The craziness started and continued all week long. People started filtering to the Grimmer Rancherito (Randy & Kristen’s house in Stagecoach, NV) Sunday afternoon and continued to show up Monday and the last couple arrived Tuesday night.
Monday the group went into Virginia City. Virginia City was known as the Queen of the Comstock, the internationally famous mining district. Founded in 1859, the settlement was the focus of a gold rush and it became the region’s largest community, a status it maintained in Nevada into the 1890s.
The city has the old town feel and was fun to wander around in. We had lunch and cocktails at The Palace, got a history lesson from the bartender at the Bucket of Blood Saloon and then more drinks at The Delta where we read the history of the Suicide Table.
Tuesday was Day 180 of TheVugs180. We packed up the group and headed for a stroll in the Virginia Highlands range. All the dogs seemed to be getting along and enjoyed being outside and running off some energy. After that we headed to Fort Churchill State Park that is the preserved remains of an US Army Fort and was a way station on the Pony Express dating back to the 1860’s. We had a beautiful day to walk through and take in a little history.
Wednesday was a bit low-key. A few couples took off to Lake Tahoe, some of us napped in an effort to keep up with the rowdy group at night. We had a great dinner at Sassafras in Carson City and ended with some beers at Shoe Tree Brewing.
We celebrated Thanksgiving with food, cards, cornhole and cocktails. We had a nontraditional meal and everybody loved the Grimmer’s carne asada tacos. Add cheesy corn, spicy broccoli, rolls, pies, cookies and we had more than enough to graze on all day.
Friday we started with a sharing of Pliny the Elder after breakfast. We toasted everyone for taking the time away from their families to come out and see us. Then we headed back into Virginia City to check out a few more places and do a little shopping.
Randy says they only get about 8 inches of rain a year here, but somehow it rained for a few hours when we wanted to be touring the town. We blamed the Michiganders. After revisiting Bucket of Blood saloon and the brewery, we decided to head back to the Grimmer Rancherito.
We took on the task of polishing off as many leftovers as we could, threw some cornhole and readied ourselves to say goodbye to everyone. That made for a very late night, (or early morning) but the stories, laughter and bonding made the lack of sleep worth it.
By Saturday afternoon, everyone was on their way home. We decided to stay until Monday morning before we head to Vegas. We rehashed the week of fun and can’t believe it’s over.
With 15 people, 5 campers, 5 dogs, too many stories, lots of laughter and enough food and drinks to feed an army, we had the best Friendsgiving ever! A huge thanks to everyone for the great time. We definitely made some awesome memories. We especially cannot thank Randy and Kristen enough for having everyone invade their home and providing a place for us to catch up with everyone.
The really cool thing is that all the friendships started at JR Automation years and years ago. And even though some do not work there anymore, it felt like we hadn’t missed a beat. It’s not often your coworkers become such good friends and we appreciate each and every one!
We are headed to Vegas next week. We’ll take a couple of days to get down there and relax and recoup from the week. Randy has a race just outside of Vegas and will be there on Thursday so we’ll get to spend just a little more time with him next weekend.
Off to Vegas…