Ghost Town to Sin City

We had a great time in the Calico area.  The weather was sunny and relatively warm during the day. Being in the desert, the nights were cold but we have two heaters!  The actual ghost town was very fun. We panned for gold, rode the train around the Silver King mine area and had a tone of fun at the mystery shack, a weirdly slanted building that took a bit of getting used to.


Interestingly, the town of Calico was all but abandoned and derelict when in 1950, Walter Knott (of Knott's Berry Farm fame) bought it for $15,000 and restored parts of it to its original state.  He had home- steaded nearby and had worked in the town as a young man.  Another connection he had to the town was that his mother was the younger sister to the Sheriff's wife. So he decided to restore it as a tourist attraction, and we enjoyed it!

John in front of a building made from wine bottles! 

Miners cabins, built into the hillside!  Very cool (or warm!)

Overlooking the old Silver King mine area, with train...

The cats really enjoyed the empty campground, the abundance of lizards, and both sunning themselves on the rocky terrain and cooling in the shade of the picnic benches.  They're pretty tuckered from their big hike yesterday, but still want to be outside, even just to hang out.

We left Calico about noon on Thursday (March 2nd) and headed further into the desert... John's never been to Las Vegas so we decided to check it out.




We got to Las Vegas outskirts about 3 pm, and though we thought we were on a by-pass route on the I-15, we were definitely not!  It took us an hour to get through town to North Las Vegas where we stayed at an RV Park billed as "Quiet with 30 ft wide spaces on gravel pads".  Sounded great!  Well... it's right beside the Nellis Air Force Base (!!!) and military planes fly maneuvers until 10 pm (and start up again at 6 am)!  So it's definitely not "quiet".  The entire park is gravel; there's not a stitch of grass or bushes, and our site was 18 ft wide... so... we think the AAA book should say " *May not be as advertised."

Tax payer dollars at work!!!  This was one of the maneuvers!! 

We had the cats out briefly, but there were four large dogs running around loose (no leashes!) so they didn't last long.

John and I took the truck and headed to Costco to stock up on fish and meat, and got to experience a bit of the Las Vegas nightlife, and a whole bunch of road construction lane closures (no sign of any construction) and very bizarre driving habits! We were happy to get back to the trailer (except for the trailer-shaking airplane noises).

Friday (March 3rd) the dogs (and planes) were out early, so no cat walk. We packed up and pulled out right after breakfast... leaving Las Vegas!!  John's STILL never been to Las Vegas, as far as I'm concerned.