We awaken to a beautiful, sunny day….and WINDY!
We eat breakfast at the little café in the RV park. It’s a breakfast buffet and I tell Fred “no thanks” as the last one we ate in McCall was horrid. But Fred convinces me this one looks “really good” so I cave in. He is right…it is the best breakfast on the trip.
We wander up and down the wood plank sidewalks in Virginia City, mostly window shopping, and stopping here and there to browse inside. Then we drive around town and take photos of old houses.
We leave town heading for Lake Tahoe. Along the way we take a side trip to the little town of Genoa, the first settlement in the state of Nevada. It has changed a lot since we were last here several years ago. A couple big ranches and mini-mansions have popped up, a few housing developments that weren’t here before. But the little town still has its charm. We stop and read some of the historical facts about the emigrants who stopped here as they travelled along the California trail and rested before their arduous trek over the Sierras. Can’t imagine what that must have been like. The ride to Lake Tahoe over the Sierras will take us less than an hour - it took the settlers over a month.
We arrive in Lake Tahoe around 6:30 p.m. and decide to find a room near Harvey’s casino. Fred wants to win at least enough to pay for our trip. Isn’t it nice he isn’t greedy?
We check out several motels near the casino and find it pays to check the rooms before saying “yes”. One room has three inches of water sitting in the bathtub. Another room has huge grease-looking stains on the bedspread. All the motels look past their prime and appear dust covered.
We then luck upon a nice looking Best Western (Station House Inn) near the lake and only a few blocks from the casino. The room is wonderful and I know I will feel cozy while Fred is in the huge smoke-filled casino earning our vacation money. But first we walk to the restaurant next door and have a fabulous meal at LewMarNel’s. Medallions of been and grilled shrimp. The weather is actually quite nice as we walk back to the room. The sun is setting and a warm glow lights up the surrounding pine trees.
I settle in with my journal and book. It is about “women of the old wild west” called The Gentle Tamers written in 1958 by Dee Brown who evidently wrote Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee, which I’ve never read. The book I am reading chronicles the westward emigration of settlers and the trials and tribulations of those women. What I find most interesting is that women have not changed a whole lot in the past 150 years. We still care about nice clothes, the latest fashion, becoming independent, our families and careers. Yes, many women struggled to have careers in the wild west and managed to carve a niche for themselves: laundry services, bakeries, owning boardinghouses, theatre, and even driving stagecoaches disguised as men, all the while struggling to obtain the right to vote. Did you know the first state to give women the right to vote was Wyoming is 1869? Actually it was still a territory and wasn’t even a state yet. It wasn’t until 1920 that the 19th Amendment gave women the right to vote. Wyoming territory was way ahead of its time.
Anyway, back to Fred winning enough money to pay for our vacation. His game is blackjack and evidently the cards were not in his favor. He returns to our cozy room with less money than he left with. Looks like we’ll still have to pay for our vacation after all.
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