The Great West, day 5 (AZ, NV)

We woke again around 5 a.m. to the chatter of the local ravens, broke camp and made one last visit to the Canyon at 6:30 this morning. Our bodies are still on CST, so we start each day early. We headed towards Williams to get on 40, so we could go to Hoover Dam. The guys - all but Andrew who had already fallen asleep and I wasn’t about to disturb him! - stopped into a Bedrock Community in Valle, AZ and saw rabbits, lizards, goatasauruses in addition to the Bedrock buildings that they could walk through. From there it was on to Seligman, AZ – the birthplace of Route 66. We detoured off of 40 and drove through the old Rt. 66 town. We were all hungry by then. Out here towns/stores are few and far between, so you if you see something you need or want you better get it while you can. That would explain our choice for breakfast – Roadkill Café. As we pulled into our parking spot I noticed that the plate on the car next to us was Shelby Co, TN, and I let out a cheer!! Nathan told me that it was a rental car and not to get my hopes up, but it was so neat to see a bit of home. As I was getting Andrew out of the car, Nathan struck up a conversation with them. As it turns out it was a husband and wife from West Memphis, and her sister from Branson. Can’t get much more back home than that!! We marveled at how we had ended up at the same spot and talked about our travels. Felt good to hear a southern drawl. (We also met a cashier at Grand Canyon that had just moved up here from Brookhaven, MS.) I was a bit skeptical about the fare at this restaurant, and it was making Taylor a little squeamish. The food was quite good though as long as we didn’t focus too much on the name of our food selection. We had Rigor Mortis Tortoise which included sides of Flat Cats and Smear of Deer.

Back on the road we drove through more desolate desert land filled with scattered desert grasses and random cacti and still the occasional windmill off in the distance. The homes and people were even more obsolete. As we entered into Nevada, we pulled off to the side to see Hoover Dam. We had driven across the Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge and had not realized just how high up we were, and then when we walked over the dam and looked down the L O N G concrete face…WOW! The water in Lake Mead was beautiful and the weather has been perfect! We have had sunny 70’s – 90’s with nice DRY breezes during the days.

Our next stop was Las Vegas. We headed straight for Gold and Silver Pawn home of Pawn Stars. The guys were hoping to see some of the cast members, but they’re all on vacation until next week. The prices in that place were outrageous!! Things they were selling for $5000-$10,000, we would be able to find in antique stores back home for $100-$300!! I didn’t even bother to look at any of the gold and silver, but the guys seemed pleased to have visited this landmark. We attempted to visit an antique store but were turned away because the kids were with us. Good clue/reminder that Vegas is not a family friendly town. Next we found Rick’s Restoration, another iconic place for the guys, but they’re closed on Sunday. We took a quick drive through part of the old strip and headed out of town. Just before we got back on 40 we spotted a casino that looked like the Space Needle. On top we could see that they had swings that swung out over the edge of the building as well as a Space Shot that went up the needle. Samuel was in awe and proclaimed that he would "so do that!" to which Nathan quickly informed him, "Oh, no you wouldn’t!" We reached the 2000 mile mark of our trip as we left Vegas on North 95.

In Nevada, we began seeing grand dirt mountains. There is little to no vegetation on them, and we are even seeing rock mountains. I personally prefer mountains with trees and life on them, but these are pretty out on the horizon. They have a bluish tint and the range is nice to see as we travel the flat desert land. About 100 miles outside of Vegas we have even found mountainous sand dunes. Palm trees are also now part of our scenery. Town, or maybe even villages or compounds, are now spotted way back off the road every so often. We have discovered that we are still two hours behind our local time, because after we left Arizona, we entered Pacific Time in Nevada. Glad to know we aren’t losing an hour today because it seems we haven’t made the progress we had thought we might because we are taking time to add attractions we hadn’t planned on. We made a stop in Beatty, NV where part of Death Valley is located. Right now we are traveling up the side of NV, and in places have been about 20 miles from CA. We will keep following the coast line until we reach Reno.

Nathan began singing while ago, "Well, I’ve been through the desert on a horse with no name." Any suggestions out there as to what we should name our weary horse? Attitudes are good in the van. Samuel and Caleb are rowdy but laughing and having a great time in the back. Taylor is semi-plugged into his music while he and Andrew make funny faces at each other, and Nathan and I are enjoying the sunset behind the mountains. Good family times…good memories! We are eager to arrive in Tonopah where we plan to bed down for the night and SHOWER!! (We didn’t have shower availability at Grand Canyon.)