Digital Nomad Summer - Part 15

Need to read Part 14?

On the last blog, we closed out our week at the Coleville/Walker KOA in Coleville, CA, where we had the opportunity to visit both Lake Tahoe and Yosemite National Park!

You never forget your first time seeing the lights of the Strip

When we planned our route for this trip, we knew we'd need to stay somewhere between Lake Tahoe and home for a week, and the road runs right through Las Vegas.  While it would be hot, there weren't a lot of "not hot" options along the way; we figured we might as well start reacclimating ourselves to the dry heat in a city where we knew we could board the girls for a night and enjoy an amazing dinner as well!

The Saturday drive was a challenging one, but not for the same reasons as the "Bodega Bay to Lakeside" or "Lakeside to the Olympic Peninsula" stretches.  This jaunt was 430 miles, and we did it in just under 9 hours (versus the 12 or 13 those other drives took), and the roads were great - straight and well paved.  However, since there isn't a lot of tall vegetation along these roads (we went from 5,000 feet of elevation in Coleville to around 2,000 feet in Vegas, and it's desert landscape most of the way), the winds whip through, and many of them come as unexpected cross gusts.  Additionally, because the roads are long and straight, people go nuts with passing - we don't ever mind folks passing us on two-lane roads, as we know we're slow, but sometimes, when drivers don't commit or try stupid stuff, it can get scary.  Just outside of Beatty, Nevada, three drivers had already passed us in a clump, when a fourth one leisurely meandered out as well.  This driver, however, didn't seem to know or care what was occurring, and two cars coming the opposite direction had to brake hard and swerve onto their shoulder (thankfully, there was one at the time) to avoid a head-on collision at 65mph.  The other option was for us to try to get onto the shoulder, so the errant driver didn't pull back into our side, and Chris was carefully making for that area when they finally stepped on the gas and finished passing the rig.  It was nothing short of terrifying - pretty much every road tripper's worst nightmare - and we're very thankful that nothing worse happened.  The girls, as you might imagine, slept through the whole thing.

We've been extremely lucky that, other than this, nothing truly scary has happened during our drives, and once our heart rates settled back to normal, we still enjoyed seeing the sights along the route.  I spied a few bighorn sheep way up in the cliffs as we skirted around the banks of Walker Lake, we passed through a few groves of Joshua trees (and other yuccas), and we drove right down the main street of Goldfield, Nevada, a former mining town (hard to imagine that from the name, right?), having their annual Goldfield Days at the Time.  

Coming into Goldfield

Lots of old-school and historic buildings converted to tourist offerings

The International Car Forest of the Last Church is in Goldfield as well.

Unfortunately, this is as close as we could get - the road leading to it

is not RV friendly, but it looks like a fun spot.

Most of the wide swaths of land in this area are open ranges, and we did see tons of cattle and horses (some which seemed to be wild).  We also passed several local burros, particularly once we stopped in Beatty to get gas.

We just finished gassing up the truck and were driving through a neighborhood

of sorts to get back to the 95 highway.

These guys were wandering through, hanging out in people's driveways.

This one was in no hurry to get out of our way.

Eventually, we crested a hill just southwest of Las Vegas and caught our first glimpse of the famous skyline:

There it is!

We pulled into our home for the next week, the Oasis Las Vegas RV Resort, and got checked in without any issues (we did end up upgrading our spot to ensure we had a grassy patch for the girls, but that was handled quickly and without hassle).  As you might imagine, it was hot, hot, hot when we arrived around 5pm, but before too long, the small tree next to us was shading the grass, and we all went to check out our new digs.

This place is huge (that's one of the laundry rooms in this shot with the girls)!

It's so funny - I walked in to the clubhouse to check in and went, "ah yes, we're in Vegas again."

From the giant fountain out front, to the faint smell of chlorine and sanitizer,

to the sounds of video gambling machines dinging from a corner somewhere -

the Oasis is clearly what happened when someone went,

"give me an RV park, but make it VEGAS!"

Tired and sweaty, we ordered pizza from local spot Crust & Roux through Uber Eats, and it was seriously incredible (they also make dessert pie, and we got a slice of cherry - it was just fine, which given how good the pizza was, was somewhat disappointing).  After strolling the girls to the on site dog runs so they could fully empty themselves (this section of the park had six all in a row, individually fenced with waste bags provided, etc. - it's not cheap, but the Oasis has more amenities we've ever seen in an RV park), it was off to bed for us.

Waking up on Sunday with no real obligations or places to go, we decided to engage in the time honored Vegas tradition of sitting by a pool and day drinking (Chris did run out first to Home Depot for a drill bit, to Walmart for dog food/treats, and to get a hair cut - the girls and I hung around the camper).  The Oasis has two different pools, one for all ages and one for just adults, and a hot tub, and we made good use of them.

