January 25, 2008

Hello there!

We left Vegas around noontime - after a quick zip
through Circus Circus one last time (gotta admit,
those buffet breakfasts are quite something!)

Westward Ho! That would be different than Get
Back Hoe, the womens excavation company idea I
still want to pursue....

We drove for about 3 and a half hours, into
California. And we saw a sign for Calico Ghost
Town. A very small sign, with a picture of a
stage coach on it. I said, why dont we stop at
the Ghost Town for a break?

Our "plan" for all this RV driving is to stick to
the general idea that you drive during the day,
and then you stop by 4 pm so you can hook up your
utilities and get dinner cooked and relax! We
have not been very good at sticking to this plan
- we poke around in the morning and then drive
and then its dark and we are always trying to
park in the dark! We've gotten very good at it!
Well, my backing up skills are still not so good
in the dark....I am a big supporter of
"pull-through" sites..

However, on this day (Dec 5th), we took a break
at 3:30 pm, and ended up loving the little
campground at Calico Ghost Town, so we parked for
the night! It was awesome - the campground and
surrounding ghost town are in the middle of rock
hound heaven. There had just been a raging,
flooding storm a few days earlier, and the ground
was covered with beautiful little rocks - do I
know what they are? No. But when I went walking
the dog around the campground I ended up with
about 40 pounds of the stuff in my pockets!

Then Allie and I wandered closer to the Ghost
Town from the campground, and discovered a
cemetary from the late 1800's - literally mounds
of stones with wooden crosses on top. Well, I was
hooked, there was no way that I was leaving in
the morning without seeing the town itself (which
had already closed for the day).

More than a century ago, the town of Calico was
bustling with prospectors. Founded in March 1881,
it grew to a population of 1,200 with 22 saloons
and more than 500 mines. Silver was king, and the
Calico Mining District became one of the richest
in California, producing $86 million in silver,
$45 million in borax and, of course, gold. After
1907, when silver prices dropped and borax mining
moved to Death Valley, Calico became a ghost
town.

Today, Calico is one of the few remaining
original mining towns of the western United
States. It was preserved by Walter Knott (founder
of Knott's Berry Farm and a relative of the owner
of Calico's Silver King mine). Mr. Knott donated
Calico Ghost Town to the County of San Bernardino
in 1966, and it remains alive and well as a
480-acre County Regional Park. Today, you can
visit Calico, located at the side of towering
King Mountain, where silver was king and the
hills are "as purty as a gal's calico skirt."

One third of the town is original; the remaining
was carefully reconstructed to recreate the
spirit of Calico's Old West past. The Town of
Calico is State Historic Landmark #782, and
survived into the early 1900's because of borax
mining within the District. This was the last
place in California that the Borax "20-mule
teams" were used.

There is a 3 mile trip available on a cute narrow
gauge railroad, which operates within town limits
and a hardrock silver mine offers up underground
exploration.

And, there is an "authentic" ,hmhmmm, gunfight
every day they are open, with the sheriff and his
deputies doing their job, getting rid of the bad
guys.

OK, so it was a bit silly - but what a fun 1 day
stop after the glitter of Vegas!!

So , here are some photos from the Ghost Town...

We left the campground and Ghost Town mid
afternoon (see what I mean about that plan?) And
drove to Bakersfield, CA - where we made the
decision to go another 90 miles on Rt 58 to Santa
Margerita for the night. If you get to that
junction and need to decide about going another
90 miles (mere 90) - trust me, just say no.....it
took us almost 3.5 hours to drive those 90 miles.
After we passed the sign that said, " No services
Next 70 Miles", I started having my
doubts.....after we passed the sign that said,
"No Truck Turn Around", I was simply glad it was
dark!! I did not want to see what cliffs I was
almost driving off as we went around the hairpin
turns! And, it was gusting wind by then. And then
as we approached Santa Margerita it also started
to rain. Was there an RV park anywhere in Santa
Margerita??? No. Not a restaurant either that we
saw. So we drove to San Lois Obispo.....and were
so tired, hungry and dirty that we parked in a
Holiday Inn Express parking lot and got a hotel
room, and were the last customers of the day at
the Mexican restaurant across the street!!!

Best to all!

Love Mindy, Ken and Allie