Cafe Del Rio – Virginia City, Nevada
Some of the most treasured moments of my childhood involved visiting Grandpa Max on Sunday nights when we would tune in for a formidable line-up of westerns. We loved Daniel Boone and The Virginian, but our favorite was Bonanza. Concurrent with the opening notes of Bonanza’s theme song, the screen displayed a map which depicted the sheer scale of The Ponderosa, the Cartwright family ranch. The brobdingnagian ranch was bordered on the south by Lake Tahoe, an aquatic body the ranch dwarfed. According to the map, The Ponderosa was bordered by Carson City, Reno and Virginia City. Many of the show’s episodes outside the ranch seemed to be centered around Carson City. As a precocious lad already iterested in cartography, I was determined to someday visit the area surrounding The Ponderosa. It took a few decades, but my Kim and I finally got there. Our favorite Bonanza landmark was probably Virginia City. Established in 1859–a time period almost contemporaneous with that of the fictional Bonanza (roughly 1861 to 1867)–Virginia City is akin to taking a step back in time. “Thar’s gold in them that hills,” was the rallying cry that brough fortune-seeking prospectors to Virginia City. When all was said…