After that we decided to wander down to the Lake at the end of our road. It was yet another beautiful morning. There was a large Timeshare building on the waterfront with a few shops and the opportunity to partake in many different water activities. They were all very expensive to do. There was also a cafe that was doing a roaring trade and so we got a table outside and had a couple of drinks. It was all very pleasant so much so that we didn’t know whether to cancel our plans for the day and just mooch around the Lake for another day.
We had a quick sandwich which we made up from our provisions before heading out to follow our new revised plan. It was another stunning drive over the Sierra Nevadas until we came down onto the flats where Carson City was situated. We then drove up the mountains again to reach Virginia City. I am not sure what we were expecting but this was a whole lot more. It is the original town from which first Gold & then Silver was discovered in absolute amazing quantities. The town grew from nothing to 40000+ in almost no time. The Main Street has been maintained as it was, with many original bars and shops from the 18th Century (and others that have been replaced inside by ones selling tourist tat). There was even a mock gun fight going on in one of the venues as we walked past. It was really just as you would imagine an old gold prospecting western town should be.
The temperature by now was well over 100f so we were glad to get back in the air conditioned car. We then drove the short distance down to Reno. Out first impressions were not that good and turned out to be not that wrong. It was a real mess of a town, dirty, and seemingly laid out with no plan. We headed to the River Walk which was supposed to be really nice. It wasn’t. The river was nice but it was like someone had a good idea to create a walk alongside it and then run out of ideas. We have been to some really nice River Walks in the USA like San Antonio, but this was not one of them. We ended up in the main Casino area. This was more Great Yarmouth than Las Vegas. I know Vegas is seedy as such but this was just seedy without the such.
Our plan now was to find the local Outback for our tea before going onto the Baseball. The restaurant was only a couple miles from the Riverwalk and we easily found it despite the ubiquitous Roadworks everywhere. We both had the Outback Special which were both really good.
We then had some 45 minutes to drive the 3 miles to the Baseball Stadium get parked up and find our seats. Plenty of time or so we thought.
It was a lovely warm evening with a temperature of 82f. Reno had one player who was head and shoulders above the rest, not only in size but ability. He had been called up to the Major League but had just returned for a spell as the Diamondbacks needed to get another pitcher on their roster. When he hit the ball it stayed hit and his home run was well over 400 ft.
Given the gridlock getting here we decided to leave early to get ahead of the traffic (we missed another 10 rounders after we left in the last 2 innings). The bits of the match we saw were good and it was a lovely classy stadium just built in the wrong place.
