Last Day of Golden Spike Rally

Sunday morning after another great breakfast of toasted jalapeno bread, fruit and coffee, most of the RV'ers packed up and took off for places unknown.  It was the perfect time for Patty and I to take off on a photographic trip back to Virginia City .. ok, we went to check out the stores too.   A two block uphill walk found us on the main drag, "C" Street.  The buildings are all very old ... built in the 1800's ... with a wooden boardwalk the entire length and nary a level square foot.  Check out the electrical lines.

With rare exception, each building has a balcony in need of repair and paint.  Most of the building fronts are very ornate.  Every entrance has columns and paint similar to this.

You can see the old signs naming the former occupants of the building.  The one on the right sold hardware, stoves and metal.  The left one was the Crystal Bar.

I think every other building was a saloon ... You can see the Silver Queen on the opposite side, reflected in this window.  From the Red Dog to Buckets of Blood ... there was no short supply of whiskey for the miners.

On the way to Virginia City we saw lots of old mining and farming equipment, so on the return trip, I stopped for a few photo opps.  This orange thresher probably saw lots of wheat in its day.  Now it, as well as a couple old trucks, are homes for pack rats.

One of the important pieces of mining equipment would be the stamp mill used to crush the ore so the gold could be extracted.   The metal pieces hanging down move up and down "stamping" the rocks.

There was even an old wood stove ... probably pretty pricey originally since it had a beautiful design on the side of the oven.  There must have been a handle sticking out .. the words say "turn up to bake".

Sadly the day is gone and we returned to the RV park where we began to pack up for the trip home.  I'm so excited to have met so many nice people and look forward to seeing them again at the next Golden Spikes Rally.  Steam trains ROCK!!!