Road Trip to Maine - first day. 08-14-16

I drove onto the 91 Freeway about 9:30am.  I had thought to leave earlier, but then  remembered that if I drove for six hours I would arrive wherever I stopped just in time for the motel check-in time - usually about 3pm.  So, I left the  house at 9am and stopped for a latte and bacon/gouda sandwich at my local Starbuck's. 

 

The drive is mostly desolate desert country and the traffic was light.

 

Before Las Vegas I looked for these towers which were being constructed the  last time I drove this route.  At the time I wondered if they were light collecting towers and  I was right.  It is a solar farm  - acres of mirrors that reflect the sun light to the towers which magically turn the light into power and, I suppose, dump it onto the electric grid we hear so much about  This is a magnified image.

And here are the towers at a normal distance, several miles from the highway.

Las Vegas art selectors have placed various sculptures, metal, I  think, along the way, mostly at off and on ramps to the  Interstate.  These are metal cacti, but I also saw mountain sheep, lizards, and coyotes, also in metal.

It is unreal to drive through the barren desert and suddenly there are tall buildings.  These on the southern end of the city give way to more desert.

And then the overpasses start.  There are many of them providing access on either side of Interstate 15.  The further one has the outline of a mountain ridge at the handrail level. 

 

This is more of the view of "downtown" Las Vegas.  I believe this is a six lane section.

Another view of the towering casinos.  And then I am out of town and the desert starts again.   The highway goes through the Virgin River canyon which I have always thought it must be like one were to drive along the bottom of the Grand Canyon.

 

I arrived in St. George, Utah, at 3:30pm Pacific Time.  I decided to check into a motel and called to make a reservation at the Painted Pony where I have eaten in the past. 

 

This is the area where the restaurant is located - a round-about with a tower in the middle.

The tower is rusty metal and is located near where the rusted metal horse is.  I showed it recently on my blog.

Seated at the Painted Pony.  Very elegant and very pricey, but the food is fabulous.  They are open for lunch Monday - Saturday and dinner every day from 4pm on.

For a starter I had the trout/potato cakes - flaked  trout mixed with chopped up potatoes, wrapped in bacon and topped with a mustard sauce (which I set aside, it was too strong for the trout).  I don't remember what the red sauce was, but it was tasty.  The green is olive oil.

For a main course there was duck wrapped in bacon on a bed of mashed potatoes and a puree of celery root, topped with a very thin slice of apple and a celery sprig.  The exact same thing I had the last time I was here.  It is that good!  

 

 There was also chopped cooked apple mixed in with the duck.

I saved some of the duck for lunch tomorrow and topped off my dinner with bread pudding topped with banana slices and a sugar crust.  On the plate was a little scoop of vanilla bean ice cream, it looks to me like a little bunny snuggled up to the pudding.  I could hardly eat it.

 

As is was, I ate too much, even saving half the bread pudding for tomorrow, and drank a gallon of water which will probably cause me to be up half the night. 

It has been very hot today, 109F in Baker (on their giant thermometer), 110F when I stopped for gas in South Las Vegas.  And 108F when  I arrived here in St. George.  They are on Mountain time so it is now 10pm and I am going to bed.  It has been a stressful and hard working few days.  The price I pay for waiting to the last minute to get ready for a Road Trip.   But it is grand to be "On the Road Again".

 

#   #   #