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
Thanks for the blog. Paying 3 times what they were paying subs a decade ago in Fairfax!
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