Waiting for Chris to get back, watching the world go by

I think that's one of the Hilton Vacation Club towers

We ended up at the family pool, since there was more shade available

The family pool, complete with sandy beach (on the far side)

We also took an early morning trip to the big on site dog park, to attempt to wear out the girls before the heat of the day arrived:

Look, the Strip!  The girls are captivated.

The Oasis is close to Las Vegas Blvd, south of the airport and Strip proper

These kids can't come to the pool, so we brought along a small video camera

to keep an eye on them in the camper while we're away

(both of us were never gone for long).

The strand of toilet paper is taped to an air vent - if it's moving, the AC is still on

Sacked out puppies = success!

We spent the rest of the day hanging out in the AC inside Zelda, watching the new Guardians of the Galaxy movie, and grilling hot dogs and asparagus for dinner.

Monday, our first work day from Vegas, went off without a hitch (hooray, no tall trees to mess with the Starlink!), and we developed a routine that would last us the rest of the week. We'd wake up at 6, get the girls to the dog park, head back to the camper to make coffee/tea and breakfast, then work outside for a few hours while the dogs lounged in their pen in the grass - we had morning shade in our spot, so while it was warm, it was still reasonably pleasant outside in our chairs, particularly if a breeze was blowing (the word "reasonably" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence).  Around 10am, the heat would drive us inside, and we'd turn on the AC, working from different spots inside the camper until the work day ended, at which point we'd hit the pool for an hour before showering up, making dinner, and watching tv for the rest of the evening.  Once the sun went down (7:30ish), we'd stroll the girls back to dog runs and let them romp for a bit, emptying their tanks before bed.

The heat is no joke.  Chris is using one of our AC vents

to cool off his laptop after sitting outside in the shade.

The heat was definitely getting to the girls - in most of our other locations, they'd been ready to party all day long, and as a result, we walked them before work, after work, and during our lunch hours.  Here, though, they sleep through most of the heat of the day.  I certainly can't blame them (I'd trade with them for sure)!

Dog pile!  Bea is a very tactile animal.

Does Bea have her foot on your spleen?  That's how you know she loves you.

I'm trying to work here!

The girls are keeping an eye out the window for Chris, 

who dared go to the gym during his lunch hour

(fun note, he actually saw a professional boxer - not a super famous one - in the gym,

sparring with his trainer and surrounded by his team - only in Vegas!).

Pre-pool snuggles from the big terrier

Although the Oasis RV Resort is a great spot, by Tuesday, we were getting a little punchy being cooped up inside the rig.  It's not truly a stay in Vegas until you've seen the lights of the Strip, so when the sun set, we packed the girls into the truck and headed north on Las Vegas Blvd.  Although we knew the going would be slow, we didn't have anywhere to be, so we turned left on the Blvd and started our way toward the main drag, cruising along and enjoying the sights from our air conditioned truck.

Bea loves to watch out the truck window on our drives,

so we were curious to see how she'd do once we were in the middle of everything

I see it!  The Sphere, the newest addition to the Strip,

is that glowing orb on the right of the shot.

Driving past the famous Las Vegas sign - that's the MASSIVE line for pictures

Zoe peeked out the window a few times, but most of her drive looked like this:

Eventually, the sky darkened, and we got right into the thick of things:

Saying hello to the MGM Grand's lion

There's a BrewDog in Vegas now!

She found another Target dog!

As anyone who's visited Vegas knows, traffic on the Strip is beyond madness, and that was true even on a Tuesday night (there was still lots of construction underway for the inaugural F1 race happening in November).  Before too long, we got off the main drag and headed to find Chris some gelato; after that mission was successfully accomplished, we plotted a route home, making sure to include a drive by the newest addition to the Vegas skyline, the Sphere.  The Sphere is a concert and live events venue, but the real draw are the 1.2 million LEDs covering the outside, which change its appearance every few minutes.

A few shots as we drew closer to it (it's located on Sands Blvd, behind the Venetian/Palazzo from the Strip) - keep in mind that all of these images were in motion on the Sphere as well, which these shots don't capture:

Those are all basketballs bouncing around

This image was rippling, like water

It truly is huge - 516 feet wide and 366 feet tall, which will seat over 17,000 people.

Parked next to the Convention Center, it looked for all the world like a small planet

In these two shots you can also see the line of cars,

where people were parked, solely to take pictures of the Sphere

Done with the lights (but more over with the traffic), it was back home and to bed for all of us!

On the final blog in this series, we finish our last week of working from the road and head home.

Later!

Amy