Tour Day
This winter, I donated two ghost town tours and lunches for charity. I had a great time with Peggy and Bud Saturday, taking them on their first ghost town trip outside Bodie. I gave them several suggestions for trips, and they selected the Bridgeport area. Great choice; since we left early, we had the ghost towns so ourselves.
Chemung
Chemung is one of my favorite treasures outside of Bodie. It is not far or challenging to reach, but many don’t know the old mine. Chemung was Honey Badger’s first trip two years ago.
Masonic
I had such a great time I decided to add Masonic to our trip. Freemasons discovered the area in the 1800s, but the towns never had a Masonic Lodge.
Bridgeport
We stopped at a few places in Bridgeport, including the old courthouse, crossroads of Mono County, and the original Bridgeport Courthouse.
Who can stop in Bridgeport without grabbing a burger and shake at Jolly Kone? Any place you can get burgers, burritos, ice cream, and a massage is A1 in my book!
I keep getting grammar notices, saying a massage “doesn’t seem to fit the context.”🙃
Weekend Call
I received a message from CC, “Concerned Citizen,” asking if I wanted to visit Franktown Cemetery. I have wanted to see and document the cemetery for years, but it is located in a gated community. He said I had one opportunity and told me to meet him at the gate, and he would take me up.
I will take this type of “emergency” call any day over when I worked in mental health and hospice. A special thank you to my friend, who from here out I will be referring to as CC. 😁
Franktown was one of Nevada’s oldest towns, settled by Mormons only a year after Genoa. After Brigham Young recalled Mormons to Salt Lake, others moved in, building lumber and ore mills to support the Comstock Lode.
The beautiful Bowers Mansion is the most notable remaining structure in Franktown. Arson destroyed the Dall Mill in 1871, and Franktown declined in the 1880s.
CC noticed many of the occupants of the graves were from Switzerland. It will be interesting to investigate why Franktowns was settled by the Swiss, which is much of my heritage.
For me, the most interesting grave was that of John Twaddle. John Twaddle purchased 630 acres near Franktown in 1869 for $5,000. Twaddle retained the ranch for sixteen years before selling it to Italian-speaking Swiss brothers Stefano and Anselmo Pedroli for $3,000.
After buying out his brother, the Twaddle-Pedroli Ranch opened a dairy. He supplied miners in the Virginia City and Comstock Lode with fresh milk and cheese. The ranch’s most famous visitor was Elenore Roosovelt. The former first lady visited the ranch in 1943 with her friend and political activist Gertrude Pratt. Pratt stayed at the ranch to establish the residency required to file for divorce.
Sweet Hubby
Friday evening, I was feeling pretty miserable after my Covid booster. I ran around the state and over the hill to Shriner’s Hospital in Sacramento for eight days. The last few weeks have been windy, and our hot tub loaded up with dirt. Hubby cleaned it out so I could relax Saturday night and Sunday morning.
The $550 cat fart
Yes, you read that correctly. We paid $550 to learn our cat needed to pass gas.
Yes, you read that correctly. We paid $550 to learn our cat needed to pass gas.
Herra had been acting strangely for a few days. She was never comfortable and seemed to be in pain. So while I was our ghost towning, Hubby took her to the vet. They did a full workup and revealed she had gas in her bowels. As Hubby explained this, I asked, “so she needs to fart?”
Later that evening, he checked on her and said it smelled horrible. So I’m guessing that means the issue resolved itself.
Flaming Tri-Tip!
First BBQ of the season. The weather is finally spring-like. Last weekend, it was snowing horizontally, so I decided to splurge and pick up tri-tip at Costco. As it was the first time we used the grill this year, I asked Hubby to burn it off. I went out and thought it was sweet; Hubby burned it off the grill and turned it down. He assumed I turned it down after the initial burn-off. I threw the tri-tip on and went back to work writing a post about ghost towning last week.
I looked up to see smoke billowing from the grill. I ran out, opened the lid to an inferno, and immediately slammed the lid back down to extinguish the flames. I gave it a minute, opened it, then slammed it down again. 
It was more done than I liked, but it wasn’t too bad after we knocked off the char! I can hold my own in the kitchen and at the BBQ, but my family will probably remember the flaming tri-tip!
5-21-2022
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