Canyon Echos - Music We Are Enjoying

Valley of Fire

We forgot until today that this is a long weekend with the President’s Day holiday on Monday.  Long holiday weekends can be bad news if you do not have reservations for a RV site.  Our next stop was the Valley of Fire State Park and it is first-come, first served in the full hook-up portion of the campground.  We headed out a day earlier than planned to snag a spot.

Score!  We not only got a full hook-up spot, but the view out our windows, all of them, is stunning.  The sites here are wide, have shaded picnic tables, and fire pits.  Nicely designed.  All the precisely landscaped RV parks we have stayed in over the last few months are lovely, but nothing compares with this wild natural beauty. 

Hiking trails right outside our door and looking at the State Park map there are many more to enjoy.

Look closely at this picture, can you see the faces in the rock?  Feels like we have a thousand eyes watching as we walk by.

Nature’s Crematorium

Prior to visiting Death Valley National Park, I imagined a barren place with only sand dunes and salt flats.  I figured the National Park designation was probably the result of the government administration’s malicious compliance to meet a park set-aside quota of some type.

Our approach to the Valley from Pahrump descended from 3,000 feet rapidly down to almost 300 feet below sea level.  Pop. Pop. Pop. Our ears took some adjustment to equalize to the new elevation. 

The view that opened up as we drove down into the Valley is nothing like we imagined.  It is like a beautiful science fiction fantasy landscape with earthly tones of red, gray, tan and verdigris painting the sinewy hills and craggy cliffs--all set in front of a neon blue sky.  The flat valley floor of tainted water shimmering in the sun, sand dunes, and cracked salt flats stretched out of sight.  The out of this world scenery made us wonder if we would to see the two moons of Mars above in the sky at any moment.

I asked Mike if he thought we could find fossils on some of the trails since long ago this place was a sea bed.  “The only fossil we’ll find is sitting right next to you, Terry”.  Pretty funny, Mr. Main.

We are glad we made the trip to Death Valley National Park.

Learning through Movies

If you have not seen “The King’s Speech”, I would highly recommend seeing.  We caught the matinee today at the Town Square Theater (nice high back, reclining seats).  To use my Brit friends’ expression, it was brilliant.  If Colin Firth does not win the Best Actor award at the Academy Awards; well, then the voting has really missed the mark.  Colin Firth  plays  King George VI, who, to overcome his stammer, goes to Lionel Logue, an unorthodox speech therapist played by Geoffrey Rush. The two men become friends as they work together, and after his brother abdicates, the King relies on Logue to help him make a radio broadcast at the beginning of the Second World War.

Lately (by coincidence), we have been watching movies that involve places we have visited this last year.  Granted much of the movie historical facts are embellished for Hollywood promotion, but they do have a basis and it makes our destinations that much more interesting.

“Bugsy” – Bugsy Siegel and the Las Vegas casino beginnings

“Chinatown” – Southern California and the greed/need for water (forget the scene with Faye Dunaway and Jack Nicholson, “She’s my daughter”, slap, “She’s my sister”, slap, “She’s my daughter” – that was just weird.)

“The King’s Speech” – Wallis Simpson’s involvement with the Duke of Windsor and the resulting abdication of the throne (remember our visit to Coronado Island and the Wallis Simpson presence?).    We also think the film scene with the Duke of Windsor and Wallis Simpson listening to the radio broadcast was located at the Hearst Castle.

This is such a fun way to learn about our past, that we will probably be on the lookout for more movies like this.  Tell us if you have seen a movie that you think does a good job describing the history of a place. 

Twisted Farm Food

Hash House A-Go-Go was recommended to us when we where in San Diego, but we never made it.  When we saw Las Vegas had a Hash House A-Go-Go restaurant, we made up our minds to have breakfast there before we left town!  This is not your run-of-the-mill scrambled eggs and hash browns.  They have unusual combinations, and surprisingly the meals are very good!

Mike’s pick:  Sage Fried Chicken Benedict with maple reduction, 2 eggs, bacon mashed potatoes and biscuit.

My pick:  Griddled french toast dipped in banana cinnamon cream and pecan maple syrup.  I had loads of coffee to offset the sweet meal.  Love the combination of the two.

This is the first time in memory when a breakfast was so filling that we did not eat for the rest of the day.  Can you believe it?  Look at the size of the meal in the above picture.

Calico Trail

An easy hike turned into a rock climb when we veered off the beaten path.  We opted for the rocky terrain of Calico Trail in the Red Rock Canyon located 15 miles west of Las Vegas.  The large boulders are a bit of a strrrretccch for my short legs.  Mike had…no problem.
As he always reminds me, “No hill for a stepper.”

Hoover Dam

The architectural beauty of Hoover Dam is a feature you cannot deny.  Over the years, we have visited many dams in Washington State on the Columbia and Snake rivers, and they are all business.  There are no flourishes, just concrete and more concrete.  But Hoover Dam is altogether different.  The Art Deco touches on the marble floors, subway tiled tunneled walkways, and bronze statues makes this engineering marvel unique. 

The dam is overpowering in height and width.  Neither one of us can look over the railing without gasping.  Way, way too high. 

We splurged on the deluxe tour of the dam taking you down into the bowels of the structure.  The tour included walking through round tunnels too low for Mike to stand up in, and stairs ascending and descending with no end in sight.  (We just looked; no climbing involved. Elevators provided transportation to different levels of the dam.)

We were led down one tunnel that took you to a louvered window right smack in the middle of the dam’s curved face looking down the Colorado River and up at the new freeway bridge. 

For something built over 70 years ago, the dam is in perfect condition.  A wonderful tribute to American labor and know-how.