Here we are back where we started. Left Laughlin Friday morning and came north through Searchlight, Las Vegas, Tonopah, Hawthorne and Fallon.
The trip was made a lot easier by listening to Nora Roberts "Blue Smoke". The only problem is now we have to take another trip somewhere to listen to the last disc and a half! You get wrapped up in the story and time just flies by.
Nothing exciting on the way home, although it is always interesting to see the desert and mountains in such a vast setting. They're interrupted only by the occasional town (see list above). I really enjoy seeing the old mines, deserted towns, etc. in the middle of nowhere. It reminds me how hard it must have been for people back in the late 1800's and early 1900's to get around Nevada and how long it took to get from one location to another. What takes us hours on the modern highways would take them weeks and months. There are so many roads wandering off through the mountains just aching for the Jeep to explore them!
The landscape is still changing as witnessed by construction such as the Crescent Dunes Solar Project which has brought hundreds of workers to Tonopah. Once again, they'll leave when the job is done just as the miners left the gold fields, and the Air Force personnel left Tonopah Air Base, changing the town in some ways and leaving their particular mark.
Everything was fine back in Reno, except that they have winter storm warnings out for the weekend with snow forecast in the mountains. What happened to that sunshine and warm weather in the southern part of Nevada?
Saturday, March 29, 2014
Wednesday, March 26, 2014
Laughlin, NV (Continued)
I guess we can't complain about the weather down here - given what's going on back in the Midwest and East, but Lord, children, did the wind blow today. Steady around 20 MPH with gusts upwards of 50. Guess what we decided to do on the windiest day of our trip - that's right - play golf. Hank, Diane, Vi and I went to Huukan Golf Course over Arizona. Not far from Laughlin, it's a golf course contained within the Desert Lakes Subdivision. It has recently been taken over by the local Indian tribe. As a matter of fact, the guy at the golf shop said that Huukan is an Indian word for "Hits ball with stick". I'm not quite sure I believe him, but since the Indians used to play lacrosse (or a similar game), I'm inclined to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Fun course, all the fairways seemed to funnel toward the center, so if you hit ball anywhere near the fairway, you had a pretty good lie. Needless to say, my ball didn't funnel all the time. Kind of narrow, a lot of the houses had nets installed to protect them from wayward balls. At least my golf shots were not that wayward. You really had to play the wind, but even then the ball seemed to have a mind of its' own. Didn't get a sun tan, but sure did get some wind burn! Ended up with the same ball as I started with, so that's always a plus. We had fun anyway.
Had dinner at the Harrah's buffet, and since the last meal we had was breakfast, we were famished. Nothing like exercise, sunshine (sorry, folks), and wind to build an appetite. Luckily, the buffet didn't run out of food - we just ran out of places to put it!
Another fun day - always good when you can get out and have a good time.
Fun course, all the fairways seemed to funnel toward the center, so if you hit ball anywhere near the fairway, you had a pretty good lie. Needless to say, my ball didn't funnel all the time. Kind of narrow, a lot of the houses had nets installed to protect them from wayward balls. At least my golf shots were not that wayward. You really had to play the wind, but even then the ball seemed to have a mind of its' own. Didn't get a sun tan, but sure did get some wind burn! Ended up with the same ball as I started with, so that's always a plus. We had fun anyway.
Had dinner at the Harrah's buffet, and since the last meal we had was breakfast, we were famished. Nothing like exercise, sunshine (sorry, folks), and wind to build an appetite. Luckily, the buffet didn't run out of food - we just ran out of places to put it!
Another fun day - always good when you can get out and have a good time.
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
Laughlin, NV
Early morning start from Tonopah (aided by an early-to-bed night on Monday). Drove through Goldfield which is a semi-deserted old mining town which used to be one of the largest in Nevada. Now it's mostly in disrepair, although there are still people living here - mostly artists and miners trying for that one last big strike.
