Hello Lost Wages

The drive from Lake Havasu, Arizona to Las Vegas, Nevada is an easy one--only 150 miles or so. However, you soon leave behind the relatively lush Arizona desert and exchange it for a more bleak landscape--mostly creosote--as soon as you cross the Colorado River where there is not a saguaro nor an ocotillo to be had anywhere. North of Havasu there is a ten mile stretch with signs warning you to be on the lookout for wild burros crossing the road--naturally, we didn't see any.

What I had sort of forgotten was that when you cross the Colorado River on I-40, you are in California, and then you turn north at Needles and head into Nevada on Highway 95. Yes, it's the same 95 that runs from the Mexican border to Canada and goes right through Moscow, Idaho.

So, we actually got to California on this trip unintentionally. As soon as we got over the bridge, I called my son and daughter who both live in San Diego. Of course they wanted to know what why we didn't just keep heading in their direction. We had just seen son Matthew in Houston, and we are planning to visit Erika next month in her new house in San Diego, but we need to get home first to take care of some things. We've been away long enough on this jaunt.

Before we knew it, the road began to widen and the traffic starting getting more dense. We were on the outskirts of Las Vegas. I was amazed to see more developments sprouting up out of the desert even though the real estate market has crashed big time as is has in Phoenix as well. It is certainly a buyers' market if you are inclined to live in Las Vegas, but you can expect increased property taxes until the tax payers revolt as they did in California.

For some reason, we were still hungry for Chinese food and pulled into the first Chinese restaurant we saw. I guess we were eager to compensate for the terrible Chinese food we had in El Paso. I had a wonderful curry chicken and was completely satisfied.

When we got to Frank and Jerri's we had a short visit and then decided to go exploring. Our chosen destination was the Valley of Fire north of Las Vegas maybe 40 miles. It's amazing what can happen within 50 miles of that sizzling sin hole. You can be up in the cool mountains with lakes, steams, meadows, and wild horses to the West. You can visit archaeological sites and wildlife refuges, or be on a humungous lake.

The Valley of Fire is a breath-taking red sandstone anomaly in the midst of a bleak, brown desert that just emerges out of nowhere like a fantasy landscape on an alien planet. Flaming-red, sculpted formations spring up to welcome you and treat you an incredible landscape beauty that lasts for miles.

There are also some spectacular petroglyphs or Indian carvings in the stone. One of the sites we visited was Atlatl Rock where there are some carvings on a flat panel maybe 150 feet above the ground. In case you are not aware of the term atlatl, it is a Nahuatl or Aztec word that means throwing stick. The atlatl is an invention that preceded the bow and arrow by perhaps 20,000 years in the Old World. This ingenious artifact is a stick usually about 18 inches long with a handle on one end and two finger loops. At the other exteme is a hook against which the end of a spear shaft rests. With this spear chucker you get a fulcrum that gives extra leverage enabling you to get about three times the distance and thrust you would by simply throwing a spear by hand.

I've done a little experimenting with them and have been able to launch a spear over a hundred yards, but I couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. That takes practice and skill. Son Matthew once put a nice hole in the side of our car with an atlatl-launched spear that we never got fixed because it was more fun to tell people that it was a bullet hole.

When we got back to Las Vegas that night we went to one of the casinos for a scrumptuous, actually an incredible buffet of international cuisines, but I"m happy to report that I didn't lose any money gambling. We shared the elevator with a pretty blackjack dealer who told us that in her opinion there were only losers in Las Vegas, and that's why it's called "Lost Wages,"--but you probably knew that already.

Hey, we're headed toward home tomorrow and expect to cross the border into Idaho, but we haven't decided on the route yet.