Day 125: Las Vegas to Lake Mead, NV

Posted on December 10, 2013 by Ben

This morning we said goodbye to Barry and headed a couple miles north to the Clark County Wetlands Park. The visitor center was excellent, and our favorite part were the large animal figurines:

This snake has a cutaway showing his last meal:

These busts allowed the kids to see what it would be like looking through animal eyes:

We walked for a couple miles on the wetland’s trails and saw an amazing variety of wildlife:

According to a ranger we asked after our walk, this fellow has managed to avoid predation for about three months since his owners illegally released him:

This guy was resting among the rushes:

I was very excited to photograph for the first time a Black Capped Night Heron, something I’ve been wanting to do for years:

Raccoon tracks:

Belted Kingfisher:

After lunch in the parking lot, we drove to the Boulder Beach campground on the shore of Lake Mead to dump, fill, and shower, then drove on to Government Wash for some dispersed camping. We pulled in after dark, but we can see that it’s a very large area and there are a number of RVs here. We will no doubt do some scouting in the morning for our final site through the weekend.

See the trip map for today’s drive and our current location.

Day 124: Rodeos and roller skating

Posted on December 9, 2013 by Ben

This morning, Grandma DiAnn and Barry took us to a neighborhood riding school and stables. There were some guys practicing calf roping, and one of them asked if the kids would like to sit on a horse:

We watched them run trough their calf roping practice. The two cowboys ride out of chutes on either side of the calf, which comes running out of a gated contraption controlled by the fellow standing on the ground:

And they’re off!

On the way home, Barry showed us a local wetland with paved trails. In the afternoon, the kids rode their scooters while Trish and I skated from the RV to the wetland. We skated/scootered all the paved trails and then skated back to the RV.

Grandma DiAnn and Barry took us and my parents out to dinner. Everyone had a great time!

Tomorrow we will leave Las Vegas after being here for two weeks and change. We will be trading extension cords and WiFi for wide open spaces. It’s hard to say goodbye, but there’s so much more to see!

Day 123: Leaving (Jewish) Las Vegas

Posted on December 8, 2013 by Ben

Today we said our goodbyes to the all the friends we’ve made at the Ahavas Torah Center in Las Vegas. We’ve spent a little over two weeks with the congregation, and we’ve had the pleasure of getting to know a lot of great people from this new and growing community. See you again soon!

After hitching up, we drove the mile and change to my parents house to say our goodbyes to them as well. Here we are in front of their house:

We then drove to the western edge of Las Vegas where Grandma DiAnn and her husband Barry live. We will be parked here curbside for a day or two.

Day 121: So long, lots of stuff we don’t need

Posted on December 6, 2013 by Ben

Like the early pioneers on the Oregon Trail, it was time for us to dump our piano off the back of the wagon, so to speak. We managed to leave 12 boxes of stuff behind with my parents. We also left our 8” dobsonian strutted telescope behind, which makes me sad, but we haven’t used it yet and we should have a good number of opportunities to visit star parties this year. The three foreground stacks are ours, as is the telescope base leaning against the boxes:

The upshot of leaving all this behind is we were able to get rid of the shelving I built into the bedroom back in June. The bedroom now feels much bigger and there’s a lot more light now that both windows are unobstructed.

Progress!