Bishop to Carson City
We got on the road early Thursday, heading for Carson City and ready to tackle several 6% grades and 8000' summits. Last time we came through here in 2003 we managed the grades but got down to 10 mph in first gear. We thought we might have to disconnect the car to get over the mountain! But our Mr. Banks (the complete Banks Power System) did us proud. Worst case yesterday was 25 mph in first gear. We tow a Mercury Villager Van loaded with our bikes, books, outdoor fireplace, chairs, etc...so we are at the high end of our towing capacity.
This part of the trip around Mammoth and June Lake is just magnificent. Still lots of snow on the mountains, good road, very little traffic, great weather. I can envision staying here for a week or so. This picture is taken at one of the high points on US395.
We had lunch beside the Walker River. Remember John Denver singing..."Where the Walker runs down to the Carson Valley plain, there lives a maiden, Darcy Farrow was her name," ? Here we are and the river really does rush down to Carson Valley.
We arrived about 1 PM at Silver City RV Resort just south of Carson City, NV. We've been here before and knew the spaces would be large and clear for Mr. Moto. It as really hot so we did minimal setup, had a beer and waited for the sun to go down to finish all our tasks.
Today we did a brief car tour of the old houses in Carson City and stopped by the Capitol Building. Here's the house used in the last movie John Wayne made--The Shootist. It's called the Krebs-Peterson house, built in 1914. This would be the movie set for the house J.B. Books died in.
Just two doors down is the Governor's Mansion in a regular old neighborhood. It has a beautiful entry and front veranda.
A couple of blocks away is the State Capitol building with its unique silver dome. Completed in 1871 at a cost of $84,000 it was extensively rebuilt in 1977 at a cost of $6 million! But it's now safe.
We decided to take a jaunt out to Virginia City, 15 miles away. It was a crazy mountain drive with 15% grades and curves. When we arrived we found a typical tourist trap, loaded with people. Where they all came from I don't know. Jim said that Tombstone, AZ was better. We couldn't find a parking spot on the main drag and with temps at 101 I said...forget it! The main street had dozens of junky tourist shops and crowds of people. Little alleys ran up and down hill from the main street to more junky houses. Not my cup of tea. Here's the main street and an old school building that caught my eye.
Maybe itf it hadn't been so hot we would have scoped out a few historical sites and gift shops...maybe a saloon or two. But I was happy to leave. We took the trucker's route down and were back in the valley in no time. We decided to get on our way tomorrow and maybe get out of this heat wave...although as we always say it is a dry heat. But since we're up a mile high that lucky ole sun is piercingly hot!