Virginia City and the V&T ~ Sunday, August 07, 2016

The next stop was Virginia City.

We saw a western show--it was a lot of fun.

The kids went on a mine tour, which starts at the back of the Ponderosa Saloon (where kids are welcome except literally at the bar).

Afterwards we rode the V&T to Gold Hill and back.

The engineer had a buddy (click on picture to see full-size). I told him "you wouldn't get a cat to do that", but at first he misunderstood and said back "it's a Cummins". I meant no disrespect to the Caterpillar company or their AFAIK fine Diesel engine products! The locomotive is an 80-ton GE.

Anyway, everyone enjoyed the ride.

The tracks wind along the side of a cliff, so you get a great view of desert scenery, plus old mines and shacks, and the V&T's own shops.

A few more scenes around the V&T depot and Virginia City generally. Note the SN caboose. How did it end up here?

We were slightly surprised to see a TARDIS on the way out of town. We tried to take a picture but none came out. Must have dematerialized! There's also a tree covered with old shoes and another tree growing out of a rusty car. These are all on the uphill side of the road as you exit town back towards Carson.

Another interesting landmark on the way to or from Virginia City is this giant spider made out of an old VW. It's in Mound House, which is not much of a town but was once the transloading point between the V&T and the narrow gauge Carson & Colorado line that went to the Owens Valley.

We were hungry when we got back to Carson City (pretty much everything in Virginia closed up at 5:00) and found this Salvadorean place on the way into town on the 50. Pupusas! It was pretty good.