We got a breakfast bag containing and energy bar, a breakfast burrito an apple and some milk because the Abbey Inn’s restaurant is Covid-shuttered. It wasn’t too bad and worked out great with our early departure. A few blocks from the motel, we connected with I-15 South for the pull across the desert to Lost Wages, NV. Travel on the interstate is mundane but, fortunately, along our way and not far from the freeway is both Kolob Canyon, a part of Zion National Park in Utah, and Valley of Fire, a spectacular albeit torrid state park in Nevada.
Kolob was spectacular but it is only about 5 miles off the road so our visit was short. We got back on I-15 into Nevada on our way to Valley of Fire. We have visited this park before and saw lots of animals but they must have been shielding themselves from the incinerating sun today. The park was very pretty but lifeless on this visit. It was only about 105 degrees.
After Valley of Fire, we continued to Vegas, past huge photovoltaic arrays covering many square miles of otherwise uninteresting desert. We understand these arrays are owned by local Native American tribes which is a good thing. They will get Old Paleface in the long run.
After a bit more on I-15, we skirted the Strip and Downtown areas of town and, after only being confused once or twice, found our La Quinta Inn for the night. This hotel had a fully accessible restrooms, comfy sitting furniture and good beds but when we entered the room it smelled like a maid had just taken a dump in our john. We discovered later that it was actually the poor old crippled folks in the next room that were stinking up the place and the HVAC was sucking their restroom aromas under the adjoining, gasketless door and into our room. We also noted the hotel allows dogs who were all camped and barking and wrestling at the same end of the corridor where we were staying.
When I mentioned this to the staff, they took $50 off our bill. Maybe I should complain about fart smells more often.
We are too cheap to gamble so we went to a restaurant called Bacon where they have many bacon-supplemented dishes and an ample assortment of beers on tap. I had a chicken fried steak wrapped in bacon which was very savory but probably did irreparable damage to my heart.