30 August 2011

I was hoping for a 1000 departure, but I hadn't done any preliminary packing, so was still roaming around with my list as that time passed. Finally, though, everything was somewhere, and I was out of there.

Not much traffic at 1030 on a Tuesday morning; I managed the usual roads to Santa Ysabel in fine form and headed north on 79, a route I haven't taken in a long time. By the time I got to Warner Springs, the day was warming up to uncomfortable, and it stayed there, with occasional forays into damn hot.

Palm Desert loomed just as I needed fuel; a short stretch of I-10 got me to SR62 and a miserable loop around Joshua Tree NP. (Since I'm not on any kind of a stamp quest, I won't be stopping at any 'National Anythings' that I've already visited--at least not just for their stamps--some are always worth it.)

Up through Amboy and the iconic "Roys Diner," onto National Trails Highway, with its painted-on-the-roadway reminders that it's the old 'Route 66.' It's not officially in the Mojave Preserve, but it's the desert, for sure; my newly-repaired thermometer claimed the 'shade' temperature was 114.

Then onto I-40 for the run into Needles, where I routed onto the Needles Highway to Laughlin. The Tropicana Express was the first hotel I saw; found a parking space and went in to register. It's not the $25 it used to be ($40, plus fees and a $30 charge for 'contingencies,' to be refunded at checkout, if nothing was contingent.) Drive around to the parking garage, and head up to the room, scouting for a luggage cart to haul my substantial crap. None to be found, so a couple of trips down and up two separate elevators got me situated.

After I'd cooled off a bit, I walked out into the heat, scouting for whatever. I didn't expect to find any grocery stores, but there was a outlet mall just north a bit; there wasn't anything there I was interested in, either. So I came back to the Tropicana and wandered through its casino, seeing what it had to offer. Lots of gaming machines, was what, and an atomosphere saturated with smoke, even in the 'non-smoking' sections. Why bother? Puting a sign over a bank of slots doesn't do anything to keep the smoke away.

I did find the buffet, $10 + tax, and as it was close enough to dinnertime (and I hadn't had anything since breakfast at 0630) partook. It was decent if not great, and I got my money's worth.

Back up to the room, set up the computer, and plugged in the network cable, only to find they wanted $11 for 24 hours of network access, billed to the room. (One of those contingencies?)  Sorry, not gonna happen.

Around 9 I wandered out again, wondering if it had cooled off any--not that I could tell.  I circled the outside of the casino, entered through another set of doors and toured the gaming floor, looking for the beautiful people. Guess they had the night off, all I saw were automatons with their 'player' cards stuck into the machines, mechanically hitting whatever buttons would make the (video) wheels spin. I wasn't tempted in the least, which was a relief. (The cashier at the buffet had given me my 20 cents change as four shiny new nickles--I think I was supposed to drop them into the first slot machine I found. Hah!)

Back upstairs, read a bit, listened to some music, and bed.

I'm heading up past the Hoover Dam this morning, I want to see that new bridge. How much time I'll spend there will depend on the temperature.
 
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