05/12/09 Hawaii to Nevada

5.12.2009
HONOLULU, HAWAII – LOS ANGELOS, CALIFORNIA – LAS VEGAS, NEVEDA

As we travel,
Having to bribe a low life friend with a gift certificate for subject ride to the airport wasn’t bad enough. As he showed up to pick me up, this is at 0500 hrs, he required me to pass the certificate through window and validate same prior to opening the door.….!!?

Flight from Honolulu to Los Angeles (LA) was a no brainer in less then 5 hours. Movie was terrible and all purchases had to be via credit card, cash is no longer an option. Just another step in the paperless world! Arriving in LA managed to grab the wrong shuttle bus to the hotel but did see the airport in the best of comfort.

Spent the night in the Best Western where I watched TV until 0300 hrs due to the time change between Hawaii and LA. Down to the shipper to pickup vehicle and promptly got loss trying to get out of LA. One benefit of going via the desert (there is no other way either) to Las Vegas (LV) is the temp is 100 plus but dry. Thinking that the longer I spend in the desert, the longer I can go without a shower (3-4 weeks) and no worries as far as washing clothes……..toe jam could be a problem though.

Las Vegas (LV), Nevada: The city of glitter, slot machines, beautiful people and 15 Wal-Mart’s. Pushing your grocery cart through any store reminds you of riding the bumpy-bump cars where no quarter is given. Did manage to buy enough gear to support a standing army of a hundred men. I’ll probably litter the highways with discarded gear before the first fortnight. Las Vegas has been hit big time with this major credit crunch. You find malls empty, buildings with only the steel work completed, roads that go nowhere, teachers – fire fighters - police taking a major cut in salaries. I’ll guarantee that the elected politicians haven’t suffer at all as the case in Hawaii with their latest pay increase…

While still in Las Vegas did venture forth to the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (NWR), 15 miles North-west of LV, for a day of 100 degrees plus and gravel roads that literally covered you and vehicle with a fine coating of dust. Being that you are the only one for miles in all directions, stopping in the middle of the road to take pictures is at your pleasure. For the 6 hours that I spent on the NWR I saw one vehicle and nothing else.

But of course once you are back on the main roads, life is back in the fast lane where everyone is red lining the tachometer from one stop light to another.
We leave Las Vegas for Death Valley and the first night of setting up camp, brew a cuppa, beat off the bugs and watch the stars as they gravitate across the nightly sky. And most likely curse myself for buying too much crap and moving it ten times over and still trying to look like I know what I am doing to the other campers.

Norm
The Grey Nomad