Tuesday, November 14, 2006
On the way to Las Vegas, NV
September 17, 2006
Wow, I have been so bad about updating this blog.
So as I was saying, we set out from Tahoe on Sunday. We had to stop at the casino again first, though, because I had forgotten my pillow and my credit card there. I knew the credit card was somewhere in the room, but for some reason I just couldn't find it even though I scoured the place. Luckily, housekeeping did, with their superior thoroughness. I had already canceled it, but I was glad to see it wasn't in someone else's pocket.
Zorah and Ian sat in the throne-like shoeshine chairs for a little while before we left. If you look carefully, you will see Ian behind Z in the picture.
Random comment: Isn't Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" just lovely?
Anyway, I took the helm once we got out of the mountainous parts of Tahoe and Nevada. Really scenic, but not so much fun to drive through with a trailer attached to your vehicle. The way to Vegas seemed simple: follow state route 95, take a left to stay on 95, and follow it pretty much all the way. Nevada's deserts are beatiful, with their camel hump mountains and incongruous lakes and waterways. I think people have said that there is nothing in Nevada, but they're wrong. I kind of had the urge to just park somewhere and wander into the desert sometimes.
Brian, Ian, and Zorah all napped as I drove and listened to my iPod. As they slept, we passed through a really beautiful canyon. I drove over a hill, and onto this windy road with a speed limit of 35. It went right through Wilson Canyon, through which a river ran, first on one side, then on the other (if I remember right). It took about five minutes to drive through, and I wanted to either stop, or turn around and drive through it again. I couldn't even take pictures because I was driving.
About ten minutes later, however, I noticed that we were not on 95 anymore. When did we miss it? I had no idea! I drove for about ten minutes more before I thought to look up at the compass in our truck. We were heading west. And one of those road markers showed the mileage to California. Oops. At first I was irritated to have missed the turn on 95. But then I realized I could go through the canyon again! Hooray! This time I stopped and took pictures. It was almost sunset already, so they weren't as dramatic as they would have been had we stopped earlier.
As a matter of fact, they weren't very good at all. Oh, well. If I knew anything about photography, I guess I could have experimented with the camera a bit, but everyone was waiting for me in the car, and a bit irritated that I had gotten lost while they were sleeping. Time to move on.
So I got back on the right track about 30 miles later. The gas station where we had stopped to refuel was right at the 95 turn. There was a small black and white sign I had missed on the way out the first time. Sigh.
Nothing too eventful happened. We did see another place I'd like to visit, Walker Lake, not too far from Wilson Canyon, I think. It even had a campground! You come down a steep incline, and there it is! A lake in the middle of the desert. I can't help thinking that's odd. We pushed on.
We reached Tonopah, Nevada, at around 10 or 11 pm. I had been driving for about eight hours by then. We were thinking of staying the night here, until we realized that the campground was the parking lot behind the casino. Tonopah is really the middle of nowhere, with nothing to offer but gas stations and motel/casinos, from what we saw. Better, we decided, to drive on through and have our first view of Las Vegas be at night with all the pretty lights at their dazzling best. The only bad thing about this was that all there was to see was some scrub just to the side of the road, and the painted lines of the highway. There were, however, rabbits hopping about by the side of the road, so I entertained myself for a while by counting them. After 41 rabbits, they stopped appearing. I told Brian he should place a bet on 41 on the roulette wheel, but I guess there aren't that many numbers. You can tell I gamble a lot. Zorah entertained herself with computer games as we drove.
At around 2 am, everyone had fallen asleep. Except for me, the driver, of course. In the distance, over the darker shadow of the mountains, I could see a beam of light shooting straight up into the sky. I figured it could be nothing but Vegas. Now I know that this was the light from the Luxor Hotel and Casino, a big pyramid on the strip. I could see it and really nothing else for about an hour or more. And then, finally, after so much monotonous darkness, I started seeing the rest of the lights of Vegas, twinkling and sparkling just like everyone wanted.
But no one wanted to wake up to see it, lol. We found our way to the campground and hooked up the trailer. Since B, I, & Z had all napped, they were, of course, ready to see a bit of the town. So we did.
