Viva Las Vegas Part Deux

Another whirlwind trip to Nye County. We flew out on Weds. and we are back home in NC for dinner Sat. We drove out to Charlotte for a direct flight. The last couple of times we flew out of Asheville there was trouble with the puddle-jumper and we almost missed our connections, It was something about the battery one time and the rubber band the second time. It's only three and a half fun filled starving hours in the air to get there. CP's new attempt at Babba management is to put me in the middle seat and herself on the aisle. This worked out fine for her but I was forced to talk to the window seat guy both trips.

The first window seat guy was a retired iron worker from Henderson, NV, who restores old Ford pick up trucks. I was lucky because he slept at least two hours with a blanket over his head. We parted with me promising to go to the car show that weekend and see his El-Camino. On the return trip while CP watched the movie, I had to talk to Manuel for three hours. We talked about everything: home repair, our children, Las Vegas, real estate, the weather. Now this flight alone used up about 6 months of my available conversation. I didn't even notice the plane had landed in Charlotte. It wasn't easy for me to talk that long about such a myriad of subjects without one ethnic remark.

We land and go to get our rental car and it has to be the same Chevy Impala we get every time. Now, they moved the rental center to about 3 miles from the airport in its own terminal that is bigger than the Charlotte airport. I couldn't get the A/C to work so we got a Ford 500 instead; which was a nicer car. We pull out of the rental terminal and at the first stop light there is a shoot out going on with some guys and about six Metro Cops. Carol says "Look! Why are these guys all lying on the ground and why to all these policemen standing behind their cars with shot guns?" Welcome to Las Vegas. I thought all the Metro Cops were at the airport, because O.J. just flew out twenty minutes before we arrived. I wonder if he likes the window seat?

Just 70 miles down the road, we are at my sister's hacienda in Pahrump, Nevada. Don't spell check it, it's Pahrump. We check in, and then it's off to see my Mom in the nursing home. Mom is doing great now that they got her meds right. She still has a few left over dreams that she thinks are real, but otherwise, she's pretty sharp. She does still feel that all the staff and residents are conspiring to steal her money, cookies, and clothes. We took Mom out to the Nugget for her favorite meal: steak and eggs and a side of bacon. She ate the whole meal up. Then it was back to the home. She is really doing great, a lot more alert and although she can't walk she seemed to stand better and do the little Georgia Two Step and pivot into the car. My one niece has a new job at the nuclear test site. That's located just 40 miles from Pahrump across Area-51. If she told me what her job is she would have to kill me. She is very excited about it and I think it has to do with keeping us safe from Al-Qaeda and the Democrats.

We had a brief few hours of sunshine and drove to Red Rock Canyon to the Red Rock Casino for lunch with another niece. Another one of my nieces has a boyfriend who is a chef there. So far this boyfriend has gotten through two auditions and is on his way to being a contestant on Hell's Kitchen. We saw a little oasis called Blue Diamond, a village of about 80 homes. It looked like a little artist colony. It had a little school, town hall, library and post office, general store etc. It was so nice and green and everywhere there were wild burrows grazing. They were on the soccer field and at the pool, just milling around. It was refreshing to see a desert community that wasn't full of garbage like Parhump and Hawthorne. We saw one house for sale. It was a small slightly run down adobe type house. The for sale sign was spray painted, on a weathered piece of plywood, it read: "FOR SALE $975,000 FIRM". I don't think the bottom has fallen out of the housing market in Blue Diamond, Nevada.

We didn't see much sun. It was cloudy when we arrived and the last two days it rained hard. I think Pahrump got about 4 inches in 24 hours. Since the valley is really some prehistoric lake bed let's just say the bowl was starting to fill up.

We arrived at Charlotte about 3 pm and had to take the shuttle bus to extended parking lot #2. Parking lot one had a great big bus, but lot two's was a liitle hotel type shuttle bus. We kept picking up people and luggage till we looked like something from a South American movie. The driver was a combination Southern Bell and Nazi. When we came to a stop with a young girl who had been waiting 30 minutes she told this young guy to squeeze out and tell her there wasn't any room for her. The guy fights his way over the luggage and yells out "the mean driver says there's no room for you". Upon hearing this the whole bus reaaranged itself to get this girl on board. It's good to be back in the south. Well we are home. Bo gained about a pound and I am suffering from the gas he has from the cheap kennel dog food.