“That Fricking Wind”

These were Melissa’s exact words in the middle of the night when we woke up to the noise of 30 mph winds and the van rocking back and forth. We knew about the upcoming wind advisory, but it doesn’t start until 1:00 PM today, which is after I’m writing this. She went outside to take down her shower tent and saved it before the unexpected wind destroyed it. She also placed random items in her chair and on top of my table to weigh them down until we could put them away properly in the morning.

“That fricking wind” is now dictating plans for the entire rest of our stay in Pahrump. We’re sitting out the worst of the wind today. We’ll have a short window while it’s not blowing so hard to visit Death Valley before leaving on Sunday, which is day 14 of the 14 we are allowed to stay here. We’re not going to push our luck, knowing that the rangers are watching. We both agree that we’re done with the desert, but the points north that we want to travel to are still cold, snowy, or muddy. Melissa wants to see Las Vegas and other nearby places she’s never seen, so our next stop will be Lake Mead National Recreation Area, where I’ve camped before. Our America the Beautiful passes will get us in for free, and dispersed camping is also free, once again with a 14-day limit. It’s a bit closer to Vegas than Pahrump, as well as to Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire. It’ll also be on the water, which, though technically still in the desert, should be a nice change of scenery from the Pahrump area. Hopefully, the wind cooperates so we can enjoy more than just a view of the lake out the window from inside the van.

Until the wind allows us, I suppose we’ll just sit here and wait it out. I’m also going to start looking for places we could go after Lake Mead that may not necessarily be on our way to the Pacific Northwest but could at least get us out of the desert and not be cold, snowy, or muddy.