Day 2: The Comstock Lode

We cannot believe it's only Monday! In fact, we had the best vacation experience today -- at a State Park, we couldn't come up with the date to write on our entrance fee slip, and had to really think to come up with the day of the week. If you don't write it on the board in the morning, the date just sort of slips away!  :)

We headed out of Tahoe today, north before we headed east on the Loneliest Road in America. No, that's not my snarky sense of humor -- that's what it's really called! Today was all about the Comstock Lode.  We hit Carson City first, just on a drive-through, and headed up in to the hills to Gold Canyon.  Here we were struck by the fact that mining isn't a history lesson, but something that is ongoing. We drove past a sign announcing upcoming mining blasts, and in several places were able to see 21st century equipment side by side with ruins.  The Comstock Lode may be part of history, but the Comstock Project is happening right now!

Virginia City was the destination this afternoon, and it didn't disappoint!  Back in the day, there were upwards of 15,000 residents working and living in the mining community.  The main drag had original storefronts and saloons, and was a fun walk through the past.  We opted not to eat at Bucket of Blood Saloon (shocker!), but had amazing waffle concoctions at the Roaster.  Virginia City, is unbelievably, the birth place of Mark Twain. I know, sounds wrong, but it was the first city where he used his pen name, writing for the Territorial Enterprise.

From Virginia City, we headed back down the hills, to Carson River, where we….took the road less traveled.  What's a road trip without a gravel road?  This road was part of the Pony Express Trail -- man, I love that we were driving on the same path that riders rode years before! The road wound through deserted and active ranches, hugging tight to the river.  At the time, I thought that the RBC I spotted (that's a really big cow) was the find of the day. Really -- it was huge!  But then…far off in the distance we saw some dust rising up indicating a vehicle was coming. And as it got closer (don't presume that we were actually cutting the distance) we both were stymied by what we are seeing. One thing that was true was that this thing was hauling -- moving upwards of 60 mph.  And the other thing that was true was that it was a tank!  We had stumbled upon an automative test area.  And that's all that we are cleared to say at this time.  Ha!

Then, all of a sudden, the road turned back to pavement, and up on the hill was Fort Churchill. Seeing it after this long road felt like a major discovery!  Fort Churchill was established in 1860 after an "incident" with the American Indians.  The buildings were all created using bricks and stand in various states of ruin. The awesome thing was that for the most part, we were the only ones there.  It was sunny and 70 degrees and we had fun just poking in and out of the buildings and taking amazing pictures.

We are now snuggled in to an amazing room for where we are -- Fallon.  Tomorrow we anticipate more sunshine and discovery!