A Night at the Opera

On Saturday September 23td Trudy and I went to the Opera at Lake Las Vegas.

With no disrespect intended, Trudy and I had a better time than Groucho, Harpo, Chico and Kitty Carlilse.

The season opener was a free presentation of famous arias by the principals of the company. The topper was sitting right in front of the ice cream parlor with the world's best Galatto.

The week before we had gone to the Ballet and I didn't know the cameras were allowed. Won't make that mistake again.

A few days later we took Joni Kahn to the Las Vegas Art Museum for an amazing show of Roy Lichtenstein Prints 1956-97. I saw works that I had never seen before, We were enthralled.

This is all to let you know that there is a cultural side to "Lost Wages" that takes a while to find. Trudy has spent hours on the phone, on the net and reading the paper to find what, when and where.

The theatre here (in the Off The Strip World) is excellent. It is well supported and inexpensive.

The Laramie Project was as well done as any play we have ever seen. Bye the way, we saw "O"

(absolutely no cameras allowed) and it was good but we still like Mystere best.

Bob

Backyard Black Widow

I have said before that the desert bites back. Meg, Sofia and I were in the backyard early yesterday evening and Meg spotted a Black Widow hanging off the side of my wooden sculpture of a "Pair of Shorts." First I got the camera, then I got the Raid. Interestingly, I had been picking up "Shorts" and moving them around. Who knew that the crack was occupied.

So the Raid worked great and there was one dead bug. Now I am used to the normal crew of desert bugs, beetles, cockroaches, and stuff I can't name cleaning up the critters that drop dead in the backyard. Guess what? Next day there is still one dead spider on the concrete.

.

I guess nothing messes around with a Black Widow!

Bob

This story is dedicated to Sue Hofmeister whose father often said ,
"Sue, there are some things even a mosquito won't bite."

Summer Over ?

We woke up Saturday morning and it was cool!

It was ski jacket cool. I was suprised by the abrupt change. It was 53 this morning

and when I started hiking Saturday to Le Madre Springs it was low 40's. I haven't worn my wind pants in years. It did jump up to the 80's before I was back.

Great!

Abbey Lives

It’s been years since I read Edward Abbey but I remember being very influenced by “The Monkey Wrench Gang” in the late 70’s and “Hayduke Lives” in the 90’s. His characters live in a desert set more towards the Four Corners area but some of his descriptions are based on the Valley of Fire and Mouse’s Tank. If memory serves, eco-terrorism in the western desert and the destruction of a huge bridge are at the center of the plots. Well it looks like life imitates art.














Yesterday the enormous construction crane and cableway system being used to construct the new bridge over the Colorado River at Hoover Dam fell down in high wind gusts. I had taken some pictures of the project when Howard and Joanne were here earlier this year.






This is going to have some long ranging effects for Las Vegas. The bridge, to be completed 2008, was to be a quick way to Arizona. This would make” just over the bridge” a new suburb of Vegas. Estimates now delay completion several years.
Developers stand to lose millions, whole projects will fail, and thousands of people will not move to the desert.


Abbey just sat up and threw away the cap on another bottle of Jim Beam.















Here is a slightly different view of the "Hoover Dam."







Bob

Shakespeare and Cedar Breaks

Before going to New York, Nyack and Boston, Trudy and I went to the Shakespeare Festival in Cedar City, Utah. We saw Merry Wives of Windsor and it was good, actually it was as good as Stratford Ontario.

So, the Sunday morning after the performance in a sleepy Mormon town, we had a dead battery. Turns out we still owned the same battery that was delivered in the Jeep in 2001 and the heat in the desert killed it. AAA and Wal-Mart to the rescue and we decided to take a brief trip into the mountains to see Cedar Breaks.



Cedar Breaks is a smaller version of Bryce Canyon and is on the Virgin River above Zion Canyon. The Virgin River empties into the Overton Arm of Lake Mead. The Indians called it the "Circle of Painted Cliffs." Situated at an elevation of 10,000 feet, Cedar Breaks is shaped like a giant coliseum dropping 2,000 feet to its floor.



The park is small but gorgeous. The Alpine meadows above the breaks are spectacular but at 11,000’ a little high for weekend camping. The time to be here is after the usua 30' or so of snow melt and the wildflowers bloom. I may be able to get by without a GPS but chains and a shovel are the next purchase.



The early settlers thought that the trees at the bottom were Cedar, hence the name, but they are actually Juniper. Climbing down the third of a mile through the "Hoodoos" to verify the tree species would not be on my agenda. This is a type of formation that the settlers called badlands or breaks. Very fragile, very steep and very tough to climb.




The color in Utah is somewhat darker than in southern Nevada. A high concentration of Iron gave southeastern Utah an early mining industry. Iron oxides provide the reds, oranges, and yellows, while manganese oxides provide shades of purple. The sedimentary formations are not as highly compacted as the sandstone here in Nevada.




We finished the trip back to Cedar City and Las Vegas by going over the top of the plateau at 11,000’ and through the Brian Head ski resort. No ski resort should ever be seen in the summer. Snow cover is needed for more than skiing.

Bob

Mt. Charleston

Mt Charleston, Nevada from Cathedral Rock Park

After leaving the house at 5:30, that little tiny pimple looks awfully far away and awfully high.  It is.  We have chosen the highest peak in Southern Nevada.  Charleston Peak is 11,918’ and about 9 miles from the trail head, the trail head is about a mile from the car.  So, a 20 mile roundtrip with an elevation gain of 4,600’ topping out at almost 12,000’  We predict a long day.

We have to climb out of Kyle Canyon on a switchback trail that gains almost 1,500’ in 2 miles.  That is approximately the same as climbing 150 flights of stairs but, of course, they are not stairs.  I didn’t even bother to bring out the camera until we were up on Echo Overlook.






Actually, I don’t think we look to bad. There are lots of ponderosa pine and white fir at the overlook, so there is plenty of shade, but you have to get right out to the very edge of the cliff to get a good view of Kyle Canyon.



Echo Overlook

The next portion of the trail runs in and out some of the most beautiful mountain meadows I have ever seen.  The trees change to Bristlecone Pine with enormous piles of pine cones at the base of every tree.





Lunch on a trail this tough is always a balancing act. Cooling down is part of the drill but stopping long enough to begin to stiffen up is not a good thing.


This is really pretty country and later in the day we will see two parties coming up to camp for the night. There are some really enticing spots.



The village of Mt. Charleston in the center is where we parked the car and it is about 3,000’ below the meadows. The extreme weather on high mountains really blasts things. As usual, some of the dead stuff looks very surreal.



Some of the trees here live a long life both alive and dead.



Those things that are successful competing for resources in this environment tend to be bigger than normal and tough. Just before we got out onto the talus slope to summit we came on some thistle plants that were over 6 ‘ tall. Alex found a bee feeding on a low bloom. The bee was twice the size of a WNY bee and totally black.



Leaving the Bristlecone grove was an abrupt transition. Trees, grasses and flowers are highly altitude dependent and the last 1,500’ of trail was across a talus slope composed of thousands of stacked bits of slate. This is clearly one place that would be easier when it is covered in snow.



Eventually climbing can stop.







Just a bit warmer than we expected but hard to believe that back on Lugo St. it’s well over 100




Photo Credit - Alex

Just kicking around is all that’s left and the view is good.



All I need to say about the downclimb is that the switchbacks were endless but we did make it back for dinner. A bit zombied out but actually awake.

Bob