This is a fine place. Nevada City certainly ranks among the most historic places in California. This is gold rush country, in the foothills of the Sierra Nevadas, downstream from old mines and sluices and Ponderosa pines.

Last night we courtesy parked at the house of the Trent family, squeezing the 30-footer into a spot formerly occupied by their recently-polished 1964 Safari, named “Pearl”. (For a picture of Pearl, see http://www.velocity7.com/blog/index.php/2005/10/ ) She has been displaced to the driveway during our visit, which is expected to be three days.

On our way over, we stopped off at a truck wash near Fernley NV to clean up the rig. That boondocking stop in the desert left us covered with salt. Fortunately, the Airstream cleaned right up in the truck wash, and now we’re shining again!

This morning, Robert took me over to the Velocity7 world headquarters in his 1964 Dodge Dart (a really cute vehicle, by the way). I’m borrowing some desk space and Internet connection for the next couple of days.

The office is located in downtown Nevada City, which is a destination in itself. The buildings mostly date from the late-19th century, such as the brick 1886 National Hotel …

… and the 1865 Nevada Theatre (the longest running continuously-open theater west of the Mississippi, I am told).

The whole downtown is lively, architecturally interesting, and has the feel of a restored historic town without being a tourist trap.

Just up Rt 20 from here is the Tahoe National Forest. We took that route as an alternate to I-80 on the way down, and it was beautiful. Plenty of switchbacks but as long as there’s no snow I’d recommend it. We spotted at least three wonderful camping areas along there, too.

Tonight we are planning to take all the kids (2 Trent kids + Emma) out for a fun dinner. By the way, I have posted a ton of new pictures from our last week on the road — take a look!