American Road Trip part 2 – US Route 95, Death Valley to Vegas

Alien Seduction to Vegas Induction – by Mandy.

Beatty, Death Valley was still holding on to us, this time in the form of a man with a bucket of Coke, a straw and what seemed to be a comic wrapped car. The man was artist David Ohlerking and the car a Ford Crown Victoria, his mobile studio, the paintwork however is a forever evolving masterpiece, the creations of curious small children who have gathered over the years to watch David paint and have asked if they could have a go too, they get free rein on the car.

David has travelled the world extensively through his life. A professional musician and later an artist, he has happily scoured the streets of the US with his mobile studio parking up whenever the mood takes him. He recreates street scenes with oils on canvas that you just want to step into. Turns out Beatty and it’s people have stolen a piece of his heart too, on meeting him he was the new artist in residence at Goldwells Museum in Rhyolite a ghost town just outside Beatty, He was living in an RV behind the main building and was looking to move there on a more permanent basis.

One of the things that I loved about the USA was that if you take the time out to talk to a stranger they are very accommodating and always seem to have an interesting story to tell.

After buying my very own bucket of Coke we tried to say our goodbyes to David.

“You can’t leave yet, you need to go and check out Rhyolite and the museum” We learnt that Goldwells is an outdoor museum, the wonderfully bizarre collection is the work of a group of Belgian artists.

He suggested Ian could be their next resident artist, and we too could live in an RV behind the museum! He was insistent we head down there to check the place out and to speak to his friend about the residency. He gave us his contact and told us to stay in touch. What an inspirational guy and after checking out his website, life story etc he is somewhat of a celebrity. What an honour!

We headed out of Beatty but not on the 95 to Vegas, back into Death Valley to the Ghost Town that is Rhyolite and Goldwells Museum. 5 miles of mostly long, empty straight road. Today’s choice of CD was Santana and right now it was giving us some “Soul Sacrifice”.

“Hey Ian”

“Yeah”

“Our new address could be Ian Guy, RV, Ghost Town, Death Valley”

“Wow”

“Do you think he was serious?”

“He seemed genuine, nice guy I thought”

The sun was so hot and it’s rays so bright on the car that they were casting strong reflections. The sandy track to Rhyolite was difficult to see, it could almost have been part of a mirage, we took the turning right and drove blind through an almost heavenly spotlight, a suitable entrance to a spectacularly spooky showcase. We pulled up to park and switching off the engine and music was like turning off the soundtrack to the world .The silence that is Death Valley hit us again, that together with the far reaching views of the desert we both strangely shed a silent tear. We were alone, or at least we thought so.

“Is that a reinterpretation of the last supper over there?” I asked

“I think it is” Ian replied

We both swore.

The forms were life size and set on a wooden plinth, beautifully eerie against the back drop of the desert. Ghostly, in that each seemed to be a shroud cast around a human form.

Some way over to the right was a separate piece, he was alone, same shroud cast, he had a bike, but I think the bike had a problem, whatever his story he wasn’t happy. I’m no art critic so I will let the photos do the talking and you can make up your own minds

 

David’s friend had put a ‘Back soon‘ sign on the door of his cabin, so we put our business card in a belt loop of a pair of Daisy Duke shorts that had been nailed to a post, and we turned to leave.

“Blows your mind dun’t it!” a younger couple, obviously English and most certainly northern were stood some way behind us checking out a giant mosaic sofa. Turns out he was from the same town I grew up in. Once we had established our joint love of pie and gravy, paused for a while in a Northern Chip Shop stupor we moved onto stories of our separate road trips. The pie and gravy seed however had been planted and it affected all rational thinking over the next few days!

These guys had been in the U.S for a couple of months already and I can only explain their way of getting around and enjoying themselves as binge travelling in that they will hire/buy bikes (the pedal type) camp in the desert for a week or so or until they run out of resources then hire a top of the range vehicle and stay somewhere exceptionally exclusive for a few days. There was no vehicle that I could see right then in that car park but they too were heading for Vegas, they had booked a suite in the Palazzo and were offering us a room for our stay. They tried to convince us that they would be in Vegas by the end of the day , it was all said in jest but they did indeed arrive in Vegas a day ahead of us, but right then at that moment we were on a mission to see who could get there first and I was on a much more important mission to find real English Northern gravy! We swapped contacts and finally left Beatty and Death Valley on US Route 95 to Vegas, 117 miles of desert road.

