This city was originally built to provide housing for workers engaged in the construction of the Hoover Dam. We have no idea why the place is still booming and beautiful, but, I suspect a number of retirees.
View from the Motel. Today was an easy 2.5 hour trip for 143 miles. We stopped only for lunch, to gas up, and to wait in line for the road crew to let our lane pass the stopping point. Although the sign warned us that we could wait up to one-half hour--Groan!--we only had to wait about 12 minutes--Yeah!
Checking Out of the Casino. Here is Claire with her stripped down, space-saving fully equipped travel gear.
In reality, we had a much larger stash to drag along and hoist up to our room each day, including items such as our electric kettle, coffee, mugs, a giant (fully loaded) cooler, containers of muesli and granola, laptops, Kindles, electronic cabling and gear, camera, iPhones, binoculars--don't want them stolen out of the car, Claire's memory foam pillow and yoga mats with Qi Gong DVDs.
Leaving Beatty. I believe the population here is well under 100; here is a typical street scene of this very small NV town.
Typical Desert. Just a little bit of the passing scenery as we slice through NV.
Lake Mead from Our Motel. Once we arrived at our Quality Inn in Boulder City we looked out upon the lake created by the Hoover Dam.
Claire by the Pool. We tried to arrange to stay in motels with pools to compensate for the high temperatures. Today reached 107 F, which is as hot as it has been so far. The humidity in our home town of Davis, CA, is 44%, but it is only 17% here. So far, they also have hot tubs.
Evans Grill. We drove a few minutes up the hill to Old Town to eat at this delightful restaurant. We each had the Seniors Chicken Breast Special; Claire had veggies and Greek salad with hers and I, UNcharacteristically, had cottage cheese and fresh fruit with mine. The straight (non-flavored) iced tea Really hit the spot. As I was quite full, I foolishly passed on dessert in the desert. (But, the Mississippi Mud Pie sounded quite tempting.)
Lake Mead. We missed the spot to stop to take a picture of the Lake on the way to dinner. We did stop on the way back; but, as you can see, it was a little dark by then; it was 6:30pm.
Costs for today: $136--same as yesterday. This includes gas, motel, dinner and ice.
And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand. ~ Pierre Loti
View from the Motel. Today was an easy 2.5 hour trip for 143 miles. We stopped only for lunch, to gas up, and to wait in line for the road crew to let our lane pass the stopping point. Although the sign warned us that we could wait up to one-half hour--Groan!--we only had to wait about 12 minutes--Yeah!
Checking Out of the Casino. Here is Claire with her stripped down, space-saving fully equipped travel gear.
In reality, we had a much larger stash to drag along and hoist up to our room each day, including items such as our electric kettle, coffee, mugs, a giant (fully loaded) cooler, containers of muesli and granola, laptops, Kindles, electronic cabling and gear, camera, iPhones, binoculars--don't want them stolen out of the car, Claire's memory foam pillow and yoga mats with Qi Gong DVDs.
Leaving Beatty. I believe the population here is well under 100; here is a typical street scene of this very small NV town.
Typical Desert. Just a little bit of the passing scenery as we slice through NV.
Lake Mead from Our Motel. Once we arrived at our Quality Inn in Boulder City we looked out upon the lake created by the Hoover Dam.
Claire by the Pool. We tried to arrange to stay in motels with pools to compensate for the high temperatures. Today reached 107 F, which is as hot as it has been so far. The humidity in our home town of Davis, CA, is 44%, but it is only 17% here. So far, they also have hot tubs.
Evans Grill. We drove a few minutes up the hill to Old Town to eat at this delightful restaurant. We each had the Seniors Chicken Breast Special; Claire had veggies and Greek salad with hers and I, UNcharacteristically, had cottage cheese and fresh fruit with mine. The straight (non-flavored) iced tea Really hit the spot. As I was quite full, I foolishly passed on dessert in the desert. (But, the Mississippi Mud Pie sounded quite tempting.)
Lake Mead. We missed the spot to stop to take a picture of the Lake on the way to dinner. We did stop on the way back; but, as you can see, it was a little dark by then; it was 6:30pm.
Costs for today: $136--same as yesterday. This includes gas, motel, dinner and ice.
And all around is the desert; a corner of the mournful kingdom of sand. ~ Pierre Loti
