August 14, 2015

Nevada landscape.

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All pictures taken yesterday, outside of Las Vegas, on the way to the Valley of Fire. The Valley of Fire is more dramatic than these roadside pics, and I'm saving them for later. I'm in Las Vegas for family reasons, but I'm seeing a few things, including not just the scenic landscape but some Vegas-y shows. You might be interested to know that I saw Murray the Celebrity Magician and the impersonator Gordie Brown.

34 comments:

Mick said...

Go to Mt. Charleston.

MarkW said...

Valley of Fire is wonderful (at least in the Spring -- I'm not sure I could handle the heat this time of year). It should be better known. The last time we were there, I stuck the GoPro on the hood of the car and shot some videos that are now among my favorites to watch when riding on the bike trainer during cold, dark winter days.

tim in vermont said...

IDK, I will stay "back East." Looks like a nightmare backdrop for a dystopian movie featuring a dead planet.

Original Mike said...

Looks like a good place for a nuclear waste facility.

Scott said...

We live vicariously through your experiences.

Rusty said...

I'm in Las Vegas for family reasons,

Yeah. Bailing relatives out of jail can be time consuming.

Hagar said...

God's own country.
Room to breathe.

Guildofcannonballs said...

"I don't know if that's ever happened to anybody before," said Wisconsin athletic director Barry Alvarez, who was the Badgers' coach that night.

Of course, the power outage sparked conspiracy theories, some of which exist today.

Much of the suspicion is due to the heavy betting from the many Badgers fans who made the trip and pushed the spread from between 3 and 4 points to 7 for their favorite team.

When the lights went out, 7:41 remained in the game -- 2:41 away from making it an official result for the sports books. Thus, the Wisconsin fans who put money on their team to cover did not get paid winnings, but were simply refunded whatever they bet.

- See more at: http://www.reviewjournal.com/sports/unlv-rebels/football/night-lights-went-out#sthash.7tvCzu97.dpuf

JZ said...

My trip through that part of the country gave me a renewed appreciation for the green landscapes east of the Mississippi.

Tank said...

Nice depth in those pics. Hard to get with most lesser cameras.

Still, a camera cannot convey what the world looks like "out west" - you just have to be there in big sky country to see and feel it.

traditionalguy said...

Hey, hey Mrs Clinton...we wonder whether
Chelsea will visit her Mom in prison? We know Bill will be to busy.

I hope Hillary gets what she needs to cope with prison.

Her best bet will be a quick pardon from her good New York City
friend, President Trump

tim in vermont said...

Oh lookie, more of Saddam's non-existent chemical weapons show up in combat, used by the forces Obama surrendered most of Iraq to without a fight, ISIS, against people who have always been steadfast allies to the US. Of course in ARM and Cookie's estimation, that means they had it coming.

http://pjmedia.com/tatler/2015/08/13/isis-uses-chemical-weapons-against-kurds/

Laslo Spatula said...

I once picked up a hitch-hiker on my way through Nevada.

Turns out she was a stripper who was hanging up her thong and going back home to a small town in Alabama.

On our drive we mostly talked about inconsequential stuff -- if we talked at all -- and watched the landscape glide by us. Occasional stops for gas and food, a rest stop so that she could use the bathroom and then suck my cock.

Anyway, one morning as we drove towards a glorious sunrise I asked her the question that had been hanging in the air for our entire drive:

"Are you really ready to give up your dream?"

She paused, the golden sunlight on her face, and then said softly "There is nothing for me at home except working at a Dairy Queen, but there are Bad Men in Las Vegas."

I gently enquired about these Bad Men: it turns out the guys who ran her particular strip club ran a Bukkake Ring, wherein rich gamblers would be able to drink expensive alcohol and then ejaculate on a stripper's hair: there would be a lot of rich gamblers, and a lot of ejaculation.

"I just couldn't do it anymore. When I look in a mirror my hair haunts me."

We drove on a bit more in silence, then stopped for breakfast, after which she sucked my cock in the parking lot.

"What about a different town?" I asked after she was done sucking my cock. "A town where they respect the Integrity of strippers?"

"Yeah?" she asked, eyes wide and hopeful.

"You ever consider Portland?"

"Will you take me there? Will you take me back to my Dream?

I zipped up my pants, we turned the car around, and headed to the Great Northwest.

Never let your dreams die.


I am Laslo.

Hagar said...

The ayatollahs want to resurrect the Baghdad caliphate with a Shia caliph. Mr. Erdogan thinks the caliphate should be Sunni and based in Istanbul under a Turkish sultan.
They are very close to begin rubbing up against each other.

Hagar said...

Both have ruled the other in the past, and it did not work then.

Mike (MJB Wolf) said...

