Where in the world is the Mayor?

One last one from Nevada, you can buy liquor at the CVS. Difficult to see but if you zoom in directly under "CVS" it says liquor.

Taking a break today and going to lose some money at the casino....perhaps I'll get lucky, you never know. The key is walk in with X amount of money. Whether you lose it or are one of the lucky ones to get a good jackpot, walk away.

Day - 22
Total gas purchased: 303.3
Miles for the day: 308
Total Miles: 7065
Average Speed: 35.7
Total States: 16

National Parks/Monuments and other significant points of interest:

Mt. Rushmore, Crazy Horse, Devils Tower, Yellowstone, Glacier Park, Rt. 20 through the Arcadia National Forest, The Space Needle, Olympic Park, most Northwestern Point in the US, Pacific Coast Highway (101) from Seattle to Northern CA, Avenue of the Trees, Rt1 in CA from it's northern start to San Francisco, Golden Gate and Bay Bridge, Alcatraz, Sequoia Park and the General Sherman Tree, King's Canyon, Sherman Pass (9200'), Inyo National Forest, Hoover Dam, Red Rock Canyon NV, Mt. Charleston, Valley of Fire

Days 23,24,25,
Average speed: 0

Beautiful . Wondering how you planned your route? I assume you will be take a southernly route home with winter coming?

I'll be home within a week and a half I expect. There is no timeline or schedule which is really nice , some of this stuff is on the whim. Devils Tower, Arcadia National Forest, Northwest point, Alcatraz and some others were all not in the general plan. I ws considering driving to San Diego but decided to make a left at San Francisco instead, it's literally that unplanned

That said if you wanted to plan something like this yourself go get the big Rand McNally map book. Google and the internet are nice but those maps are big and pretty detailed with points of interest and cool roads are dotted. When I was doing my trips out this way in the 90's I had studied those maps quite a bit looking at various routes one might take so I already had a good idea of how to get from point A to B in style. Because of time constraints and budget many of them were out of reach.

Yesterday's adventure were all things along the way for one trip we did but we only had 2 weeks. We started on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon that day before light. Drove down I-15 past the city I'm in now, past the entrance for the Valley of Fire, through Las Vegas, past Red Rock Canyon onto Death Valley and a little southeast of Yosemite on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada's. This was late May so there was still snow on the ground in the passes , some were still closed.
The one thing I really miss on this trip is having my cousin along but he has too many responsibilities including three younger boys. He would do most of the driving, especially through the congested areas and I would do the navigating. Those congested areas are a PITA, he'd just pay attention to driving and I'd give him the lane to be in. Even before the signs and I was usually right.

Haven't done this yet but there is cool route going south from close to PA. You can pick up the Blue Ridge Parkway just off of 81 in Virginia. This will take you all the way to eastern Tennessee. If I recall there is some cool roads to get you to Nashville form there but you can also take I-40 and pick up the Natchez Trace Parkway which will bring you into Southern Mississippi not too far from Gulf. I have intentions of doing this at some point but not on this trip

One other thing, the amount of construction going on in Las Vegas and the suburbs is insane. When you get to the outside of the city it's just miles and miles of condo complexes, apartment complexes, storage facilities, strip malls, new roads and bridges and on and on for far as the eye could see. And they are all new, when you get to the very edge all kinds of signs for available properties ready to move into and beyond that there are entrances off the main road for non existent streets and all the materials for the infrastructure in active construction zones. I went across one bridge with + intersection, to the left was development, to the right the bridge was unfinished but prepared for development on that side.

I don't know where they're going to get the water from.

For the Colorado and other rivers the states that it runs through all have water rights that were negotiated a long time ago. It's double edged sword because some states up river are taking more of their allocated resources leaving less surplus for those downstream where demand is also growing. LA for example could always go desalination plant but that is not an option for land locked places like LV and Phoenix. This is also why you have these crazy water laws about collecting even rain water on private land.

I don't know what the solution is down the road but they are going to have to do something drastic at some point.

Still holed up in the casino room, it cost me a whopping $30 for tonight. I really needed this, my neck was really starting to bother me. Fell asleep last night about 7:30 and didn't wake up until 6:30. I have trouble sleeping more than 6 hours straight, 11 hours hasn't happened in decades. Still haven't hit the slot machines but will tonight.

" What happens in the casino stays in the casino!!! " Good Luck at the table's and hit her big!

Well that was a marathon, I actually left because my legs were getting sore. I was at the same machine for for about 6 hours. I was playing the Wheel of Fortune which is what I always play on the rare occasions I go to a casino. $5 every time you press the button for this machine if you are playing the full amount. Started with $500 , was down to $10 and then back up to $550. Back to $10 and then back to whatever. Back to $2 and against my better judgement reached into my wallet for $80 dollars. Up to almost $900, back to about $500 and then cashed out at $836.

I think I'm going to stay here another night, take my $250 winnings and reinvest. I'm not a gambler but I can see how people get addicted. It's not easy to walk away. without exaggerating I probably pressed that button about 400 times. The most I won on single spin was $400 but I was way down when that happened. For right now I'm going to get a nice steak dinner.

I should of known better but my reinvestment plan did not work. I lost the $250 in winnings, also my original $500 budget and a little more over the budget. Oh well, I figured that was going to be the outcome. I was playing a progressive machine with 1.7 million jackpot, that would of been nice to win.

At least I hope the steak was good.

nut wrote: ↑

Tue. Sep. 27, 2022 5:47 pm

At least I hope the steak was good.

I was half hour late, they only had the late night menu. Turkey club it was. Going to have to make an early withdrawal from the Bank of Buick. In case you didn't see them previously. There is four screws under the pad inside the middle console.

So after leaving the motel of broken dreams I say goodbye to Nevada but not before loading up on the booze because I'm going into Utah. Last I checked they had some pretty weird laws about the alcohol. I had to take I-15 north for short time , it clips the corner of northwest Arizona before entering Utah. I have been on this road before heading south from the North rim of the Grand Canyon.

First stop in Utah is Zion National Park. There is a main road and then a spur off the main road. The spur was shuttle only, I probably should of took it but didn't. One cool thing here was after exiting a long tunnel there was what I thought was a deer on the side of the road. When I got closer I realized it was mountain ram, unfortunately no where to get a picture of it.

A hop, skip and a jump later I'm in Bryce Canyon, the entire park is a spur road off the main road but you can drive it. Because of all the things I have seen the wow factor is getting hard to come by but this definitely had the wow factor.