Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Departures: Nevadan Countryside

As alluded to in a previous post, one of the highlights of visiting Las Vegas was not spent in Vegas, but rather, driving far far away from it. We rented a car (I realize we were in the States, but it was still weird seeing the Thrifty rental lot with ONLY American cars available - all the UGLY ones at that), and had a plan to drive to Boulder city, the Hoover Dam, up through Lake Mead National Recreation Area, and through the Valley of Fire State Park.

Our only problem - the GPS unit we borrowed from my uncle was distinctly patriotic. It just refused to recognize we were in the US. When it finally stoppped picketing, and realized we were in Nevada, NOT Alberta, it sort of went on the fritz rebooting at will. Coupled with Anita's complete inability to decipher anything that remotely resembles a map, we had a hell of a time just getting out of the parking lot of the rent-a-car centre (not even exaggerating here). If this were the Amazing Race, we'd be that dead last couple fighting about who forgot to pack the sandwiches. The only race we'd 'win' would be the one way road to acrimonious divorcehood. And the losers are...

Thankfully, the GPS eventually broke out of its funk (AKA user error), and the turn by turn system eventually guided us onto the Interstate, and we enjoyed the most incredibly scenic drive through the Nevadan desert. Which, incidentally, is full of strange Martian landscapes of red red rock, arches, coulees, and more red rock. Very cool. See for yourself. And as per usual, I don't do landscapes cause I suck at them, hence the endless closeup photos of rocks and their textures.












The very apty named, Elephant Rock.








This set of rock formations was called The Beehives.


This mini mountain wasn't named, but I kept seeing a half sitting, half laying Buddha in it. Buddha rock.










2 comments:

  1. recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......recalculating.......


    i think they still have a long way to go with the GPS tehcnology. If this is what they use in the army, no wonder they don't win anything. HA HAAAAAAAAAAA oh that was funny

    ReplyDelete
  2. You do so do landscapes, pretty good landscapes.

    ReplyDelete