Fresno, CA to Boulder City, NV

---

---

Blog 10-13-17 Fresno, CA to Boulder City, NV

We were up and moving at the crack of dawn, well 7:00 am. The clutter was put away, the fence was stowed, the water, sewer and electric lines were all disconnected and put in their compartments and we were ready to hit the road by 8:20. We still hadn't walked the dogs and disposed of the garbage but all that was done by 8:50. After the car was connected we pulled out of the campground by 9 am, a new record. We did have to get gas and that was an ordeal but we were finally on the road by 9:20 am.

We traveled south on 41 then picked up 99 South and were on our way for a long ride. The goal was to get to Boulder City, NV today and we knew it was a long ride but all on interstates with not a lot of twists and turns, so how bad could it be. The traffic was moderate and Ginnie kept a steady pace and soon it was my turn at the wheel. We were on 58 at that point and we continue south while the road went from 4 lanes to 2 lanes. It wasn't bad as everybody moves along and the road was fairly straight. The fun started when we hit the mountains and had to climb from 1,000 ft to 4,000 ft and the poor engine wined for a while. There were no land speed records to break today so we took our time and made it up over the mountains without blowing the engine. The road went back to 4 lanes before the big mountain so cars were able to pass us so we didn't hold anybody up.

The scenery went from flat, dry CA farm land to hilly dry pasture land with a few trees. There were grape vines all over and we learned that they were raisen grapes and the rasens were drying on the vine, the reason was to have juicy raisans. Then the land went to just dead grass lands with no trees to desert. As we went up in elevation we noticed more Joshua trees at one point where there was a forest of them. Pictures.

Again I will let the pictures tell the story of the changing vegatation. We took highway 15 North toward Las Vegas and it became much more desert like. Sand and sage brush, just low growing bushes. We were so lucky that the temperature was only 88 and we had a tail wind. There were visions of sand blowing in our faces the whole way or worse yet a side wind that would blow the camper all over the road.

As we decended from the mountains and approached NV there was a very strange sight off to our left. There were 3 towers in a field with small white objects all around them and rays of light shining from the towers, making the top very bright, like a light shinning. We were profoundly puzzled until I suddenly remembered hearing something about solar collectors focused at one particular spot to produce electric power. I looked it up on google and sure enough it was the Ivanpah Solar Power Facility. It is a concentrated solar thermal plant in the Mojave Desert located at the base of Clark Mountain in CA, across the state line from Primm, NV. The plant has 3 huge square towers with boilers that recieve solar energy from a field of solar collectors. The plant went on line in Feb of 2014 and was the world's largest solar power station. I need to do further research on this plant, I have a lot of questions. It was very strange looking at the plant not really understanding what it was and having just come through all sorts of references to Alien creatures. For the last hundred miles we have been seeing grafitti of strange outerspace figures and this plant just added to the mystery. I have read the Tripod Trilogy and it put me in mind of that concept. Pictures

As we approached NV there were painted buildings in the distance which turned out to be the first casinos we would encounter. There were also huge rocks atop one another galey painted, for what reason we know not.

The road took us around Las Vegas to the south and east til we found our campground on the outskirts of Boulder City. It is a well kept place with neat sites all with small stones and a tree between every camper, ours is dead. We have plenty of room to set up the fence for the dogs and room for our chairs but not much of a view.

The air was beautiful tonight so we sat outside and enjoyed the cool evening. It was 5:30 before we got to the campground so it was the longest day driving that we have had in about 6 weeks. We'll have to get used to it because getting home will require some long days.

We are here for 3 nights and hope to see the Hoover Dam, Lake Meade and other sites before we move along. For now it is bed time.

---