Wow, I have been so bad about updating this blog.So as I was saying, we set out from Tahoe on Sunday. We had to stop at the casino again first, though, because I had forgotten my pillow and my credit card there. I knew the credit card was somewhere in the room, but for some reason I just couldn't find it even though I scoured the place. Luckily, housekeeping did, with their superior thoroughness. I had already canceled it, but I was glad to see it wasn't in someone else's pocket.
Zorah and Ian sat in the throne-like shoeshine chairs for a little while before we left. If you look carefully, you will see Ian behind Z in the picture.
Random comment: Isn't Bach's "Sheep May Safely Graze" just lovely?Anyway, I took the helm once we got out of the mountainous parts of Tahoe and Nevada. Really scenic, but not so much fun to drive through with a trailer attached to your vehicle. The way to Vegas seemed simple: follow state route 95, take a left to stay on 95, and follow it pretty much all the way. Nevada's deserts are beatiful, with their camel hump mountains and incongruous lakes and waterways. I think people have said that there is nothing in Nevada, but they're wrong. I kind of had the urge to just park somewhere and wander into the desert sometimes.
Brian, Ian, and Zorah all napped as I drove and listened to my iPod. As they slept, we passed through a really beautiful canyon. I drove over a hill, and onto this windy road with a speed limit of 35. It went right through Wilson Canyon, through which a river ran, first on one side, then on the other (if I remember right). It took about five minutes to drive through, and I wanted to either stop, or turn around and drive through it again. I couldn't even take pictures because I was driving.
About ten minutes later, however, I noticed that we were not on 95 anymore. When did we miss it? I had no idea! I drove for about ten minutes more before I thought to look up at the compass in our truck. We were heading west. And one of those road markers showed the mileage to California. Oops. At first I was irritated to have missed the turn on 95. But then I realized I could go through the canyon again! Hooray! This time I stopped and took pictures. It was almost sunset already, so they weren't as dramatic as they would have been had we stopped earlier.
As a matter of fact, they weren't very good at all. Oh, well. If I knew anything about photography, I guess I could have experimented with the camera a bit, but everyone was waiting for me in the car, and a bit irritated that I had gotten lost while they were sleeping. Time to move on.So I got back on the right track about 30 miles later. The gas station where we had stopped to refuel was right at the 95 turn. There was a small black and white sign I had missed on the way out the first time. Sigh.
Nothing too eventful happened. We did see another place I'd like to visit, Walker Lake, not too far from Wilson Canyon, I think. It even had a campground! You come down a steep incline, and there it is! A lake in the middle of the desert. I can't help thinking that's odd. We pushed on.We reached Tonopah, Nevada, at around 10 or 11 pm. I had been driving for about eight hours by then. We were thinking of staying the night here, until we realized that the campground was the parking lot behind the casino. Tonopah is really the middle of nowhere, with nothing to offer but gas stations and motel/casinos, from what we saw. Better, we decided, to drive on through and have our first view of Las Vegas be at night with all the pretty lights at their dazzling best. The only bad thing about this was that all there was to see was some scrub just to the side of the road, and the painted lines of the highway. There were, however, rabbits hopping about by the side of the road, so I entertained myself for a while by counting them. After 41 rabbits, they stopped appearing. I told Brian he should place a bet on 41 on the roulette wheel, but I guess there aren't that many numbers. You can tell I gamble a lot. Zorah entertained herself with computer games as we drove.
At around 2 am, everyone had fallen asleep. Except for me, the driver, of course. In the distance, over the darker shadow of the mountains, I could see a beam of light shooting straight up into the sky. I figured it could be nothing but Vegas. Now I know that this was the light from the Luxor Hotel and Casino, a big pyramid on the strip. I could see it and really nothing else for about an hour or more. And then, finally, after so much monotonous darkness, I started seeing the rest of the lights of Vegas, twinkling and sparkling just like everyone wanted.
But no one wanted to wake up to see it, lol. We found our way to the campground and hooked up the trailer. Since B, I, & Z had all napped, they were, of course, ready to see a bit of the town. So we did.
