Hoover Dam, Vegas Strip to Pahrump Station, Oct 19

We woke up at Blake Ranch RV Park & Horse motel.  Besides amenities expected of a good RV park, it had dog runs, private shower rooms cleaned after each use, exceptional $1 laundry facilities, a country store. Full hookup rate was about $22 a night with cash senior discount. The owners are solid gun-toting, horse-riding Americans.  Mr Blake was nsing a nice had a nice 50 ft square lawn that he watered 2X a day.  The ground in th area is a few inches of soil over rock and does not hold water, though they get about 20 inches a year.


We set out toward the Vegas strip via the Grand Canyon. landscape along th way was rocky and ranged from flat with native shrubs or bare stone mountains.

We arrived at the Hoover Dam and viewed it from downstream from the a walk beside a Memorial Bridge. Minuscule appearance of large utility vehicles in the photo indicate.  This photo is probably 1/4 mile or more from dam.

We saw more plaques commemorating the bridge than the dam.  Info overload includes that it is the first concrete concrete-steel composite arch bridge built in the US.  It incorporates the widest concrete arch in the western hemisphere. At 840 feet (260 m) above the Colorado River, it is the econd-highest bridge in the US. And So on. 

Here's the back side of dam and Lake Meade.

As dark settled, we headed for the Las Vegas Strip and snapped a couple more Lake Meade shots en route.












On the Strip, we saw the Vegas lights you normally see on TV.  We had been concerned that we might have trouble driving in congestion, but traffic seemed moderate, and stoplights afforded pauses to look around and snap photos.

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Plenty of Walgreen and McD, and here they are side to side.

Not a great photo, but here's Pawn Stars shop.

Riding down the strip and seeing the lights was fun.  However, if we lived in Vegas, we can't picture going more than one for ourselves, and then maybe to show out-of-towners.  Back streets on the way out looked a bit creepy.  During our drive through we saw or heard more than half a dozen occasions of ambulance response.

then we drove west to find a place to overnight.  We stayed at Best Western Pahrump station motel and RV.
it was a good basic RV park.