Winding Down

Our boy is back from Texas for the holiday!

What a great way to start the weekend . . . grandson Ty and the ponies pulled in this morning after driving since yesterday from Odessa, Texas. He'll get a one and a half day rest and then it's back on the road Sunday, the 10th, to Las Vegas and the Ote Berry Junior Steer Wrestling World Championship and the National Finals Rodeo. We'll all be in Las Vegas by Monday, the 11th, to take in a week's worth of rodeoing, shopping at the Cowboy Christmas, visiting, eating, and just plain having lots of fun!

Week 48 is coming to an end which means there're a mere four weeks (actually three plus one day!) left in 2017. As is the mantra every year . . . how did it go by so fast! This last year, I must say, has been a mixed one for the world, this country, this state, and for days on Vine. I'll let the newscasters review everything except the happenings here on Vine as it is way too much to grasp. 

I've been able to keep up with my digital Project Life project and it has been a real joy; especially looking back to Week One. Having left you at Week 45, I will catch you up to the present with our trip to California and back for Thanksgiving and then last week spent at home with a head cold!

Ole' Bob Carr's place on You Bet Road, November 24, 2017.

We traveled to California on Wednesday, November 22nd, making good time across the Nevada desert and arriving at Dad's before sunset. The weather was mild and the property looked just like the park that it is. By Thursday morning, after a good night's sleep, we were ready to face the turkey and thank the good Lord for a bountiful, blessed life. While Dad and Clare went to Bierwagen's farm to retrieve the mail order Thanksgiving meal from cold storage, I took myself out for a walk to breathe in the musty autumn day and, of course, take photos.  Once the dinner was unpacked and organized for heating, we all took a walk and grabbed a few more photos, like this one of the three of us - old, older, and real old! Haha!

Clare, Hazel, Ole' Bob.

By about 2:00 p.m. the turkey was hot, the sides were prepared, the table was set, and the wine uncorked so we sat down and enjoyed every bite and sip. Although the preparation/heating process took a bit longer than I'd anticipated (probably because of the elevation it needed more time at higher temperature), the meal was delicious! The wine Dad had bought for the occasion was the perfect addition; it was so good, in fact, that Clare went Friday to buy two bottles to bring home.

Dad had the table set with autumn placemats that Mom Delta had made for Thanksgivings long ago.

The turkey was tender, the yams were sweet, the mashed potatoes fluffy, the green beans were buttery good, and the dressing was spiced just right. We waited until the sun went down to slice into the pumpkin pie which was also very tasty.

The lovely white wine - crisp and not-too-sweet.

Friday's plan was to drive over to Reno and have a visit with cousin Kathne, her husband Mike, and their daughter Molly. After a short visit at the St. Paul Lutheran Cemetery in Chicago Park we were on our way over the Pass. The traffic, surprisingly, was not too bad, considering that it was the day after Thanksgiving, a Friday, and Boreal Ridge Ski Resort was open (as I imagine resorts like Squaw Valley were too). We pulled into Reno and the Dowd's place shortly after noon, visited with Kak, were introduced to Riley Joseph, the fat cat (see photo below), and when Mike returned we drove to the Stonehouse Cafe for lunch - no leftover T-day! - where we met up with Molly. Spent about two hours laughing, reminiscing, and thoroughly enjoying a lovely meal together. Kathne is our only cousin on the Carr side, being our Dad's brother Silas's only child. It was a tiny Carr-family reunion of sorts!

Riley Jo - the fat, black cat.

Hazel Carr Allred, Bob Carr, Molly Park, Kathne Carr Dowd.

Uncle Bob Carr was the star of the day and we all had a grand time. We said our goodbye's and headed back to You Bet Road. Kathne had come across some old photo albums and boxes of photos and memorabilia from her mom and dad and wanted very much to go through them with Dad; we didn't really have time but Kathne and I have made plans to meet up in a couple months and browse them before she discards them all. Here is one photo that caught my curiosity that appears to be a rare picture of Carr ancestors. 

Charlotte - Could this be Caroline and Job Carr with Grandfather A.B. Carr and his brother?

There was no date and other identification; however, the photo card is marked "Smith [the photographer I presume], Harvard, Neb." I'm hoping that when we sift through her photos again, we will find more relating to the Carr's. 

