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| Sitting a spell |
On February 17 (I am playing catch-up, too) I took Lukas, Konrad and Jordana to Calico Ghost Town, in the Mojave Desert. There was a special weekend of Civil War reenactors scheduled, so we packed up early and arrived just as things got started. There were hundreds of people dressed in period clothes (both sides), including soldiers, ladies in their Sunday best, chaplains, gunslingers and a whole marching band. We listened to people talk and tell stories as if we were living 150 years ago. Lukas brushed up against a gunslinger, who almost drew on me until he saw that I was unarmed. He gave me a stern warning to teach my son to not bump into people (he complimented Lukas later for good behavior).
The ghost town itself has a lot to see, so we were somewhat overwhelmed as to what to look at first. We checked out one of the mines, panned for "gold", helped the blacksmith, went to the Mystery House, climbed around the hills and watched a battle reenactment (the North lost the 11:30 am battle, but I think they rallied at the 2:30 pm battle). After we ate lunch we explored the nearby desert (I love my van with its all-terrain tires). While we were in a dry desert canyon, an extreme rock crawler gave us a great show. He completed 95% of the 200' of dry waterfall and then broke down on the last obstacle. I think he would have had better success if his passengers walked (he would have been 600 lbs lighter) and spotted him (acting as a extra set of eyes). I had fun spotting him here and there.
We headed out and stopped off for some snow play just off the freeway, and made it home just after dinner time.
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| The view of Calico from the hill. |
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| One of the many parades that were held |
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| Lukas helping out the very entertaining Amish blacksmith |
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| The bottle house |
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| Waiting for the battle to begin |
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| It begins, conveniently, in an outdoor theater |
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| The amazing rock crawler (there is a diesel truck somewhere in that mass of tubing and sheet metal) |
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| About two minutes before he broke his transfer case |
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| Tank monument in Barstow |
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| A little snow play with a little snow |
The ghost town itself has a lot to see, so we were somewhat overwhelmed as to what to look at first. We checked out one of the mines, panned for "gold", helped the blacksmith, went to the Mystery House, climbed around the hills and watched a battle reenactment (the North lost the 11:30 am battle, but I think they rallied at the 2:30 pm battle). After we ate lunch we explored the nearby desert (I love my van with its all-terrain tires). While we were in a dry desert canyon, an extreme rock crawler gave us a great show. He completed 95% of the 200' of dry waterfall and then broke down on the last obstacle. I think he would have had better success if his passengers walked (he would have been 600 lbs lighter) and spotted him (acting as a extra set of eyes). I had fun spotting him here and there.
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