August 21
Our motel has a wonderful breakfast room so we made a point to eat there this morning. They have a waffle-maker and a toaster that can handle bagel halves. They have a juice dispenser that can give you cranberry juice, apple juice, or orange juice, or you can mix them as you wish. Razelle considers this free breakfast a real plus. You can have cheerios or raisin bran or cornflakes with milk; hard boiled eggs or English muffins or Danish sweet-rolls; or all of the above! Can't beat that, can you?
We have decided to visit Hoover Dam, today. The drive to Hoover Dam took us through parts of the greater Las Vegas area we hadn't visited so far. Henderson looked like an even more arid place than Las Vegas. We continued to drive downhill and finally reached the Colorado River. We missed the dam and entered Arizona on a higher roadway. We turned back and re-entered Nevada, then took the lower-level access road that took us to the dam. I don't know what they expected they'd find in our van but a security officer had me open the back door so he could look in. I think, now, that he was checking to see if we had a pet, because pets are not allowed in the dam area and leaving pets in your vehicle is also not allowed.
I wound up driving into Arizona again as I crossed the dam looking for a place to park and had to turn around so I could deposit Razelle by the visitors' center on the Nevada side. I found a parking garage tall enough there for the van and paid the fee. Razelle waited for me to join her.
We walked around on the dam and adjoining areas, took some pictures, ticked more out-of-state license plates off a scribbled list I'd prepared and endured the heat that was focused and intensified by the shape of the canyon we were in. A time-and temperature sign in Henderson showed 107°F (42°C). We've experienced hotter, but for some reason this was rarified heat down here and we were not holding up as well as we should have. Razelle was complaining about a rash on her arms. It looked like a form of hives – an allergic reaction that made her skin sensitive to the sun. She tried a cream on it that she has, but it only gave her relief without reducing the rash. We heard Hebrew here at the dam, but we didn't stop the couple speaking it to say "Shalom." We also saw a family group with men in fringes and wearing kippot (skullcaps). So, some of our own ARE touring the sights we've been touring.
We walked around on the dam and adjoining areas, took some pictures, ticked more out-of-state license plates off a scribbled list I'd prepared and endured the heat that was focused and intensified by the shape of the canyon we were in. A time-and temperature sign in Henderson showed 107°F (42°C). We've experienced hotter, but for some reason this was rarified heat down here and we were not holding up as well as we should have. Razelle was complaining about a rash on her arms. It looked like a form of hives – an allergic reaction that made her skin sensitive to the sun. She tried a cream on it that she has, but it only gave her relief without reducing the rash. We heard Hebrew here at the dam, but we didn't stop the couple speaking it to say "Shalom." We also saw a family group with men in fringes and wearing kippot (skullcaps). So, some of our own ARE touring the sights we've been touring.
We felt we'd gotten our money's worth for the parking garage without spending more for the museums or for the other things they were charging for, so we left the dam and returned to our motel. It was my intention still to strike off on my own to see some of the Strip, but once again, I found the heat off-putting enough to forego this – even if touring the strip could have been done in the comfort of air-conditioned buildings. Back at the motel I typed mightily to get my blog caught up. I was so far behind that this required a lot of time to accomplish. I made a good dent in the project, but never managed to catch up.
It was getting late in the evening so I took time off from writing to go next door to the Walmart. I needed to get a card to refresh my cell phone's account so I could use it for another month. I bought a few other items, too. The disconcerting thing was seeing the disaffected and displaced people who were hanging out in the Walmart parking lot. One approached me for a hand out. This happened yesterday in the motel's parking lot, too. I didn't want to be approached and I didn't know of a delicate way to refuse them. I hope my frank "No!" doesn't get me hurt one of these times. Reflecting on this further, I understand that Walmart doesn't object to people parking their campers on their lot. I wonder, now, just how safe it might (or might not be) for us to actually do this during these difficult economic times in America. Obviously not a good idea here in Las Vegas, because of the heat, but farther afield across America, will I find more of these characters in a Walmart lot? I won't know until I get somewhere else.
Speaking of somewhere else, tomorrow we will be leaving Nevada to sleep somewhere else: California ... again. Tonight we will try to get a good night's sleep. Tomorrow, we want to cross Death Valley as early in the morning as possible. I don't know what all the fuss is about. We drove to Hoover Dam in similar heat today and our van did it in style. What could go wrong tomorrow that didn't go wrong today?
As for my tooth, I received email from my dentist in Beer Sheva, today. I had sent him a photo of the interior of my sore tooth. This photo was taken in Singapore. His response was that the right thing to do is just have the tooth extracted. Any other effort to save it would be unwise, considering that its pulp bed is cracked. I may yet be able to sing, "I left my tooth in San Francisco...."
These were things to contemplate, as I prepared to sleep one last time in Nevada.
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