Las Vegas to Tonapah

living.boondockingmexico@yahoo.com

 

We're stopped here in Hawthorne, Nv.  for an internet tuneup and a cup of coffee.  We spent the night in Tonapah after leaving Las Vegas.  We took a drive down the strip yesterday morning to take some pictures.

 

 

If Les is reading this, here is a picture of our breakfast on Friday along with a great banana shake.  Really good, afterall, a driver needs to maintain his strength.   We didn't eat lunch and had a small dinner.

 

 

Planning our stops along the way is the most fun.  I had found two good spots outside of Tonapah for boondocking.  One was Miller's rest stop and the other was a BLM site.   The GPS cut out on us again and we lost signal.  Looks like we need a replacement but I want to talk to TomTom first to find out what is going on and to do another online download.  

 

We saw signs all the way for the Tonapah Station Casino.   With no GPS we pulled in there and a grouchy obese woman said, "all full" and spun around in her chair.   I asked again if there was another place nearby and she said, "DryLand", or at least that's what I thought.   I repeated it and she spun around in her chair again and yelled, "Joy Land".   Got it @#$%!  We headed over there and it was a gravel lot with some run down trailers and a sign with the rates.  It said to ring the bell.  I did and about five minutes later a guy comes across the road.  Looked just like one of the aliens in Men In Black,  overalls and a rifle.   He didn't understand us, maybe I had lapsed into Spanish but in the end he wouldn't accept $10 for primitive, it was $25 or nothing.  Creepy.

 

We headed back to the highway through town and ran across the Banc Casino and next to it was  free Rv Parking!   We asked at the casino and she said to stay as long as we wanted.   Done deal.  They have a Chinese restaurant so we decided to eat there.  It is closed on Sunday but she says it is the best Chinese in Nevada, owned by two guys, one from Las Vegas and the other from Los Angeles.

 



Tony the Chinese doorman said we could take a picture anyway.  Looks like a happy guy!

Spent a great evening after finding a Mexican restaurant and exchanging stories with the waiters from Oaxaca.   The food was good and way too much to eat.  We had a great walk after through the town.   There were five tractor-trailers in the lot when we got back and they were gone in the morning but we never heard a thing.  We watched a video we brought along called "Inequality For All" with Robert Reich.   Very interesting, some good some well, to be discussed. 

 

Got an early start this morning, I am anxious to see my sister and BIL, we will be there in a couple of hours.  I haven't seen them for five years.  She is making my favorite tonight for dinner after happy hour, crispy tacos.

 

Beautiful scenery today and we have been stopping to take pictures.   A future trip, and I have talked about it before, driving through the desert taking pictures of old rvs and mobile homes.  The desert really preserves them.