On to Las Vegas (Henderson)

Today Elise and I got into our old breakfast routine that had carried us through our previous crosscountry trip. First, Elise has a cup of coffee while I make myself oatmeal, juice, and a slice of bread. Then we break camp and travel some or do some sightseeing; then we stop at a restaurant where Elise orders a full breakfast of which she eats half and I eat the other half. A happy arrangement all around.
This morning we visited the Shoshone Museum, which displayed various artifacts that helped to tell the history of the area.
For breakfast we stopped in at the local cafe. It was our intention to eat on the porch of the cafe, but the flies drove us inside. They were small, but they badly outnumbered us. Once inside, the Spanish omelet we ordered had some special sauce on it which was very tasty.


                                                                         Chinese date farm


The highlight of this area is a family date farm which features date milkshakes. The farm was originally started by an immigrant from China around 1900, and one day he just disappeared. A mystery never solved.

We knew the farm was somewhere off the main drag and went looking for it. It involved going off of the secondary road we had been driving on, to a smaller road past a couple of not very fancy hot spring resorts, and from there to an even lesser road and finally to a gravel road that turned and twisted between high brown cliffs until we finally emerged at this store where they sold date bread, date cookies, date milkshakes, and other canned foods. There was also a large room filled with various and sundry chatskas for sale. Behind the store was the date grove with a number of date palms. Most of the lower branches were covered with cloths, apparently to protect the dates from getting too much sun. It was quite colorful seeing this grove of trees all "decorated" with cloths of many colors.
Of course we each bought a date milkshake, which consisted mostly of vanilla ice cream with a spoonful of chopped dates. Quite good on a hot day, but not as exotic as I might have expected. We also bought a loaf of datenut bread and some date cookies for Yoni and Lise, whom we expected to see later that day, and a loaf of the datenut bread for ourselves.

Our trip to Henderson took us through Redwood Canyon. (more beautiful desert scenery) and was generally uneventful, except that our GPS lady kept telling us to turn left (or right) toward Los Angeles (which she pronounces like in Spanish, Lohs Ancheles). At one point I stopped and reprogrammed her, but the little lady in the GPS was quite insistent and consistent, so we just placed ourselves in her hands, and sure enough she got us to Lise and Yoni's, whose house we would never have found on our own; she did not take us by way of Los Angeles, for which we were grateful. I don't know how that little lady knows so much!

Lise and Yoni live in a beautiful house with a view of the mountains. At the front of the house is a very large indoor patio with a private guest room.  At the rear of the house is an outdoor patio and a large yard with varying flowering plants, a hot tub and a putting green,  We were glad to see Yoni and Lise and also glad to have such fine quarters after our time in Death Valley. It was especially nice because Elise had developed a bad cold complete with cough and runny eyes and nose and needed a comfortable place to recuperate.

Yoni and Lise took us to the strip in Los Vegas for a very good dinner at a fancy French restaurant.  We walked some along  the strip, and the only place I have ever seen so much neon is along the walking street in Shanghai. It is definitely in a class by itself. Atlantic City is no more just a smaller version of Las Vegas than Philadelphia is just  a smaller version of New York. Garish is the only word that even begins to describe it. There is, among other things, a replica of the Eiffel Tower, half the size, but still plenty large. There is a fountain that pops up every fifteen minutes or so that makes Old Faithful in Yellowstone look like a piker. There is noise and a large crowd of people everywhere. There were 5 women still walking around in their wedding gowns. There were people passing out playing cards of young women scantily dressed and in provocative poses which say "Full Service. In your room in 20 minutes. Call (phone number)" and the price. I'm not sure exactly what "Full Service" means but it doesn't seem all that mysterious. The most amazing thing on the card was the price - just $35.00 seemed dirt cheap for a "full service" visit.