Part Three

The Hotel Nevada. This is my hand held photo from my good digital camera. It actually has a setting for shooting this type of photo. In addition to the sleeping rooms at the hotel there was a casino and a bar. The bar top had poker machines lining the top which left little room for a drink. I didn't do any gambling and I didn't want to sit in there for any length of time due to the cigarette smoke. Without the smoke, it would have been a cool place to hang out and people watch. The hotel's been around for a while. They had a sign in the bathroom of our third floor room warning about how the water temperature fluctuates while in the shower. Pretty much like the old house I used to live in but there I only had to contend with a couple of others using the facilities. Many of the rooms were named for celebrities and big politicians. The room next to ours was the Wayne Newton room. I figured ours was more like the fig newton room.

There was also a Denny's restaurant in the hotel. A lot of people value going to chain restaurants because they know what they'll get. Not me. I'd much rather take a chance on a local place. We had dinner after our train ride at a place that actually had a couple of vegan choices on the menu. I had a veggie burger that was pretty decent with a side of Piccadilly potatoes. I didn't know what those were but they're a kind of tater tot without the breading on the outside. Not bad at all.

That right there is what an atomic bomb looks like. This is on display at the airfield in West Wendover. I didn't know anything about the airfield and the role it played in bringing WWII to an end until I came across a blurb in the tourism book. This airfield is where all the preparations were made to drop the "big ones" on Japan. They outfitted the B-29 bombers and trained the crews for the flights to Japan. The building housing the bomb in the photo above is nicely maintained but many of the other buildings associated with the war effort are in bad shape. They showed a short film on the history of the place and what needs to be done to protect the remaining structures. It's a shame to see a place with this much history slowly fade away, but again, the location is not really working in its favor.

There were a lot of nice photographs and some display cabinets. The bracelets were made from the aluminum skin of the airplanes. Nicely done. I especially like the one to the right of the watch.

We drove around the facility a bit. It looks like some of the buildings were rented out, if not currently, sometime in the not too distant past. Some of the buildings are on their last legs. Most of the buildings are behind a chain link fence. I screwed up and should have shot a couple of pics with the film camera I had along. I shot a roll at Promontory Point and reloaded a roll at Ely but I still had three shots left. I didn't even think about getting the camera out of my grip while I was driving around there. With the beautiful lighting from the sun at the higher elevation and the blue sky, I should have taken a yellow, or even a red, filter along as well. I didn't really put much thought into taking pictures while I was out that way other than taking my good digital rather than the cheapie one I normally drag around for my everyday shots for the blog. With the good camera I can convert the images to sepia toned or black & white. Not exactly the same as film, of course, but a lot easier than darkroom work. However, I like the dark room work.

Next post I'll wrap it up. I'm heading out in a few to an auction. There's a vehicle there that I've got a hankerin' for. I'll have to see what kind of shape it's in and what kind of money it goes for. I might have to call Cuzzin Rick and cash in my coupon for a free trailer ride.