3rd May - On the road to Vegas II

Will’s skills at making toast in the frying pan are definitely improving! Though the smoke alarm proved it was alive and well again, but at least only once this time.

A friendly neighbour came and asked us if we were staying that night as he wanted to invite us to a bbq. I thought that was pretty nice and that it would have been pretty cool and pretty random if we had stayed and met some of the local trailer folk. Considering this was my first time in trailer park, I shouldn’t really have been surprised by the clientele – really fat people with tiny dogs, old people in electric carts and golf buggies, and even a highly pregnant (or very fat) young lady, puffing on a fag with another kid on her hip and one dragging another one in front of her. Not sure if they all belonged to her though. Lots of screaming kiddies around us, some of whom were nearly run over by cars after dark.

Then on the road to Vegas, via Barstow and Baker. A quick stop at Home Depot outside Barstow for my first visit of this Bunnings-style shop. I was in a stare-bear mood (tired and glazy-eyed) and a little surprised when one lady’s little dog turned its blue eyes on me. It was pretty freaky as I wasn’t sure if was real until it shook a little! The people were very nice and dribbled some crap about what kind of dog it was, then finished with the classic American (or possibly only Californian) ‘have a nice day.’ Sharpies at this shop were so cheap, I nearly bought some for no good reason – two for $1.97!

We continued on to Baker, keeping a close eye on Betsey’s thermometer – she tends to get a bit hot going up hills, poor darlin.’ On Liz’s recommendation, we stopped in Baker to take a photo of the world’s largest thermometer – random! And we did try the Alien Jerky – beef jerky of various flavours, including ‘colon-cleansing hot.’ My first conscious taste of beef jerky. Not bad, but not work paying $8 for a tiny portion. We did get some wasabi peas though  - my first since my obsession with Ashgrove’s wasabi cheese. 

It was a slow and hot climb after Baker and we stopped regularly in order for Betsey to cool down a bit. It’s scary when you can hear the water in the radiator boiling! Gave me plenty of time to continue writing the blog though and catch up on iPod Sudoku. Will even started waving to the other RV which also kept stopping along the freeway to cool down.

Barely in Nevada and... casino!!

Originally we were going to stay in Barstow, but when the freeway miles melted away we changed that idea to Baker, then Will decided we’d just continue on to Vegas, or at least its outskirts. So we did, with plenty of water stops for poor Betsey.

Finally we were in Nevada – it was starting to get dark and Betsey was still quite warm, so we started looking for somewhere to stay. The first casino in Nevada (as in just over the border) had a lot of trucks and one RV in the carpark who looked like they were staying overnight. Will went to the hotel part of the casino and asked if we could stay in the carpark and security said we could – what a laugh! We decided that they thought we would come in for dinner and maybe a little gambling… little did they know! Instead we cooked tea and hung out in Betsey, being cheapskates hehe.