Ann and I with Lake Mead behind us. It’s great to see her feeling better and traveling again.

On Tuesday, we made a long drive to Salt Lake City where we enjoyed dinner with my kids.  Unfortunately, we are so out of the practice of traveling that we forgot to take ANY photos!

On Wednesday, we made a short drive to Mesquite, Nevada, where we spent the night at a remodeled hotel called the Rising Star Sports Ranch, a place with a sports theme and without a bar or casino. it was cheap, but nice, so I was fine with that. I did NO work; instead we enjoyed an evening together. However, we did make this video which documents a robot that comes to your door to deliver food and drinks from the hotel’s concession. The delivery charge was $3, but Ann was so excited, it was worth the cost.

On Thursday, we traveled from Mesquite, Nevada, to Kingman, Arizona. We began our morning driving south on I-15. When we approached Nevada State Highway 169, we turned south.

Thursday’s drive from Mesquite to Kingman.

Highway 169 turned out to be a beautiful drive. One of the first things of interest we encountered was this Rooster themed bar in the Moapa Valley area.

Moapa Valley gave way to red rock, short grass, sage brush, and long views toward Lake Mead. We were all alone was we slowly followed the highway toward our first stop of the day: Valley of Fire State Park. I’d planned to stop in here last year as we drove south down Nevada, but we ran out of time.

You’ll note that our red jeep Henry was retired in favor of this ??? colored Jeep (we still aren’t sure what color it is — maybe purple, maybe dark blue, has some metaflakes). We call her Dolores, after the main character in Westworld (the new HBO show about robots that become sentient). Dolores is a roving hotspot, capable of sending messages to us or to her creator, the Jeep Corp. Kinda troublesome really.

We didn’t go far within the park before red became a dominant color. Just look at how vibrant the red colors are compared to these big horn sheep we saw along the roadside.

One of the things we tested was a road camera my mother gave us for Christmas. It takes some great footage, as you can see in this youtube video that shows the area near the park’s visitor center.

We followed the road to its end at the White Domes loop, which the ranger told us was the best part of the park. There, a one mile loop hike awaited us.

Ann, cane in hand, attempted to do the hike, but the sand and terrain proved too difficult, so I quickly went through the hike, snapping photos for her.

Ann on the White Domes loop trial.

The trail wound down a tight canyon. When I looked back up the canyon, the trail was difficult to spot.

The trail then led through this wash.

The wash closed in on me to become a slot canyon.

Once done with the trail, Ann and I left the park and continued south on Highway 169, then turned onto Highway 93. Eventually, we made it to the Hoover Dam (named after Herbert Hoover, the only mining engineer to become president).

The area was flush with people and I can only imagine what this place is like during its busiest times. Fortunately, I married into a handicap parking pass, so we do well parking at places like this. We quickly headed toward the parking garage when we spotted this cool sculpture that celebrates the workers at the Hoover Dam who dropped over the cliff sides to plant charges and do other work.

Ann and I walked a short distance and took some photos.

Nice shot of the canyon, with a tall bridge (that visitors can walk across) in the distance.

This photo shows a crazy mix of angles and textures.

The copper colored visitor’s center on the right really stands out against the rock and concrete.

After a short walk, we returned to the jeep to drive across the dam. These photos were taken on the dam’s southside.

Looking up the Colorado River.

When we finished with the damn, we continued our trek south, this time driving down Highway 93. We soon arrived at Santa’s Land, an abandoned roadside attraction.

When we finally reached Kingman, we went straight for some food. Our Yelp research suggested Oysters Mexican & Seafood, which was great.