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.
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