Saturday, the 25th, Clare and I bid Daddy Bob farewell and set back out for Reno and home. We stopped at the Sands Casino to meet up with friends for breakfast at the Mel's Diner and then got back on the road for home, making a couple stops for fuel and stretching and arriving home about 6:30 p.m. (MST). I craned my head around to capture this spectacular sunset over the Bonneville Salt Flats outside Wendover. 

The reflection on the wet Salt Flats really was impressive.

It was a truly wonderful trip - short but loaded with goodness. 

I'll sign off for now and get back with the last two weeks either later this evening or tomorrow. Time to get dinner ready!

Continuing . . . Journey to Lee Vining and Yosemite National Park

November already! I've decided to join in on another Instagram photo challenge, not that I need an excuse to take photos but it does provide a bit more direction. India Ross of @ofearthandstars has posted this list for #navigatingthroughnovember and today's prompt is "crisp." To me that is a lot of different things such as crispy, crunchy leaves underfoot, crisp, brisk sweater sort of feel outside, but, because I made this last night, Apple Crisp made with fresh, snappy apples (albeit from the market, not picked fresh from a tree), brown sugar and oats. Heavenly with a dab of whipped cream. See my Instagram feed for this deliciousness.

Yesterday, both of us went to the County Courthouse and cast our early votes for the Presidential election . . . so want this to be over with so we can move on! Blah, blah, blah!

Without further adieu I will get back to our road trip October 18 through 25 to Northern California. Day Six, October 23 saw us leaving Dayton, Nevada and driving Highway 50 to Carson City then onto Highway 395 along the southeast side of the Sierras and up into them at Topaz Lake. We stopped at Wa She Shu Casino & Travel Center just outside Gardnerville to fuel up. It was lucky for us that this place is brand new as of May 2016; built on reservation land by the Washoe Tribe in cooperation with the Poarch Creek Indians of Alabama, the name means "The People's Place." Lucky for us because we were hard pressed to find a fuel station that would accommodate our long rig and also have propane as we had used over a half tank and didn't want to not have adequate to run the furnace and fridge for the rest of our trip. Gardnerville and Minden are pretty towns and the surrounding country is rich farm and ranch land.

Rango waiting patiently to get on the road from Dayton.

The only photo I took in Dayton indicating a bit of its history.

Here are a couple photos taken along the highway outside Gardnerville, through Indian Hills and on to Topaz Lake and the California border.

The Sierras towering above the pretty farmland outside Gardnerville.

Approaching the pass to Topaz Lake.

Topaz Lake, a reservoir on the Nevada-California border. It was calm and reflective when we drove through at about 1:00 pm (PDT). Right around this bend was the Inspection Station on the border.

I caught the stateline sign on the fly again! There are very few places to pull over and get a proper photo but that's okay as we've seen a border sign before!

You can see that the shoulder is close; I was leaning way out of the window!

Once in California we were to stay in Mono County until leaving for home on the 25th when we would cross again into Nevada and the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.

Highway 395 took us through Coleville and Walker and over the Devil's Gate Summit (elevation 7,519 feet) into Bridgeport. Back in the late 1950's our family vacationed in Bridgeport at a little resort that had cabins for rent - I confirmed this memory with Dad and he recalled it too - the owners had a pet deer that we remembered too. At any rate, I tried to spot the place but things are changed quite a bit, as well as I was younger, shorter, and much less observant of my surroundings as a child. Just outside Bridgeport is the ghost town of Bodie which I also remember visiting back in the day too. We thought that we might be able to go there on our way back home but by the time we set out Tuesday morning, the winds were very strong over the Conway Summit on Highway 395 so we took an alternate route easterly to Hawthorne, Nevada. 

Twenty-one miles from Bridgeport lay our destination of Lee Vining where we'd set up residence for two nights at the Mono Vista RV Park. Right before the town, though, spread the brilliant blue saline soda Mono Lake and I snapped a few photos as we drove. This one really captures the vastness of the country I thought.

Such an amazing sight from the higher elevation of the highway.

