Clinton Smith will probably recognize this because they do Civil War reinactments here and I'll betcha he's been here! There's a May bluegrass festival, and all kinds of other events to bring people to this adorable western-style ghost town during the year. I'd love to be their artist in residence, but doubt I could stand the 122 degree summertime heat. I imagine I'd be REALLY cranky in that! GAK! I wouldn't mind having a few classes here... pen/ink and pastel. The landscape is very rugged, but the buildings are adorable. More on this when I upload those photos.Here's a recap for the past few days:
Friday, February 4, 2011
Laughlin, NV
This is a different place. Casino strip along the river and I might take in TRUE GRIT or go see Diamond Rio tonight. Windy as heck; I left Karen and Bob Budan's lovely graciousness this morning around 9 and arrived here 2:30 AZ or 1:30 NV time to go to the DMV to figure out the paperwork on CoCo. Turns out this is a mess, so it's time for the detective Suzi Drewalot to get to work. I pulled into the Riverside parkinglot, made up a soda/Stevia root beer, and tried to get online... funny parking is practically free (8 hrs to start free), rooms are $25/night or less, but 8 hrs of WiFi is $8.25. So... I spied a Starbucks not far and will meander that way soon.
Wind buffets again; can't turn to face into it, but hope to take my camera out for a stroll in a few minutes to see what the river looks like in both directions. I will definitely make my way to the Hoover Dam on Saturday or Sunday, since I'm really quite close, and maybe spend a little time in LV tomorrow. I'm thinking MAYBE I can find something to paint here today. We'll see.
The nice dentist gave me 3 gift cards for Starbucks... turned out to be $10 each! so that was awesome nice, (but I can't find them in Coco! They've disappeared!!!!) and if anyone is coming this way or wants his name, I'll be happy to provide that. Very nice, capable dentistry.
If I catch a movie now, I can get out in time for sunset. Tata!
Yesterday afternoon I saw TRUE GRIT - liked it - then went out to the rv for a little cash and returned for a 7:00 p.m. Diamond Rio show.
Less than $40, big name many years ago. 6 old dudes (but probably all younger than moi) up there on the stage; the drummer was behind a lucite screen... guess he was too loud. I felt like a youngster! Lots and LOTS of "OLD" people here, in this audience and in the casino; I sat with 2 couples, one lady next to me had NOTHING to say to me; the other couple across the table were very nice, from Wisconsin, out to beat the winter, 4 days including air for $279. I asked if that was apiece or for both and he said yes. Pretty unbelievable! but certainly a nice break from winter. If we Mendonesians were closer to an airport, I'll bet we could fly out to Laughlin for oh $697 EACH for 4 days in July. But I speculate...
Then I wandered through the casino, upstairs and down. The lights everywhere, the dinging and din of slot machines,
This one is for Chris...The casino noise is still reverberating in my ears. I managed to drop a couple $20s in slots because I didn't find the blackjack tables until I was on my way out; free rv parking for 8 hours and my time was almost up and I didn't want to drycamp in their parking lot, so I left for a hook-up park across the river for $14 for the night.
I drove through the riverside park and found an empty slot next to a long 5th wheel with a checkered carpet, and matching Harleys. Here's a picture from this morning; See CoCo reflected in the gas tank!
I heard their truck pull in around midnight. If I couldn't hear the occasional freeway noise now, it would be extremely quiet here. Last night was calm and quiet, and it's much warmer than AZ. It's probably almost 70 out there now, at almost 7:30 a.m.
Made my coffee and got back into bed to catch up on my ejournal blog. No WiFi here but I'll download pictures to share later.
It's like a mini Las Vegas here, the "strip" has casinos along the street only on the river side; parking lots or empty lots on the opposite side. For about a mile. Then about 2 miles away is a shopping mall next to the housing developments. I'll try to reconnoiter today or tomorrow as I drive toward Henderson and the Hoover Dam. Actually, I'll probably leave today but after a whole day of driving, it's nice to take a whole day of rest and if I settle in to a painting, well, I'm stayin' right here!
Well, it's 8:30... let's go see what's happening outside! See you later!
I went to see the Petroglyphs and met Andy and Rita, nice folks from Big Bear. They were into their 3rd year in a 21' sprinter. Having a blast. She's a writer and might just use my painting/photo for one of her articles! Never know who you'll meet out on the road!
Big sign said DO NOT CLIMB ON THE ROCKS so I got a picture of this woman's butt and asked for their email... but didn't get it! Hahahaha! See the petroglyphs? VERY interesting!
Sunday, 5:50 p.m. February 6 2011
I found the Ghost Town at Calico, CA, and have decided to hang out here for the night. Checkout isn't until 1:00 p.m. tomorrow, and if I do decide to leave tomorrow, I hope to have at least ONE great painting of something at this fun little place. They do Civil War reinactments here, and have a May bluegrass festival, and several other events during the year to get people to come here. In 2001 there was a big fire that destroyed much of the uphill buildings, but what's left is pretty cute. I took several photos today and managed a quick sketch of the little schoolhouse on the hill. At first I thought it was a church because of the bell tower on top, but it's up there on the hill by itself. Very "western" theme-y town, nice people, lots of shops... leather, quilting, gifts, pottery, and a live-nearby artist who does work like this:
I think it would be fun to be here for a week or two and paint during the spring or fall, before/after the heat, because I imagine it gets mighty hot around here in the summertime. It's about 30 miles east of Barstow.
I did alot of driving today from Boulder City/Lake Mead/Hoover Dam all the way to here, and rather than push on, I thought a painting day was in order. It's $25 to stay the night with water and electricity, and rather than dry-camp (no amenities) I went for the whole enchilada. Woowoo! I already had dinner (corn tortilla quesadilla with Pace salsa and a Tbs of watery sour cream and a little pile of sliced lettuce and red cabbage) at the "restaurant" here while watching the Black Eyed Peas do whatever it was they were doing for the SuperBowl half-time show. I've never seen them, and wasn't particulary impressed except by the youngster from the only other occupied table, about age 4 or 5, doing a moon-walk and singing along to words I couldn't understand from the performers OR the little kid. His mommy knew the words too! Look Folks! A whole new generation!
I skirted Las Vegas, with no desire to stop and gamble,
I did think about stopping to do this, but I never passed East Tropicana Street/Avenue/Blvd/Rd/etc. boohoo :0bor see a show or do anything other than get through Nevada. I got a photo of their highway trim, granite rock about 3-4" diameter, (reading over this, it's so booooooooooring I'm NOT uploading the photo) completely different from Arizona highway overpass art, but interesting, and very tidy. No litter around here, surprisingly, but LOTS of Daly City-type housing that all looked boring and brown.
And the town of Primm (possibly formerly PrimaDonna, because that's what my map said) was an amusement park out there in the desert complete with roller coaster, and Whiskey Pete's Casino. I didn't stop there, either. *** The road looked alot like this ***, another great perspective lesson, and the roads had great names like this: ***
and the only difference here was lots more traffic than anywhere else on my journey so far. I guess Sunday LA residents returning from a wild weekend in Vegas.
As I was returning to CoCo, I came across a woman in long skirted costume dumping out packages of oatmeal and said it was for the CHUKKERS. She said it was a bird larger than a quail, smaller than a chicken, that walked like a woman holding up her skirts! She gave me 2 packs!!! Can't wait to see them tomorrow morning! I'll take pictures!
Well, I saw the chukkers... and I didn't have my camera with me! They were very odd larger-than-ringneck dove-size birds, and they didn't stay around very long. The chipmonk liked the oatmeal, however!
xoxo suzi
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