From our previous campsite in the National Forest up at 7000' to our present location in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area outside of Las Vegas at just less than 1300' it was easy to achieve 17.4 MPG for the day.
There was one point at the beginnng of the trip, when we returned to US-95 outside of the forest, where we were averaging a mind blowing 39.5 MPG. We only get about 24 MPG when we're not towing.
I moved ROVER out of our site so they could swing wide and back their rig into their site.
The yellow Jeep was inside of the cargo trailer along with a 100-gallon portable water tank.
and that's why this campground is called Las Vegas Bay.
Back in December of 2022, after returning from Alaska, we stayed just down the road from here. That time we were in the Boulder Beach Campground and while there we visited nearby Hoover Dam. This time around, neither one of us felt a return visit to the dam was needed.
FRIDAY - Tricia was awake at 5:45AM this morning, thanks to our windows being open all night to let in the cool overnight temperatures, and our tenting neighbors being awake and making all kinds of noise preparing their breakfast.
We should have just closed the windows on that side of THE POD and gone back to bed, but once Tricia's awake, she's awake. ME? Not so much!
Anyway, she took some rather nice photos of the sunrise behind our campsite.
Our plan for today is simple. We are going to wait until we are notified that the last of our Amazon packages have been delivered to the 7-Eleven Store 10-miles away in Henderson, NV.
Then we are going to load up our laundry and an empty 3-gallon water bottle into THE POD and head into town.
We'll pickup the Amazon packages first, then I'll drop Tricia at the laundromat next door, while I go fill ROVER's gas tank and fill the water bottle at a Walmart down the street. While in Walmart I shopped for a few non-grocery items like laundry soap, white vinegar for cleaning and a stick-on 24" towel bar for the kitchen wall.
I got back to the laundromat with perfect timing, Tricia had just finished folding the last of the clothes and was about to call me to see where I was at.
We then headed back to Walmart, just a mile down the street, so we both could have a chance to do a little grocery shopping for ourselves.
When I say tiny, I mean tiny! There were only two aisles in this store. When you come through the door you either turn right and go all the way to the refrigerated beer cases on the far wall, or you turn left and go all the way to the cashier.
These aisles are only 3-feet wide so passing someone going the other way is near impossible. When I entered the store there was already 8 or 9 customers either trying to pay for merchandise or gasoline. To say it was crowded in there would be a vast understatement.
Six of the people in the store were all wearing the same thing, yellow safety jackets with long sleeve shirts underneath. Judging by the items in their hands they had probably just finished a long and hot Friday workday outdoors. They were all speaking spanish with very little english mixed in.
Twice I ran into the same guy, the biggest one of the bunch by far, while I was trying to get to the soda case on the back wall of the store. We both laughed, I assumed about how ridiculous it was trying to maneuver around in the tiny crowded store.
When I finally had my Mountain Dew in hand I headed for the line of people waiting for the cashier. All six of the workers were directly in front of me in line. Each had a cold beer, mostly tallboys, and either chips or something similiar.
Then when the first, and oldest guy in line, got to the register everyone starting handing him their merchandise over his shoulder. Without looking he placed it in front of the cashier. It was obvious this happens all the time, it was too well choreographed.
The youngest looking guy in the crew was just ahead of me in line and I joked that I saw everyone handing up their items, but I didn't see anyone handing up any money. That's when he surprised me by grabbing the Mountain Dew out of my hand and sending it up to the front.
No matter how many times I said NO the cashier rung it up anyway and handed it back down the line. The young worker handed it back to me and I was speechless. All I could think to say was "Thank you" and a silly "Merry Christmas", due to me wearing a full beard again. I then raised the soda as a toast to the crew and left the building.
SATURDAY - Today we are going to drive around in the Lake Mead National Recreation Area and check out some of the FREE boondocking opportunities near here in case we ever return to this location.
The first two locations we wanted to check out were the Government Wash Dispersed Camping and the 8-Mile Road Dispersed Camping areas, only they've been closed since August 2024 due to overuse/misuse conditions.
That leaves just two more possibilities nearby that are still open for us to explore.
We both agreed that either one of these locations would be doable with THE POD, but we would have to stay four or more days to make the effort it takes to endure the gravel roads worthwhile.
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