Busy, busy bee

This week has been crazy. I haven’t been so exhausted since the kids were babies. Still, 99% of the week was terrific.

Trails West annual conference and field trips

Trails West is the organization that places markers at emigrant trail sites. Each T-marker has an excerpt from an emigrant diary. Travel tip, markers orientation is oriented to follow the route.

Wow, a girl might get a complex. The Trails West conference was the second time I had almost 100 people wanting to hear me talking about ghost towns in a week. I wish my kids were half this attentive!

Originally my formal presentation was about ghost towns, then changed to Carson Valley history. I was trying to finish a new presentation went the president of Trails West said he would love to hear about ghost towns. So the topic was not directly an emigrant trial but related to what made this ghost town girl happy.

Monday and Wednesday, I co-led field trips following the Carson River route through Carson Valley and Carson pass. Both were great days sharing out incredible local history. We visited locations including Boyd Toll Road, Genoa, old Kindgbuy Grade, Woodfords, and Hope Valley. I loved sharing the history and beauty of our amazing community and valley. I met a number of amazing people.

One of the attendees noticed this geocache at Snowshoe Thompson’s grave. The mail truck has to be one of the most fitting geocaches ever.

A bit of tarnish

I had one negative encounter this week. I would instead be relaying a rattlesnake tale.

On tour day one, I drove slower than the speed limit to keep people together, which caused issues with other vehicles trying to pass. So Wednesday, I went the speed limit; at one place, I may have been distracted by history and missed a decrease in the speed limit.

When I took the turnoff, I ensured the car behind me was in my view. I am not sure what happened beyond that; they were below the hill. The two roads intersected, with nowhere else for them to turn off. Everyone had a map, verbal instructions on our next stop, GPS coordinates, and the group co-leader.

We all arrived at Woodfords, at the intersection of the two roads. As everyone headed to the restaurant for lunch, a man approached. He was obviously irate. He was a fair bit shorter than my 5’8″ but got into my personal space. I was caught off guard by his anger. Then, he began to yell at me and point his finger at my chest, saying I had no idea how to lead a group and had no knowledge of trail etiquette.
As a therapist, I trained to calm down people and help them work through issues. I tried to talk to this gentleman about what had happened, I apologized if I made a mistake or didn’t understand trail etiquette, yet he continued to berate me. Finally, he expelled his anger and walked away.

I was upset and opted to skip lunch. I was bothered that I had made a mistake and this man’s behavior. But more, I was upset by my reaction. Balancing being a therapist and trying to help people with standing up for myself is difficult. I wish I had told the man he had two choices: speak with me calmly and politely or don’t speak with me at all.
You may be surprised, but I have used my therapist superpowers on the ghost town trail. I have been out with people who have had issues ghost towning. They reached out to me later, thanking me for staying with them: I would help them again in a heartbeat.
I am not ok with someone taking their anger out on others. It is abusive behavior and never acceptable.

At one of our final stops, the man backed into a fence. He didn’t say anything about the damage to private property. The resort staff noticed and was more polite than he treated me.

I think I showed great restraint and self control by not telling him it was a breach of trail etiquette to drive into fences.😆

A special thanks

Thank you to my mom for playing Nana. My mom helped shuffle the little one around while I was busy ghost towning and taking the kid to Shriner’s hospital.

The best things in life involve coffee and wine.

I had coffee with Sutro Tunnel. I can’t share details yet, but exciting events are coming.

I must have looked pitiful by Wednesday evening. After the tour, I changed vehicles, grabbed the kid, and headed to Sacramento. I wasn’t happy re-driving through the tour route. After checking in and ordering dinner, I went down to the restaurant/bar at our hotel. I was already done for the week and ordered a glass of wine. They must have seen I was overwhelmed and sent me out with two glasses. Bless Uber Delivery; they aren’t in our area. It is probably a good thing they aren’t. The kid chose Indian food for our dinner.

We had a good post-operative follow-up. There are some minor issues, but things are going well. One more follow-up visit in a few months will age out of Shriner’s.

Quick stop

I have been eying this bridge for a year since we started surgery preparations. The Old Highway 50 bridge dates the same as Moore’s Bridge. But, reports don’t clarify if they mean the bridge from 1901 or the toll road from the 1850s. The toll road was used during the Gold Rush and by the Pony Express.
If anyone has more info, I would love to know more.

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