Where We Went
Vinta ge Ve gas
Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekend • Las Vegas, Nevada April 13 – 16, 2017
WORDS & PICS LISA MORA
Kicking off the season of events
in April, my little Canned Ham
“Rosie” still wasn’t going to be
ready in time to make this one, so I called
in a favor from the lovely winner of our
2015 subscriber prize giveaway trailer.
“Do you still have that trailer by any
chance?” I asked.
It turns out that not only did she still have
it; she hasn’t changed a thing about it
since winning it. Even all the stickers from
all the places that little 1957 Mercury
had been all across America and the
entire length of Route 66 were still there
on the back of the distressed metal of the
gravity-fed water tank where I used to
rest and put my feet up after a long day
of driving… Ah the memories!
I set off from a very green and bursting
into spring Oregon and drove through the
rice fields around Oroville and the dam
that had recently threatened to burst and
paid a visit to my friend Elaine in Nevada
City, California as it was her birthday the
next day.
After a good sleep in her eiderdown
quilted spare bed and my birthday
greetings bestowed, it was time for me
to hit the road again for the long last
leg onto Las Vegas. And it was a long
leg. Especially for me, stopping every
100 miles for gas, spending at least
ten minutes chatting to random people
about the Hudson (EVERY time!) and then
stopping to take photos and breathe in
the serenity or wide open spaces, or the
smell of giant trees, or the feel of snow
in my face.
Yep, snow!
So often people ask me: “So what way
are you going?” (to Vegas for example)
“Are you taking the 38/395/5/?” (insert
whatever variety of numbers of highways
in America) and I always say: “I’m taking
whatever way the GPS sends me!” and I
don’t really know what way that is until
I get there and I do sometimes wonder
at the seemingly “back roads” ways it
has taken me in what I assume it thinks
is the quickest route, and may well be, as
far as the crow flies, but does not take
into account the slowing down for
extreme hill climbs, winding roads, or in
this case, snow.
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