Santana was still in the player, and it just worked with the road like it was meant to be. We were silent for almost 40 miles of long straight dusty bliss, eventually pulling over at the Area 51 Alien centre, Rocket Diner and Brothel. One building incorporating all three! a door leading from the back of the everything that you could possibly imagine alien themed store into a traditional American Diner and if you have the time, energy or the inclination you can head on through to Sci Fi themed fun out the back !

Although brothels are legal in some parts of Nevada, they are strictly regulated and apparently only operate in isolated rural areas.

We hadn’t seen any signs to say that it was there but I had been chatting to the very nice man on the front desk who was filling me in on the story behind the idea for the place and its founder.

The conversation between Ian and myself in the store afterwards.

Ian said “I gotta buy this 2ft rubber Alien”

“Ok”

“And what about this T shirt? I like the bunnies.”

“It’s advertising a Brothel, The Moonlite Bunny Ranch in Carson City.”

“Nooo?”

“Yes, there’s one back there too, through the diner”

“Nooooooo ?!”

“It’s got a Sci Fi theme”

“No way, sexy aliens??!!”

“More of your Star Wars characters I think with a bit of Avatar thrown in”

“That’s bizarre!”

“I know”

At this point we see a very cute older couple walking hand in hand out of the diner with the biggest of smiles. They had picked up on our English accent and asked where we were heading and suggested that we could go out back and build our own English breakfast muffin!

We bought an ice cream and sat on the front veranda wondering if we might get a glimpse of Darth Vader maybe heading in for the night shift!

Planting a Gravy Tree and getting a Mountain.

Back on the road, and around 80 miles from Vegas, choice of CD was our own compilation. First song “Holiday Road” 1983 single written and recorded by Fleetwood Mac’s Lindsey Buckingham, such a feel good song. After 30 miles I noticed the landscape was changing, nothing dramatic at first but more prominent mountains were starting to appear on the horizon to the right of us. After a while I wasn’t sure if I was looking at a huge mountain some distance away or something smaller and closer.

“Hey Ian, that mountain over there has got snow on its peak”

“Really? I think it’s just reflection, it’s 95 degrees out there”

“It’s really high, and what would it be reflecting?”

“The sky?”

“How far away do you think it is?”

“20, maybe 25 miles? Shall I take the next right turn?”

“Yeah take it, they might have gravy?”

“Who?”

“Whoever is at the top where it’s snowing, gravy or casserole”

We turned right a few miles down and I got out the map.

I turned to Ian.

 

“Ok Mount Charleston standing at 11,916ft, I don’t think there is any chance of us getting lost, this road takes us up to the peak and we can either come back this way or it joins up to another road in a kind of loop and works it way back down to join the 95 not far out of Vegas. Hey Ian”.

“Yeah”

“I can see people skiing! Oh and reindeer, elves, Santa, I can see Christmas!”

There are some tight bends on the road to the peak and yes it was about 25miles, the temperature dropped from 95 degrees to 57 and the scenery was spectacular. A view point some way up let us see the expanse of the desert below us. I had wondered if it would have been possible to see Vegas from the peak seeing as we were so close but it didn’t happen, from the opposite end though it is apparently possible to see the mountain from some points on the strip. It was reminding me of parts of Austria I had been to but on a much larger scale. Impressive log houses, beautifully designed and perched high on mountain ledges.

It was getting later in the day and Ian pulled into the car park of The Mount Charleston Lodge and Cabins. We could see just a few rental cabins from the road and were expecting them to be fully booked.

Ian said “Shall we stay the night?”

“It looks a bit exclusive, bet it’s expensive”

$120 dollars for the night, taking into consideration the exchange rate at the time and the price of a room in a standard B+B in the UK it was more than worth it.

We were given a map and our key and as we stood on the edge of the car park we looked down onto the roofs of the other cabins and we made our descent.

I’ve seen that this place has been left some bad reviews by American tourists but I have stayed in so called log cabins in Disneyland Paris, and some in the UK. They are mostly wooden clad static caravans at twice the price! This place was perfect, one large main room with a huge central log burner, gas, on a timer so it was lit for our arrival, a large window and door opposite the entrance, a balcony with fantastic views and a double swinging seat. The bed was huge and of course the large bubbling jacuzzi by its side. Unfortunately there hadn’t been any snowfall, but it was forecast over the coming week.

 

 

That night we ate too much, drank too much, and stayed in that jacuzzi until we actually squeaked! I thought it was just a saying but I was still squeaky I’m sure when we arrived in Monument Valley a few days later!!

We made our descent from the mountain the next morning after breakfast in the restaurant next door, and were back on the 95 around thirty minutes later, further down the road and very close to Vegas and it was hot!!

“By the look of the map, you just carry on along the 95 and it takes you straight into Vegas” I said

“Ok” Ian said.

