NV – Sep 2024

Nothing but miles and miles of seemingly endless roadway, with absolutely nothing to see in terms of human life or services.  My trek through northern Nevada, though breathtakingly beautiful with its endless mountain ranges and cactus and joshua tree filled deserts, has taught me about sparse living.  While the southern portion, notably Las Vegas, is anything but sparse.  Filled with bountiful lights and endless entertainment, it is such a vast departure from its northern city neighbors.  Apparently, Nevada has it all – both the rural and eclectic.  Read below and join me in my adventure through this excessive dry heat state.

Winnemucca, NV

Well, my first venture into Nevada takes me to the town of Winnemucca.  This small town with a population just over 8,000, was named after Chief Winnemucca of the northern Paiute tribe.  Arriving in town, after having driven over 200 miles south from Boise, ID on desolate state road 95, was like reaching an oasis.  Interstate 80 also traverses Winnemucca from the east and west, with little nearby sizable civilization in either direction, making this town somewhat of a popular resting spot.  I definitely got that vibe from the welcome signs as you enter town, to the many sloganed signs offering respite to the weary traveler.  There also happens to be several campgrounds in this little town which further supports their specialty as a layover community.

There wasn’t too much to see in the area except for the local museum and a Roadside attraction.  This particular Roadside item is located in downtown Winnemucca and is reported to be part of  the largest piece of driftwood ever collected.  Presumed to be upwards of 1,500 years old, this 13-foot diameter chunk of tree comes from a large redwood that drifted onto the beach in Crescent City, CA during the flood of 1964.  This section was cut off and presented to the city of Winnemucca as a marker to the start of  what was to be the Winnemucca to the Sea Highway.  As proposed, this highway, with designation as Rt-140, would be to create a single numbered route that would branch off of I-80, and go from Winnemucca, through Bedford, OR, and on to the Pacific Coast to Crescent City, CA.  That dream never came to fruition, and today, to make that trip requires you to traverse seven different highway routes.  Oh well – at least they got this really cool giant driftwood out of the deal.

The other site I visited in town was the Humboldt Museum – whose mission is to collect, preserve, exhibit, and promote the history and cultural heritage of North Central Nevada.  Besides having lots of exhibits in its new and modern facility, three historical buildings are part of the museum including a 1907 Episcipal Church, an 1880s building that once housed the Hide and Junk Company, and the Richardson-Saunders House – a late 1890s residence featuring early Neveda architectural style.  Inside the museum was the centerpiece of their collection – a group of Colombian Mammoth bones dating back to over 13,000 years, that were unearthed nearby in the Black Rock Desert.  Also on display was a tribute to Edna Purviance (at right, center) – who grew up in nearby Lovelock and spent many summers in Winnemucca with relatives.  Her fame came from playing the leading lady to Charlie Chaplin in over 30 of his comedies during an 8-year span of the silent film era.  Overall, a pretty cool local museum in this small town.

As mentioned in the last blog, one of my AC units quit working.  I was able to get an RV tech to check it out while I was in Winnemucca, and he diagnosed it as being a bad fan motor.  He didn’t have the part and there wasn’t time to deal with it then, so before I left, I ordered a new motor from Amazon, and had it shipped to the campground in my next destination.  I figured if I at least had the part, all I then had to do was to find another mobile RV tech to come and install it. So, that’s what I did. Before I left Winnemucca, I reached out to a mobile tech in Fernley, my next destination, and he replied indicating he was confident he could squeeze me in.  He suggested I reach out when I arrive to finalize things.  Awesome – looks like I’ll be able to get this fixed.

Fernley, NV

So my next landing into Nevada brings me to Fernley – the 7th most populous city in NV with its 22,000 residents.  It would be a 3-night stay here so my tourist time would be limited to two full days.  And, I still had the broken AC to deal with.  On the day I arrived and checked in to the campground, I picked up the motor that had already been delivered by Amazon, then once I got to my site and was setup, I reached out again to the local tech to see if he could do the install. He indicated he would be here the following day early afternoon.  So, that ruled out any site seeing on that day.  But, I figured I’d have the next day to get in as much as I could.  With Reno and Carson City nearby, I was hoping to spend some time in each of those historic towns. So, the next day, the tech arrived mid afternoon, put in the new motor, but alas it did not fix the problem.  Apparently, I had a bad capacitor.  Unfortunately, this tech did not have a replacement, and ordering one would take too long to arrive.  He thought he might have a used one from a junked AC unit he had, but would not know until later in the day when he could get back to his shop.  Later that evening, he let me know that he did have the needed capacitor, and could come back to install it the following day, late afternoon or early evening. That was good for me as it gave me an almost full day to play tourist.  However, as you’ll soon read, that didn’t quite go as planned.

