Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Solar Farm & Laughlin NV


Our short visit to Las Vegas came to an end and Gerry went down to the cashier to cash in her winnings. We had a great time here and are wanting to make plans to come back for a couple weeks in the motorhome this fall or next spring if we come out west in the fall. There is always something going on in this town and you can keep busy seeing shows, gambling or just sightseeing around the place. We have the added advantage of geocaching and that has taken us to some out of the way places in Las Vegas.



When we finally hit the road for Laughlin, NV we came upon police cars in the median strip of the highway for miles. They were spaced about a half mile apart and had their lights flashing. At first we thought they were speed traps, but they were so obvious and not stopping anyone so that wasn't it. When we turned down Rt 95 and saw even more police cars, trucks, etc we knew something was up. They were blocking the side roads all along the highway and also driving in the desert about ¼ mile off the highway. It finally dawned on Gerry that Obama was coming to town to give a political speech at a solar panel farm on the outskirts of Boulder, NV. The only time I ever saw so many police cars lining the road was in Abidjan when the president of the Ivory Coast was moving around.

We drove by the solar panel arrays a few minutes later and made it past the site. The people coming into Boulder from the south weren't so lucky. They had the two lanes blocked and people were standing outside their cars, trucks, etc milling about wondering what was going on. They were backed up for over a mile and the line was growing rapidly. I wonder how many votes he was going to get from this group of people.


Rt 95 is a nice 4 lane divided highway south of Boulder down to I-40 just west of Needles, CA. The speed limit is 75mph all the way until you get to the little burg of Searchlight, NV where the road goes through the center of town and is down to 25mph. A first I wondered why they didn't bypass the town like they do everywhere else and then it dawned on me that Sen Harry Bird lives in this town. They didn't want the road to bypass the few stores there and have the town die like many others in the same situation. It's nice to have a powerful Senator from your home town and all the things he can do for you.

A few miles north of Searchlight we stopped to pick up a geocache at an old abandoned gold mine.  It was a relatively easy find but the mine shaft had fence wire around it to keep people from falling into the shaft.  It was at a steep angle and there was a tipple with narrow gauge rail lines running down in the shaft.  I am sure glad that I didn't have to go down that hole in the ground every day to make a living.




We continued on our way to Laughlin, NV and stopped at the Tropicana Hotel there to check on getting a room. They quoted a price of $37/night and Gerry managed to get them down to $29/night. It was a huge hotel and they must have had a lot of empty rooms to fill and were willing to deal with her. The rooms looked a little worn and frazzled, but overall it was a decent place to spend a night. No frills, small tv, internet was extra and a spartan room. 



We unloaded our bags and headed down to the Players Club to get our cards and then gambled for an hour or so. We were ahead and then decided it was time for dinner at their buffet. With the Players card we got the meal cheaper and paid $9 for a very nice buffet. It was amazing that the food there was better than the Mandalay Bay hotel in Vegas, but that was the case.  Gerry gambled some more after dinner and I went to the room to watch some basketball games. Win win for both of us.

Laughlin has about 15 casino/hotels along the Colorado River on the Nevada side and is a nice little town. Most of the hotel/casinos are very nice and upscale and rival some of the 2nd level hotels in Las Vegas.

No comments:

Post a Comment