I wish that we had taken some time to go into the Mono Lake Tufa State Natural Preserve to get a better view of the natural limestone spires (tufa), wetlands and bird habitats. It was interesting to see, though, even at a distance, the spires and knobs formed by the interaction of freshwater springs and alkaline lake water (because there is no outlet, the lake is very alkali). We were able to get views of the lake on its northeast side when we drove home Tuesday via Cal SR167.

Once we got to the RV park in Lee Vining, we set up house, took Rango for a walk, and settled in for the evening, planning our jaunt the next day, Monday, into Yosemite.

Shoes off and ready for a nap.

The pretty cottonwood leaves and our RVing neighbors through the door.

 I'm thinking that I will begin a new post tomorrow documenting our trip Monday over Tioga Pass and into Yosemite National Park. It will be photo-heavy as between the two of us we couldn't stop snapping - forewarned!

Bye for today. Happy November 2016!

A Day in Virginia City

We arrived home last night at just a bit after 10:00 p.m. We drove (I should say, Clare drove, I rode shotgun!) all the way from Lee Vining, California, where we had spent Sunday and Monday nights at the Mono Vista RV Park. Having driven from Dayton, Nevada, on Sunday down U.S. 395 and experienced some rather harrowing curves AND high winds, Clare decided that we'd take a less stressful (but not as scenic) route home through Hawthorne, Nevada, over to Fallon and then onto I-80 east. It turned out that it was not only less stressful but shorter by about 1/2 hour which, when one is traveling across Nevada, shorter is better!

But, this post is about our day in Virginia City, Nevada, the "legendary Nevada mining town, at the heart of the Comstock Lode." Years ago (back in the late 50's) our family vacationed in the Eastern Sierras at Silver Lake for two weeks each summer and we had occasion to visit Virginia City (and Carson City). Well, the main street, "C" Street buildings look very much the same as I remember but the shoulder-to-shoulder tourists is something I don't remember! That aside, it was fun to meander down the boardwalks and snapping photos of, most notably, the saloons, that I remembered from those visits nearly 60 years ago.

Tread by many feet since the 1860's.

We had come into the city from the southeast, again over Geiger Grade (not the truck route we had taken Friday but the route through Gold Hill and Silver City) in the car this time . . . we thanked our lucky stars that we hadn't driven the motor home this way as it has a 15% grade and is very curvy and narrow. I mention this because the first thing we visited was the prominent Fourth Ward School House at the south end of town, the lovingly restored last-one-standing schoolhouse museum in Virginia City. It is bigger than the courthouse (Virginia City being the seat of Storey County, Nevada) and is interesting in that it tells the story of the real West in its interpretive center, " A Comstock Lesson." Here are a few photos we took on our "field trip:"

This is a view of the south side of this imposing four-story schoolhouse. From where I was standing, it was difficult to get it all in!

The "Comstock Lesson" interpretive center is housed in the first floor front left classroom and was truly interesting; it took us most of the time to look at all the "lessons" here which described the history and development of the great Comstock silver mining operations that made this area so rich. 

Of course, I had to take a photo of the seamstress's display. It was quite interesting that one of the seamstresses of the time wrote that the women of Virginia City were very fashion-conscious and took opulence to the extreme in some cases.  Not only were the upper classes dressed to the hilt but middle class women dressed their families in unusual finery.

The changing gallery on the first floor houses examples of mining the Comstock Lode as well as the various ores found there. It also had pictures of Virginia City and surrounding country then and now; interestingly, nature has reclaimed many of the abandoned mines to the extent that there are barely any clues to their existence. The first floor also had the Alumni Room, displaying class photos, histories, and family trees of Fourth Ward School students from when it opened in 1876 to the last senior class graduated in 1936. Here is a photo of the Historic Classroom Exhibit, also on the first floor:

These are original desks and they do show the wear of many students over the years. There has been meticulous attention paid to every detail of what the classrooms looked like during the years the school was in operation.

This was a fun riddle . . . can you name the birds?

Write the answer in the comments section at the end of my post, if you want!

We went on up to the second floor and took in the Printing and Mark Twain Exhibit (of course, Mark Twain was famous as a reporter for the Virginia City Territorial Enterprise from 1861 to 1864 and his book, Roughing It contains vivid antidotes of his time there. The school had its own printing operation and the "Senior Dynamo" was published and printed monthly by the Virginia City High School which was in the Fourth Ward School. We liked this little ditty in a souvenir copy of the paper:                      

FORGET IT, by Harriett Gladding, Class of 1922

Forget the troubles of this life;

Forget the struggle and the strife,

Forget the scandal you have heard,

Forget the spoken unkind word.

