If you're coming to Las Vegas, but don't really like gambling, what is there to do? If you live in Las Vegas and want to treat your visiting friends and relatives to something besides a buffet on the Strip, an expensive show, or a stroll through tourist town, here's your answer. Or, if you're just curious about history and beautiful natural wonders of our state and the surrounding states, this book was written for you.
It covers some of my favorite places I've visited over my 16-year time living in Las Vegas. And the book includes more than two hundred color photos, so it makes an excellent coffee table book.
Unlike the song made famous by Johnny Cash, I haven't been everywhere, but I've been to almost every city and town in Nevada and have visited forty-eight other states and seven countries. But I love my "beautiful brown Nevada" and its surrounding states best.
If, when hearing the song, "I've Been Everywhere," you've wondered, "where on earth is Winnemucca?" you'll find out in this book, along with many small towns and remote destinations many people haven't visited, or even heard of.
The chapters start with Alamo, Nevada and end with Zzyzxx, California. In between you'll find a few familiar places like the Grand Canyon (all three rims) and Death Valley, but mostly you'll find less well-known places like Goodsprings, Ursine, Blue Diamond, Pioche, and one my favorite teeny tiny places, Baker NV, population about 25.
So, what is there to see in these places? Plenty! You'll learn where to visit some of the oldest trees on earth (within easy driving distance of Las Vegas), where to have sarsaparilla in an old saloon, and where to see the cigar burn in the bar where Clark Gable waited for crews to recover the body of Carole Lombard. And you'll find out where you can climb on beehives, and where you can see the sky while inside caverns. You can even take an X-Rated tour of brothels in Nevada and you can read about Area 51, although I wouldn't suggest storming it!
And, you'll get to meet some of the interesting people I've met during these trips--for example, a prize winning rodeo star, a Japanese person wearing a Kimono in an Old West saloon, and a cowboy whose favorite song on the jukebox was Edith Piaf's "La Vie En Rose" in French. And a singer-songwriter who loves Nevada as much as I do. You'll learn about the Loneliest Highway in the USA and you'll find out where you can set your car on cruise control and climb out and drink coffee on the roof of your car without the fear of hitting anything. You'll even find out where you can see the curvature of the earth and one of the darkest night skies in the country.
While most of the destinations in this book are an easy drive from Las Vegas, many are off the beaten track, some are outside Nevada, and many of those in rural Nevada will require at least an overnight stay. Nevada is a BIG state.
This book has some interesting historical facts, and some personal anecdotes, and of course hundreds of pictures. I hope you'll enjoy traveling along with me and that the next time work or pleasure brings you to Las Vegas, you'll tack on several extra days, or even weeks, to see some of the beauty that surrounds us every day, if we take time to enjoy God's creation.
The appendices offer some ideas for seeing several locations in a week, or a weekend, as well as some day trips. And for those with a special interest such as visiting mining town, old cemeteries, or trains, I've listed some of those too.
