Apr 9th to 11th - Las Vegas to Talent OR

Apr 9th – Fri – Las Vegas
After breakfast, Terry went off to play 21 again and I got to do some chores without him getting antsy. I did some sewing, worked on the computer, read a bit and made a late lunch/ early dinner – great day for me! I had just finished eating about 4 when Terry came back (with winnings in his pocket!) to see if I was hungry. I fed him dinner and after a bit we headed out again to Freemont St. We have really enjoyed staying downtown and walking everywhere. The RV park is nothing great but it has full time security and we have not been here much.
We played a few slot machines and got enough points on our cards to each get a T-shirt. I left Terry playing Pai Gow Poker and took the shirts back to the rig so we didn’t have to carry them around all night. Terry was ahead when I got back so I gradually lost some of his winnings!
There was a huge private party on Freemont St with nearly everyone attending dressing as Elvis or Marilyn Monroe – some were very bad. We watched a couple of the light shows in between playing more slots. It is definitely sensory overload with all the lights & music. The weather was wonderful and we were comfortable walking back about midnight in short sleeves.

Apr 10th – Sat – to Hawthorne
Our friends Terry & Judy were going to the Valley of Fire state park near Las Vegas for a few days and invited us to join them but we decided to start moving north. It took us about 7 hours to get to Hawthorne NV where we stayed for free in a casino parking lot. I remember noting in a previous blog entry that this section of the U.S. is SO boring and unutilized. Good thing the army has a use for some acres and finally (around Goldfield & Tonopah) quite a bit of mining.
We relaxed with a drink and spent a short time in the casino before having a nice dinner in our rig and getting to bed early to try to catch up on some sleep lost in the last 3 days.

Apr 11th – Sun – to Talent OR
We left about 6:30 this morning since we were both wide awake at 6. We were ready for something to eat in Susanville but did not see any place where we could park. Of course, there were no towns for a long ways after so we were really hungry at the junction where we turned from Hwy 44 to Hwy 89. There was a small dot on the map called Old Station to the left of where we were supposed to turn right. Terry decided to check out the “town” and to our surprise there was a small café that just opened for the season 3 days ago. The owners of “Jake’s” bake all their own bread, pastries & desserts and we had a great lunch. Shortly after lunch it started to rain and just before we got to the I-5 junction we had a short snow flurry. But it cleared before we climbed and descended the Siskiyou mountains.
I found a PA park in Talent OR and we decided to hibernate for the evening with cable TV. I do not use the word “hibernate” by accident – it is cold here for a couple used to the warm south.