3000 Miles to Graceland

Yesterday, SPRING happened in Nevada.   Spring is my favorite season and this year because I'll be going back to Ohio in April, I get to experience spring twice!  Here is a cactus in bloom that we ran into.  Those cacti on either side, we found out later, are called "Jumping Cacti" Cylindropuntia fulgida because the parts actually jump out onto you if you get too close.  I was close and lucky I didn't get attacked!

Nelson, NV is where we ended up to see the desert in bloom.  Not an easy place to find, it turns out.  It is located at the southern tip of Nevada and has 37 residents.  Gold and silver was discovered there in 1861.  It's known as a ghost town.  And throughout the history of the town, there were disasters, killings and lots of sinister folks hanging around.  Then there were also flash floods from the nearby Colorado River that wiped out half the town!

What is left is the gold and silver mine, a ghost town and remnants of what is left.  Very fun to wander around.   The movie "3000 Miles to Graceland" was filmed there.

Not sure what happened there!  But it's also part of the town.

This is my favorite thing.  A piano sitting among the jumping cacti!!!  Name THAT tune!

 

Five miles down the road from Nelson is the Colorado River.  I took this picture with my cell phone and as eerie and surreal as this looks, that's how it was.  There were no other humans to be seen or heard there except hubby and me.  It was a place so peaceful.  That's something I needed after the past few weeks in my life.

There are no Paczki in Vegas

As someone of Polish descent, Pączki (pronounced POONCH-key) are a big part of Fat Tuesday.  In fact, in my family, it's a given that one must eat a Pączki each year on the Tuesday before Lent for good luck.

For the uninitiated, we are not talking about just a jelly donut.  Pączki are made from especially rich dough containing eggs, fats, sugar, yeast and sometimes milk. They feature a variety of fruit and creme fillings and can be glazed, or covered with granulated or powdered sugar. We are talking 450 calories and 25 grams of fat!   

Where I come from in the upper mid-west, there is a large Polish/Hungarian population and hence, there are Paczki in the grocery stores and bakeries all over the place.  Last week it dawned on me that there aren't even good donut shops in Las Vegas, let alone ethnic bakeries.  So where in the world would I find my lucky Paczki to enjoy and ensure a year ahead of good fortune??

I checked all of the local grocery stores--none.  The internet revealed ONE Polish delicatessen in Las Vegas.  And yes, they said they would have paczki!

However, I'm retired and sleep in until at least 9:30 AM (depending upon what time the Thunderbirds decide to practice over my bedroom).  By the time I rolled out of bed and got ready to leave, a phone call to the Polish delicatessen revealed that they were sold out of paczkis and had no idea where I could locate one.   The early bird gets the paczki, apparently.  I was out of luck. . . literally for the entire year.

However, I got a little text message from two young friends of mine later in the day.  They were wishing me a Happy Pączki Day and eating paczki on my behalf!  So maybe all is not lost.  Not sure if surrogate paczki eating will ensure good luck throughout the coming year.   We shall see!

Moapa Indian Reservation

Ten years ago on a visit to Las Vegas, I wanted to visit an actual Native American Indian reservation.  In the guidebooks, I found that close by was the Moapa Reservation AND they had a casino!  We hopped in the car with the directions (this was pre-GPS in the car) and off we went to find the casino.

A great big sign says "You are entering the Moapa Indian Reservation".  And after that sign, there was nothing for as far as the eye could see.  We decided to simply travel down the one road and surely there would be signs or we could see the casino or something.

On we journeyed to a crossroads.  After an argument and flip of the coin, we took the road that look most traveled.  And we drove and drove and drove.  Finally there was a little sign pointing ahead to a two pump gas station.  That wasn't the casino, we were certain.  On we traveled for miles and miles of just desert and tumbleweed until we looked at each other and said, "You don't think that gas station was . . . . . the casino!??"

We turned around and traveled back.  By this time, the entire day had been spent traveling the roads of the reservation.  If the Indians were hiding, they were doing it quite well, because we never saw a living thing!  On the horizon was the gas station again and we pulled in.  There was a little white metal building and then the gas pumps.  If nothing else, we thought we could go in and ask for directions to the casino.

I opened the door of the white metal structure and it was a tiny carryout.  On the left was a wall of about a dozen slot machines!  We had found the Moapa Casino!   I had to buy a souvenir of what turned out to be a day-long trip around the entire reservation.  I found a Moapa coffee mug on the shelf which I bought.

Having broken my Moapa coffee mug a year ago, I vowed to go back and get another one if we ever came back to Vegas.  So here we are.  Off we went to find the reservation again and replace my cofffee mug!

With a GPS, the Travel Plaza (as it is now called) was easy to find.  Now, they have an actual, yet still small, casino.  Also, now they are renowned for massive fireworks, cigarettes and booze sales tax free.  There is even a little restaurant where we had lunch.   I won $12 on a penny slot machine which paid for my lunch.

The sad part, though, is that they no longer sell Moapa Indian coffee mugs.  They had Elvis mugs!  And personalized blinking key chains.  And flipflops.  Seems like something has been lost even though a lot has been gained at the Moapa Travel Plaza.