Day 33 - Damn Good Day

Woke up & spent @n hour or so contemplating where we would be sleeping for the next 3 nights. It was Memorial Day weekend & all the Americans were celebrating by staying anywhere other than their home. As a result hotel/motel prices were pushed through the roof. We were done with Vegas. It needs to be experienced, but it feels good to leave.

I bagged two nights at a motel in St George, Utah for Saturday & Sunday night for less than £100, it got good reviews but we will make up our own mind. In the meantime we couldn’t decide where to stay tonight.

Our friend, Gav Farley, suggested we visit a ghost town called Nelson. It was about 46 miles south of Vegas, but by god it was worth a visit. In the absolute middle of nowhere you arrive at this town in a time warp. A Signpost directed you to park, then visit reception. We did & the owner informed us of the dangers of touching the cacti 🌵. The spikes had barbed spikes, which could only be removed at hospital. We were also told to report any sightings of rattlesnakes.

After our briefing, we wandered around the estate, that included 70 rusty old fashioned motor vehicles that were rusty to the point of being Art!! It had old buildings to wander in & out of which were full of junk / antiques / Americana, crashed WW2 aircraft & an old mine. It was a fantastic place very photogenic that had been used for various film & photo shoots.

We continued to the dead end, that overlooked the Colorado River after it had negotiated the Hoover Dam. A quick photo & we followed the deserted desert road back the way we had come to the Historic Boulder City, the home of The Hoover Dam. What a lovely little town it turned out to be.

We drove along the main drag lined with motels towards the historic centre. We played Booking.com ‘I-spy’ & took a fancy to El Rancho Boulder Motel. I noted the cheapest price of $92 on Booking.com then went in to haggle. I enquired with the owner & he told me he had just one non-smoking room left for $122. I told him it was cheaper on Booking.com & he told me it wasn’t.

I told him I’d just enquire with the wife, then we both went in, me armed with my iPad open on the Booking.com app. I pointed out to him his mistake & he pointed out mine. The cheaper room was the smoking double bed only. He wasn’t very good at hiding his annoyance, so we checked in without further disagreement before he refused to let us stay.

Having checked in, we headed out to Hoover Dam, which we had previously visited over 20 years ago. We were subject of a security check for guns, then we parked up & walked up to the Memorial Bridge Walkway which was new to us. I got a funny bottom looking down at the Dam from a great height, but I managed to take & pose for the odd photo. We then drove over the Hoover Dam into Arizona did a U turn & then back again.

Back in Boulder City we stopped at the local supermarket for a few provisions, mainly fruit & wine, then dumped our bags in the motel room. It was a lovely sunny day so we took a stroll into the ‘Historic’ part of Boulder City. It was very nice, bars, restaurants & my favourite, random statues everywhere. We got to the top of town & saw an outdoor event in full swing.

It was the ‘15th Best Dam Barbecue Challenge’ which had vendors from all over the region selling their bbq wares, as well as other foods including massive funnel cakes & frozen chocolate covered bananas. There was also live music initially from local ‘talent’ Mario, then a rock n roll band. We felt obliged to eat here, it would have been rude not to, so we ‘shared’ a plate of ribs with a side of beans & ‘slaw from the Great Basin Cooking Co. Needless to say it was delicious, but we still had room for something else. I wanted a funnel cake, but they were just too big, so we opted for a foot long Cajun sausage hotdog. Lovely.

Seriously in need of lubrication, we walked back into town & found an outdoor bar, 2Wheels Garage Grill with karaoke. The bar is in an old converted fuel station. The drinks were cheap, Jackie had margaritas & I stuck to beer, that went down well in the sun. It was a great atmosphere, even when the music was deafened out by the roar of a motorcycle gang that parked up outside. The ‘gang’ were actually ‘Brother’s Keeper MC’, which is a world wide motorcycle club for Firefighters.

It was such a great evening we stayed there pretty much all night, then staggered back to our motel.

FITBIT = 10,594 steps / 4.92 miles.

Song of the Day - Ghost Town by The Specials.

Bonus Song of the Day :-

Ghost Town by Angelic UpstartsRead more