The next morning I got up early, made coffee, reviewed the itinerary for the day, and proceeded to jump in the truck to leave.  I went to start the truck and nothing – dead as a door nail.  Great!  Now I have this to deal with.  I carry a jump box with me, so I figured I could jump the truck, and head over to an auto store to buy two new batteries (yea, my big truck takes two full size truck batteries).  Well, apparently the jump box must have not been used in far too long and my neglect to check it and keep it charged resulted in it being dead too.  So I guess I could Uber out and back to an auto store and add that cost to the cause.  While checking what stores had what, and what the costs were, I noticed AutoZone offered delivery.  They only had one battery in stock of what I wanted, but I figured with that, I could get the truck back running and find the 2nd battery elsewhere.  So, I ordered it online and paid the $10 delivery fee (much cheaper than taking an Uber there and back).  Shortly after I ordered it, they called me to confirm my location, and then advised me that delivery was only available to commercial customers – not DIYers.  Well, it said nothing of the sort on the website, but I didn’t argue.  I did mention that I was actually looking for two batteries and he checked and the store in the next town over had one so he would have it delivered to his store, and I could pickup both batteries sometime after 3:30.  Well, it looked like I was back to an Uber at that point.  A few minutes later, I get a text message that my battery is out for delivery.  But I thought they were not going to deliver it?  Then, shortly after that, there was a knock at my door and the delivery lady was there with my initial battery purchase.  Wow, that was a nice surprise!  I thanked her, got my battery, and proceeded to install it in the truck.  Success!  The truck started.  Now, I just had to waste my time until 3:30 in order to get the second battery.  I also had to be watchful for the arrival of the RV tech to install the capacitor. Alas, another day wasted!  So, I got to AutoZone right at 3:30 and my 2nd battery was there ready for me.  I installed it in their parking lot so that I could give them the old one to get back my core deposit.  Now I’ve got two brand new batteries in the truck.  I checked my records, and it was just a month shy of 5 years ago when I last changed them.  So, I guess it was time.  I got back to the RV, and soon thereafter, the rv tech arrived, installed the new/used capacitor, and got my AC unit back up and running.  So, overall it was a good day.

I do have to point out one thing – I’m definitely karma blessed!  Finding the truck with dead batteries on a normal full day where I would have plenty of opportunity to take care off it, as opposed to finding out 30 minutes before my scheduled departure as I’m ready to hook up the RV, is certainly very fortunate. While I’ve had my share of maintenance issues this trip, all but one of them have been such as to not severely impact my schedule.  For that, I’m very thankful.

After dealing with the truck, I still needed to get into town to fuel up to be ready to leave the following morning.  While I was in downtown Fernley, I figured I’d at least go check out the one and only Roadside item they had there.  This 70-ton tortoise with a mosaic shell is made from large boulders.  It was created in 2014 by the Burning Man affiliated Black Rock Arts Foundation, with the  hopes that this tortoise will outlast civilization as we know it.  Given its sheer mass, that is a likely outcome.  Also nearby is a collection of painted rocks.  There is a sign at the head of the row of rocks that asks help to “grow” the collection by adding additional rocks.  It also asks visitor to look at the rocks, but to not take them.  So far, it seems to be off to a good start.

Fallon, NV

My next stop takes me out just over 100 miles to a desolate campground some 50 miles east of Fallon.  My next stop after this was Ely, and that was too far to go from Fernley in a single travel day (it violates my 2-2-2 rule which states travel no more than 200 miles or until 2pm whichever occurs first, and stay a minimum of two nights).  So, I figured I’d make a pit stop as close to halfway as possible, and this place was all that was available.  Now, I know why!  The almost 300 mile trek from Fernley to Ely on US HW-50 is known as the “Lonliest Road in America”.  This two lane (one lane in each direction) highway is mostly absolutely voide of any signs of life or traffic.  It was, however, a beautiful drive with varying mountain ranges on either side.  But I was also warned by my brother Don who used to live and drive in this area, that I did need to be watchful of cows in the road as this stretch of road  is home to free range cattle.  Oh great – I get to play Frogger with a bunch of cows!  What fun!

As noted, the campground was 50 miles east of Fallon, having 25 RV sites, several cabins, and a restaurant.  That’s it!  There was absolutely nothing here or else for 50 miles in either direction – that is except the stunning mountain ranges.  From a tourist perspective, I had to drive back to Fallon to catch some things to see there, as well as on the road along the way.  First up, just a few miles down the road from the campground are the remnants of what was once a Pony Express station. In March of 1860, Cold Springs Poney Express station was built, and was put into use in early April.  Built of large native rocks and mud, it was a fairly large station at 116 feet by 51 feet and was made into four rooms – storage area, barn, corral, and living quarters.  It wasn’t long after that an express rider stopped at the station to find the keeper killed, and all the horses stolen.  The following day, the station in nearby Smith Creek was attacked by Indians, the keeper there also killed but not after a 4-day battle.  Times were sure tough back then.

A few miles further west down HW-50 is this shoe tree.  Besides this being one of only a handful of trees for miles, but it is filled with hundreds of sneakers and boots hanging from the limbs.  The original shoe tree had been cut down by vandals in 2010 (seen here laying flat – at right, bottom right), but a nearby sister tree has taken on the role.  Then, about 15 miles further west was this anomaly – Sand Mountain.  This giant pile of sand forming a dune in what is otherwise rocky mountainous territory, definitely sticks out.  It is now a BLM recreational area, and offers sledding fun to those willing to trek in what is similar to beach sand, up to the top of the hill that approaches 400 feet high.  I saw a lot of ATVs buzzing around the base and surrounding landscape having lots of fun.  But apparently, they are not allowed on the actual dune.  Pretty cool!

There’s not a whole lot going on in downtown Fallon – that is other than the Fallon Naval Air Station (Fallon NAS).  It does make you wonder why a Naval outfit would be here out in the middle of nowhere – with absolutely no water in sight!  Well, turns out this high desert 300-day dry climate, with hundreds of miles of nothingness, is an ideal location for fighter pilot and bombing training.  What began as an Army Air Corps airstrip in the early 1940 designed to serve as a backup launch point to intercept Japanese attacks along the West Coast, has now evolved into the Naval Strike and Air Warfare Center – one of the premier air warfare training facilities.  In fact, the famed Top Gun pilot program actually resides here.  Its 14,00o foot runway, the longest in the Navy, along with its four bombing ranges and electronic warfare range, make it ideally suited to train the next generation aviators.  I obviously could not get on station, so I hung out at an affiliated Veterans Park acros the road for a while, hoping to catch some F-18 Hornets or F-16 Falcons buzzing around.  But, the skies were empty.  It was a Sunday when I visited, so likely there was no training going on, and all the pilots were home having BBQs.  Oh well.  The only Roadside entry for Fallon was this bull that sits atop a sign advertising the “Cock-N-Bull” Lounge.  The bull was still there, but from the boarded up building, it looks like the lounge has long ago since closed.

The final oddity I have to report on are these roadside rock messages along either side of HW-50.  Stenciled out using black or otherwise dark colored rocks, these words or messages are present for miles along the road.  Some are just individual names, others profess love for someone, while others are just plain silly.  It’s a bit hard to truly enjoy them while blasting past them at 70 miles per hour.  But they do provide a bit of entertainment in an otherwise uneventful drive down this loneliest road in America.

Ely, NV

So the drive from Fallon to Ely was a 200 mile stretch along the loneliest road in America – NV Highway 50 (see featured image at top). And boy was it lonely!  200 miles of nothingness on mostly straight roadways for as far as you can see. It was picturesque with hills and mountains in almost every direction, but geez – I wouldn’t want to break down out there in the middle of nowhere.  Here’s a video of this loneliest road, and some bonus footage from an interesting encounter I had while towing the RV to Ely

Ely is the largest city and county seat in White Pine County, NV, but only has just under 4,000 residents as of the 2020 census.  So, that should give you clue as to how rural this area is.  The town’s history includes being a stagecoach town along the Pony Express route, then later a booming mining town when copper was discovered.  Now a days, it serves as a launch point to the nearby National Park, and also a gambling venue.  Besides all this, there were a few interesting Roadside items to see in and around town.  First up was this amazing antler arch, flanked with antler chandeliers on both ends, that serves as the entry point to “Horns-A-Plenty Antler Art” ranch.  This place makes light fixtures from antlers and old wagon wheels.  Not exactly my decor style, so I kept on driving after grabbing a few pics.  Next, this giant mule mural adorns the side of Hotel Nevada and Gambling Hall.  I’m not exactly sure how this mural conveys Western Hospitality, but oh well!  Downtown Ely features the Nevada Northern Railway Museum – considered to be one of the best preserved examples of an American railroad.  Besides the many displays and railroad artifacts, they also offer a number of themed train rides including a Ghost Town ride, Chocolate Express, and Wine Train to name a few.  Sadly, I arrived at the museum after it had closed, so I was limited on what I could see.  Last up in downtown was this interesting restaurant located in the Jailhouse Casino-Motel known as the Jailhouse Cell Block Steak House that features dining booths behind simulated jail cells.  Now that’s an entertaining dining experience!

My primary purpose of visiting this part of Nevada was to visit the Great Basin National Park – located just an hour east of Ely.  Besides the large soup bowl-like basins nestled among the vast mountains, the bristlecone pines which at 5,000 years old are the oldest among all species, another one of its interesting features is the Lehman Caves.  It was the caves that first became a National Monument in 1922, then in 1986, the surrounding mountains and other geological features were added and it was rediesignated as a National Park.  It is also known to have some of the darkest skies in all the contiguous United States, making it a favored place for celestial observation.  The basin and bristlecone pines are best viewed from higher elevations up in the mountains, but I’ve had more than enough of my share of tight turning, hairpin roads, so I opted instead to focus on the caverns.  Besides, it was over 100 degrees outside, and the pleasantly cool 55 degrees of the underground caverns sounded much better to me. The caves are about 2 miles long – the longest in Nevada, though only 0.4 and 0.6 mile tours are offered.  It is a beautiful cavern with all your standard features present.  One unique feature was found in the Inscription Room where tourists from the late 1800 would put their names, initials, or other inscriptions on the ceiling using charcoal (at right, bottom).  Besides all the natural beauty of the caverns, the cool refreshing climate was certainly most welcome.

Beatty, NV

Next, I head south and back towards the east to the rural town of Beatty, NV.  This 800+ resident unincorporated town lies about halfway on US Route 95, with Tonopah to the north, and Las Vegas to the south.  There’s certainly not much happening in this town, and it mostly serves as a tourist launch point to visit Death Valley National Park, which is 30 miles to the west.  But, there was one interesting thing about Beatty that made it unique – its wild burros.  Once used to haul things back in the mining days, they were set free to live in the Nevada desert when the mining industry busted.  Now estimated to number around 800, these seemingly friendly town wanderers are ever present throughout Beatty and the vicinity.  Just driving around the few days I was in town, I ran across several of them – often times in the middle of the road impeding traffic.  But, it was kinda cool to to see them.  At one point, I saw a couple hanging out to my left so I stopped, rolled down my window to take a picture, and they came trotting my way (left, bottom left) – presumably thinking I had some treats for them.  I didn’t have anything for them, so I quickly rolled up the window and drove away.  Sorry guys!

The only Roadside item actually in Beatty was this old twin engine plane that crashed next to an old Brothel sign (right, top left).  Next, I drove about 5 miles out of town to nearby Rhyolite – home to the Rhyolite Ghost Town and the Goldwell Open Air Museum.  Founded in 1904 and dead by 1916, Rhyolite was one of several short lived boom-towns from the Gold Rush era.  With its many buildings, some now in ruins, this place is one of the most photographed ghost towns in the west.  Of particular interest was the Kelly Bottle House (right, top center and right).  Since lumber was scarce here in the desert, Tom Kelly thought about using bottles as a building material.  With something like 50 saloons said to be operating in the area at the time, Kelly collected 50,000 bottles in less than six months, which he then used to build this three room house with porch.  The home got an updated roof in 1925 courtesy of Paramount Pictures who used it for a movie set.  It was last occupied from 1954 thru 1969 by Tommy Thompson and his family – including his 8 children.  I wonder how those glass bottle walls did in the scorching sun of summer.

