Historic Railroad Trail - Sat., Mar. 1

By 9:30 a.m. Saturday we were hiking the Historic Railroad Trail in Lake Mead National Recreation Area. We walked the five-mile portion of the trail from the Lake Mead Visitor Center through the five tunnels and back to the parking lot. Huge vistas of mountains, Mojave Desert, train tunnels, and Lake Mead were the main draws of this walk.

The trail follows the old railroad bed that was used by trains taking supplies and parts to build Hoover Dam. Along the trail are markers telling of the hardships faced by the dam workers and their families, animals in the area, and why the tunnels are so big.

The clear morning air was crisp; very good walking weather. Don't expect solitude and quiet when doing this hike. Sightseeing helicopters flew over frequently and this is a very popular trail for bike riders, joggers and walkers. The grade is easy and the scenery is great.

Sign and view by the trailhead parking lot

Wide gravel trail

Spectacular vistas

Historic plaques.

 

Hemenway Marina

Bob in front of the first two tunnels.

How can you not love the views in the following photos?

Looking east from the trail, you can see Lake Mead RV Village (in the bottom center of the following photo).

After our walk, we headed into Henderson to have lunch with Louise and Laura at Mimi's Cafe. We spent an hour or two at their house. I helped Laura look for cheap airfare to San Antonio and Bob helped his mom set up a budget in Excel.

Later in the afternoon, we drove into Las Vegas to have dinner with my cousin, Cindy, and John. They thought Italian sounded good. We suggested Battista's Hole in the Wall. Bob and I had eaten there years ago and remembered it was very good. We had a great dinner.

One funny story: As we sat chatting, an accordion player was a few tables away playing "Happy Birthday." When he came to our table, he played a little bit of a tarantelle, asking us to listen to the tone of the song. We nodded our heads, I gave him $2 and said we'd like to hear another song. He grabbed the two dollars and said, "I've got eight other rooms to play," turned on his heels and left. We never heard him play again while we were there. Very strange. We all laughed about it, but thought it odd.

Our disappearing accordion player.

John and Cindy (my cousin from Tennessee)

After dinner, we took John and Cindy on a little driving tour. They had never been to the Fremont Street Experience. You just haven't totally experienced Las Vegas if you haven't been to Fremont Street. Here are a few impressions of our walk through Fremont Street:

Excellent musicians

Street performers

Cindy checking out the street performer.

John and Bob

Neon in abundance

The following restaurant is politically incorrect and a sign of our times. It is the Heart Attack Grill: Over 350 Lbs Eats Free. Instead of bibs, patrons are given hospital gowns to put on over their clothes.

 

Poster outside of Heart Attack Grill

On the menu at Heart Attack Grill.

When we finished at Fremont Street, our other cousin, Kristin, whose flight had been delayed three hours, called to let us know she had landed. We headed to the airport to pick her up, but missed our exit from I-15 and ended up going another five miles before we could turn around and go back. She was patiently waiting for us when we arrived.

Bob wanted to play tour guide some more so we took Kristin, Cindy and John through the main part of The Strip, then back to their timeshare. We bought wine and chocolate, then sat around catching up for an hour or so. Cindy's business partner, Rich, also joined us in the room for wine and conversation. Cindy, John and Rich were in Las Vegas to attend the ReMAX real estate convention at Mandalay Bay. It was time for all of us to get some sleep.

We said our good nights and headed back to Lake Mead RV Village. I think it was 11:00 p.m. when we got home.

Travel Bug out.

Lake Mead, Nevada - Thurs. 2/27

Today we set aside time to relax and meet Steve and Joan who write the blog Friends of Steve and Joan. They are volunteers at Lake Mead and their campground is only a mile down the road from us. We invited them to come over. Steve was out at the library doing taxes. When he returned to their MH, they would give us a call. They came over mid-afternoon and we talked for a couple of hours.

Steve and Joan

As we were saying our "see ya laters," they said, "If you have any extra time give us a call." A few games were brought up that we had never played. Of course we're always game for a new  game.

After they left, Bob and I discussed when we could get together again and thought that this evening would be best. Bob went for a run up to the Visitor Center and I wrote my blog for yesterday. Here are a couple of photos taken from our RV site.

Looking from our dining room window toward Lake Mead.

Looking toward the mountains behind our RV park.

I called Joan and asked if this evening would work to get together; she said yes they were just hanging out. We headed over to their motorhome and were warmly welcomed. Steve came out to our truck with a flashlight so we could see a path to their door.

They taught us a card game called Golf which was very fun. After 15 hands the person with the lowest score wins.

Then we played Liars Dice. Joan wiped us out one by one.

The last game, Qwirkle, was the one that you really had to think  about and use strategy on. The game was challenging and fun. You could almost hear the brain cells growing stronger.

Our final Qwirkle board.

Steve made peanut brittle that was very fresh and yummy. We snacked and had a great evening connecting with Steve and Joan.

Steve with a batch of his home made peanut brittle.

It should come as no surprise that we had a lot in common. They started full-time RVing about the same time we did and worked at amazon.com the winter after us. Their current volunteer position is to drive all the roads around Lake Mead, watch for people off-roading where they shouldn't be, and look for anything unusual or out of the ordinary.  If they see anything, they document it with photos, write a report and hand it over to park rangers.

Our evening was well spent. You can bet we'll be spending more time with Joan and Steve in the future as our paths cross.

New topic: Our cat Bowie is just so darned cute! Here he is:

Tomorrow we're off to Henderson to spend the day with Bob's family.

Travel Bug out.