May is winding down to an end here. It's been one of the better months. Sheila flew up here on the evening of the 5th, and on the next day we were out on the road first thing in the morning. We drove up to Reno on US95, retracing some steps that I had done many years ago. Not much has changed in that stretch between Las Vegas and Walker Lake, which I last saw in '93.
We stopped off at the "Area 51 Alien Center" in Amargosa Valley, which has an interesting souvenir shop. I had been up there in early March and I wanted Sheila to see it. After she bought some goodies for the kids, we continued on, stopping again in Rhyolite.
Rhyolite is the very first ghost town that I have ever visited. I was disappointed when I saw it the first time long ago, when I saw those ghost statues near the first building you see. I couldn't remember if the grotesque statue purporting to be a nude blonde was there back then........it is now, and I hope the model was able to sue for damages. This time around we spent a half hour exploring the ruins and taking lots of pictures, and I enjoyed it much much better.
Our next stop was Goldfield, the county seat of Esmeralda County. Esmeralda per the latest figures has some 780 or 820 residents, and 268 of them are said to be living in Goldfield. The diner we stopped at in 1993 was still there and my recollection is that you could have anything you wanted on the menu, as long as it was chili (and not bad chili either). About half the buildings, maybe more, have long since been abandoned, and a few of them are in the state of restoration. The County Courthouse was along the main drag and on the other side of the fence I noticed inmates playing basketball, though the chain link fence had slats in them so that you wouldn't have known they were there unless you really looked.
Upon Tonopah, barely inside Nye County, we encountered thunder. Yep....and some rain, but not a lot of it. More rain was had when US95 put us back into Esmeralda County and it was in short sessions of sprinkles. I didn't remember Walker Lake being that huge. After Walker Lake, it was uncharted road for us all the way up to Fallon, which I had never been to before. We liked Fallon and we are now considering that as a retirement venue. An hour or so later, we arrived at the Siena Hotel in Reno, where we stayed for a couple of days.
The Siena wasn't there the last time I had been in Reno, and that was in 1997. It was modern and the staff professional. However, in the parking lot there was a panhandler, and some cars were broken into overnight on our last night there. We weren't hit, but for some reason those in the row closest to the hotel were. The telltale signs of window glass told me that five or six had been hit. Also, there isn't much casino floor security in the Siena as that I was accosted by a panhandler in the men's room. I didn't say a word, and couldn't find a security officer to have the mendicant ejected.
The next day it was off to San Jose to see my parents, Mark and his wife, and Chip and his family. After a Mother's Day lunch we were on the road and were able to make it back to Vegas late that Sunday evening. Monday we visited the Luxor since Sheila wanted to see that, and we hung around Downtown after that. She flew home Tuesday afternoon, and vacation was over the next morning.
For the Memorial Day weekend, I was back in Tucson for a short visit. There was more time with our grandchild, and time of course with the cats, who realized that Daddy was home and that meant one more person to boss around. Oh, they were nice about it, wanting all sorts of love and attention, in addition to a fully stocked food dish.
Anyway, this was a good month, and it is ending on a hot note. Las Vegas hit triple digits this weekend. Good thing all those years in Tucson acclimated me to heat.
One of my projects should be to post photos of Rhyolite and Goldfield. It might take two or three postings for both. So, I guess I'd better get busy and get those pictures on my computer, and resized for blogging.
That's all for now.
Don't forget to pet a dog or a cat!