At the entrance road to the ghost town is the Goldwell Open Air Museum – a collection of interesting art from several different artists. What started as his ghostly interpretation of The Last Supper (left top, and bottom left) in 1984, Belgian-Polish sculpture Albert Szukalski has grown to a number of pieces including Ghost Rider (at left center), and Serving Ghost (left, top left) completed some years later.  These fiberglass pieces were expected to only last a few years due to the hot desert sun, but by some miracle, continue to survive to this day.  Not to be outdone, Belgian artist Hugo Heyrman created the pixelated piece The Pink Lady (left bottom right)  in 1991.  The piece titled Diptown (at left, center bottom) was created by Irina & Stanslslav Shminke inspired by Burning Man and based on a Russian legend of a partially buried town adopted by children as a place to play.  Between the ghost town down the street and this open air museum, there seems to be sufficient interest to keep visitors coming to this middle of nowhere attraction.

On the way to Death Valley, there were a few more Roadside oddities worth of a stop.  A tourist trap at the intersection of Rt 95 and 373 (the latter leading to Deach Valley) was this Area 51 Alien Center and Fireworks outlet.  Despite the real Area 51 being some 50+ miles to the northeast as the crow flies with no usable route to get there, this little tourist gem serves up all the alien fanfare one could ask for.  It was filled with alien trinkets, chotchkies, T-shirts, and the like.  It was fun to wander around a bit, but I left with all my money in tact.  Right next door is a fireworks store which features the world’s largest firecracker.  Easily 60 or more feet tall, it is actually a water tank used for the fire suppression system in the fireworks store.  Nicely done transformation!  Turning south onto Rt 373 towards Death Valley, I came upon the town of Amargosa Valley and these large fiberglass farm animals which are part of the Longstreet Inn and Casino complex.  A bit further down the road in Death Valley Junction is the Amargosa Opera House (at right, center right).  Once a movie theater, it was purchased by a retired New York opera singer and her husband in the late 1960s.  They converted the theater to an opera house, and offered entertainment for decades following.  In fact, in Feb of this year, the now 90+ year old Marta held a 56th year celebration event.  Well, at least that is what the website advertisement said.  From the looks of the place, locked up and heavily overgrown, it doesn’t appear that It has been in operation for quite some time.  But, I’m sure it was THE place in town back in its hey day.

And then, just across the state line into California, there’s Death Valley!  Wow, was it hot!  117 degrees hot according to the official Visitor Center digital thermometer (at left, bottom center).  Needless to say, this was not a place to be hiking about looking at the scenery.  In fact, there are posted signs recommending you don’t even walk after 10am.  Not surprisingly, I spent most of my time in the truck in the somewhat cool environment as the struggling AC tried to keep up with the excessive heat.  But it’s a dry heat they say!  Yea, maybe so, but it’s still pretty damn hot!  Death Valley was initially designated as a National Monument by President Hoover in 1933, and later a National Park in 1994.  At over 3.3 million acres (5,300 square miles), it is the largest National Park in the contiguous United State.  One of the stops during my visit took me to Badwater Basin – the lowest point in North America at 282 feet BELOW sea level, made up of 200 square miles of salt flats.  The walk from the parking area to the wooden deck area and photo opp sign was a struggle.  It was so hot, it was difficult to breathe!  Further up the road was a place called the Devils Golf Course (at left, center left).  Another salt pan area of Death Valley and the Mojave Desert having a rough serrated surface and overall deadly harshness of a landscape suggesting that “only the Devil could play golf” here.  I believe it!  Last up on my drive back towards the campground, I took a bit of a detour to visit a place called Mesquite Flat Sand Dunes.  Names for the mesquite tree which grows in abundance in the area, these dunes reaching heights of up t 100 feet provide locals with recreation in the way of sand boarding (like surfing, but down sand hills).  Again, interesting place to visit, but it was too hot to wander around much.

