Something In The Graveyard Part 2!
In which Lorelei goes into a tourista frenzy!
Thursday 6/11/09
EJ called me early on Thursday morning. He had a ton of errands to do for the upcoming shoot, and some business to take care of with the director in Reno. He said he'd call me after he picked up his wife at the airport that afternoon. I wished him good luck, and went back to bed for another hour. Aaaaahhhh...
Got up around 8:30, took a shower and went down to the Gold Hill's "Great Room" for a continental breakfast. Yogurt, muffins, juice and coffee, nom nom nom. Took a cup of coffee back to my room and hung out on my wooden balcony, looking down at the street and pretending to be Al Swearengin. (Had to yell SWEDGIN! off the balcony a few times, too.) Petted the adorable Gold Hill Resident Kitteh, and headed into Virginia City to see the sights.
The first thing I did (since I happened to be parked close to it) was to go to The Way It Was museum. Awesomeness! The museum concentrates mostly on the Comstock mine and the Bonanza period, but it has a good collection of clothing, medicine bottles, hardware, and other cool things from the period as well. I geeked out and took a nice long time examining everything.
I hit the Boardwalk, poking around in all the awesome old buildings, and shopping for presents for the folks at home. I found critter t-shirts for the kids, and I got a Bucket of Blood t-shirt for Daniel. (How could I resist?) I spent a lot of time looking at architectural details and ornamental ceilings and prints on the walls of the saloons and other things that would probably bore the crap out of normal people. I got the guys some candy at an excellent sweet shop called The Candy Barrel. It had "normal' candy, and also brands I hadn't seen since I was a kid, like Cow Tails. (You KNOW I got some of those for Orion!)
All that walking made me hungry. I went to Virginia City's only Chinese restaurant for lunch. I figured the Chinese had been around the American west for the better part of two hundred years, so there was probably good food to be had. EPIC FAIL! I ordered sweet and sour chicken, and it was just about a cut below mall food court chow. The rice wasn't sticky rice, it was some kind of Uncle Ben-like stuff. The chicken wasn't stir-fried on order. I saw them scoop it out of something like a giant crock-pot. It was mushy and bland. Um, ew! (Later on I heard some kids from Reno talking about how good that restaurant was. All I have to say is that I'm REALLY glad I didn't get Chinese food in Reno.)
The Red Light Museum was in the basement of the building with the Chinese restaurant. You'd better believe I wanted to see that! It was just a dollar, by donation. I went down the dark, dank stairs. The first thing I saw was a pussy. Cat. A gray tabby, very cute. HA HA HA! (Yes, that WAS mature of me, wasn't it.) The museum itself was a large collection of...stuff. There was a sign saying that it had taken the owner of the...stuff 20 years to gather it up, and cost over $35,000. Interestingly, after spending all that time and money, he or she didn't bother to catalog it, or even explain it. There was case after case, shelf after shelf of weird crap--old undergarments, jewelry, perfume bottles, lithographs, advertisements, ancient vibrators and so on--but none of them were labelled. They were generally grouped by category, but if you didn't know what you were looking at, well, tough titty said the kitty. There were also two tableaus you could look at through glass, featuring full-sized mannequins. One was a lady of the evening lounging woodenly on her bed, greeting a john. The other was a girl lying on the table while an abortion doctor prepared his instruments. EW. I left the Red Light Museum kinda-sorta creeped out. It was like a collection of stuff you'd find in the basement of a 19th century serial killer. Or maybe I just read too many serial killer books. Anyway.
One of the saloons offered a mine tour. There was a mine right under the building! (Okay, actually, there were mines under ALL the buildings in Virginia City. There's a huge network of underground tunnels, going way, way down into the ground. Some have been filled in, but many of them are still there.) That sounded pretty cool. I paid my $4.50 and joined the tour.
It turns out that this was the LOOZA mine. It was in between two other mines that had produced literally tons of gold and silver. This one produced a total of $435.00 in precious metals. BUMMER! But it was still pretty cool to look at. Our guide was great. He knew all about the history of the mines and the town. They had lots of interesting equipment--mechanical lifts for people and ore, giant steel hand drills that were held by one man while another smacked it with a 20-pound sledge hammer, and hydraulic drills known as "widowmakers" for their penchant for exploding and killing everyone in a six-foot radius. We got to look up an airshaft with a switchback of ladders in it--it went 60 feet straight up, all the way to the surface of the street. The guide told us lots of entertaining stories. Evidently when the owners of the building first started looking into the mine as a possible tourist attraction, they found two full cases of 150-year-old dynamite. A bomb squad had to be called to remove it, and even then, it was removed at 2AM, in cas something went wrong. ZOINKS!
