Good morning, my friends, and Happy Valentine's Day! We have plans for dinner out tomorrow to celebrate. For now, let's just talk about this new location and yesterday's drive, shall we?
On our last day in Boulder City, the Stanbro Men got out for their only walk in that location. Smitty sat on the step for a bit before deciding to get to ground level.
There, he has a luxurious dust bath, and then sniffed around this orange tree. He sniffed, and sniffed, and sniffed. Obviously, some other critter has left its scent here.
While they were out walking, I was busy tracing the third block for the Snowmen & Reindeer project.
When I had it traced, I stitched the lower portion...
And then I could move my hoop up to encompass the rest of it.
As I'm writing this morning, it's almost all finished. I expect to finish it today, and then I'll need to trace the next one. I'm seriously concerned about running out of stitching before we get home in a little more than three weeks. Fortunately, there's a new quilt shop in Pahrump. I can probably pick up an emergency back-up project there.
Heading north from Las Vegas, we enjoyed the colors in the landscape.
Just a little ways out of town, we spied this warning about the wild burros roaming the area. There's a fence to keep them (and the turtles) off the road. We didn't see any wild burros yesterday, but we have seen them in this area before.
The mountains were prettier as we moved farther north. Our drive was just about an hour and a half yesterday.
Here, we noticed how the hillside looked different toward the top and the middle of the image. It almost looked like a dam. Then, we noticed the mining operation below.
Moving on, the mountains were more rugged as we moved north. These are the Spring Mountains.
Nevada seems big on freeway art. I barely caught this guy.
Just up the road, I captured some more of his friends.
As we approached Pahrump, we noticed more Joshua Trees, which isn't surprising since J
oshua Tree National Park is near here.
Between Las Vegas and Pahrump it's fairly desolate. This was our view for the end of our drive.
It was an easy drive, and we are parked. We always request this side of the park near the desert's edge. This is the view from our back window.
I tried something new for dinner last night. These are
Asian Chicken Crunch Wraps. This was quick and easy, and it allowed me to use up some tortillas I had hanging out in my pantry.
They're made from frozen breaded chicken tenders, packaged coleslaw mix, green onions, and sweet chili sauce. (They had me at the sweet chili sauce. I love the stuff.) I've linked to the recipe up there. I made just half the amount of chicken, but all of the coleslaw mix. I substituted a teaspoon of ground coriander seed for the cilantro. I don't like the buy cilantro. You have to buy a whole bunch, and then you need just a tiny amount. I can never use it before it turns to slime. So, if I need just a small amount in a recipe, I'm starting to check in with The Google for appropriate substitutes. In any case, this was good. I'll make it again because I still have lots of that chicken. Next time, I'll use a larger tortilla. Burrito sized would be a good and it would be easier to wrap.
This morning, we were treated to the sight of hot air balloons being launched.
There are other events associated with this rally. If we're feeling energetic, we might head over and see what's going on.
For now, I've got some laundry started. We're going to eat in tonight, and so I need to get a rib-eye steak into some marinade. Also, I'm going to bake some lemon pudding cakes for our dessert tonight. Just because we're waiting to celebrate Valentine's Day tomorrow doesn't mean we can't make tonight a little bit special.
Also today, I'll want to finish off my stitchery, and trace the next one. If there's still time in the day, I'll walk around the park with my camera and take some pictures. The park is under new ownership from our last stay. A few things have changed. I'll talk about that in tomorrow's post when I have some pictures to help tell the story.
6 comments:
So glad you made it back. I have lived in Pahrump for four years now. Seven years in Vegas before that 65 years in Connecticut.. Followed your blog for many years. Hope you d enjoy your stay here.
So glad you made it back. I have followed you for years. Lived in Pahrump for 4 years now. Love the desert and this town. 7 years before in Vegas. 65 years before in Connecticut. Big change but I love it out here. Been quilting and doing embroidery since the 60's. Love what you do and am inspired by all you accomplish. Have a great few weeks here.
The scenery might be desolate, but those mountains are impressive. Hope you had a wonderful Valentine's dinner. We opted to go out for lunch, it was much easier to get a table then.
I do so hope you get to see Wild Burros again on this leg of your trip. I've never seen them in the wild, but hope to some day. Thank you for the yummy recipe. Good to hear you have ~3 weeks left on your trip, as I didn't want to be rushed along on my virtual trip with you. I do so enjoy it. Looking forward to learning about the new quilt shop, as well as wild adventures you all get to experience.
What a pretty drive, and your view from your spot was really nice! Cool that you can see the hot air balloons too!
Couldn't wish for a nicer view from your campsite and maybe you'll get treated to lots of hot air balloons. They're pretty but there's no way you'd ever get me inside one.
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