Las Vegas NV

Viva Las Vegas – the lights, the sounds, the endless entertainment!  What’s not to love!  I would be meeting up with my brother Gerry who will be staying with me here in Vegas for several days.  So, well in advance of our arrival, I reached out to him to get a sense of what types of entertainment he would like, then I went ahead and booked a couple of days of fun and frolic.  One of our nighttime entertainment events was to catch a David Copperfield magic show.  We had really nice table seats 2nd row just off to the left of center stage (at right, top).  Unfortunately, this is the only picture I got of the show.  David was insistent that no pictures be taken.  So much so, there were wooden boxes on each table and we were instructed to turn off our phones, and place them in the box where they shall remain throughout the show.  Oh well, can’t share any more than that here.  It was a really good show as he made various items appear out of nowhere – including a motorcycle, a car, and even a spaceship!  He is quite the showman. As we ventured to the various shows, we got the chance to wander through some of the more prominent venues.  Notably, through the MGM Grand (at right, bottom right), and the Venetian (at right, bottom center). Wow are these places massive!  Filled with stores, restaurants, and in the case of the Venetian, even a river for the gondolas.  Both times, we wandered aimlessly looking for the proper routes to take us to our designated show, and both times feeling like a Fuk-a-wee Indian (you know, where the fuk are we?).   Anyway, it was certainly something to experience. While walking outside at one point, we spotted the golden Trump tower (at right, bottom right).  That was very cool!

Going to visit The Sphere was high on both of our must do lists, and certainly was one of the highlights of our visit.  Construction began on this 366 feet tall x 516 feet wide behemoth in 2019, with a projected cost of $1.2 billion.  Covid induced construction delays and supply chain issues rendered the total cost to balloon to $2.3 billion – making it the most expensive entertainment venue in Las Vegas, just behind the $1.9 billion Allegiant Stadium (home to the LV Raiders).  It is also the largest spherical building in the world.  Inside the 18,000+ seat arena is an immense 160,000 square foot wraparound 16K resolution LED screen, paired with an incredible audio system and 4D effects (wind, scent, shaking, etc.) to create an absolute immersive experience.  The outside of the sphere is filled with 580,000 square feet of these puck-like LEDs (at left, top right) which can literally produce any picture or animation.  It really is something to see and experience, and the geek in me would really love to have seen the computing infrastructure needed to operate this thing. For my geek readers, the screen system alone is made up of  64,000 individual LED panels made into 780 different geometric shapes to accommodate the spherical nature of the building.  These LED panels, combined with the outside LEDs, are all driven by 150 Nvidia graphics systems, each having over 10,000 processing cores and 48 gigabytes of memory.  Wow!

The price of admission was kinda steep for what was really only a 45 minute movie.  And I made it worse by choosing to get VIP tickets.  However, in retrospect, we were certainly happy with the decision.  The VIP tickets got us an early admission, a small behind the scenes look, a fully catered snack bar complete with beer and wine in the VIP lounge (at right, top right), preferred front center row seating, and of course parting gifts (water bottle, t-shirt, etc.).  Upon entry into the venue, the usual route takes you to the Atrium where you can interact with AI robots (at right, top left), view holographic images (at right, center left), and get a demo of their sound system that features spacial audio with beamforming capability that can reportedly direct specific audio down to a small group of seats in the theater.  Pretty cool!  Getting the early start, our group of a couple of hundred VIPs were able to walk around and enjoy the Atrium before the other thousands of regular ticket attendees showed up.  Just before they arrived, we headed out to the VIP lounge and enjoyed some complimentary adult beverages and some food.  I thought it might just be chips and dips, but alas there was hot foods as well including chicken fingers, cheeseburger sliders, and more.  In fact, we ate so good that we skipped going out to dinner after the show.

Gerry and I saw the docu-film titled “Postcard from Earth”.  I foolishly took a few pictures of the screen at various points during the show (e.g. at right, bottom left, and top right), but as my description of this place’s build specs noted above dictate, these pictures don’t even begin to do justice with regard to what we saw in person.  Think 3D IMAX, then multiply that by 100, and maybe you would begin to reach the level of absolute amazing cinematography and immersive presentation as was delivered by the Sphere.  It was absolutely incredible!  As we were whisked across the snow covered mountains, we would feel the wind in our hair courtesy of a bank of fans neatly tucked away in the bottom of the theater.  As thunder roared, our seats would rumble along with the flashes of light.  And the 180 degree theater screen made you feel like you were right in the middle of it all – which you basically were.  All in all, just an absolutely amazing experience, and one that I would most assuredly recommend for anyone visiting Las Vegas.  Also, be sure to splurge a little and get the VIP tickets – well worth it!

