Where in the World are Jeff and Sue?: Day 15: Long Way From Buzzard Creek Road!

Hey! We’re in Vegas! Well… actually we’re staying in Henderson (about 5 miles from the strip). Anyway, this has been an awesome day. The other night’s troubles are now but a war story! We hit the road again and decided that yes, we really do need to start heading in the general direction of home. Although, when we stepped outside and breathed in some really hot air (high today 101 degrees where we stayed), we were tempted to head for the Pacific coastline again (LOL).

We had three real highlights today, the first being the drive (as always). Everywhere we go the landscape changes and we love all of it! We went through the Mojave Dessert today and the mountains (more and more the closer we got to Las Vegas) are now ranging from rounded, to rocky and jagged, and from almost skin colored to tan/brownish… beautiful! And the sunset on and behind the mountains…wow!

Another highlight… for lunch we decided to eat at this little Mexican place. In the middle of seemingly nowhere, there was a sign for “Christina’s Restaurant,” and we stopped. We were waited on by Christina herself (who didn’t speak much English and was smiley and adorable!). We were the only ones in the place (it was about 2pm), and we ate probably the best Mexican food we’ve ever had. This little restaurant would be pretty easy to find since it is right off of HWY 58 and is right by Edwards Air force Base (in North Edwards, CA). If you are ever in the area and enjoy Mexican food, it would be well worth the stop.

Also, we saw a sign for “Harper Lake” (Harper Dry Lake Marsh) and although it was about 8 miles off of the HWY, we went to explore. It was freakin hot! We stepped out of the car and it was like breathing in a sauna, it was probably 110 degrees (conservatively). I don’t think I have ever experienced that kind of heat, and we lived in GA for 5 ½ years. The heat didn’t stop us though; we grabbed our water and walked around on the lake bed. The ground was whitish/tan and had kind of a coral like consistency with pockets of air so that when we stepped down, it was crunchy (kind of like stepping on ice pockets and breaking them in the winter). Although the area is an observation area for wild life, we didn’t see any. This wasn’t such a bad thing since the wild life consists of badgers, bob-cats, coyotes, all sorts of birds, and not to mention snakes, lizards, and other creeping dessert critters. Ok, I admit, it would have been fun to see some of them (some preferably from the car!). And I’m always game for bird watching! Oh… Jeff just reminded me that right when we got to the area we saw a “dust devil” out on the dry lake bed.

We also, on the same drive, saw abandoned houses, abandoned businesses, and one business that seemed to be thriving: NextEra Energy Resources. We got pix of hundreds of solar panels set in rows in a large field. It was something to see.

So far our luck has been good in Vegas, Jeff won us two free breakfast buffets for tomorrow morning! Now we are about to crash here for the night and then we’re off again in the morning. One thing has remained true; just when we think we’ve seen “the sweetest thing,” another amazing site appears on the horizon. So we look forward to what lies ahead.

Until tomorrow