Nevada: Boulder City, Summer 2018

Boulder city is a very small little town outside of Las Vegas, where gambling is illegal within the city limits, and there's only a handful of traffic lights (if that). It's a quiet place, where families that tire of the excitement (and crime) rampant in Vegas proper can go to escape the city, while still benefitting from the predictably arid, sunny climate and close proximity to all the entertainments of the city. I actually spent a few years living in Boulder City when I was younger, and was exceptionally bored by the quaint, quiet little town as an energetic teen. Now that I'm older, and presumably wiser, I suppose I can see the allure to moving out of Vegas for Boulder City, if you're 60. It's a great place to retire, and if you can afford one of the homes on the slope towards Lake Mead you'll have an excellent view of the dwindling resources at the bottom of the hill. Of course, the ongoing drought has impacted some of the landscape choices in the area, but there are still plenty of open, green areas where the Big Horn sheep of the area will congregate to graze and get their fill of grasses. In a town as small, and quiet, as Boulder City, it should come as no surprise that the cops get stuck playing sheep-herder when the stubborn sheep begin to wonder perhaps a bit too close to the nearby residences. 

If you like outdoorsy or water-bound activities, having Lake Mead in your backyard is certainly a boon, despite it's drying out. As bored as I was throughout much of my angsty youth, I have to admit certain gratitude for the friends I made in that little town, the experiences and mischief we shared in that safe little burb, and the opportunity to explore. I'm certainly not going to be moving back any time soon, but for old time's sake it was fun to breeze through. We didn't stop for lunch, like we normally would, as we'd had plenty of snacks out at the Lake and had been driving for a while by this point. We were more eager to get home and grab a shower than to get down on some grub. Given as much, the photos are going to be a bit scattered. Still, I hope you enjoy!

Oregon: Night in Merrill

Hours behind the wheel, rolling down the road, and we managed to find our way to the very little (no, really, it's quite small) town of Merrill, Oregon, home to only about 800 people. The entire town could be walked pretty easily as the main road itself is only about a half mile long, so you blink and you'd miss it. We stopped to get gas, then found our way to the Polar Bear snack shack parking lot to sort out our selves and our belongings, tend to our squeaks, and inevitably end up spending the night. We initially only planned to stop briefly and then keep heading on towards Eugene, but after surveying our surroundings we realized we'd coincidentally stumbled into a parking lot where they 100% allowed overnight parking! There's no easy guarantee that we'd be able to find an inconspicuous place to pull over and sleep after driving another 3-4 hour stretch where we'd be allowed to stay, so we figured we'd take the synchronicity and roll with it. It worked out well, as Antho realized that he was already having issues with his credit cards due to the transactions being out-of-Nevada, so he was able to get that sorted while waiting for an order of what ended up being very tasty fried gizzards from the above shack.  

Once we were fed, our finances sorted out, and our rodents secured and safely locked away from the hungry birds swirling above, we decided to take a walk through town to see if we could grab a drink. 

We managed to find our way to the local cafe/bar/restaurant, which was a fun joint with a lively and friendly crowd! The bartender was awesome, and she blew Antho's mind when she offered him the option to choose the vodka used in his White Russian. We went with dealer's choice, which ended up being very good! One of the local barflies approached and asked my permission to touch Antho's dreads, which we both found amusing. Don't get me wrong here- we absolutely and 100% appreciate that she asked before getting handsy! It's just not an everyday occurrence that someone comes up to us and asks to touch Antho's hair. After our first drink, the jukebox started pumping and things started to pep up a bit. We were pretty tired and didn't want to get swept into any rowdiness, so we took an Irish exit and returned to the vehicles to conk out for the night. I definitely couldn't resist trying my luck on the archaic coin-machine in the bathroom! I got "Pandora's Box", which I'm pretty sure is really just a condom. 

Road Tripping: St. George, Utah

St. George, Utah, was our first stop in the lovely state. It's a beautiful little town in the Southwestern region of Utah, tucked in near to the Pine Valley mountains who glisten with snow in the winters. The picturesque little town was rated the second-fasted growing metropolitan area in 2005 and by 2018 it's jumped to first place. I guess people have forgotten about all that radioactive fallout that drifted downwind from the Nevada Nuclear Test Site and fell predominantly on the area... To be fair, the last major spike in radiation seemed to sync up around the timeframe of the incident in Fukushima, so it's probably safe. Just keep an eye out for Deathclaws when you're out in those mountains...

Our first impressions of the area were that it was a cute little Southwestern small town. Further explorations helped to cement this idea more deeply, though we did witness an incident of domestic violence along the roadside next to the hotel pictured above. A man was sitting on the brick wall and a woman was slapping about his face and shouting... charming. So, it's certainly not an untainted paradise, free of human woes and suffering. The demographics veer predominantly Caucasian, with roughly 87% of the population, and almost 71% of the population are members of the Church of Latter Day Saints. Given the Church's history with racism, including a rally from The Book of Mormon to be "a white and delightsome people" 

( 2 Nephi 30:6

“…their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a white and a delightsome people.” - source) 

and a history of excluding darker skinned members from participating in certain rituals and rites, it's not entirely surprising that the demographic veers a certain direction. The passage quoted above has since been adapted to read "pure" instead of "white", but given the recency in which the book was written, it's unlikely that a translation error occurred. Who knows. These days the LDS Church tries to paint itself as inclusive and welcoming of all members, including the LGBTQ+ on their own official website, maybe times are changing. After all, this little burb is rapidly growing and change is inevitable.

Road Tripping: Sunset drive in Mesquite, NV

After cooling off in the sprinklers at Hafen Fishing pond and mowing down some snacks, it was back into the van and on to the road again. We enjoyed surveying the different homes and little ranches that dotted the neighborhoods we weaved through, but we quickly found ourselves running low on neighborhoods to explore. We even popped in to a little vape shop to get some ejuice, but they closed quite early in the evening- around 6pm, maybe earlier, I believe. In such a little burb it makes sense, though, as the only people working late shifts would likely be a handful of casino employees and vitally important service positions, like hospital staff at Mesa View regional hospital... Mesquite is a small town, after all, as I've said at least once or twice on the blog now. Small towns in Nevada often have a similar sort of feel, at least in so far as the ones I've encountered yet. Improbably little oasis of homes and businesses standing solemnly in the expansive, seemingly endless stretches of desert, connected to the rest of civilization by the rolling roads linking these little ports. While much of my life has been spent in Las Vegas (as well as Tokyo and Seoul), some of my educational years were spent in Boulder City, one of those little towns down the highway a ways. It wasn't so far from the city center, so I still felt connected to the urban hub, but there are towns quite far and remote that make you wonder what in heaven's name inspired humans to sit down and set up roots. Mesquite is relatively close to several other towns, like St. George to the North or Vegas to the South, so it certainly doesn't feel as desolate or disconnected as some of those small towns do, but I can see how it would lead the youngsters to feel claustrophobic with a yearning for adventure and escape. That might just be a natural part of youth, though, that need to stretch your wings and flee the nest. 

Japan: Rainy day in Urayasu 2012-09-06

One thing I thoroughly enjoyed about living in Japan was the weather, simply because it was such a deviation from what I grew up with in Southern Nevada. While some people might grumble about typhoons, I found them fascinating and thrilling- perhaps in large part because I was within safe walking distance from work, so when the trains were delayed due to inclement conditions I never had to worry… ^^; 

I got to know Urayasu fairly well while living there. On my days off I would ride my bike like a bat out of hell, burning off steam and exploring the area. I'd often stop in one of the small restaurants for lunch, mingling with the locals and sharing a beer or two with them.

More photos after the cut~