The other major highlight of our visit to Las Vegas, was to take a helicopter ride.  Our cousin Louise had visited Las Vegas earlier in the year, and she posted FB pictures of her helicopter experience.  It looked like an amazing adventure, so I added that on my list of things to do for when i would be here.  Luckily, my brother Gerry had also seen the FB posts, and also wanted to take this trip.  So, I got the details from my cousin Louise, and booked the same trip that she did.  This flight included some sights around the Vegas strip, as well as tours of the western portion of the Grand Canyon.  There were 5 passengers and one pilot in our helicopter, but there were something like 4 or 5 other helicopters that flew along with us.  As we ventured across the desert, it reminded me of the opening scene of MASH as the group of helicopters flew in a line together.  What an amazing flight!  We flew over and around the Hoover Dam (at right, center left) as well as several other beautiful canyons and mountain ranges on our way out to the edge of the Grand Canyon.

When we arrived at the western edge, we flew down into the canyon where we disembarked and enjoyed some champaign and snacks at their picnic venue as we gazed at the breathtaking scenery that stood before us.  What an absolute blast!  On the ride back, we stopped at a desert oasis gas station to top off our fuel (at left, center left), then off again to take in a bit more of the sights on the rest of way back.  This included a sky view of the LV Raiders’ Allegiant Stadium (at left, center right) as well as other various downtown Las Vegas venues such as the pyramid shaped Luxor Hotel and Casino (at left, bottom left).  This was my very first time in a helicopter, so I can now check that one off my bucket list.  And what a place to have checked it off.  I can’t think of any better place to get a birds eye view of something than around the spectacular Grand Canyon.

Truck Update

Well, the challenges with my 12 year old big boy truck continue.  A couple of weeks before arriving in Las Vegas, it once again started making noise – this time sort of a whistling sound, but only when I accelerated or decelerated.  When I was cruising along at normal speed, even when I was towing, the noise would not be present.  And otherwise, there was no indication of anything serious – no loss of power, no check engine lights, etc.  Since there were to be no Ford repair centers in many of the rural towns I was staying in, Las Vegas would be my first opportunity to reach civilization and a variety of service centers.  Also, since my brother Gerry would be joining me on the same day as my arrival, it made sense to immediately take the truck into the shop the following morning since he and his car would be around to do some of the driving.  So, we did that the first thing the following morning.  Despite not having a service appointment, I explained my situation, and the dealership was willing to squeeze me in.  After a day or so of review and diagnostics, it was determined that my exhaust manifold was cracked, along with some of the mounting posts.  This was pretty serious, requiring extensive labor to fix – including I was told they would have to remove the cab from the frame of the truck.  Well, of course, that all translated into many many thousands of dollars.  But, what option do I have.  I guess that is what an emergency fund is for.  All in all, I’ve chocked (or is it choked) up over $17k in maintenance and repairs into that truck this calendar year.  I sure hope I’m at the trailing end of truck issues now, as this is kinda putting a monkey wrench into my RV travel budget.  Oh well, then again, I guess I’m just spending my kids inheritance anyway.  So, thank you girls! 😁

Final Thoughts

Well, my visit through Nevada has learned me that it is mostly rural with areas of miles and miles of desert nothingness – especially in the northern half of the state.  I also learned that Las Vegas is a great place to visit, but I certainly would not want to live here.  First, too damn hot!  Second, too many people and too much glitz and glamor for my liking.  And third, you can’t get a shopping cart at the local grocery store.  Seriously!  My brother and I went to the local Albertsons to get some groceries.  We walked into the store, and there wasn’t a single shopping cart to be found.  Walked back outside, there were none to be seen in any of the collection corrals or otherwise just hanging around the parking lot.  So where are all the carts?  I inquired, and it turns out, they get stolen by the homeless for transporting stuff and even being used as a makeshift living structure when combined with tarps.  Wow – now that’s a sad state of affairs.  In fact, a store employee told us that just a day or two prior, they had received a shipment of a couple hundred carts, and just within those couple of days, they all disappeared.  In another store I visited as shown here in this picture, they have had to resort to using warning signs and high tech carts whose wheels will lock and not roll when the cart is taken beyond the boundary of what is considered the store property.  Geez – certainly not something I would want to deal with on a daily basis.  So, no thanks Las Vegas – I’ll keep my place in Florida!  Till next time, be well and safe travels.

I only show a sampling of my adventure pictures here in the blog, and do so mostly in collage format for brevity and ease of reading. If you want to view an album containing individual full fidelity and hi-res images of all my travel pictures related to this specific blog, click the image below. Enjoy!