Three Day Weekend - Part 1

A three-day weekend to a lot of people is no big deal, but to me it is like gold.

When I worked for someone else I had a lot of vacation time so the three-day weekends were good but not as big a deal. Since I own my own business, things are different.

I always hear people say "Well you own your own business so you can take as much time off as you want so what's the big deal?"

That's true, you can, but if you do then your business will have no business so long vacations are a thing of the past and long weekends are gold.

This three-day weekend we ventured to Ely, a little mining town in northeast Nevada. On the way there we routed ourselves through the towns of Caliente, a former bustling railroad town, Cathedral Gorge Sate Park, and Pioche, a former bustling mining town.

Caliente, NV.



The railroad line was completed in 1905, and by 1910, Caliente was the largest town in Lincoln County with 1,755 residents.

A two-story wooden structure served as a train depot until burning down in one of Caliente's disastrous fires.

In 1923, the impressive Caliente Train Depot was built, a classic Mission-style building constructed of tan stucco.

This two-story building included the railroad station, private offices and a community center on the first floor, while the second level featured a hotel.

Within a few years, Caliente grew to more than 5,000 residents. For more than 40 years, Caliente was one of the major division points on the railroad line.

When steam engines were replaced by diesel locomotives in the 1940's, the division point moved to Las Vegas.

Without the depot as a main railroad stop, the town’s growth dwindled but not its spirit. The population today is approximately 1,000.



Cathedral Gorge State Park

In 1924, Governor James Scrugham visited the area and began the process of acquiring the land from the Federal government. In 1935, Cathedral Gorge became one of Nevada's first four state parks.



Erosion has carved dramatic and unique patterns in the soft bentonite clay.



Cathedral Gorge is a high desert park in eastern Nevada comprising 1,608 acres of spectacular geological formations -- spires and pillars carved by centuries of water running over clay in a Pliocene-era lakebed.

More of the three-day weekend trip will post here tomorrow.