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 :-).
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