Forget the fights and blackened eyes,

Forget the gossips, truths and lies,

Forget the bills you have to pay,

Forget the things the papers say,

Forget the first and only kiss,

Forgetting brings you untold bliss,

Forget most things that have gone by,

But DON'T forget Virginia High.

It seems appropriate for this election year!

The stairway up to the Second Floor. The treads are certainly worn down!

Reading Roughing It in the Printing and Mark Twain Exhibit classroom. Each of the desks here had a copy of one of Mark Twain's books. The back of the classroom (behind me) has the printing set up including many vintage typewriters.

Since the school had grades K through 12, the desks were full size and I fit in them comfortably!

The third and fourth floors are off limits to the public but at least the third floor has been restored for offices and archives work rooms. The fourth floor contained only one finished room where gym-type equipment was found. Since the school stood abandoned from 1936 to 1983, there was extensive damage to the unfinished walls, ceiling, and floors of the fourth floor. We left the Fourth Ward School Museum after ringing the bell (with the assistance of the docent) and drove north on C Street to find a parking spot so we could join the other tourists walking up and down.

Here are photos of the Red Dog Saloon, the Delta Saloon, the Tahoe House Hotel, and the Bucket of Blood Saloon (stood out in my mind from those childhood visits!):

Red Dog Saloon and view of C Street. Yes, the day before we drove the motor home down this!

My mom's name was Delta - no relation to the saloon!

We didn't go inside any of the saloons or stores - even to see the Suicide Table - because we had Rango with us and we didn't want someone to mistake him for the Sheriff (his full name, don't you know, is Sheriff Rango, after the chameleon in the 2011 computer-animated Western action comedy).

We were getting a bit hungry so we stopped in at an outside BBQ stand where there were tables set up and had a wheat beer and a pulled pork sandwich with potato salad on the side.

Yum!

There are three churches in town that have been restored and are in use still. The Catholic church, St. Mary's in the Mountains, is quite beautiful and I took one too many photos of it. Here a just two:

The steeple showing to the left is the St Paul's Episcopal Church one street down.

A bird (not sure if it was a pigeon, a hawk, or a crow) was perched up on the steeple's cross the entire time we were there.

Here are a few more photos taken on our walk back down to where we'd parked the car:

I don't know anything about this except that I liked the rustic-ness of it.

Oh yes, this is Bernadette, mentioned in Part IV. 

Here's the story on the donkey. Unfortunately, her owner was standing away from her when I took this photo - quite the character. At any rate, we stopped to chat with him and pet the donkey (and donate a couple $$) and the old guy told us that he'd adopted this donkey from the BLM Wild Horse and Donkey program four years ago ("You know what the BLM is, don't you ma'am?"). One thing he and the donkey had in common was she had not been trained and he had not ever trained a donkey. Seems that things worked out, although he noticed that she was getting rather fat soon after he adopted her. Not fat, pregnant; she birthed a little jack on the fourth of July that year. The old guy named him Independence but does not bring him along to C Street to entertain the tourists as he's still a bit wild. He calls this donkey Bernadette after his late wife - "Every time I look at her I think of my wife. I'm a romantic kind of guy."

Speaking of donkeys - a rusty bit tucked between buildings.

We finished out our visit by driving away from C Street to take a look at the rest of the town's buildings and where its 855 residents (as of the 2010 Census) live and work.

A beautifully restored mansion on B Street.

View looking out over the Comstock mining area towards Reno.

Looking east towards the train depot (Truckee-Virginia Railroad). We didn't go there because there was a huge group, including tour buses, there and we wanted to avoid that.

Just a cool shot from the Fourth Ward School view area.

We had spent about four hours here and were ready to head back to Dayton, pick up a few groceries, and get ready to leave Sunday morning for Lee Vining and our Yosemite adventure. Now we can say that we've been to Virginia City!

Watch for the next installment of our Northern California (and Nevada!) Road Trip Adventure.

Ta!

