A Sad Story of our Times

On Friday (2/27/09) Clara and I went out to Pahrump, NV with our friends Linda and Jerry, and, among other things, we went to the stables where Linda is learning horse care and taking riding lessons. I just couldn't resist writing up this little "story of our times." Glenn

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It's difficult, I know, to believe how hard these times have come to
be. Here is photographic evidence of one truly sad story -- a good
friend of ours, Linda by name, formerly a psychiatric nurse and a
college teacher, now reduced to eking out a meager living by cleaning
horse stables . . . who would have believed it would come to this? I
overheard someone to say that she curls up next to the horse whose
enclosure she's cleaning in order to stay warm during Las Vegas'
bitterly cold winter nights. Glenn

Chinese New Year at the Bellagio -- A Garden in a Casino

On Wednesday, Clara and Sheral went to the Bellagio Casino/Hotel, long known for its gardens – an attraction for tourists. They were honoring the Chinese New Year, and here are some pictures – first, the "God of Wealth and Fortune," and second, the Ox. Clara noted that this is especially our year, in that both this year and the year in which we were born are "The Year of the Ox."
I couldn't begin to show all of the pictures Clara took, of all of the various flowers in the garden, but she was especially impressed with the thousands of orchids of many varieties -- in Las Vegas the "Botanical Garden" is in a casino, in order to draw you in.

Contrast – Wonders of Nature vs Flashes from the Strip

Clara has always had a special attachment to the desert, so the first excursion she and Sheral embarked upon was a trip out to Red Rock Conservation Area, out Southwest of Las Vegas. When it was first opened in the '70's as a combination scenic/hiking natural area, there were perhaps 20 thousand visitors in a year. Now that number is nearing a million . . .



This first picture shows why it's called "Red Rock" – it's just off the south end of the Spring Mountains and features a 13 mile driving tour through desert, across creeks coming from waterfalls, up to ridges where climbers practice -- while the next shows Clara and her friend Sheral in front of another display of "red rocks." The third is the waterfall at the end of the Lost Creek trail.


Later that day, they went to the Las Vegas Strip. At the brand new Palazzo, the feature was a trio of young women made up and dressed to look like statues, moving into various poses.

Of course, the Venetian has canals with boats and boatmen – all inside - naturally (or should it be "un-naturally."








The Venetian also has a lobby with a spectacular painting on the ceiling.

Back to the U.S.A.

The return trip up to the border was uneventful, marred only by the seemingly interminable wait at the border. Did the border folk care whether we were terrorists? . . . or whether we were drug smugglers? . . . or whether we were contraband liquor importers? . . . What they asked us about was whether we were bringing in eggs or lunchmeat . . . oh, my . . . how dangerous . . .

We were too late to camp at Buckskin Mountain State Park on the Colorado River, as we had planned, so we went down the road a bit to Sandbar Resort . . . can you spell "P-a-r-k-i-n-g L-o-t?" Too tough? Well, how about "D-u-m-p?"

Anyway the scenery was great, but watch out that you don't hit your head on the nearby neighbor's slideout as you leave your camper . . .






















By the way, the "flowers" on that agave are plastic . . . someone has a nice sense of humor . . .






On to Las Vegas the next day, and to . . . guess what? . . . a big dinner on Sunday . . . is it that all the folks we visit are extremely social? . . . or is it . . . US?

Impressions of San Felipe

I came away with two strong impressions from this visit to San Felipe – number one was the high level of social activity at the Flinn household.

In this first picture, you see the table set for dinner on Valentine's Day (our first day there) . . . or, is it for Sunday (our second day there) . . . or, maybe it's for Monday (our third day there) . . . hmmmm . . . besides the six house guests, there were usually four or five other friends in to dinner – and a good time was had by all!

On Wednesday, at lunch, it's traditional for a large group to meet at a local establishment – outside! (eat your hearts out, you folks in the NorthWest!) – for tacos or similar lunch and general camaraderie.




Impression number two is the work obsession of the male householder – he has to be busy every (daylight) minute, doing something on their place . . . bricking in walkways and patios, putting clamshells on the driveway, building little alcoves here and there – I'm worried about his health in the future . . . there's no room left on the lot for any more projects, so what will he do? . . . and will his health suffer for lack of activity? Here's a picture of their home from the front, a picture of the south sideyard, and a picture of an interesting "establishment" in the backyard. [Given that all water has to be trucked in at no trivial expense, this, of course, makes a lot of sense . . . as well as being quite a conversation piece . . . ]

Getting to Mexico

I know, this is quite late, but while in Mexico our on-line
activities were severely limited (no downloading or uploading beyond
basic e-mails and newspaper articles due to a 200 MB/day limit shared
by four laptops).





So, in this first picture we're arriving at the border, having driven
from Mojave, CA that morning. Then you can see somewhat typical
countryside as we go on down the road, finally arriving just at dark
at Bud and Dotty's place, where we were greeted with a campfire and a
glass of wine, and weather warm enough to sit outside. After wine
and appetizers, we went on over to the neighborhood cantina (which
was really jumping due to $5 spaghetti Friday night as well as just a
general desire to get together with friends.) While there, a young
(?) gentleman came over and introduced himself as a schoolmate of
both Clara's and Dotty's in Imperial, NE way back when. Actually, he
was just behind Dotty (by a year) so they hardly knew him, but they
did know his older sister, who was in Clara's graduating class. He
has also established permanent residence in the San Felipe area,
which, although there are no exact census figures, is reputedly home
to some forty or fifty THOUSAND ex-pats from the U.S. It is possible
for a couple to live down there on nothing more than their monthly
Social Security . . . so that would suggest somewhere upwards of
seventy or so MILLION dollars per MONTH going into the local
economy . . . too bad the little people hardly see it . . .

"Nuff said!"

"Nuff said!"

Today was gorgeous and uneventful . . . we traveled from Orland, CA to Mojave, CA with nary a hint of snow and lots of blue sky and sunshine . . . tomorrow we hope/plan to arrive right close to the border and traipse on down to San Felipe on Saturday morning for the Valentine's Day festivities . . .