On the Road Again: Headed north to complete the loop
Time to leave Sun City for Sin City. Two days of 110+ heat and one a bit cooler, 99, two nights of promises from thunder and rain storms that never materialized and we're off towards Sparks via Las Vegas and Tonopah. Tap the photos to advance.
Vegas is Vegas. To get there you need to go up US 93 and that's going to take you through Kingman and the original RT 66. We've been hitting it on and off since Illinois, St. Louis, Oklahoma & Santa Fe. You pretty much parallel it after Oklahoma City through the Nations and the Texas panhandle.
In Vegas we found a great sushi restaurant just up the road from our hotel. We've been eating everything regional on our trip and didn't really want to hit chain BBQ or steak houses, which were all else that were near. Ohjah popped up on Yelp and had good reviews. Since we both like "bait" properly prepared we drove about 5 min up the road. It was too hot to walk and the streetscape out at Rainbow and Lake Meade in the Sumerlin neighborhood is not pedestrian friendly.
After clearing up the mistaken thought that the old white couple was there for hibachi, like most tourists and their clientele, we left the grill room and grabbed two seats in the middle of the sushi bar. Our chef, Jonny, was a real treat. We gorged ourselves on rolls and nigiri but when we hit the takki makke, then asked for tako and unagi, choosing sea eel rather than fresh I had to ask about Uni, sea urchin. When he found out that we were from Seattle and Cath had worked in the fishing industry for a couple decades he prepared his special chef salmon for us. Oh, my god, it was some of the best prepared salmon either of us had eaten. We had to catch a photo of Jonny and Min with the Bozo. If you're in Vegas, enjoy good sushi and near one of their restaurants, especially the Lake Mead one, go there. Bozo gives it 5 clowns.
THIS is Rachel, NV
Last spring we came home from spring training via US 95. We wanted different scenery this time so we chose to go back towards the Great Basin via US 93 and took Nevada 318 & 375 through a bunch of really small towns, some no more than a closed store, in the center of Nevada. This stretch of highway is fuel free for 150 miles. Top off before you leave Crystal Springs on US 93 if you're not sure of your range with remaining fuel. We had to stop in Rachel and get some souvenirs for our daughter.
This is some really pretty country, if you can get into the right frame of mind. It's different from New Mexico and Arizona. You have to watch the plants as they change due to elevation and soil, or rock, type. Huge vistas, even against the ones we've seen over the past 9000 or so miles. The route we took through the state is labeled as the Extraterrestrial Highway. You decide. Is the desert depression at Rachel a dry lake or an alien landing pad? It's only about 50 miles as the crow flies from the Tonopah Test Site.
We're in Tonopah now. Tonight we hit the Tonopah Brewing Company, right across the highway. Craft brewed beers and excellent barbecue and smoked meats. We were there last spring on our way home and look forward to going back. Part of the reason we choose sushi the night before. We knew we were doing the "cue" tonight.
About time to eat so,,,
Just got done. They had a burnt ends special tonight. Paired with their Mucker Red Irish Ale I'm stuffed.
We're sitting at the pool watching the sunset turn purple.
Ciao for now. Sorry for the photo format errors throughout the blog. Once we get home and upgrade our computer I'll go in and fix it.