By then I was kind of touristed out. I wanted to do something completely different. I got in my little PT Cruiser and headed over the mountain to Reno. I didn't really have a plan, but when I saw a big theater complex, I decided to catch a flick. I saw "Drag Me To Hell." I'm very, VERY disappointed with Mr. Sam Raimi. More on that later.
EJ called after the movie was out, and told me where everybody was meeting for dinner. I didn't make it back in time for dinner, but I met EJ, his wife Susan, John and his family, and Scott at the Delta for some hanging-out and slot machine fun.
WOW. I had seen pictures of Susan before, and I knew she was lovely, but I have to say, they didn't do her justice. She is absolutely gorgeous. Also smart and funny. We had a good time hanging out in the saloon and talking with everybody. I had five dollar bills in my pocket, and that's what I spent on slots. I am weirdly immune to gambling. It just doesn't do anything for me. I picked machines for intelligent reasons like "it has a kitty on it!" I eventually blew my five bucks (took awhile playing nickel slots) and then read all the historic tidbits on the saloon walls. EJ kicked some butt at video poker and got a shower of silver dollars. Yeehaw!
We all left fairly early, because Friday was going to be a long, long day of shooting. We stepped outside the Delta, and saw a cute little elderly gray dog walking around on the sidewalk. Susan and I went into immediate worry mode. Was the dog lost? Where was his owner? What was he doing out at this time of night? Then we noticed that the dog was staring fixedly at the doors of the Delta. I opened the door for him, and he ran right in! Over the next few days, I would discover that there were a number of "town dogs" in Virginia City. They all had owners, but while their owners were at work, the dogs would roam around, going from business to business, visiting friends, getting treats, and patrolling the town. You would often find dogs hanging out in saloons or restaurants. i absolutely loved that. (If I'd had more time there, I would have liked to interview some of the dog owners and business owners and write an article for the Bark or something.)
I went back to the Gold Hill. I decided to drop by their bar for a nightcap (Bloody Mary, om nom nom) then went to bed with my book. Yet again, I waited up for Rosie. I fell asleep still waiting.
See thrilling Thursday pictures!
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode, in which Lorelei becomes Head Playback Geek, carries lots of equipment, wrangles cops, gets a gnarly sunburn, and turns into a zombie!
Thursday 6/11/09
EJ called me early on Thursday morning. He had a ton of errands to do for the upcoming shoot, and some business to take care of with the director in Reno. He said he'd call me after he picked up his wife at the airport that afternoon. I wished him good luck, and went back to bed for another hour. Aaaaahhhh...
Got up around 8:30, took a shower and went down to the Gold Hill's "Great Room" for a continental breakfast. Yogurt, muffins, juice and coffee, nom nom nom. Took a cup of coffee back to my room and hung out on my wooden balcony, looking down at the street and pretending to be Al Swearengin. (Had to yell SWEDGIN! off the balcony a few times, too.) Petted the adorable Gold Hill Resident Kitteh, and headed into Virginia City to see the sights.
The first thing I did (since I happened to be parked close to it) was to go to The Way It Was museum. Awesomeness! The museum concentrates mostly on the Comstock mine and the Bonanza period, but it has a good collection of clothing, medicine bottles, hardware, and other cool things from the period as well. I geeked out and took a nice long time examining everything.
I hit the Boardwalk, poking around in all the awesome old buildings, and shopping for presents for the folks at home. I found critter t-shirts for the kids, and I got a Bucket of Blood t-shirt for Daniel. (How could I resist?) I spent a lot of time looking at architectural details and ornamental ceilings and prints on the walls of the saloons and other things that would probably bore the crap out of normal people. I got the guys some candy at an excellent sweet shop called The Candy Barrel. It had "normal' candy, and also brands I hadn't seen since I was a kid, like Cow Tails. (You KNOW I got some of those for Orion!)
All that walking made me hungry. I went to Virginia City's only Chinese restaurant for lunch. I figured the Chinese had been around the American west for the better part of two hundred years, so there was probably good food to be had. EPIC FAIL! I ordered sweet and sour chicken, and it was just about a cut below mall food court chow. The rice wasn't sticky rice, it was some kind of Uncle Ben-like stuff. The chicken wasn't stir-fried on order. I saw them scoop it out of something like a giant crock-pot. It was mushy and bland. Um, ew! (Later on I heard some kids from Reno talking about how good that restaurant was. All I have to say is that I'm REALLY glad I didn't get Chinese food in Reno.)
The Red Light Museum was in the basement of the building with the Chinese restaurant. You'd better believe I wanted to see that! It was just a dollar, by donation. I went down the dark, dank stairs. The first thing I saw was a pussy. Cat. A gray tabby, very cute. HA HA HA! (Yes, that WAS mature of me, wasn't it.) The museum itself was a large collection of...stuff. There was a sign saying that it had taken the owner of the...stuff 20 years to gather it up, and cost over $35,000. Interestingly, after spending all that time and money, he or she didn't bother to catalog it, or even explain it. There was case after case, shelf after shelf of weird crap--old undergarments, jewelry, perfume bottles, lithographs, advertisements, ancient vibrators and so on--but none of them were labelled. They were generally grouped by category, but if you didn't know what you were looking at, well, tough titty said the kitty. There were also two tableaus you could look at through glass, featuring full-sized mannequins. One was a lady of the evening lounging woodenly on her bed, greeting a john. The other was a girl lying on the table while an abortion doctor prepared his instruments. EW. I left the Red Light Museum kinda-sorta creeped out. It was like a collection of stuff you'd find in the basement of a 19th century serial killer. Or maybe I just read too many serial killer books. Anyway.
One of the saloons offered a mine tour. There was a mine right under the building! (Okay, actually, there were mines under ALL the buildings in Virginia City. There's a huge network of underground tunnels, going way, way down into the ground. Some have been filled in, but many of them are still there.) That sounded pretty cool. I paid my $4.50 and joined the tour.
It turns out that this was the LOOZA mine. It was in between two other mines that had produced literally tons of gold and silver. This one produced a total of $435.00 in precious metals. BUMMER! But it was still pretty cool to look at. Our guide was great. He knew all about the history of the mines and the town. They had lots of interesting equipment--mechanical lifts for people and ore, giant steel hand drills that were held by one man while another smacked it with a 20-pound sledge hammer, and hydraulic drills known as "widowmakers" for their penchant for exploding and killing everyone in a six-foot radius. We got to look up an airshaft with a switchback of ladders in it--it went 60 feet straight up, all the way to the surface of the street. The guide told us lots of entertaining stories. Evidently when the owners of the building first started looking into the mine as a possible tourist attraction, they found two full cases of 150-year-old dynamite. A bomb squad had to be called to remove it, and even then, it was removed at 2AM, in cas something went wrong. ZOINKS!
By then I was kind of touristed out. I wanted to do something completely different. I got in my little PT Cruiser and headed over the mountain to Reno. I didn't really have a plan, but when I saw a big theater complex, I decided to catch a flick. I saw "Drag Me To Hell." I'm very, VERY disappointed with Mr. Sam Raimi. More on that later.
EJ called after the movie was out, and told me where everybody was meeting for dinner. I didn't make it back in time for dinner, but I met EJ, his wife Susan, John and his family, and Scott at the Delta for some hanging-out and slot machine fun.
WOW. I had seen pictures of Susan before, and I knew she was lovely, but I have to say, they didn't do her justice. She is absolutely gorgeous. Also smart and funny. We had a good time hanging out in the saloon and talking with everybody. I had five dollar bills in my pocket, and that's what I spent on slots. I am weirdly immune to gambling. It just doesn't do anything for me. I picked machines for intelligent reasons like "it has a kitty on it!" I eventually blew my five bucks (took awhile playing nickel slots) and then read all the historic tidbits on the saloon walls. EJ kicked some butt at video poker and got a shower of silver dollars. Yeehaw!
We all left fairly early, because Friday was going to be a long, long day of shooting. We stepped outside the Delta, and saw a cute little elderly gray dog walking around on the sidewalk. Susan and I went into immediate worry mode. Was the dog lost? Where was his owner? What was he doing out at this time of night? Then we noticed that the dog was staring fixedly at the doors of the Delta. I opened the door for him, and he ran right in! Over the next few days, I would discover that there were a number of "town dogs" in Virginia City. They all had owners, but while their owners were at work, the dogs would roam around, going from business to business, visiting friends, getting treats, and patrolling the town. You would often find dogs hanging out in saloons or restaurants. i absolutely loved that. (If I'd had more time there, I would have liked to interview some of the dog owners and business owners and write an article for the Bark or something.)
I went back to the Gold Hill. I decided to drop by their bar for a nightcap (Bloody Mary, om nom nom) then went to bed with my book. Yet again, I waited up for Rosie. I fell asleep still waiting.
See thrilling Thursday pictures!
Stay tuned for the next exciting episode, in which Lorelei becomes Head Playback Geek, carries lots of equipment, wrangles cops, gets a gnarly sunburn, and turns into a zombie!