Las Vegas
Left Reno early this morning for Las Vegas. We're going to join several thousand of our closest friends at a Dan Marino event at Caesar's Palace Saturday evening.
Normally, we go through Fernley (gas is cheaper there). However, this time we took a cut-off route through the Reno Tahoe Industrial Park which is about twenty miles east of Sparks. Over the past several years, a lot of major players have built huge facilities out there. Walmart warehouse, Switch Data Center, Tesla battery facility, Petco distribution center, etc. It has created thousands of jobs out in the middle of the desert half-way between Sparks and Fernley. One of the side benefits was a road that cut over to US 50 and US 95 south. Always fun to drive through RTIC and see what new facilities are being built.
Driving into Hawthorne, we spotted a herd of mountain goats feeding alongside the road. They must know they are protected because they didn't even budge when cars stopped to take pictures.
Continued on through Hawthorne across miles of open desert - saw lots of small towns (Mina, Luning, etc.) which we can cross off our list of places to retire to. Although I imagine property is pretty cheap :-). Vi had packed a picnic lunch, so we stopped in Tonopah at a Tesla charging location. Since Tonopah is halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, Tesla installed charging stations - too bad they didn't provide free gas also. Neat park with picnic tables and some artwork.
Continued on down to Las Vegas and checked into Bally's. Great room with a terrific view of The High Roller. Reminded us of when we came down for Kathy's birthday party several years ago and had our own private party in one of the cars.
The only thing we hadn't counted on was the fact that DefCon was having their annual convention at Bally's (see https://defcon.org). We didn't mind the several thousand that were going to be at the Dan Marino dinner on Saturday, but 25,000 hackers were a little much. It's hard to even move around the hotel because of the mass of people going to various meetings. You can almost pick up your feet and be swept along with the tide.
Normally, we go through Fernley (gas is cheaper there). However, this time we took a cut-off route through the Reno Tahoe Industrial Park which is about twenty miles east of Sparks. Over the past several years, a lot of major players have built huge facilities out there. Walmart warehouse, Switch Data Center, Tesla battery facility, Petco distribution center, etc. It has created thousands of jobs out in the middle of the desert half-way between Sparks and Fernley. One of the side benefits was a road that cut over to US 50 and US 95 south. Always fun to drive through RTIC and see what new facilities are being built.
Driving into Hawthorne, we spotted a herd of mountain goats feeding alongside the road. They must know they are protected because they didn't even budge when cars stopped to take pictures.
Continued on through Hawthorne across miles of open desert - saw lots of small towns (Mina, Luning, etc.) which we can cross off our list of places to retire to. Although I imagine property is pretty cheap :-). Vi had packed a picnic lunch, so we stopped in Tonopah at a Tesla charging location. Since Tonopah is halfway between Reno and Las Vegas, Tesla installed charging stations - too bad they didn't provide free gas also. Neat park with picnic tables and some artwork.
Continued on down to Las Vegas and checked into Bally's. Great room with a terrific view of The High Roller. Reminded us of when we came down for Kathy's birthday party several years ago and had our own private party in one of the cars.
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