We waited for that sign, you know the one, but nothing was “Welcoming us to Vegas” and Vegas wasn’t particularly welcoming.

“We’ve gone wrong somewhere Ian”

“Was thinking the same”

“This is kind of rough”

I was starting to feel a bit uneasy. We had bought an American Sat Nav in the UK and we decided to use it for the first time.

It was a woman’s voice and she was terribly excitable. Like she hadn’t been out of that box for years and when she realised she was going to Vegas was hardly able to control herself.

We set off,

“Go Straight” She said

“At the next junction go straight”

“Go straight”

We were in the middle of a three lane carriageway.

“Ian this car at the side of me (Black Range Rover with completely blacked out windows) is driving really close to my window, we’ve almost touched a few times, he’s swerving in and out”

“Yeah I’ve seen, I have got the same going on my side with an identical Range Rover, every time I speed up or slow down so does he, in fact it’s going on both sides. Looks like they’re together”

“What the f**K”

“I don’t know”

At this point I almost leave my seat and end up on the bonnet of the car!

“What are you doing?”

“Braking!” another one, identical, had just pulled straight in front of us! “Have you seen the number plate?”

“THE FIRM! haha, some kind of joke, we are in Vegas”

This went on for a few more minutes, both cars on either side swerving inwards missing us by inches each time with the one in front determining our speed.

“Ian they either think we are the Queen and this is some kind of royal escort Vegas style, or we’re in trouble” He subtly flicked the central locking switch.

In the meantime Sally had gone into Sat Nav Breakdown.

Make a U turn where possible was on repeat!!

Just when I was wondering if it would have been a better idea to stay in bed, at the next junction the car in front wheel spun off the lights and disappeared into the distance, the car on my side turned right, Ian’s took the left turning and yes all had matching number plates, we were out of the city. To this day I still have no idea where we went or what happened and why.

“Ian lets pull over”

“Why?”

“Just to try and work out what happened, where we are, and let’s put bloody Sally back in her box she’s lost the plot”!

I carried on “That was weird, let’s get out of here, shall we use the Sat Nav on our phone”?

“OK, but where are we going?”

“Welderup baby, Sin City Motors, they’re just outside of Vegas I’ve put the address in the phone already”

And thus we woke up Patricia via Samsung a really expensive way to get around we discovered when we got our next phone bill, it was Sunday and she was pretty Chilled.

“Ok guy’s, I can sense tension in the air” she rose from her lounge chair and floated over to the patio window staring out at the view of the wonderfully changing colours of the English countryside in the autumn. She leaned over and stubbed out her cigarette on the edge of a large vintage oak table.

“Welderup, don’t worry you’re going to be fine with me, you are in safe hands”. Sure enough twenty-five minutes later we were parked outside the large metal gates of Ian’s latest man crush and all of his fabulous toys.

A little explanation, at the end of April 2014 TV trailers on UK Dave Channel were advertising the start of a new series of shows “Sin City Motors” filmed at their Car Customization shop “Welderup” in Las Vegas where Steve Darnell is the mastermind behind every creation, and together with his truly talented team of welder fabricators, engine builders and an artist they will take on any challenge and bring any vision to life!

So by May 2014 the tension was quietly building in our house and Ian was more than ready for the first episode of the show, and after speaking to like minded friends they were too. I missed the first part of the first episode, don’t get me wrong I love the cars and what these guys do but I was just going to let him fill me in with the details.

Ian watched the first part of the first episode up in his studio, I was in the lounge. After around fifteen minutes he came down the stairs so quickly I thought he may have just thrown himself down or rolled.

He burst in “You have got to switch channels, it’s the break, you’re not watching anything in particular are you?”

“No not really”

“Watch it with me and tell me what you think, it’s unbelievable”

“Which part?”

“Just watch, you can’t miss it, it’s almost unreal”

“Ok”

So the show comes back on and Ian’s eye’s are on me then back on the TV then back to me.

“Oh” he says

“What?” I say

“They’re not as impressive on this TV, still really beautiful but not the same”

“What are”?

“Steve Darnell’s eye’s, absolutely stunning on my TV!”

I had to agree he did have very pretty eyes. And there we were five months later parked outside his front gates and I was about to look directly into those beautiful blue eyes and strike up a conversation with him about his life, work, kids and his relationship with his brother and his dad ……….

Here’s Part 3, ‘from Welderup Vegas to Kanab Utah’ :

American Road Trip part 3 – From Welderup Vegas to Kanab Utah

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If you missed Part 1, ‘California Dreaming and an Ice Awakening‘ it’s here: