Well today was my final day in Mammoth Lakes.  Feeling a little bit sad to be honest. It is so weird just being in a different place every few days, but, I am very looking forward to San Francisco.

Today was an easy day, after a sleepless night. Not sure if it is the altitude, the heat or the physical exertion the past few days but I had a stinking headache, nausea and and general tiredness and blahness!!! (Yes that is a word, trust me!!!). This all conveniently began when all the pharmacies had closed for the night.  Typical. 

Anyway as a result I wanted an easy day where I didn’t have to do very much.  I decided to go visit the old town of Bodie which as about an hour and 30 minutes away from Mammoth lakes. Bodie is quite a unique place, stuck in time way back in history. An old mining town that was prosperous for a short time now the late 1800’s then when gold fever struck elsewhere causing people to move on and, following a few fires, the final residents left leaving behind about 100 buildings.  Left just the way they had been all those years ago. Now Bodie is a state park, protected so that people can get a glimpse of what it was like in the Wild West.

It sounded fascinating, so I decided to take a look.  I’m glad I did.

I was really surprised that so much had survived and in fairly good condition too. Here’s a few examples.

This was a boarding house

This was a fire station

This was a store and barbers. Look you could even see the red and white stripped pole on the barbers, like in the movies 😃

This was the jail, small but practical..  The cells are still visible inside with metal pails used for washing. 

This was the mine, ,now so dangerous, people can’t enter, yet still standing

Bodie even had its own petrol station towards the end.  Notice the bullet holes on the sign…

There was also hotels, boarding houses, bars, a casino, a school and many personal homes. Inside these buildings were still people’s processions. It was very bizarre to see them left that way.  It was very eerie, I was expecting the buildings to be empty. 

*sorry for the quality of the pictures but there was a lot of dust and I couldn’t get a clear picture through the windows*

I mean, even in the casino, you could make out a card game table with gambling chips.  The school still had the desks, blackboard and books and the store still had packaging and shelving and someone pointed out a box inscribed explosives (although I am sure there wasn’t any in there, fingers crossed). 

I took a video inside a private residence.  Looks like could have been a very cosy home once. Can you see the crib next to the bedroom??

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The fire station still had the pump in there

Again,  very freakin weird!!!!

There was also lots of stuff lying around the streets in various states of decay

They had a small museum which had lots of artefacts which I had only seen in the movies such as clothes, banking cheques, photos, newspapers to stagecoaches, pistols and shackles. There was also a book pertaining to the curse of Brodie. Apparently Brodie is haunted. Some of the caretakers reported strange phenomenon and if people take items from Brodie, bad things happen to them.  People have actually written to the trust looking after the site apologising profusely for taking something from the site. Not sure what is stranger, people writing in describing their ‘curse’ experience or believing in the curse in the first place. 

All done, a fascinating and informative, if a little creepy, day. 

Tomorrow, San Francisco..