Leaving Las Austin

It was hard, folks, to leave Austin, where I've been very happy since August, 1996, where I have family and friends, and where I've been so comfortable. But it also seemed too early to settle down and retire, so this job opportunity in Las Vegas finally proved a bit too tempting.

So here I am, in Las Vegas, Nevada, unbelievably, and I want to do a bit of blogging so that I can just put out one effort to write about what's going on here and anyone of you who wants/cares to can read it whenever you want, rather than having to sit through one of my long e-mails!

This is the first, and I'll talk some about our trip across half the country to get here. Hope you got the reference to the movie "Leaving Las Vegas" in my title. Of course, I'm doing the opposite, but it seemed a catchy beginning.

I spent the week between Christmas and New Year's, with LOTS of help from Karen (my daughter) and Lisa (my friend), cleaning out the condominium and filling up the motor home. Karen is superb at forcing--er, helping--one clean out, recycle, and throw away stuff. We built big piles of things that went away altogether (either thrown out or recycled), small neat piles in corners and closets of things that I didn't want here but I would want when I got back, and a mess in the motor home of the things I felt I HAD to take with me. Well, it isn't too much of a mess now, because there is oooodles of storage room, and Charlie has spent most of today re-packing and re-arranging and he's a jewel! But towards the end, I was just tossing stuff willy-nilly into bags and boxes and throwing them into the motor home or into my car. Ultimately, though, I think I left my condo in pretty good shape for Chris, my new renter, who returned last night (Friday, 1/5) to a sparkling clean place, thanks to my friend Barbara, who cleaned it for me on Thursday.

My brother Charlie arrived Sunday, as expected, though his suitcase took an extra 6 hours to get here. We spent Monday with my daughter and her family in what I thought might be my last visit with them. Then Tuesday we went to U-Haul for our tow dolly. They fitted it up and we came back to the condo, where I continued loading and Charlie packed and did whatever odds and ends needed to be done before our trip.

Wednesday was D-(for "Departure")Day. We set ourselves an envelope of from 8 a.m. to noon: if we left during those hours, we'd probably get to the Oasis RV Resort Park by Friday, my arrival date. It was tight: we had to have the car put on the dolly (U-Haul likes to do that themselves, to ensure it's done right, and we were happy to comply). Then we had a Last Breakfast at Cafe Java, one of my hangouts, stopped at the Post Office to pick up a change of address form, and were off: at 12:15. Okay, a bit of allowance there--we were working hard!

We headed southwest on 290, and, of course, it began to rain before we reached Dripping Springs. But it wasn't (at least at first) a hard rain, so we were fine with it. I have to say I'm using the editorial "we" here: my brother drove every single one of the miles we drove to get here. I rode shotgun for the few times when a shotgun was needed (you ought to see the desert between Kingman, AZ, and Hoover Dam--LOTS of Indians there!). Anyway, the rain never bothered him in the least, and he drove through it for a good 10-12 hours.

The trip from Austin to I-10, southwest of San Antonio, was the least fun leg of our trip. But even that was not at all unpleasant. Those miles were slow because we went through lots of little (and medium-sized) towns, but Charlie was quite interested in their quaintness and architecture, so that part of the trip went quickly. We ate supper in a truck stop somewhere in west Texas, and Charlie said he wasn't tired, so we pushed on. I hoped we'd get to El Paso, and then I thought it'd be fun to stop there so that we could see the mountains in daylight. But Charlie wasn't tired, so we stopped at a Wal-Mart to buy a blanket for the couch (note that, those of you who really DO come to visit: I now have a blanket and pillows for the couch. I AM READY for you!), and pushed on. We got into New Mexico that night around 2 a.m. and stayed in a truck stop, surrounded by fire-breathing dragons and---no, those were just 18-wheelers with their generators running. A nice secure place to stop after driving 703 miles, and we were very comfortable.

In the morning, we got on the road again about 9 a.m. and looked for Waffle Houses or IHOPs, but found none, so we settled for a Denny's in Deming, NM. The weather was outstanding, no wind, no rain, no clouds whatsoever, and, feeling quite rested and on top of things, we just sailed along. We were on I-10 until we got into Arizona to Phoenix, and it was there that we had to make the biggest decision of the trip.

Google Maps had suggested that we take I-17 north to Flagstaff, AZ, where we'd join I-40 and go west, young man, to Kingman, AZ. There, we'd pick up state road 93 up to Hoover Dam and into NM and Las Vegas. Sounded reasonable, and interstates, when you're hauling a rig like ours, were reliable and WIDE. But looking at the map showed that the straight line from Phoenix to Kingman, using state routes 60 and 93, was much more direct. However it was not interstate, so we were unsure how easy it would be for the motor home to travel on those roads. But Charlie has a great attitude: "I don't care if we have 20 cars lined up behind us as we crawl up a mountain. I've got as much right to be here as anyone, and they can just enjoy the scenery." Of course, since he was the "lead dog" in those situations, his scenery changed constantly. They, however, were mostly just looking at his back end! But there was lots of scenery to the side, and we enjoyed it all.

And we cut at least 50 miles off our trip, so it was worth it. When we got to Kingman, AZ, we discovered that we'd driven about 500 miles and were then about 100 miles from Las Vegas (70 miles from Hoover Dam, which is the AZ-NV border). Since my shower was full of plants and such, Charlie wanted to stop at a motel for the night, which was fine with me. He whipped that rig around the parking lot of the brand new Hampton Inn & Suites that we found, again just as if it were a small car. He backed and filled, and literally turned that thing around in a space that I'd have had trouble with in my little car. While I checked in, he managed all of that, so that when the manager came out to be sure he wasn't in the fire lane, she was absolutely amazed--as was everyone around, except Charlie. We had a great night there (I LOVE Hampton Inns: their beds are fabulous, and they have a lap table in every room. Made me realize I'm going to have to buy a lap table, since I left mine in Austin).

Got up yesterday and were on the way at 10--but of course we moved into the Pacific time zone along the way, so it was really 9. We only had 100 miles to go, but they included a very scary trip across Hoover Dam--in high winds, no less (the police, who search every vehicle going across the dam, told us that there were High Wind Advisories issued the night before for the next 24-hour period). Charlie had been there 35 years ago and kept looking around and pointing things out that he remembered. I was white-knuckled, holding on to my seat, positive we were going over the edge any second. And then I would remember how perfect our trip had been so far and realize there was nothing to fear, and I'd relax--until the next curve. He took some pictures, some of which I can perhaps include here.

THAT in itself was incredible: here we are in this rig, a 32-foot motor home, with a car dolly and a car behind it, which he handled like it was a simple SUV--and he found a pull-off area ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROAD and just whipped that thing across traffic and into that area, parked it, got out, took his pictures, got back in, and whipped it back out, across traffic, and on we went.

That was it: we got here around 12:15, after about 30 hours behind the wheel. It was an amazing time all the way around. And this place is also amazing, both the place where I've parked my motor home, and the city itself, now that I'm seeing it with the eyes of someone who's going to be living here.

But that's for another time. Let's try for tomorrow, when I'll focus on the park itself.