With a tear in our eyes, we left Paso Robles and headed across the State of California to Barstow where we stayed at the KOA. Barstow is near the famous Calico ghost town. The KOA was adequate to house our bus:
I particularly liked the peace sign carved out of a tree trunk.
We ate in and caught up on some of our TV shows that we had missed while having company over the past two weeks. We even started watching some new series.
The following day we visited Calico and walked around the renovated touristy “ghost town”. Calico was born in 1881 when silver was discovered and survived through 1907 when silver prices plummeted from $1.31 to $0.63 per ounce. During that time $86 million in silver and $45 million in borax were mined.
Without many guests in attendance the day we visited, it really was a ghost town! Here are some of the buildings:
Notice the boots under the outhouse door? Here are some of the vehicles from back then:
How did Calico get its’ name? From the plethora of colors in the landscape (although the photograph doesn’t do it justice):
In 1951 Walter Knott purchased and renovated the town back to the 1880’s. Walter Knott was the founder of Knott’s Berry Farm which you might of heard about. In 1966, Knott donated the entire town of Calico to San Bernardino County.
After perusing the current ghost town, we drove over to Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner for a late lunch.
Peggy Sue’s was a typical 50’s diner with good home cooked comfort food.
There was a Marine Crops Logistics Base nearby and we got to see a lot of tanks and humvees getting loaded on / off train transportation. Here’s a tank that was parked near the road:
We spent the rest of the day relaxing and continuing watching our new shows.
Up and out very early the next morning as we needed to be in Las Vegas at National Indoor RV Center to get our air conditioner replaced.
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