October 30th, 2012 in Las Vegas

The title of this entry is deceiving because while Peggy and I were STUCK in Las Vegas due to our flight being cancelled due to Hurricane Sandy, we did NOT spend this day in Vegas.  Early in the morning, I said to Peggy "I wish I had more information about whats outside of Vegas, we could rent a car and take off for the day".  Peg absolutely JUMPED on this idea, and using her smartphone we came up with a plan to go to Rhyolite and maybe some other small ghost towns along the way.  She took care of getting the rental car and we headed out.

Just outside of LV, we stopped at a convenience store hoping to get an inexpensive map of Nevada.  The maps were very expensive, and we settled for looking at one.  The owner of the store said that was fine and he suggested we not only go to Rhyolite, but that we continue further north and go to Goldfield.  This added considerable time to our drive, but we decided to DO IT. 

We stopped and purchased a couple of sandwiches from a SUBWAY somewhere along the way and then we drove directly to Goldfield and we were pleasantly surprised at this wonderful old semi-ghost town.  We spent close to two hours there exploring and taking pictures.  We were able to do some urban exploring and we also found two geocaches.   An elderly fellow told me about the Sante Fe saloon and casino and how to get there.  This place was outstanding!  Pictures of Goldfield can be seen here:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157631932878376/

After that, we headed south towards Beatty, which is near the turn-off for Rhyolite.  We saw a neat abandoned RV Park along the way and we stopped to take pictures and explore a bit.  When we arrived at Rhyolite, the sun was just starting to set, so we kind of had to hurry, but I think we managed to see almost every building.  Pictures are here:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/juneny/sets/72157631932894052/
Unfortunately, the little museum was closed, but we enjoyed meandering around Rhyolite.  It is a TRUE ghost town, no residents, only crumbling buildings.

Then we headed back to Las Vegas, tired but satisfied that we had found something interesting and fun to do.  We stopped before we got to the strip and ate at a TERIYAKI MADNESS.  This small kind of fast food place was wonderful!  Peggy kept raving about her meal. 

We arrived back at Circus Circus, parked the car in the AVIS parking area on the fifth floor of the parking garage and went back to our room.  I slept great that night!