ON THE ROAD AGAIN,,, Day 2

Day 2

What a day, started the day off with a visit to the US Borax mine at Boron, CA. Really big open pit mine out in the desert with really big trucks that look like ants down in there. One of those places where you don’t wear a hat that you like because it will be whipped away by the wind. Got Patti a really big crystal of borax ore for an anniversary present. Might have been better if she didn't see me pick it up off a pile of rock.

Then on to Calico Ghost Town just outside of Barstow. I hadn’t been there for at least 40 years. I think it is a little bigger and more touristy now, no make that a lot bigger and more touristy. Wonder where they get all that ghosty lumber to add new buildings. Fortunately, it is an uphill town, so you wear yourself out climbing up to the top, and then coast back down to the car, no rescue service required. We had lunch on a deck overlooking the town, very pleasant, and even had a sarsaparilla.

Found interstate 15 to Vegas, and pressed on, man they need more lanes on that road, the traffic going to and from Vegas on 2 lanes each way has got to be near saturation. So, for you guys pulling trailers, the hill coming out of Baker is 16 miles long, very humbling when those 18 wheelers zip by, and I thought 5 liters of displacement was enough.

Stopped at Primm, NV for milkshakes and regrouping, I can’t believe the money invested at this stateline location, 3 giant hotels, monorail, outlet center, roller coaster, used to be nothing but a sign, “Welcome to Nevada.”

Biggest adventure for the day was rolling the T’s out of their trailers and cruising the Strip at Vegas. Remember the Sands, the Stardust, the Sahara, the Hacienda, the Flamingo, all those really big hotel casinos, maybe 4 stories high with vacant desert in between? And you could drive down the 2 lanes of the strip and never see anybody because they were all inside gambling? Fogettaboudit. Wall to wall giant highrise hotels, more giant construction underway, no vacant land, sidewalks jammed with people, at least 4 lanes of stopped traffic each way, looks like Disneyland on steroids. But we had fun, gave the tourists someone to wave at, didn’t get back to our trailers until almost 10 o’clock. Here is a little movie of our escapade. http://www.flickr.com/photos/rmnly/3646124827/

Quotes for the day:

“I am not walking up there unless they have a sarsaparilla.”

Pat: “For my anniversary, you gave me a rock and a Model T ride?” Bob: Wait a minute, that was a beautiful crystal, and a chauffered tour of the Vegas strip!”

“I can’t remember how much gas I have in the T, and I don’t see any gas stations on this Strip.”

“Hey, did you know you only have one headlight?”

“How come you didn’t get a flyer? (Guys in tee shirts emblazoned with “Girls to you in 20 minutes!!”} Good Lord!!!!

Linda: "I'm glad we are old people and won't be doing this again."

Pat: "After 45 years, he still knows how to treat a woman. Starts off by taking me to a hole in the ground, then to a ghost town, then to Vegas with lots of weird (fill in the blank) and tops it off with dinner at Jack in the Box, (claims it was Jacques)."