THE COCKTAIL HOUR: Carson Valley, Nevada, Pub Crawl

On the block of our hotel in Gardnerville, Nevada...just a few miles south of Carson City on highway 395...were six bars. Tim noted that celestial alignment and suggested we do a pub crawl for the Cocktail Hour here at The World on Wheels.

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Duly noted, we struck out to see what we could find. Alas, our livers were only up for three pubs while we were there, here they are...

We started at the last minute of happy hour, 6:59pm, at the Silver Dollar Bar in Sharkey's Casino, so called because of the hundreds of silver dollars embedded into the bar. It's two bucks for the house wine or a glass of Hamm's beer. Letty has the wine, I have the beer.

I'm glad I only paid a couple of bucks for it.

Next, it's up the street to JT Basque bar and restaurant. At this sheepherder's bar, it's picon punch all around. A very good version of it, too. 

I win five bucks on the bar's slot machine and then we make our way out to the last destination.

The French Bar, across the street, has been pouring drinks for the thirsty shepherds for 80 years. There used to be a hotel upstairs, too, but it is mostly apartments and offices now.

I have a whiskey sour and Tim has an 805 ale. Now and again, the barflies chat a bit with us as we wait for Letty to catch up with a glass of the house red wine.

We'd planned on going to at least two more, but that's about all we have room for on this trip. Maybe next time we can try the Overland...built in a former fire station...or the craft bar up the street where you can work on crafts while you drink your drafts.

Cheers!

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved

Climbing Every Mountain for a Costco Run: Carson Valley, Nevada - Part 2

Read Part One here.

It's gray and cool this morning at the Historian Inn in Gardnerville, Nevada. Chicken fried steak, french toast, and pancakes fortify the three of us for a day of sightseeing in the area.

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Bundled up in our down jackets, we head back towards the mountains. There, hard against the eastern edge of the Sierras, lies the tiny burg of Genoa.

Back when this was still part of Utah Territory in 1850, a group of Mormon pioneers built a fortified trading post here. When Nevada split from Utah, this was the first capital until it was later moved to nearby Carson City.

The rain is pretty steady, the ground pretty muddy, so we scratch getting Tim out of the van here but Letty goes into the general store for some trinkets and takes a few pictures.

Plans are quickly rearranged to do something indoors and we start down Jacks Ridge Road towards Carson City. Along the way, I see an old cemetery off to the side. The gates are open so I drive through, mostly hoping to get some photo opportunities.

A minute after driving in, I see this sign.

John 'Snowshoe' Thompson, a Norwegian immigrant, was a volunteer mail carrier back around the time Genoa was founded. He is famous for his tenacity in his work, delivering mail deep into the cold, upper reaches of the Sierra mountains.

He fashioned a pair of planks to scoot around on the snow...his 'snowshoes'...and is now considered one of the founders of skiing in California.

His name is legend at ski areas from Mammoth to Squaw Valley.

Soon, we find the grave with a little help from Google.

Thompson is buried here with his son, who died at 11 years old, and his wife, who lived into the 20th century.

Until a few minutes ago, I never knew he was buried here in Genoa.

We continue on to the capital and pull into the lot of the Nevada State Museum. Located in the former Carson City Mint, Silver State history abounds from the prehistoric fish that used to inhabit the inland sea that was here to the glittering casinos that now call the state home.

It's very interesting and an elevator, disguised to look like a mine shaft, gets wheelchair users to all floors.

An old coin stamping machine sits where it used to pump out silver dollars, quarters, dimes, and more. On the last Friday of each month, the staff fires it up to stamp out the souvenir coins sold in the gift shop.

A 17,000 year old mammoth skeleton sits next to a 25,000 year old horse..

In the basement is a recreated mine shaft, complete with rails for ore cars in the floor that can make it tricky for wheelchair users, especially those in oversized chairs. Tim manages to get through the tunnel but it's a bumpy tight squeeze in some spots.

Letty is impressed by the hall of taxidermied animals.

We end the day back in Gardnerville.  We're fans of Basque restaurants and the very first one we ever tried was the Overland Hotel here. It's long gone but JT Basque sits right across the street.

We're feeling adventurous so we share an entree of pig's feet and tripe. It may sound nauseating but it was very delicious.

Along with the soup, salad, bread, beans, beef stew, fries, and ice cream for dessert, no one was leaving here hungry.

That's enough to sate us for the day. Tomorrow, we'll check out, do our shopping, and go home. We'll conclude this adventure then.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved

Climbing Every Mountain for a Costco Run: Carson Valley, Nevada - Part 1

Yes, there are Costcos closer to us. Lodi and Elk Grove are just over a half hour away. Rancho Cordova and Folsom aren't far, either. But we can combine a run to Costco with a quick getaway from the stress of moving by spending the night near Carson City, Nevada, just on the other side of the Sierra Nevada mountains from us.

Sounds simple but this has been the never-ending winter here. Even though I've put off the trip until April, the weather is still calling for heavy snow over the Carson Pass. The day before doesn't look so bad, though, so I book another night in the motel and we leave a day early.

It's rainy, but we make over the nearly 9,000 foot tall summit of the pass before any flakes start to fall.

Passing through a couple of avalanche zones...complete with evidence of earlier slides...is a bit unnerving but we make it through with no mishaps and end up at the Historian Inn in Gardnerville, Nevada, in just over 2 hours from the former gold fields of Amador County, California.

The room is a basic, maybe slightly nicer than basic, motel room with two queen beds. We think these narrow mattresses are more like full size, but we'll go with the flow.

The bathroom is nice and roomy with a roll-in shower.

It's dinner time when we check in, so we head across the street to Sharkey's Casino for a bite in their coffee shop.

It is a very good and cheap prime rib dinner for me...

...pasta Portofino with some large shrimp for Letty...

...and sliders for Tim.

We waste a buck or two playing the penny slots here.

It's a nightcap at the Silver Dollar bar as Tim decides this would be a perfect place for a pub crawl.

He's not wrong. There's the bar we're sitting in now, the Overland Pub across the street, JT Basque, almost next door to this casino, and three more bars between here and the hotel.

We get a couple of shots as we make our way back, then we'll finish up tomorrow for the next, new Cocktail Hour that'll be coming your way.

In the meantime, we'll call it a night and do some sight seeing tomorrow while we're here.

Darryl Musick
Copyright 2019 - All Rights Reserved