The 234-mile drive to our first stop on the way to the Utah parks, Pahrump, Nevada, was pleasant and easy, and took us through some desert areas we’d never seen before. Quite striking sedimentary layers on the surrounding mountains. We are staying at the Preferred RV Resort, just a block from the center of activity (that is, two casinos) in Pahrump (population 37,000). Pahrump is in the middle of nowhere, halfway between Las Vegas and Death Valley.
The park is very nice and we have a good site.
On setting up, I realized the valve on the black tank was stuck in an open position. That’s not good. I found a local mobile RV repairman, who diagnosed the problem and we agreed on an appropriate solution. Unfortunately, the manufacturer of our rig didn’t agree with our proposal, and we are having a warranty fight as this is written. The repairman is due back on Saturday to fix the valve problem, and to replace a seal in our toilet.
The next order of business was to get Becky a new band for one of her watches, and to pick up an early dinner at the local Panda Express. (Travel days are so exhausting.) Early Thursday morning we headed for the Furnace Creek area of Death Valley, a 120-mile roundtrip.
We needed to get Becky’s National Park Passport stamped. We also wanted to see if any of our buddies from Xanterra days were available. It turns out they (Alma and Mike Norman and Jerry Smith) were not working that day so we had no way to see them. We left them notes, though.
Early Friday we had an appointment to tour our RV park facilities and listen to a sales pitch. We were very impressed and decided to become members.
It gives us a nice alternative to hanging around Southern California all winter. Then we had a late breakfast at Terrible’s Town (one of the casinos), I picked up a prescription for Daisy, rented “My Week With Marilyn” at the Red Box outside Walgreen’s, and spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing. I thought the movie was interesting and well done.
Saturday morning, Becky headed for Las Vegas to drop off some of our stuff at our storage place, and to have lunch with Paula Browne.
Paula was one of Becky’s people when Becky was the manager of the Union Bank branch in Santa Monica in the ‘80s. Paula has now been a commercial banker with a multi-state territory, based at Wells Fargo branch in Las Vegas for many years.
While she was there, I “helped” the repairman (Jesse Rosson, of 1st Choice RV Service), who spent almost five hours working around our trailer. He got everything done. He had a very professional way about him (he was a former Marine, after all) and was quite knowledgeable. Altogether it was a nice experience.
Saturday night we ventured across the street to the Nugget Hotel & Casino, to have a free dinner at the buffet---a treat given to us for having gone through the sales pitch at our RV park. The meal was only so-so, but since it was free that's OK. It also happened to be the eleventh anniversary of the hotel's opening, and we each got a free T-shirt as a bonus.
Whoopee!
When we got home, we watched one of the 60 "The Closer" episodes we have on our DVR. (Saturday night TV is so boring.) On Sunday, we visited one of the two local wineries and restocked our "cellar" with some of their nice stuff. We also hit the Red Box for "Tower Heist" which was pretty good (some very funny dialog) but a bit too unbelievable for a caper movie.
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