We drove the route last weekend from SoCal up through Vegas, the little NW corner of AZ and into Saint George, UT. It's stark but beautiful, especially the Virgin River Gorge that transitions from AZ to UT. If you're a geology geek then it's really a nice drive!

Coconuss Network said...

Beautiful !!

MarkW said...

"Looks like a good place for a nuclear waste facility"

Well, I guess there's no need to worry about all the spectacular desert natural areas out there being overrun with Althouse readers. Good to know. (Also, you probably want to avoid Moab -- the DOE is still cleaning up an old uranium mine there).

Original Mike said...

"Well, I guess there's no need to worry about all the spectacular desert natural areas out there being overrun with Althouse readers. Good to know. (Also, you probably want to avoid Moab -- the DOE is still cleaning up an old uranium mine there)."

I've been to Moab. The West has good geology and great skies, but we have to put the nuclear waste dump somewhere.

Utah Chris said...

If you have the available schedule - go to Zion's National Park - it will be terrifically hot just like Vegas but worth the time. Also, if you can make the 2 hour drive to Furnace Creek, that too is fascinating.

tim in vermont said...

"Terrifically hot" "Furnace Creek" LOL, sounds great! Amazing that more people don't live there!

Unknown said...

Been to any of the multitudinous Cirque de Soleils yet?

Eric the Fruit Bat said...

Following Althouse's lead, I've resolved to watch more documentaries. Last night's selection was Deli Man (2015).

I expected to be disappointed and I was not disappointed. Way, way, way too much focus on one guy. And he's a dislikeable sort. Way full of himself. Pushes his employees around. Imposes on people. What? I should give a rat's ass about some guy's fancy wedding because he owns a deli?

Another thing that irked me was the portrait the movie painted of New York Jewish culture. It's as if just about everybody is lying all of the time. Just about everything said is in code. Just about everything said is just a little bit weasely. Maybe the filmmakers thought that was charmingly Old World or something. I really don't know.

Perhaps now would be a good time to note that "weasely" is not a real word, according to my spellchecker.

Ann Althouse said...

"Been to any of the multitudinous Cirque de Soleils yet?"

We'll finally do that tonight. That's the one expensive thing we're doing and the one where my choice prevailed.

The other 2 were chosen because: 1. Murray was free for all 4 of us on some seat-filling deal that locals can get. 2. Gordie Brown was heavily discounted and chosen because it's in the Fremont area that we wanted to see (and turns out it was a great place to watch the crazy rainstorm).

traditionalguy said...

Are those hills called the Gordie Brown Mountains? They do a good imitation of the moon.

rhhardin said...

I'm tired of travel again just looking at the pictures.

rhhardin said...

Cercle du Soliel

Bruce Hayden said...

My partner grew up in Vegas, and then spent 30 or so years around AZ. She loves this sort of thing. I don't. I find it mostly stark and boring. Give me my CO (and now MT) mountains. Last Nov, we swung from MT down to Vegas on I-15, spent Thanksgiving in Laughlin, down to I-40, across to Santa Fe, up US 285 to Fairplay, and CO 9 to Breckenridge. I hated the trip from the time we got down the Virgin Canyon into Misquite until we entered CO near Alamosa. She was happiest from starting down the Virgin Canyon until we were entering Albuquerque. And we took the "scenic" route from Vegas - one of my least favorite routes in the west is worse it swings NW from Vegas up towards Reno. Horribly boring. Worse than the Lonliest Road (US 50 from Reno to UT), and even I-70 across WY. So bad that I only drove it twice while living up by Carson City for five years, and flying at least twice a month to Las Vegas (we had a big office and a lot of clients there) (and this is a big reason why I had over 100 Southwest flights my last full year there).

William said...

Sometimes God has his act together, and sometimes He creates Nevada. We all have off days, and the Christian response is to be forgiving of such mistakes.

Fred Drinkwater said...

Welcome to the Great American Desert.
Don't bother with Zion - the time to visit there is late spring, after the flooding has dropped and the trees are still green.

Fred Drinkwater said...

This Vegas and nuke waste stuff reminds me - want a shocker? Use Google Maps satellite view to examine the area north of Vegas where the bomb tests were done. Lots of people "know" about them, but seeing the scale is something else. (On Google Earth some folks have annotated all the craters with their test histories.)

Ambrose said...

Love the Valley of fire. We always try to get there for half a day when we are in Vegas.

Joe said...

Since you're down here, make sure you visit the Hoover Dam overlook/the Mike O'Callaghan–Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge.

A friend recommends the Nuclear Testing Museum. I haven't made it yet, but is's on my list.

BTW, Bruce, Montana is great, until winter.

Anonymous said...

Just curious, can you say what camera you used for these pictures? My wife and I enjoy the desert regions. Planning a trip to New Mexico.
Dave