Travel

I'll Never Smoke Weed With Willie Again

Okay let's see how much trouble I can get in for that title...I did NOT smoke weed with Willie, but this is the story of the closest I'll ever get to it. (Thank you Toby Keith for the memorable song!)

Willie Nelson is an icon, one of the original bad boys of Country Music, a legend...seeing Willie Nelson was definitely a Bucket List item for my husband so in October 2019 he & I headed for Reno. Willie Nelson & Family were playing at the Nugget Event Center in Sparks/Reno at an outdoor concert. It wasn't until the night before the concert, kind of jokingly, one of our kids mentioned Weed & Willie at the dinner table. Ummm...hmmm...yeah an outdoor concert in a state where recreational marijauna is legal with an artist that has long been a proponent for legalization. Could be interesting.

Let me just say that if I can get around half as good at 86 as that man can, I'll take that as a win! Willie and Family put on a phenomenal concert. He rocked hard for about 90 minutes, taking only a few breaks while the spotlight turned to his extremely talented son, Lukas. The evening was cool, but bearable. The people were friendly (even the Asian couple that I'm pretty sure were trying to pick pocket people). The drinks were seriously overpriced (like all concerts). It was an incredible concert and one I will be forever glad that we got to experience.

By the way, did you know smoke rises? When you're not on the ground level, smoke WILL rise to the level you're on. So no, we did NOT smoke weed with Willie but probably 75% of the people around us did. I am here to tell you that "contact high" is a real thing. On a semi-related note, In-N-Out fries with extra salt never tasted better in my life! When we got back to our hotel, I looked at my husband and told him the truth "I don't think I should have driven." And we laughed. A lot. So yeah, that's my story of Willie Nelson and weed.

Oh and I'm pretty sure our hotel was haunted. It was a nice enough place (no cooties - I checked) but it had a weird vibe to it. I woke up the next morning and I had what looked like claw marks all over my legs. It was creepy! And it was time to leave.

Near the hotel was a cute little Donut place, The Jelly Donut. Oh my gosh! If you ever find yourself in the area, you'll want to go there. And go early. They didn't have a huge selection left when we got there and they kept apologizing for it, but they had more than ample choices. Everything we got was amazing and they were super friendly.

The plan was to go to downtown Reno. Yeah...the Italian Festival was going on and it was a madhouse! No thanks. We headed South, debated over going out to Lake Tahoe and decided we hadn't had enough ghosts for one day so we'd go see if we could find some more in some ghost towns.

Historic Carson City was underwhelming. There were some pretty old buildings, but not nearly as many as I expected. Yes, I restrained myself and didn't take any pictures as we passed the infamous Bunny Ranch. Ha ha! The Nugget Chocolate Factory was a definite win though. Yum! After we left there, we found ourselves on this road with a sign that said 15% Grade on the way into Silver City. Ummm...that can't be right. Oh, yes it was. Holy moley!!!! Survived that, not much left of Silver City so it's on to the much revered Virginia City.

Oh Virginia City...I wanted to love you. I wanted to get caught up in the ghost fever that surrounds you. I wanted to feel the Old West, experience life as it was back then. I wanted to get lost in the history, the stories, the nostalgia. Virginia City...you turned out to be a gigantic tourist trap that was more crowded than Disney World. Huge disappointment. Not even running into the Ghost Adventures team would make me want to go back. Our planned day in Virginia City a wash, let's look at the map and see what else we can do.

Fort Churchill. In the 1860's Fort Churchill was built pretty much in the middle of nowhere to provide protection for early settlers and the mail route along the Pony Express. The fort would become an important supply depot for the Union Army during the American Civil War, but the post was abandoned in 1869 shortly after the conclusion of the Civil War. There's quite a long and very interesting history around the Fort and we actually enjoyed this stop more than any of the others we made on this trip. I've learned to appreciate the beauty in the desert more as I've gotten older and this was truly a beautiful, peaceful place. (Interesting to feel such a sense of peace if you look into the history a little deeper.) We spent a couple of hours walking the remnants of the fort and really enjoyed it.

The rest of the trip was pretty uneventful - except when my husband who is allergic to bees got stung. That was eventful, but yay for Benadryl! We stayed another night (NOT in a haunted hotel this time) and enjoyed some incredible Mexican Food at La Fiesta in Fernley. (I still need to replicate the cabbage jalapeno dip they served with the chips - it was delicious!) Headed home before the sun came up the next morning.

And thus ends the story of weed with Willie, tourist trap ghost towns, bee stings and desert adventures.

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