Took a self-guided tour around the town and took some pictures which I'll post tomorrow. They're trying to rebuild the old Goldfield Hotel and also the old school, both of which have seen better days. Interesting scenes of some old art-cars (have to see the pictures to believe them). Originally, they were driven up in Burning Man; however, I doubt they will make that trip in the future. Since we had an early start, we decided to drive through Pahrump as a different way of getting south of Las Vegas. Little desert town which recently had a population explosion as a result of commuters going to LV. Stopped and took a look at a Bucky-type van, but no decision there yet.
Continued through Blue Diamond - it's a great view of Las Vegas coming down Highway 160 as you come down through the mountains. Lots of flood channels which get used rarely, but when they're needed, they are very useful. Kind of like Arizona where they have bridges over dry rivers (dry, that is, except during rainy season). Beautiful four-lane highway south from Las Vegas to the turn-off for Laughlin (do you think it has anything to do with the fact that it runs through Searchlight, Harry Reid's hometown?).
Checked into Harrah's and then met up with Hank and Diane for some gaming and dinner at Aquarius and later at the Nugget. Fun catching up with them - always enjoy our time together. Tomorrow, all four of us are going to play golf at Hukkan Golf Course (also known as Desert Lakes). Should be challenging as they have wind warnings out for most of the day!
Took a self-guided tour around the town and took some pictures which I'll post tomorrow. They're trying to rebuild the old Goldfield Hotel and also the old school, both of which have seen better days. Interesting scenes of some old art-cars (have to see the pictures to believe them). Originally, they were driven up in Burning Man; however, I doubt they will make that trip in the future. Since we had an early start, we decided to drive through Pahrump as a different way of getting south of Las Vegas. Little desert town which recently had a population explosion as a result of commuters going to LV. Stopped and took a look at a Bucky-type van, but no decision there yet.
Continued through Blue Diamond - it's a great view of Las Vegas coming down Highway 160 as you come down through the mountains. Lots of flood channels which get used rarely, but when they're needed, they are very useful. Kind of like Arizona where they have bridges over dry rivers (dry, that is, except during rainy season). Beautiful four-lane highway south from Las Vegas to the turn-off for Laughlin (do you think it has anything to do with the fact that it runs through Searchlight, Harry Reid's hometown?).
Checked into Harrah's and then met up with Hank and Diane for some gaming and dinner at Aquarius and later at the Nugget. Fun catching up with them - always enjoy our time together. Tomorrow, all four of us are going to play golf at Hukkan Golf Course (also known as Desert Lakes). Should be challenging as they have wind warnings out for most of the day!
Monday, March 24, 2014
Tonopah, NV
We are in the heartland of Nevada - halfway between Reno and Las Vegas. Left early this morning and stopped at Hawthorne Army Depot to play golf at Walker Lake Golf Course. It's a little nine-hole course with nobody else on the grounds. Great having your own private golf course. It wasn't in bad shape and is greening up nicely - it even has some trees (which I managed to find more than half the time).
We stopped at a little picnic/rest area in Hawthorne after playing and watched the traffic flow through Hawthorne as we ate lunch. Hey, there's not much excitement happening there. Hawthorne is a large munitions storage area (largest in the world according to one plaque) with hundreds, nay, thousands of ammunition bunkers scattered throughout the desert landscape. I swear there's no way that anyone knows what is in all those bunkers!
Once again as we were driving through the countryside, we were amazed at the vast expanse of desert and mountains. You drive hours without seeing any signs of life (except for perhaps some cattle). We arrived in Tonopah early, so our room at the Mizpah wasn't quite ready. So we took a ride over to Crescent Sand Dunes which is a recreation area operated by the BLM. Lots of room for the dune buggies (none of which were around today). Just past the rec area is the Crescent Dunes Solar Project which is an amazing array of mirrors which can be focused on a tower creating heat for the water and thus generating power. See below web site for more info:
http://www.solarreserve.com/what-we-do/csp-projects/crescent-dunes/
We are really enjoying the Mizpah - originally built in 1907, it has gone through several reincarnations, the most recent being a couple of years ago. They did a great job of recreating the old style hotel, right down to the furnishings, e.g. claw-foot tubs. Had drinks and dinner at the bar in the huge lobby area. Most of the customers were people associated with the solar energy project. They're experiencing a construction boom in Tonopah similar to what North Dakota is with their oil and gas boom.
