Gypsy Travels Back in Time to the Civil War Days in Virginia City, Nevada

After a short break, Gypsy Travels are back and joining Candy Rosenberg on her adventures in Virginia City, Nevada.

Three years ago on Labor Day Weekend, my guy and I decided to have a wild hair at the last minute to head to Reno for the weekend.  Surely we can find something to do there, heck even if it is busy with the holiday we should be fine finding a hotel, etc.  So we packed up and headed on the road.  5 hours later we arrived and started to check around for hotels on my phone.  We saw several billboards along the way about Burning Man and a big BBQ Cook-Off taking place in and around Reno, however, we did not realize that between these two events it brought in another 150,000 people than what the normal holiday brings.

So the hunt for a motel/hotel room began.  NO ROOMS ANYWHERE in the entire Reno area, I have a cell phone app that runs constantly checking for cancellations….about 30 minutes in and it finds a room at Motel 8.   The only room in town and it’s $285 for the night… MOTEL 8? Seriously?  Well, we had to take it.  We got settled and grabbed a bite to eat, we were pretty far from downtown and while ordering our food an entire cop chasing movie unfolds right in front us.  20 cop cars going in various directions looking for a car that passed through just moments before at a very high speed.  This went on for 20 plus minutes as we were just laughing at the comical scene unfolding in front of us.  We managed to finish our meal, drove downtown to have a drink or two and then back to the room for the night.

The next morning, we decided it would be impossible to find a room on a Saturday night so let’s venture further East or South and see what there is.  My guy suggested stopping through Virginia City for the heck of it, a place he had only been in once many years ago but remember it was an old western town and that I would enjoy the “vintage” feel of it.  And off we went.  We wound through some mountains for about 22 miles and came around the last two bends, a sign that advertised the Labor Day Celebration: Civil War Days in Virginia City…well that caught my attention.  And as we rounded the very last bend and embarked at the top of the hill looking into the little town….all that I could say was “Mama, I am home.”  It was a town not more than a mile or so long with real old wood sidewalks that were all funky and not square at all.  Saloons galore and 100s of people dressed up like the Civil War Days.  Top hats, Victorian dresses, guns and holsters, boots and scarves.  I was so excited to see what was going on.

We parked and walked around a bit until we came upon a saloon/hotel and decided to ask for the heck of it if there were any rooms.  The thought of being able to stay the night had me giddy but I just knew there wasn’t going to be any, but what the heck lets ask anyhow.  And guess what?  They just had a cancellation minutes before we walked in the door.  We said we will take it, knowing full well it was going to be over $300 for the night.  When we signed the papers and she asked for $65, I nearly fell over.  That is what the cost was for one night.  Now, you need to know this is a very old hotel, paper thin walls, and not much has been done to it in 80 years, so once we stayed the night we knew why it was so low.  But the ambiance was fantastic and I was happy.

We got settled in our “haunted” room and headed down into the town…it was like walking back in time to the Civil War Days.  I swore at that moment I was going to retire there and am currently working on moving there early 2018.  I am super excited that I found my home!

As you walk around the small town, it does spread out into the desert as well with so many historical buildings.

We came upon a live show with gunfights right in the middle of town.  What a fun experience they made it with a bit of comedy, real gunfire (without bullets, of course) and watching the children with their eyes wide open.

The look of town as we are walking…

I love that they have an Old Time Photo store, you really only need to walk outside to capture the Old West!

Because Virginia City is the Old West, there are plenty of saloons.  One of our favorite ended up being a place we walked right by several times.  It is downstairs but you barely see the entrance.  There is an A Frame sign outside the door that finally caught our attention.  We went downstairs.

They had bras hanging from the ceiling, I spared you that photo, but they had colored in or drawn on dollar bills all over.  So I had to get in on the act, of course.  My honey did the honors of finding an empty wall space and putting it there. Each time we visit we look for it.

The bartender was awesome, long grey hair, old miner cowboy hat, and a bit tipsy, how could you ask for more?

Civil War Days would not be that without a re-enactment in Gold Hill, Nevada.  It was such an incredible show, loud and pretty darn authentic.  This happens every year on Labor Day Weekend! 

  My guy ended up buying a hat and a vest to wear for the next year, but when we visited the Civil War Camp, we could not resist in getting this photo with Abraham Lincoln along with some very famous generals.  The man who played Lincoln is a direct descendant and the resemblance is uncanny.

It was a great weekend and look forward to much more.

Hope you get a chance to visit this town, it is adorable and so much fun.

–  Candy –

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