Chopper Central

We are parked at the Hacienda Casino Resort between Hoover Dam and Boulder City, Nevada (map). From where we are parked we have a nice view of Lake Mead -- what's left of it, anyway. There were a handful of trucks and a few other rigs here last night as well, but it was pretty quiet, all things considered.

Not so now, however, as the helicopter sightseeing operation on a small hill overlooking the parking lot, perhaps 200' from us, started up around an hour ago. I think we're on the tour, as at least one helo passenger snapped a photo of us on the takeoff sweep. It was also not dark -- I could have read a book just from the light passing through our window blinds.

Nevertheless it was a fine stop, right where we needed it to be. We had a nice dinner at the reasonably-priced steakhouse in the casino/hotel. There is also a cafe and a buffet, as well as a couple of fast-food options. A small trail around the nearby hill offers sweeping views out over the lake. Across the highway is a fuel station and more truck parking, although it appears somewhat limited now due to construction of what looks to be a highway overpass for this interchange -- right now, the highway slows to a posted 35mph for the hotel entrance, making for a bottleneck at this spot now that the bridge is open and traffic moves swiftly over the Colorado.

In a few minutes we will head to Las Vegas. We need to make a grocery stop, and I am still ruminating about dropping by the truck wash to give Odyssey a bath, as well as add some water to the tanks. We'd like to be in quarters at our usual stealth spot by early afternoon, just in case there is a problem with that location and we need to go to the backup plan.

Photo by shawnsplace, used under a Creative Commons license.