Caught Traveling: Las Vegas

One final California desert sunset, load the truck, hook up the camper and "outta there". We dropped the fifth-wheel off at a friend's ranch down in Campo. Put a few final items into the truck, tarped it down, and hit the road. Making good time considering we weren't dragging the Bighorn with us. Trying to get home without incident and quickly. We bought a small cylindrical, carpeted "house" for Gypsy. She became accustomed to it sitting on the console between us and spent most of the ride home there.

Zipped through California and stopped just over the Nevada border at Primm. Passing Las Vegas, we noticed how the town, outside of the casino areas, is starting to grow. There is a large area opening up of warehouses, and industrial parks. Amazon has a huge center there. When we got through Nevada, she was sleeping as we went through Arizona's Virgin River gorge and into Utah.

We stopped for a bite at Scipio, UT. The town is under 300 people and is located just east of the highway. They have incorporated a square couple of miles around I-15 as well as another small square that covers a truck stop, DQ, and a petting zoo full of bored lamas and turkeys. There is a geocache here which we've found before, but I got out and took a few tourist pics there.

We decided to spend some time in Salt Lake City to check out the craft beer scene. The laws are different in Utah than anywhere else. Establishments can not sell any beer out of a tap with a greater than 4% ABV. They can pour higher ABVs from bottles. We stopped at Epic Brewing first. They have a small taproom with only 8 chairs. There are a lot of restrictions on liquor licenses there. They couldn't get a bar license, and had to settle for a food license. This meant that anyone there to drink has to first buy food. We had grilled cheeses. They are pretty new, but their beers show promise. The next place we went to was Squatter's Pub. Located in an historic downtown building, The Salt Lake Brewing Company purchased the building in 1988 and opened the pub in 1989. The place is large and airy. It was very busy and had some interesting brews.

Leaving Utah, we moved on north into Idaho. We had to stop in Idaho Falls where we had been forced by the truck to spend days there. We went to Idaho Brewing as a reminder and a celebration that the truck was still running well.

Montana. When we first left California over two decades ago, we were headed to North Dakota for a better life. We had it planned that if we didn't like it, we would go on to New England. When we hit Montana, the beauty and the people made us put Montana on that list. As we left Idaho and started into Montana, we were beset with a rain storm that turned into a snowstorm as we drove through the night. The next morning, we stopped for breakfast in this little lodge up in the mountains in the middle of nowhere. A quaint local diner full of down-home atmosphere. We had definitely left the big city. The locals were talking about how unexpected last night's 3 inches of snow was. We felt we would get to Bozeman close to noon. We stopped in Butte, "The Richest Hill on Earth" for fuel, and continued on. We used Bozeman for a lunch and craft break. We went to Bozone near downtown. Nice little place where a couple of locals told us all about the Montana brew scene. In a corner were some antique chair sets from an old school or theater. They serve flights on a small ski. We finished up at 406 Brewing. There are a number of old granary's, and flour and baking mills. Many are being repurposed into strip malls. 406 was located in one of these. They had some great tastes and we really enjoyed it there.

Cruised into North Dakota in the evening and stopped in Moorhead, MN at Eliza's for a couple of days. It was Easter. Spring. Family. yes, cold and had some flakes. but we were home and would be opening the house up in a couple of days.

A final sunset at Rio Bend RV Resort

Got the trailer and the cat. Time to leave.

Travelers, soon to be weary.

Truck stop at Scipio, UT

Epic Brewing. Salt Lake City

Squatter's Pub

Comfy in her home

Snow

morning clouds oozing over the mountain tops

Butte, MT. An old silver mining town.

Bozone in Bozeman

Metal straps under the chairs provide a place for your hat.

Flight

406

I love this chain footrest

it was 4:06 at 406

Painted electrical box downtown.

As the month and the year came to a close, We loaded up the Jeep and the truck and headed out. A brief stop at the farm to leave our truck in a snow-covered driveway, We drove west with Alexander and all we needed. A brief stop in Devils Lake to drop off Alex where he'd be leaving from to go back to Texas.

It was night and it was stormy. We drove for a while and stopped in Montana. There was a lot of night driving and nasty weather, so we didn't get a lot of pictures. Besides, as we were doing the normal I-94/I-15 route, there wasn't a lot of new stuff to see. We did make a stop in Montana at a rest stop where there was a spectacular view of the Yellowstone river working on it's annual freeze-up.

Idaho and Utah were fairly uneventful but we managed to get geocache finds in all three states. It was late evening when we passed through the Virgin River gorge in Arizona. Too dark for any good pictures, and there was construction that made a mess of the traffic so it took forever to get through. We made a stop for the night and then pushed on the next day into Las Vegas.

We spent the night in a downtown hotel and had a great night there. Usually, when we go through Las Vegas, we ind ourselves walking and touring the hotels and casinos on the strip, Las Vegas Blvd. This time we were downtown and saw all the changes they've made in recent years. The huge hotels on Fremont street are still there, but what has changes it that they have constructed an awning that floats between the hotels about three stories up. Under this awning, they took up the asphalt of the street and paved it as a walkway mall, There are many small kiosks and a couple of music stages. There were two different bands playing live that night we were there. It was really fun. There are lines running through the air and you can pay to zipline down the couple of blocks under the awning.

We got dinner in the Four Queens hotel where they have their own craft brewery. The next morning we walked around some more after check out before continuing on to California. We arrived safe and sound here in Santee California just days before Laurie had to begin work at yet another hospital.