Vegas! Baby!
We made it! After getting up at 3AM to make our flight, we had a pretty uneventful flight from Boston to JFK to Vegas, baby! We gathered up our 150+lbs of gear and got our rental SUV.

First item of business-Cruise the Strip!


It was really a hoot. It’s as tacky and gaudy as seen on TV. And folks seem to love it.

As soon as we cleared the Strip, we headed north to Pahrump, NV. First glitch of the trip….I didn’t lay out the route like I always do, so we ended up north and east of our target. A quick perusal of the map and we landed in Pahrump without further ado. We laid in supplies and were off to Tecopa Hot Springs for a loooooooooooong soak after a looooooooong day on the road.


Tecopa is a really cool place, an oasis in the desert. There are about 100 full time residents between Tecopa and Shoshone, but it’s a little artists enclave. There are several resorts in the area all with hot mineral springs for their guests to use. So, after a shower to wash off the travel of the day, we slid into 104 degree water and felt the miles melt away.

After the soak, we made dinner in our kitchen, toasted with champagne and were about to turn in when we decided to check out the “Star Party” going on behind our cabin. Apparently, this is a regular deal here. A couple of astronomers (Check them out at www.astrochannels.com ) have set up camp there and have an amazing set up. The telescopes are hooked into computers and they have a digital feed to a projector focused on the side of their trailer.


We saw spiral nebulae, Saturn, and many other astronomical wonders. Finally, the day caught up with us and we turned in.

On Sunday we got up and drove up through Death Valley to our Motel6 in Beatty, NV. Our home for the next few days.

Today we’re off to The Racetrack to photograph the moving stones. More later!

Cheers!