Tonopah, Kabuki and Bonnie Springs

A couple of weeks ago we did a road trip to Tonopah, a mining town, three hours northwest of Las Vegas.  (I don't know if I will ever get used to nothing between the towns.)  It's 200 miles there and we only went through 4 towns. 

Indians Springs is a little town that probably was a happening place awhile back when Creech Air Force Base was still active.  Now Creech is a testing ground for drone technology.

Amarogosa Valley had an Area 51 Alien Center and a Brothel. (We didn't go in either place!)

Beatty is about halfway to Tonapah. We stopped there on the way up and the way back. The cashier at the food mart had bright pink hair that matched her tattoos! 

We had pizza at the Sourdough Saloon. (A complete dive bar! But the pickings were pretty slim in the area.) The pizza was good.

 

 Now that's a lock! On the lady's room door in the bar. 

If we weren't still 90 minutes from home ... I would have reconsidered my options. (It was actually very clean.)

The next town was pretty much a ghost town called Goldfield. They were having a big event there with people dressed up in old time western garb. Wish we had time to stop and check in out.  Maybe next year. 

Goldfield Art Cars - We stopped for a quick photo op and the owner ran over and gave a sheet of information on the cars. His name is Slim Sirnes.  The artist was Robert 'Rocket Bob' Van Keuren III. Apparently these 'vehicles' were unwelcome in Reno and were impounded and sold at auction when the artist was in the hospital and unable to move them on a regular basis. The story goes that Slim's daughter showed up at the auction and talked other buyers out of bidding against her and she bought them back.

We finally arrived in Tonopah for an Eastern Star meeting.  After a quick lunch the Tonapah Station Casino we did a quick tour of the town. It actually was quite large for a town in Nevada. There was a mining museum and a downtown area with a hotel.

We left Tonopah earlier than planned to avoid storms in the area. But the sun was back out before we got home. 

The rain is always impressive. 

On our way home we got a call from my brother-in-law Bruce.  He and our nephew Cory were heading west to San Francisco and they would be passing through Las Vegas.  So we took an afternoon to show them around town. It was our first trip to the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. It was also our first lunch at Gilley's.

The MGM Grand recently organized a big event using the Bellagio Fountains as an interactive backdrop for a Kabuki performance.  We drove down on Friday evening for the opening show.  BIG MISTAKE! It was mobbed and we couldn't see a thing.  I did grab a couple of photos by holding my camera over the heads of those people crammed in front of me. 

Here is a link to a brief YouTube version of the show.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jtc8Zl7cH2Y

A little daily afternoon entertainment for the kitties. There are 3 or 4 little lizards who use our patio as a location to find snacks.  The kitties are quite interested.

Needless to say we keep our sliding door closed! 

Last week our new friends Melissa and Pat invited us to attend a theatre performance with them.  A musical version of Tarzan held at an outdoor theater on Spring Mountain Ranch.  We had a great time. 90 some-odd degrees at 8 pm and no mosquitoes! Doesn't get any better than that.

This morning we took a short trip to Bonnie Springs Ranch billed as "An Adventure for Your Entire Family".  Humm.  Pretty much it was a sad version of an old west town.  There was a really bad melodrama, a shoot out and a hanging. We hear that they do a Halloween Bonnie Screams Haunted Town event in October.  We might try that.

The Melodrama 

 The Gunfight

The Hanging

School starts here tomorrow.  The weather guy made a funny on the evening news. " Get to bed early kids, school tomorrow.  Sorry kids, No snow, day it's going to be 106."

Dan is a winner again and we have tickets to see Vince Gill on Friday night at the Palms.  Should be lots of fun!

Good luck to all of my teacher friends! Have a great school year! If anyone is looking for a new job ... Las Vegas is still hiring teachers for THIS year.  Starting school with long term subs in many, many classrooms. Poor kids. Long term subs get $150 a day in high priority schools. Kind of tricky to get a sub license though! I'm good!

It's all about the journey.

Nancy and Dan

Road Trip to Phoenix

Leaving Las Vegas.

August 5 we got up bright and early and headed to Phoenix, Arizona.  I was there in 1981, just out of college, and Dan was there in 1999, for work. This summer we were attending the Arizona Order of Eastern Star Grand Chapter Session.

Not sure what type of plants these were but I like the blossoms.

I was excited to see saguaro cactus everywhere on the to Phoenix.

These are Joshua Trees. There was a whole forest of them.

Round-abouts (traffic circles) in Arizona usually have some kind of statue or monument in the center. These gigantic spurs and the bronc rider were in the town of Wickenburg about an hour northwest of Phoenix.

The Grand Chapter event was held at the Sheraton Crescent Hotel just north of the center of Phoenix. 

This is Phil who is the Grand Representative of Vermont in Arizona. I am the Grand Representative of Arizona in Vermont.  As Grand Representatives we try to visit the other person's state and be friendly ambassadors. Phil was very friendly and we had a nice visit. He was in Vermont last year!

Dan cleans up pretty good.  He even put on trousers for the event. ; )

Friday morning we made return trips to South Mountain.  From the top you can see across the Phoenix valley.  Things change some in 34 years.  Phoenix has grown and camera technology has greatly improved! Here are some retro photos and some modern ones!

Nancy photo July 1981 - We looked all over for this same location.  I think the rounded structure has been removed. I'm pretty sure I took the picture with a Kodak 110 camera.

Pretty hazy day but there was still some open space back then.

Dan's photo in 1981. More of everything downtown.

Looks like some open space still out there in 1999. The next photos are panoramic from my Iphone and regular digital photos from my Canon.

When I was here in 1981 I didn't get close to a saguaro cactus so we made a quick stop for a photo op.

Of course on our way home we had to take a different route so we headed north out of town on I17 where we would veer left on state highway 69 toward Prescott.  

A pickup full of antlers!
Some excitement on the way however delayed us slightly. A car fire in the distance. We were moving toward it quite nicely until the firetrucks arrived.  Black smoke, then white smoke, then nothing.

We don't think anyone was killed. But it was scary to see.

Traffic was backed up for miles on the other side of the road.

When we got on Route 69 we saw smoke from a forest fire in the distance. 

A rare green hill.

Nice wheels.

Wide open spaces looking toward Flagstaff.

Ranch hands. I don't know if they were loading or unloading!

Get you very own windmills here.  I don't think our homeowners association would approve.

Cattle.

Running horses.

A ginormous cement plant in the middle of nowhere!

We intended to get on Interstate 40 in the town of Ash Fork however a little detour down old Route 66 was required. Kind of sad it was so run down. We did make a pit stop at a Trading Post.  It was packed with stuff and tourists!

Home in the late afternoon.  The kitties were happy to see us after being gone for 3 days.  But they were well cared for by our neighbor, Jan.  Thank you, thank you!

Things are heating up here again.  Excessive heat warnings for the next few days.  Really our first ones since June.  Bad storms south of us yesterday afternoon took down a bunch of powerlines.  The Red Cross has set up shelters for those people without power for the next few days.  Bad timing for them.

I still have written about our trip to Tonapah.  Perhaps I'll work on it this weekend while we are inside staying cool.  All of you Vermonters just think of it as a few days in a row when the temperature stays below zero.  You just stay inside as much as possible.

Have a great weekend!  Love to all.

It's all about the journey!

Nancy and Dan