Tomorrow we head to Laughlin, bypassing Las Vegas (actually we have to drive through the heart of the city, but no stopping this time :-).
We stopped at a little picnic/rest area in Hawthorne after playing and watched the traffic flow through Hawthorne as we ate lunch. Hey, there's not much excitement happening there. Hawthorne is a large munitions storage area (largest in the world according to one plaque) with hundreds, nay, thousands of ammunition bunkers scattered throughout the desert landscape. I swear there's no way that anyone knows what is in all those bunkers!
Once again as we were driving through the countryside, we were amazed at the vast expanse of desert and mountains. You drive hours without seeing any signs of life (except for perhaps some cattle). We arrived in Tonopah early, so our room at the Mizpah wasn't quite ready. So we took a ride over to Crescent Sand Dunes which is a recreation area operated by the BLM. Lots of room for the dune buggies (none of which were around today). Just past the rec area is the Crescent Dunes Solar Project which is an amazing array of mirrors which can be focused on a tower creating heat for the water and thus generating power. See below web site for more info:
http://www.solarreserve.com/what-we-do/csp-projects/crescent-dunes/
We are really enjoying the Mizpah - originally built in 1907, it has gone through several reincarnations, the most recent being a couple of years ago. They did a great job of recreating the old style hotel, right down to the furnishings, e.g. claw-foot tubs. Had drinks and dinner at the bar in the huge lobby area. Most of the customers were people associated with the solar energy project. They're experiencing a construction boom in Tonopah similar to what North Dakota is with their oil and gas boom.
Tomorrow we head to Laughlin, bypassing Las Vegas (actually we have to drive through the heart of the city, but no stopping this time :-).
Sunday, March 23, 2014
Reno Nevada
Just thought we'd let you know that tomorrow (Monday) we're heading down to Laughlin, NV. Our plans are to leave in the morning, stop at Hawthorne, NV and play nine holes of golf, then continue on to Tonopah (crossroads of Nevada). Didn't think we would have any problem getting reservations in Tonopah, but I checked several hotel websites just to find out different rates and found that all hotels were booked solid. We finally made a reservation at the Mizpah Hotel which has been recently renovated and should be fun to stay at. We had a drink in their bar on our last trip and it was interesting to see how they updated the hotel.
Turns out the hotels are all booked because of the construction workers involved in the Crescent Dunes solar project. We drove out to the Crescent Dunes Park the last time and then explored the new construction out in the desert - huge solar array which focuses the sun's rays on a tower which, in turn, heats water to generate power. Even though it's called the Nevada Power Company, the power is solely for consumption in California.
Looking forward to the trip down. The main purpose is to meet up with Hank and Diane Arends (Mary's brother). They have been wintering in the desert at Parks, California and are packing up to go back to Minnesota. Maybe they figure the snow will be gone by the time they arrive north of Minneapolis.
We'll keep you posted on our travels (and hopefully, not our travails) as we go.
Turns out the hotels are all booked because of the construction workers involved in the Crescent Dunes solar project. We drove out to the Crescent Dunes Park the last time and then explored the new construction out in the desert - huge solar array which focuses the sun's rays on a tower which, in turn, heats water to generate power. Even though it's called the Nevada Power Company, the power is solely for consumption in California.
Looking forward to the trip down. The main purpose is to meet up with Hank and Diane Arends (Mary's brother). They have been wintering in the desert at Parks, California and are packing up to go back to Minnesota. Maybe they figure the snow will be gone by the time they arrive north of Minneapolis.
We'll keep you posted on our travels (and hopefully, not our travails) as we go.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)