First day off after 7 days and it was time for a road trip to get out and smell the roses but we didn’t find any but did find geocaches.
Peggy and her kids of 4McElfish fame offered to take me down to Virginia City to experience Nevada as it used to be.
Virginia City is one of those Wild West towns you see in the movies and of course, Bonanza. Its main claim to fame is the Gold and Silver mining in the 1800’s and that is the main draw card for tourists. The main street still has many of the old buildings of the time and some of the shop keepers dress up in period costume.
We walked around town taking in the sights including the cemetary which had a section for Firemen. Seemingly back when, people couldnt afford to be buried with a headstone and the like but the Unions and organisations of the time paid for the burials. Other sections included the Masons and Oddfellows.
The further we drove into the back blocks the more little groups of graves appeared on the hillsides. It would have been tough times back then but every second building seemed to be a saloon and there was a thriving red light district.
Further south and we had a run in with an old time prospector. In an area that looked more like a dump than anything else with old tin cans spread all over, we were hunting a geocache, when an old beat up jeep turned up with a prospector sporting a long scruffy beard telling us that here was active gold mining going on and we were on private land (you could have fooled us).
We left without the find as he wasn’t interested in what we were looking for as long as his gold wasn’t in jeopardy. He would have made more money from recycling the iron strewn around all over the place.
Next stop was Dayton where I was to experience the seedier part of life. Peggy said that no visit to Northern Nevada is complete without breathing the air in the Red Light District. Prostitution is legal in this area and even TV series have been made of the area.
Heading out of Dayton there was a Sherrif parked on the side of the road (obvious speed trap) – Peggy missed it. It wasn’t long before the Cruiser was behind with the lights flashing.
The Sherrif came up to my window and while Peggy looked for her paperwork, I started a conversation with him (out came the Aussie card). He had actually spent time in Melbourne (12 months actually) and had come through Adelaide to go to Alice Springs.
Next he asked what I was doing in town, telling him for a Firefighter Conference (bingo – the Aussie Firefighter card).
He took the paperwork back to the cruiser and returned, saying that it was on him and enjoy the rest of my stay. Peggy now wants an Aussie Firefighter in the car everytime she hits the road.
It was an uneventful trip back through Carson City to the hotel. We made 34 geocache finds for the day.