Northern California Road Trip Adventure - Part IV

Today is Day 7 of what is a stellar trip for us! I took 95 photos today while we toured Yosemite - unbelievable beauty that had our heads spinning. However, I will have to edit those photos before contemplating a blog post here!

This post is about our trip back over Donner and onto Highway 395 to Dayton, Nevada where we stayed Friday and Saturday nights. Why Dayton? It had a nice RV park and was close to Virginia City that we wanted to visit to say we'd been there . . . Dayton, sadly, is not terribly interesting except perhaps from an historical viewpoint. That is, it is the site of Nevada's first gold discovery in 1849 which, I suppose, is memorable in that it is smack dab in the middle of silver mining country. With that tidbit of information, here is the way things went Friday (in photos and a few words):

Railroad bridge over I-80 East at Colfax

We had left Dad and You Bet Road around 7:00 a.m. which put us driving into the sunrise over the Sierras. The views over the Pass were gorgeous, especially at the Donner Summit view point.

I posted this on Instagram and made it my cover photo on Facebook - seen with my own eyes!

We hadn't had breakfast before we left Dad's, so because we were so impressed with the two meals we'd had at Mel's Diner Boomtown, we pulled in there for an encore. 

From there, it didn't take long to get to the turnoff for Virginia City and we didn't know that we were in for a very intense journey over Geiger Grade, a "short cut." We could've stayed on Highway 395 to Carson City and turned onto Highway 50 to Dayton, but it looked like an opportunity for something different and indeed it was! This is Nevada Highway 341, often called the Virginia City Highway and dates back to the 1860's, providing the most direct route from the Comstock Lode to Reno. Here are a few photos taken on the way up to the summit:

See that winding road? Steep too!

Oh my!

Compared to what elevations we experienced today over Tioga Pass, this is not that high; however, for the Nevada desert, it was an incredibly ear-popping height.

Day 5 was spent visiting Virginia City (Gold Hill and Silver City on the way and back) and, I believe, deserves a blog post all its own. As a teaser, here are a couple photos of that wild West town:

View of the West side of C Street, Virginia City (lots of tourists)

Bernadette, the donkey. This has a story for another day!

Our plan is to pull out of Lee Vining (where we are staying again tonight at the Mono Vista RV Park) and traveling back home to Utah on Highway 50 (the Loneliest Highway in America), stopping one last night on the Nevada desert, probably Winnemucca. 

Until we meet again.

Northern California Road Trip Adventure - Part I

Today is Day Three of our fourth road trip of 2016 and all systems are optimum; weather is gorgeous, vehicles running well, camp spots excellent . . .

We left home Tuesday morning about 10:00 a.m. (MDT) and arrived in Verdi, Nevada (Boomtown KOA) that evening at about 7:00 p.m. (PDT). Here is a few photos of the Nevada scenery for your viewing pleasure:

The iconic landmark on the Bonneville Salt Flats. Metaphor: Tree of Utah (or Tree of Life), 30 miles east of Wendover. More information here.

Silver Island Mountains, Wendover, Utah/Nevada. Reflecting in the water on the Salt Flats.

Silver Island Mountains. Couldn't resist the perfect reflection.

Stateline - on the fly!

Pilot Peak, Nevada

Pulling into Sparks/Reno, Nevada. Sunset over the Sierras.

I would have taken more photos but by the time we got to the Boomtown KOA it had gotten dark, we were hungry, and we just wanted to set up the motor home and get to bed. We unhooked the car and drove over to the casino and had a truly awesome burger and shake at Mel's Diner (the original Mel's having been featured in the film American Graffiti).  Boomtown has been THE stateline casino since 1964 when it began as a truck stop and has grown into a 39,630 square foot gaming center and hotel. My dad thinks it used to be called Bill and Effie's and he is absolutely right! It looks like EBay has ashtrays from there!

Of course, Rango is traveling with us. Here is a photo of his lap dog tendencies:

I'm not so sure!

I will be posting more either later tonight or tomorrow after we arrive in Virginia City, Nevada. Our plan is to leave You Bet Road, drive back over Donner Pass to Carson City and Virginia City, stay the night and then drive to Lee Vining, California and park the motor home. We then want to take a couple days driving and sightseeing Yosemite. We are taking advantage of good weather and a rare pocket of free time.

Later 'gator!