Day 28 Nevada City and Virginia City

Here are the "Bannack Klowns" at the Twin Bridges Parade. Finally, there is someone moving slower than us by bicycle.

The plate reads "Vigilante Cattle Country."

The lone outhouse of the "outhouse races."

Gregory shows his patriotism.

The loot

Nevada City Blacksmiths

Gun Demonstrations

The muddy streets of Nevada City

Nevada City Schoolhouse (and swing)

Bearbait

Gregory enjoys the company of Margo's many horses.

Date: Aug. 16, 2009

From: Sheridan, Montana (Car ride to Twin Bridges parade, Virginia City and Nevada City)

To: Sheridan, Montana (Margo’s house)

Route: Hwy. 287 S.

Passes: None

Miles: 0 miles

Top Speed: 47.7 mph

Weather: We woke to 42 degrees. We had scattered showers throughout our day of sightseeing.

We were happy to wake up in a warm cozy bed at Margo’s house with morning temperatures at 42 degrees. Gregory was especially happy he didn’t have to get yanked out of his sleeping bag in these temperatures. Margo suggested we stay one more night so we could spend our Sunday checking out the historic cities of Nevada City and Virginia City just down the road. They have demonstrations (blacksmith, gun demos, seamstress, etc.) on the weekends and she thought we might enjoy that. And, indeed we did. Gregory especially liked the gun demonstration. Ladies in period dress, playing their role, served up delicious fruit compote and green beans with bacon. Gregory had an opportunity to stitch on a machine from the period and watch the blacksmiths at their trade.

In addition to our afternoon in Nevada and Virginia cities we stuck to our original plan of watching the parade in Twin Bridges. This was a blast for Gregory because with a small town parade there were only a few children to compete with in collecting the mounds of candy that was tossed from the fire trucks, floats and classic cars. The parade ran down one side of the main street and came back on the other so he had two times the opportunity to gather goodies. They were also tossing out frozen Otter Pops. Gregory gave about five of these away.

The parade was supposed to start with “outhouse races” but there was only one entry. It looked as if they used a dolly and fashioned the sides and roof out of corrugated tin. There was a rider and two other gents hustled the contraption down the parade route and collapsed at the other end.

After a full day we returned to the house where I took a lengthy nap and Gregory and Mike watched “The Cowboys” a John Wayne movie (Gregory’s first). It had a bit of language but some of the filming was set in this valley so was interesting. At 8:00 P.M. Mike and Gregory went out on one last 4-wheeler ride. Gregory says they spotted 26 deer and a moose. Mike confirmed the moose sighting a large black figure that leaped over a fence.

We finally had a true day off. It was our first since Missoula and we are rested (with clean laundry) and ready to head down the road in the morning.