Wild West day 10

We spent the night at Fun N Sun Trailer Park in Overton, NV.  Big park, but pretty nondescript.  At least, we had full hookups.  I forgot to get a photo.

On the way to Hoover Dam the next morning, we passed through The Valley Of Fire State Park on the shores of Lake Mead. It's a lesser known park with some interesting rock formations. I know, I know. More rocks!

And some of the local talent.

Then we arrived at Hoover Dam.

Joyce and I visited Hoover Dam in 1963 as we traveled from Whidbey Is., Wa. to Memphis, Tn.

Then again in 2014

We've changed a lot, but so has the dam. The big stone monument Joyce was standing in front of in the '63 photo is still there, but now you must park a long ways off and walk back across the dam to get to it. We try to avoid walking these days, so we did what we could.

The biggest change at the dam is the new bridge spanning the canyon just below the dam. Actually, it is above the dam, but downstream from it. This is a view of it from the dam. Impressive!

Departing Hoover Dam, we cut across the lower part of Las Vegas and headed for Death Valley. As we were leaving Vegas, I began looking for a filling station. But, none were found along our route. My GPS and my trip program plotted a route across the Nevada state line into California heading for a little town named Tecopa, Ca. I checked my fuel gauge and I had enough to get there with a little to spare. But, as we headed down The Old Spanish Trail Hwy, things began to get worrisome. The gauge was going down, but all we could see was rocks and sand. My trusty old GPS showed the checkered flag and so we kept plodding on. Then the pavement ran out. Oh crap! I was probably beyond the point of no return by then so we just kept going. Finally, we reached the location of where the GPS thought Tecopa was. It wasn't. We turned around and backtracked to a little settlement we had passed and I stopped and asked a woman with two bad dogs behind a fence (thank goodness) where the nearest filling station was that carried diesel. It was about 10 miles thataway. My low fuel light had been on for several miles already, but we had no choice. Maybe we could, at least, get in cell phone range so we could call for help. But, no such luck. We both died of thirst on the dusty desert...naw, we made it and was glad to pay $5.49/gal for diesel in Shoshone. Once my butt finally lost suction from the seat, I found a nice little RV park and blew off steam.  I still don't know how far I can go after the low fuel light comes on, though.

Whew!