11/16/2021. Las Vegas, Nevada

For the last 2 weeks Sandy and I have been camping at Oasis Resort which is just off the Las Vegas Strip.  Although we are not gamblers, Las Vegas is a relatively inexpensive location to visit locations such as Death Valley National Park, Valley of Fire State Park, Painted Rocks at Seven Magic Mountains, Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, and of course the Las Vegas Strip. 

Lucky for us we had to change the permit we had to visit Red Rock Canyon due to a conflict.  (Permits are required in Many of the National Parks now).  The day we were originally scheduled there was a shooting at the visitor center.  Apparently a male visitor went nuts and the authorities ended up shooting him.

Also about 3 weeks back we spent quite a bit of time in Zion National Park only to find out that 3 weeks later there was a rock slide across the road we were driving on which closed down the park.  

The end of our visit to Las Vegas found us at a Freightliner dealer to get some work done on the COW.  Two days later and $1000 lighter we are ready to move on to our next location which is Lake Havasu.

PS. Two weeks here and didn’t put a nickel into a slot machine :-)

I hope you enjoy the attached pictures:

11/16/2021. Charged by Long Horn Sheep

Sandy and I went hiking in the “Valley of Fire” which is one of the Nevada State Parks on the “Fire Wave trail”.  About an hour outside of Las Vegas.  We hiked into what is called the “WAVE” which a a bunch of rock that have been pushed up into what looks like waves.  We completed the hike in and  were hiking back out to the trail-head.  As we came closer to finishing the trail we stumbled across a family of Long Horn Sheep consisting of a couple adult males, females, and a group of younger sheep.  As we were watching the long horn sheep people started to accumulate along side of the road and began exiting their vehicles walking toward the family of long horn sheep.  Mind you we are still on the trail walking up toward the road probably 1/4 mile down from the road itself.  One lady decided to get as close as she could to get a better picture.  Maybe 15’ away.  Sandy and I had stopped hiking to watch the sheep and started to discuss how close the lady was getting thinking she is asking for trouble.  All of the sudden the two big males took off at a running pace directly at Sandy and I.  We froze knowing that no matter which way we dodged we could be directly in their path.  At the last minute (maybe 10’ from us) they realized that they were dead heading directly at us and the sheep quickly made a adjustment to miss us by maybe 10’.  I wanted to yell at the lady for putting us in harms way but I bit my tongue.

Sometimes you just want to smack some people, but they are clue-less.