Monday evening and Tuesday in Nevada
Last night we walked to a pizza place for dinner. The pizza was disappointing. However the salad was yummy.
This morning we got up and made coffee and had breakfast in. Around 8:00 we left for Virginia City. We had done a little research but mostly we planned to just wander aimlessly.
It was a beautiful 45 minute drive. We headed back over rose Pass where we were the other day for our meadow hike. We got to town early enough to get a great parking space.
Virginia City has 1000 residents. I am sure there are days where they are crawling with tourists but today was not bad at all.
We started with the information center and bought package tickets for a mine tour, a trolley ride and a train ride.
We talked to an interesting man who told us lots of stories about the town. I think that many older people volunteer here to help out the tourists. Everyone was so nice.
We stopped at a local coffee place and had great coffee and shared a wafull sandwich. There were no chain restaurants. In fact, the only chain we have seen in our little town is a Starbucks.
Then we walked around a bit and took the trolley ride to get an idea of the town. It was narrated and full of information.
We walked around a lot and then did the mining tour. The mine opened up off a saloon that used to be a bank. Talk about multi tasking, this building had been it all.
We visited the old newspaper office where Samuel Clemmons worked. It was below a store. I got to touch a lot of very old cool printing stuff.
Then we had bar-b-que nachos. Yum Yum.
Time for more walking and then the train ride to Gold Hill and back. This took about 35 minutes. We walked down a long steep flight of stairs and then a steep hill to get to the train station. Knowing we would have to walk all the way back up sort of made my heart stop. This town is really built on the side of a steep mountain. The train ride was also narrated. Three wild horses came up to the track so the train had to stop for a few minutes.
Then we went to the Bucket of Blood saloon and had a cool drink. That was of course after climbing the steep hill and all the steps.
We visited a couple other places and then headed home.