An unhurried start towards Vegas that morning. Fairly quickly encountering desert, we made good time along the fast roads. Something that had either changed since I was last there, or is perhaps a regional thing were the speed limits. I remember the north-east of north America as being quite retarded in their attitude to speed at times. I have no complaints with a 20 zone by a school, but when a speed limit drops from 65 to 35 on a straight flat open road, with no warning but a small sign and a cop sitting round the next corner, you began to see where all the polices revenues come from. And at $100 a time, speeding tickets are a good source of it. On most roads in the southwest, the limit is a more sensible 75. Originally, the 55 limit was introduced in the 70’s due to the fuel crisis at the time. As 56mph was then the most efficient speed for a car, that was the thinking behind the limit. However, when trying to cover 400 miles of desert, those extra 20mph make a lot of difference. The problem was that at such a pedestrian pace, people were simply falling asleep and killing themselves. In addition, fuel efficiency of cars is far better now, which is another reason behind the change, according to our American friends, who seemed to know what they were talking about. Although the desert is in no way a boring place in parts. We pulled of the main road at XXX and took a detour through the Mojave national preserve. We’d just missed the flowers of the spring, but still there were brilliant blues and purples, and whole orchards of Joshua Trees. We happened upon the Kelso Depot, a ghostly now-abandoned train servicing station, which is probably one of the remotest buildings I’ve ever seen.

Nevada: pop (1995e) 1 539 000; area 286 341 sq km/110 561 sq mi. State in W USA, divided into 16 counties; the ‘Sage Brush State’, ‘Battle Born State’, or ‘Silver State’; part ceded by Mexico to the USA in the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, 1848; included in Mormon-ruled Utah Territory, 1850; settlement expanded after the Comstock Lode silver strike, 1859; a separate territory, 1861; joined the Union as the 36th state, 1864; capital, Carson City; other chief cities, Las Vegas and Reno; rivers include the Colorado (part of the Arizona border) and Humboldt; L Pyramid and L Winnemucca in the W; L Tahoe on the Californian border; highest point, Boundary Peak (4006 m/13 143 ft); mainly within the Great Basin, a large arid desert interspersed with barren mountain ranges; an area of internal drainage, with most of the rivers petering out in the desert or ending in alkali sinks; in the rain shadow of the Sierra Nevada Mts of California; the driest of all the states; mostly unpopulated and uncultivated, with a few oases of irrigation; Hoover Dam creates L Mead; federal government owns 85% of Nevada’s land; mining (mercury, barite, silver, and several other minerals); a major gold supplier; oil discovered 1954; agriculture not highly developed; cattle, sheep, dairy products, hay, alfalfa; food processing, clay and glass products, chemicals, copper smelting, electrical machinery, high technology industries, lumber; tourism, notably the shores of L Tahoe, Death Valley National Monument (partly in Nevada), and the gambling resorts of Las Vegas and Reno (which attract around 20 million visitors each year; gaming taxes a primary source of state revenue); liberal divorce laws an attraction to many from outside the state; very rapid population growth (50% increase between 1980 and 1990).

Las Vegas: 36°10N 115°09W, pop (1995e) 331 000. Seat of Clark Co, SE Nevada, USA; largest city in the state; named after the natural meadows which served as camping sites on early trails to the W; settled by Mormons, 1855-7; purchased by a railway company, 1903; city status, 1911; airport; railway; university (1957); noted for its gaming casinos and 24-hour entertainment; commercial centre for a mining and ranching area; printing and publishing, chemicals, glass products; Mormon Fort, Liberace Museum.

A second visit to this City for both of us. In the three years, our impression was that the centre had doubled in size. One new feature was the newly opened “Speed, the ride” rollercoaster at the Sahara Hotel. This is 45 seconds of scream. As a seasoned coaster rider, I was determined to remain cool, calm and collected while Tracy stood pale and nervous next to me. We climbed in, strapped on and waited. And then we went. And how! 5,000hp of magnetic linear induction pulls you out of the station and to 40mph in under 2 seconds. A sharp right is closely followed by a loop, and finally dead straight up 200ft, and then you drop back down and do it all again in reverse. We went on twice, and I can honestly say that, especially the first time, I was not as cool, calm and collected as I’d though - it was 45 seconds of breathless expletive!
Before this, however, we had discovered one slight problem we hadn’t counted on…the fact that we had arrived not only during the weekend, but also coincided with a conference. Meaning that all the rooms were either full, or a ridiculous $249+tax and upwards, from their usual $30-$60. Even the sleaziest motel room was $119. So we drove up to the next town. And the next town. Then we had a 40 mile drive to the next town, and the only motel there was, you guessed, full. We were exhausted, and the next town wasn’t for 70 miles, so we put the seats back and slept in the car that night in a truckstop. Not too bad, all things considered. The only downside was that we had to drive all the way back to Vegas to swap rental cars. That’s 80 miles in total just to park! Even worse still, we were on the road that we were due to travel anyway. We had to swap cars because Alamo were going to charge us $500 for a one-way to Denver, but no charge for Vegas. And as Dollar don’t charge drop-off between Vegas and Denver, the only way was to do this swap.

Tags: america,travelogue,usa
Categories: america, travelogue