in 1863 is still standing and looks much like it did back when old
Sam Clemens was writing.
We enjoyed our lunch at the Palace Saloon which has been in
operation since 1875. I had a bison
burger and Mary had a wild boar burger and we swapped halves. Both were excellent. I also had a draft beer which was very
good. We also appreciated that while the
saloon and furnishings were vintage 1800s, there was no touristy pretense. I expected that the waitresses would be in
some stereotype of saloon girl garb.
However, the staff wore jeans and T shirts and served us well. After lunch, we walked around the town, which
is very small. We were surprised to
learn that Virginia City had over 25,000 residents in the late 1800s. We could almost see Ben, Adam, Hoss and
Little Joe riding in to town.
Upon leaving Virginia City, we drove through Carson City to
Lake Tahoe. The lake is very clear with objects
in water nearly 70 feet deep visible from the surface. From the shore, the water looked as blue as
anything you would see in the Caribbean.
We drove back to El Dorado Hills via Rt. 50 and got to
Fergsons by about 5 pm for a dinner of pasta.
We went out for fuel and ice cream after dinner. Tomorrow we plan to visit the volcanic areas near Lassen, California.
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