The Minigans are Adventuring Again - Days 4 & 5

Day 4 - Leaving Portland, Heading to the Vegas area.

Day 4 was mostly a travel day with a great evening adventure.  Waking up early seems to be the norm for us so an early breakfast before departing was easy.  We walked to our favorite little neighborhood restaurant, Zell's and had our final breakfast in Portland.  As much as I hate to leave I am also excited about our next chapter in our vacation.  Our waitress is getting to know us and we chat quite a bit.  She is from the Indianapolis area so another Midwesterner.  She moved out to Portland a few years ago not knowing a soul and is so happy.  She told us she love everything about the Portland area and can't imaging living anywhere else. She is such a sweet girl.  We have a great breakfast and say our goodbyes. The airport awaits....

Our flight is uneventful and we land in Vegas with our jackets still on...... until we walk outside.  98 degrees.  We end up in a Cadillac SUV.  Ha!  Aren't we fancy.  It has air conditioned seats which by the way, we learn to love.

The ride to the hotel is less than 30 minutes.  We stayed in Henderson because neither of us are really bit gambling people and we didn't want to stay on the strip.  We are still at a hotel/casino though.  Walking through the hotel and casino is still the same.  The sounds, the smells, the people...

We have made arrangements to meet Jim's cousin for dinner.  She is in the Henderson area and suggests the place to meet.  Pasta Shop Restaurant.    Fantastic dinner and great company,  Jim had met Jody once before but I had never met her.  What a pleasant experience!  Dinner was amazing and the conversations did not stop. We went to a custard place for desert and our talks continued.  Such a great way to end our evening!  Unfortunately, we had to say our goodbyes and head back to the hotel.

Great evening!

Day 5 - Nevada to California.

Jim's View

We wake up ready and rarin' to go!  We stop at the restaurant downstairs on our way out and have a quick breakfast.  The waitress is fantastic and she and Jim share jokes back and forth.  It's nice to talk to people and learn about them.  Jim's view is also quite cool. I have the hallway view and not quite so cool.  We finish our breakfast and figure out our route to Death Valley.

Amazingly, the route to Death Valley from Henderson, NV takes us right through Parump, NV.  Home of the infamous ..... wait for it.....
CHICKEN RANCH!

Now of course the Chicken Ranch in Parump does not have chickens.  It is a well known brothel.  But it is so much fun to visit and take photos.  And NO, we did not go in!  I'm sure this photo will end up in multiple places.  :-)

Off we go to Death Valley.  Although the temperature is above hot, it continues to rise the further we go.  Does that stop us?  Nope.  We continue on.

One of the things we are determined to do is go the the lowest elevation in North America.  This is located in the Badwater Basin.  It is 282 ft, below sea level.  And it is hot.  There are signs that say " It is dangerous and not recommended to walk after 10:00 am.  We did anyway.  Along with at least 100 other people.  It was really, really hot.  We saw two guys that we had met earlier in the day and talked to them for a bit.  We had originally met them at the entrance to Death Valley.  They had asked Jim to help them lower the convertible top on their car.  We had also helped each other take photos.  The were from England and we saw them quite  a few times throughout the day.

We continued driving through Death Valley.  Borax Mines,  ghost towns, Indian villages.  Spectacular views.  More spectacular views.

Furnace Creek was one of our stops.  Amazing heat.  Ridiculous heat.  And we were out walking around in it.  The National Park visitor center was there so we stopped for a bit.

The temperature reading outside was a bit of a tourist attraction. 110 degrees!  Well worth the experience though.

Our next stop was the ghost town of Rhyolite,  Originated in 1904.  Died in 1907.  Had a population of 6,000 people at it's peak. Made  us stop and think about the history of the area.

 

They had done some fun little things around the abandoned town for tourists the were kind of cut but the reality of the town was interesting enough.

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By this point we were pretty done.  Between the heat and all of the driving, we decided to head back to Henderson.  We made it back with no problem.  Chose to eat dinner at a restaurant in the hotel/casino.  Our waitress was from a small town in Mexico...... Zihuatanejo.. Guerrrero.  Super, Super nice lady and she gave us great service. She and Jim talked about Mexico.   It was great talking with her. 

Now, time for bed.  Another busy day tomorrow!