From Las Vegas Sam's Town Casino and RV March 18th 2013

 

Of the few people who had ventured out in the desert to find me, nearly all become lost – this largely because they either didn’t follow my GPS instructions or didn’t have a GPS with them, or, in the case of the young Mexican outside my door one morning, they had been walking for three days without food, looking for work as a plumber in the US. All my pipes seem to be functioning so I gave him some bread and water, practiced my Spanish to get details of how he crossed the border and called the US Border Patrol. My new friend had sprained his ankle the day before and needed help. He told me that he had been able to see the white of my trailer in the distance and had homed in on that as a beacon. I asked if he wanted me to call in the Patrol and he agreed. He was hoping that they would feed him before they took him back to the border. Interestingly, he had no idea of exactly where he was going or where to find work but was very certain about one thing – never again!

 

Hugh Richards came to visit and got lost due to my faulty instructions, having mixed up miles and kilometers on the phone. After he ended up in the middle of nowhere, having run into a dead end, we did meet up, had a chat and then parted ways.

 

Strangely, given the frequency of rain this winter, there are very few wildflowers blooming in the desert. Some small flowers are up but I don’t know enough to identify them.

Much of the desert closes to the public on March 15th to give Pronghorn Antelope an opportunity to Fawn (not “spawn” as per a previous note) without prying eyes on them. I suspect that the desert travel prohibition will not affect the several hundred local Border Patrol members who will continue to tear around in their trucks and on ATVs, not to mention using frequent helicopter flights for surveillance, hopefully slowing down so as to minimize the dust cover on fawning animals.

 

On March 13th, I had my last milk/Scrabble run to Ajo where, despite a spirited offence, I managed to lose again. By this time, daytime temperatures were rising into the mid 90s (35C) so I decided to depart for cooler climes. First stop on March 14th was Quartzsite for one day. Q. was pretty dead with most vendors either gone or packing up to go. However, we (Steve Wilson and I) toured what was left and returned to our camp on an unattractive piece of ground off Plomosa Road near Highway 95. Next for me was Las Vegas where I called and booked in at Sam’s Club Casino and RV Park. Here, I could plug in to power and run my air conditioner. This trip took about 4 hours via Havasu and Bullhead City along the river (not the fastest route). Sam’s was easy to find using the GPS since it is directly off Boulder Highway at the Henderson end of Vegas.

Sites at Sam’s are very small, so it was quite difficult to squeeze in beside the people on one side (who had a dog pen for their Doberman plus a van and a Motorhome using up far more than their allotted space) and the electrical box on the othe.r Once in place and hooked up though, the air conditioning was bracing after the heat of the past few days. The campground also offers hot showers, cable, sewer hook-up etc. Sam’s is a large casino with lots of facilities, including the buffet. After getting a Player’s card (free), one receives a $5 discount on meals, a sure summons to overindulge.

The next day I took the free shuttle down to the “Strip” (Las Vegas Boulevard), where most of the big hotels and Casinos are located. The first activity was to hop on the Mono-Rail ($5) and go to the southern terminus at MGM Grand – planning to walk from there back to where I had started. Just finding my way out of the maze of parking lots and then this massive casino took the better part of an hour. The “Strip” was jammed with people, many of whom were dressed as leprechauns celebrating St. Patrick’s Day. Most of these people had jugs of green beer in hand and were well on their way to being intoxicated. As this was only about 2 in the afternoon, I’m sure the evening atmosphere in town could have been messy. I walked along taking pictures, watched street acrobats jumping over 4 standing people at a single bound and listened to an Elvis impersonator on one corner. The ”Strip” is basically a wide boulevard enclosed by massive hotel/casinos, all at least 20 stories high and each of which has a theme and, in some cases, quite outlandish architecture. The walk from MGM back to Harrahs was quite entertaining and I was glad that I had taken one of my “golf” pills to assist the bad hip in surviving a long hike on pavement.

 

Going back a few weeks in the news, these two items struck my eye in USA Today.

            1. The State of Mississippi finally ratified the 13th Amendment, abolishing slavery – 148 years late!

            2. Only in the US – A Missouri State legislator proposed legislation that would make it a felony for any fellow legislator to introduce gun-control legislation – imagine living in a place where people of this quality control your government?

 

From Vegas, I think that I shall head up 95 in Western Nevada, then over to Klamath Falls on 97 in Oregon. If the weather looks clear, I might stop over at an Indian Casino Kla-Mo-Ya, just north of Klamath and take a stab at viewing Crater Lake. Two previous attempts to see the lake have failed due to blizzard conditions and zero visibility but one should keep trying. From there it will be up to the Columbia River where I will probably stop a day or two at Boardman County Park and Marina.