Pahrump, Nevada

October 28-30, 2013:

We left "The Pond" in Beatty, NV at 10 AM traveling south on Route 95 battling a 25-30 MPH headwind.  The wind was blowing much sand around in places and the mountains were partially obscured in the dust clouds.  After 60 miles we turned off onto route 61 to the town of Pahrump, Nevada.  We had called the Pair-A-Dice Escapees CO-OP RV Park earlier and there were no open RV sites, but room was available in their boondock area for $ 5.00 a day so we took it.  These Escapee CO-OP Parks have lots of amenities and are a nice, safe, friendly, cheap place to stay if you can tolerate the all senior, folksy, happy camper activities side of the RV spectrum.

Route 95 heading for Pahrump, NV, that's a straight road !

The "Pair-A-Dice Escapees Park has a view

Nevada is a weird state, it's a desolate and inhospitable country that is mostly owned by the Government, large portions are used for military bombing practice, what hasn't been bombed has been dug and blasted to hell (Mining), but it still has some of the most beautiful mountain vistas on the planet.  They are politically conservative yet they have legal brothels and gambling is everywhere.  I do believe the aliens may have landed here.

The town of Pahrump is a basically a number of casinos and RV Parks, fireworks stores, pawn shops surrounded by a cheap strip Malls.  It doesn't have a real downtown, isn't very appealing and I don't know why anyone wants to be here other than you can get to Vegas in about an hour.  We went to the local historical museum and it seems Pahrump had been a few ranches, a large Cotton farm, a general store, a few small houses and one Casino until the 1960's when they installed electricity.  (Hard to believe, no electricity until the 1960's) !!!

On Tuesday, the windstorm passed and it was a nice day with blue sky and large cumulus clouds.  Twinkles and I need some alone time once in a while, 24/7 together is excessive, so I took off to Red Rocks Canyon National Conservation Area.  It is a beautiful ride and the scenery was stunning.  This place is sort of a hidden gem, people don't know about it, millions go to Vegas and have no idea of this amazing place a few miles outside of town.  I stopped at the Red Rocks campground and it looks doable for us, I think that will be our next move.  On the way back to Pahrump, I saw a sign for the "World Famous Mountain Springs Saloon, so I had to check it out.  I don't know about World Famous, but legendary for sure !  They have dollar bills, panties and bras decorating about every inch inside, a wood fire burning in the fireplace, slot machines all over, a cat lounging on a bar table top and water dripping from the roof swamp cooler into a bucket on the floor.  They have a sign or tee shirt that says; What happens at the Mountain Springs Saloon, didn't happen.

Watch out for the Burro's

Red Rock Canyon entrance

A happy Burro family, they eventually crossed the road

View from the trail in Red Rocks Park

Spanish Trail historical marker, it went through area

Mountain Springs Saloon

Interior of the Saloon

Wednesday morning I made myself some home fries to get into the right frame of mind for some RV maintenance.  I restrung another failed window shade, tightened a couple of loose screws and lubed the rear stabilizers that have developed a squeak.  We then visited the Pahrump Museum where they enticed us to come back on Saturday for their special event. The big revelation we learned at the museum was that Pahrump was once a major cotton growing area in Nevada and they even had two cotton picking machines out back.

Breakfast of Champions

Pahrump cotton display

Pahrump Rodeo belts on display

A restored Railroad Tie house at the museum

Restored Pahrump general store

Twinkles thought it was Robin Hood, I said a cowboy ?

Possibly an early RV ?

Pahrump cotton pickers

Pahrump Water Wagon

In the evening we tried out three of Pahrump's Casinos and donated a few dollars to the cause.  The gambling bug is definitely not in us, we have about a $10 limit !  

We are waiting for a mail delivery tomorrow morning, then we are getting out of "Podump" and heading for the beautiful Red Rocks country.    

Happy Trails,

Twinkles and Slick