Las Vegas, NV - April 3 - 7, 2005

Well, this is one of those times that challenges the traveler who goes to remote locations. Our journey from Death Valley to Las Vegas started much earlier than expected. We had planned to leave mid-morning on Sunday, April 3rd; so on Saturday evening we disassembled the satellite dish and basically got our home ready to move the next day. We planned our route for a leisurely departure and drive. "Planned" being the operative word. Once again, we made the gods laugh!

Lets just say waking at 1:00 AM in Death Valley to discover Susan was ill and in critical need of a doctor and medicine is not a good thing. (Note: Death Valley is one of the few national parks that do not have a medical clinic in the park or in a nearby town.) Cell phones don't work here and our Internet communications (to find out who to call) had been dismantled the night before. There was a pay phone - but who to call? We were able to find the number for the Park Service, who referred us to the Nye County, Nevada sheriff's office, who suggested we go to Beatty or Amargosa Springs and call them back from there. Bill was getting very concerned since it was about a 2-hour drive to Beatty. In two hours, Susan could be in extremely severe pain with possible damage to her internal organs. If this sounds frightening, it was! Susan thought the pain was subsiding (hoping her diagnosis was wrong) and wanted to wait before we left. We were both concerned that driving narrow mountain roads in the dark with a trailer in tow could be hazardous. But, the break from the pain was brief, so at 4:00 am we were waking our neighbors with our diesel truck, hooking-up and moving out. Not the leisurely departure we had planned.

The good thing is we were treated to a beautiful sunrise over Daylight Pass on the way to Beatty. We were also pleased to discover we had cell phone service once we got to Beatty. We called the sheriff who referred us to the Beatty Medical Clinic, and the doctor was waiting for us when we got there. Not a moment too soon according to the doctor, since the infection was entering a much more serious stage. About an hour later we left with medication in hand. Thank you Beatty Medical Clinic and Nye County Sheriff's Department.

The rest of the trip to LV was blissfully uneventful.

Several wonderful things happened while we were in LV, none of them had the words "We have a winner!" or "jackpot" associated with them. In chronological order:

1) When we pulled into the Las Vegas International RV Resort, the fellow across the street was having his RV cleaned by a mobile service. We were able to arrange to have our disgustingly filthy rig cleaned at what we thought was a reasonable price. We highly recommend Sunshine Mobile Wash; they did a great job. OK, so the downside was spending the next two days polishing the beast (we were too cheap to pay to have them polish the rig too).

2) Susan went to high school in Boulder City, Nevada, a town about 20 miles outside of LV. We visited one of her high school chums, Gary and his wife Marcia, for dinner and had a wonderful visit (see the pics for a picture of Gary and Susan). We hope to see them again when we come back through Vegas next fall. We dined at Ventano's in Henderson. The restaurant serves alimento italiano squisito (delicious Italian food) and has a great view of the night-lights of Las Vegas (www.ventanoitalian.com).

3) We were able to join Susan's nephew Kevin and his girlfriend Jill for dinner. Kevin has always had a special place in Susan's heart, so visiting with him and meeting his ladylove was very special.
 
4) One of our neighbors referred Bill to a car wash that did a wonderful job of removing all those butterfly/mustard bombs we had collected along the way and restoring the truck to showroom quality - well cosmetic showroom quality at least.

5) Bill discovered Diesel Specialists Inc. On the trip to Death Valley we had some trouble with the truck. They were able to identify and resolve the problem. It took two days of Bill sitting in an industrial area waiting for the work to be done - the joys of having only one vehicle - but now we both have more confidence in our trusty steed.

Due to all our chores, we didn't get an opportunity to explore the area as much as would have liked. We did take a 2-hour drive up to Boulder City to see Susan's former home and home town, then to Lake Mead and back to home base.
 
On Friday afternoon we pointed our shiny rig northeast, heading toward Zion National Park, pleased that the truck was running well and all was right with our world.