Saturday morning we take a day trip to Virginia City, NV. It's a beautiful sunny morning as we climb above the Carson Valley.
Virginia City is known as an old mining town with a lot of character, a fun place to spend a couple hours among historic buildings and touristy shops.
Apparently it is also known for the Annual Outhouse Races. And this "world famous" event takes place the first weekend in October.
And we are lucky enough to arrive in time to catch the competition.
We grab the last spot in a small parking lot on Main Street, and soon learn we are right at the finish line. Within thirty minutes the little town is overflowing with people - many who are in the spirit of the event.
As fun as the people watching is, the day is all about the racers and their pit crews. First they entertain the crowd in a parade down hill. It's amazing the wide variety and creativity that is potty humor!
Then the races begin with one driver and two potty-pushers to get the "vehicles" back up the hill.
We learn that this year's crowd of over 5000 people is the largest ever in the little town for any previous event.
Although there is an alternate route to get through town, because it is a state highway, Main Street (Hwy 341) must be opened for ten minutes in regular intervals. After watching the parade and several heats, we head for lunch during one of the breaks. As expected the eateries are packed, but we get seated at The Palace Saloon in about fifteen minutes. The food is good, the service is wonderful, and the dining room includes the original floors, bar, and light fixtures - all 100 years old.
After lunch we sneak out of the parking lot between a couple run-off races and check out the less crowded part of town.
Whenever possible we try to take a loop drive, and today we continue out the other side of town on Hwy 341. Once the highway crests the Geiger Summit at 6789 feet the unobstructed views of Reno, Carson Valley and the Sierras down the other side are incredible. Competing with the vistas are beautiful rock formations of red, yellow and gray along the mountainside.
We wrap up the day trip with a quick stop at Trader Joes (yay!!), and Walmart (necessary evil), getting us back to the park in time for happy hour.
The stop at Silver City RV Park is the result of planning a meet up with a couple bloggers who I have followed for over a year. More on all that fun in another post.
Virginia City is known as an old mining town with a lot of character, a fun place to spend a couple hours among historic buildings and touristy shops.
Apparently it is also known for the Annual Outhouse Races. And this "world famous" event takes place the first weekend in October.
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| Who knew? |
We grab the last spot in a small parking lot on Main Street, and soon learn we are right at the finish line. Within thirty minutes the little town is overflowing with people - many who are in the spirit of the event.
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| These gals went on to win the "Undie Run Relay" |
Then the races begin with one driver and two potty-pushers to get the "vehicles" back up the hill.
We learn that this year's crowd of over 5000 people is the largest ever in the little town for any previous event.
Although there is an alternate route to get through town, because it is a state highway, Main Street (Hwy 341) must be opened for ten minutes in regular intervals. After watching the parade and several heats, we head for lunch during one of the breaks. As expected the eateries are packed, but we get seated at The Palace Saloon in about fifteen minutes. The food is good, the service is wonderful, and the dining room includes the original floors, bar, and light fixtures - all 100 years old.
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| "P" for Palace |
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| Perfect weather all day |
We wrap up the day trip with a quick stop at Trader Joes (yay!!), and Walmart (necessary evil), getting us back to the park in time for happy hour.
The stop at Silver City RV Park is the result of planning a meet up with a couple bloggers who I have followed for over a year. More on all that fun in another post.
Leave it to you to run into a potty race. Absolutely too funny. Love the costumes and the names. Looks like Virginia City is the place to be the first week-end in October. Lucky you to stumble into this crappy event.
ReplyDeleteSome of the crews' costumes were as great as the racers :-) We weren't sure we were "lucky" at first, but turns out we had a great time!
DeleteNow that looks like a fun town event!
ReplyDeleteWe liked Carson City a lot, TJ's certainly is a major plus for any town! Especially when you have to go months between towns with a TJ's!
It has really grown since I first came here, but I've always loved this valley. Yep, they are few and far between on the route we took this summer :-))
DeleteWhat perfect timing! Did you go into the Bucket of Blood Saloon? Great Bloody Marys. Alaways a fun town to visit!
ReplyDeleteNot this time, it was veeeery popular so couldn't even see inside. The boardwalk was five deep!
DeleteHey, Lee and Trace of Camper Chronicles were there the same day!
DeleteI'm sorry we missed the Outhouse races!! Love the crowd!! I do think the guy with the fake butt and toilet paper is the best:)
ReplyDeleteThe locals really have fun with this - there was even a keystone cop I didn't get a pic of that was great! That guy was a big hit :-))))
DeleteHilarious! I'm with Pam--the fake butt and toilet paper was the best!
ReplyDeleteThe crowd loved him too :-)))))
DeleteWhat a kick in the pants.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely!
DeleteWe had a trip planned to Virginia City ... once. However, our timing was bad. The wind was so strong RVs were prohibited from traveling on the road there and it was suggested vehicles use caution. We decided another time wold work. Looks like a great place to visit though.
ReplyDeleteWe saw the signs with the lights that flash prohibiting vehicles over 9 feet high to travel the route in the wind. Wow! It's been windy every afternoon, but nothing too crazy so far :-)))
DeleteThat is just hilarious! We love coming across festivals and other special events in our travels -- but we've never encountered an outhouse race. I liked the Tea Potty. ;-)
ReplyDeleteWe've "just missed" several of them this summer so I was delighted to catch this silly one! Their racer and costumes were the very best of the whole day - loved it :-)
DeleteHow funny :-) We've been there a couple of times. Last visit was on our motorcycle years ago.
ReplyDeleteI actually wanted to see if there was still a Ponderosa up there but we got side tracked with the races. There were lots of motorcycles there as well.
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