This is going to be one of those boring posts with lots of pictures. You’ve been warned.

After I did last week’s Bowers Mansion Ride, I got to thinking about maybe doing a “Four Counties” tour. The city and county of Carson City is bordered by Washoe County to the north, Douglas to the south. and Lyon to the east. North of Lyon County is Storey County, the smallest Nevada county and home to Virginia City and the historic Comstock Lode. Since I’ve biked to three of those four destinations recently, I got Kash the Kona out of the garage and headed east to scout out the roads.

It was a pretty good ride in the beginning. I ascended the hill to Moundhouse and broke a good sweat but nothing too bad. A few minutes later, I was heading up State Route 341 to Silver City. Unlike the Bowers Mansion Ride, I stopped a lot of times to take pictures.

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While I was out on yesterday’s ride on Dollar, I got to thinking about my significant bike crashes (something to do on a 30-MPH downhill) and got to realize there was a common thread among them: Stupidity.

Curry and 10th Street: Tried a rolling dismount like I did when I was 15. The problem was my body forgot that 30 years had passed and that it weighed 100+ pounds more. While I was lying in the road, some dude walking by said, ‘That looked like it hurt.”

William and Carson: Navigating alongside morning rush hour traffic, my front bike wheel hit the curb and I slid into the gas station on my right shoulder. I can still make the collarbone “click” on command whenever The Bride is in hearing distance.

Fairview and Carson: I tried to make the green light, but way overpowered my pedals in my haste and fell rubber-side up nearly in the middle of the intersection. I was lucky that all traffic was stopped and nothing came of it aside from the usual roadrash, bleeding, and scraping.

Winnie and Ormsby: I was coasting down the hill and was lost in thought when I realized I was not going to make the left turn onto Ormsby. Fortunately, there was a lot of nice, soft grass to cushion the fall and to roll around in. The downside was they had just fertilized the lawn. The smell was still better than road rash.

Topsy Lane: Testing out a bike, my hands were nowhere near the brake pedals and I turned too quick for my own good. The brick wall upside the ribs taught me an important lesson about hand placement on fast bikes.

These were painful reminders to me that whether I’m on two wheels or four wheels, my mind had better be on that task at hand or it’s almost certain that I’ll give The Bride more ammunition to hold over my head. After 27 years, she has enough blackmail material already.

And we come to the end of this eight-part series on the old Nevada State Capital Building. As you’ve seen, the centerpiece of Nevada State government was gutted and put back together, but we look at what could have been in this entry.

Back in the 1950s, the Nevada State Public Works Board made a serious attempt to consolidate all of the State offices in Carson City into one centralized downtown location and they started with the Blasdel Building next to the Capital Building. The Legislature stepped in and stopped could have been the eventual destruction of the old Capital (though three of the four pictures here don’t support that motive). The public reasoning for the stoppage can probably be found in the legislative records and newspapers from those days, and no doubt they contain many passing references to keep “Nevada’s history alive” in the form of the old building (the state centennial was approaching at the time).

My cynical self thinks it’s about the money and politics. I don’t know how other state capitals are configured, but many if not most of the rented office space in this town goes to state government. A centralized seat would be on State land and within State buildings, so there would be far fewer rentals in this town than there are now. Also, the state finances to execute these plans may not have available or the projected costs may have been unrealistic. Lastly, the Legislature may have wanted some of the land for their own building (which was built and occupied in the 1970s). In any case, centralization was a good idea that never happened.

1. Yo Old Capital Building.
2. The Three Branches.
3. The Interior (before).
4. Sledgehammers.
5. Open Skies.
6. The Walls Go Up.
7. Raising the Roof.

Please remember to credit the Nevada State Library and Archives if you use these pictures and, as always, the facts in this series are derived from my weak memory so I welcome any and all corrections and recollections of those days gone by. Please feel free to post questions or requests at any time. Thanks.

One summertime resolution: Ride to Bowers Mansion and back.

Done.

Let’s set aside the usual kavetching about aches and pains and focus on the ride. With water in the Camelbak, a bellyful of pancakes, and not much in the way of planning, I headed north to Bowers Mansion. The first and largest obstacle were the Combs Canyon hills which were near impassible to me last time. Today, I didn’t stop once going up the hill. I tend to speed up to get over obstacles and predictably bonk out, but I kept to my mantra this time (”slow down”) and Combs Canyon was nearly no problem (yay).

(This is that road and the pix doesn’t do it justice. Take my word for it: it’s a b***h.)

Once over the hill, the landscape changes and the scenery becomes very green.

I turned around at Bowers Mansion, hoping the snack bar would be open so I could get some energy food but no luck. The ride back was very slow but still very scenic.

A common sight was the number of cars with empty bike racks parked on the side of the road. These folks were riding through the valley and having a great time without the hassle of hill climbing. I highly recommend this instead of doing it the hard way like I did because it’s a perfect way to see the some of the best of Nevada’s landscape.

As always, I wish I had taken more pictures. If you’d like to see Washoe Valley in all its glory, head over to Bike Carson.

All in all: a good, hard ride. Next time, I will carry more food with me and maybe start earlier to avoid the Washoe Zephyrs.

My next goal: riding from Reno to Carson (someday).

The stats:
22.34 miles
1 hour 54 minutes ride time
1,024 calories

This is the seventh in the series of blog posts that present the the Nevada State Capital Building in all of its yesteryear glory and we’re coming up on the end. In the previous posts, you got a sense of of what the Capital Building looked like just before its deconstruction. We’re finally going to put the floors in, paint the walls, and put on a roof. Again, no narrative because the pictures pretty much speak for themselves.

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