Day 23, July 8, 2010








What a difference a day makes. Didn’t I just use that line a few days ago? Yesterday we were in the mountains(up to about 8000 feet) and today we are in The Majove Desert. It must be about 85 this morning and in talking with the desk clerk at the motel it is supposed to get to 105 today. As a result we think it is wise to skip Death Valley. We start out from Ridgecrest, CA and are driving toward Las Vegas. We have driven for miles seeing nothing but desert covered with sagebrush. Some places are rocky, some sandy and some covered with sagebrush and cactus.




















Just north of highway 58 we pass a solar farm where there are acres and acres of solar collectors. I’m a little puzzled though, because I can’t see any power lines over which the collected energy can be transmitted.
























Going on, we turn north on I15 and after a little while we see a sign for “Penny’s Diner” and turn in for a cup of coffee. Our waitress’ name was Bette Jeanne and she was an absolute hoot. She took great delight in calling me Bubby. She gave me a web site to use and I wrote a review right there from our table.
Drove on north and the terrain was very flat along the roadway with foothills in the distance. At one point, as we started down a long descent, I could see cars way in the distance. The road looked like the edges merged and became a thin line. I checked my odometer and found I had driven about 5 miles when I got to where I saw the cars a few minutes earlier. The road is very straight sometimes going for miles without a curve. Somewhere about 80-100 miles south of Las Vegas we started up a long hill and saw a sign advising that we turn off our air conditioner to prevent overheating the engine. Reluctantly, I did and it was a good thing. The van did get a little hotter but not enough to stop. The hill we climbed was about 16 miles long and pretty much straight with a change in elevation of about 3500 feet.












We got to Las Vegas at about 2:00 and drove on over to Boulder City and across Hoover Dam. As you cross the dam you enter into Arizona. There is a plaque on the dam showing the state boundary. We took a few pictures then came back to Boulder City to buy a few souvenirs.
































I had noticed a sign along the highway down by the dam cautioning about big horn sheep that might be crossing the highway. I mentioned this to the guy at the gift shop and he told me where I could find a bunch that usually comes to a park to graze every afternoon. Since it was just outside of town we drove out and sure enough there they were. Floyce took lots of pictures.


















It’s getting late so we find a Fairfield motel and book our room. Since it was too late to take in a show, we found a good place to eat. After dinner we drove down Las Vegas Boulevard (The Strip) and saw all of the lights and they were beautiful. People were everywhere lining both sides of the streets sort of like a giant street fair.















Back to the motel, blog and to bed.