Who Knew They Could Swim?

Sharing a cone in Pahrump's Petrack Park
(say that three times fast)

Four hours. They spent four hours at the Las Vegas Outlet Mall while Chico and I waited back at the trailer. Now we were cool and comfy, napping on the bed, that’s not the issue, but you know what the next stop was? Petco. Guess how long they spent there. Go on, guess. You’d think at least an hour to peruse the many things we might need or want, but no, ten minutes! Teresa was in and out in ten minutes carrying half a dozen cans of food. Good food mind you, the Blue Buffalo kind I like best, but still.

Can still get all four off the ground!

Campsite at Lake Mead

I forgave them when we reached our next camp though. We were boondocking again, which I prefer to RV park life, and this spot had a huge body of water – Lake Mead. We arrived right at sunset so didn’t have much time to explore but it looked very promising. We’d been at the Nevada Treasure RV Resort for nine days by this time and I was ready for some outdoor-off-leash-long-walks-lying-under-the-trailer time. Don’t get me wrong, town life has it’s perks, like sharing an ice cream or playing in a grassy park, I just prefer the wide open spaces.

We’ve been here at the Lake Mead National Recreation Area four days now and my initial impression was bang-on. The tie-up cables haven’t even left the storage compartment and we’ve been walking the lakeshore and swimming every day. We got a second swim

Morning stroll and swim

in yesterday, in the late afternoon, and the strangest thing happened. Chico and I went in and got our legs wet and had a drink (I’d been lying under the trailer all afternoon so wasn’t terribly hot). When we came back on shore Nollind walked out into the water and started swimming, and then Teresa did the same! They swam out a ways and then turned to look back at us and I’m sure we were both staring with our mouths hanging open. I didn’t know they could swim, or even liked water other than showers and hot tubs. We walk in some pretty hot weather at home and Teresa never joins us in the canal. They called to us to join them but I think we were too shocked to do anything but sit and stare. They splashed around awhile, came ashore to dry us all off and we hiked back up the bank to our camp like it was an everyday occurrence. We went walking this morning and things were back to normal with us swimming and them on the shore watching. It seems more natural.

Final days of southern sunshine

It’s hot here, 32C yesterday and supposed to be a few degrees warmer today, but I’m either getting used to the weather down here or the thought of colder temperatures is making the sun feel a little more inviting. I’m sure by this afternoon I’ll be in the shade but that Nevada sun is feeling pretty fine this morning. Maybe my bones can soak up enough to get me through a cool, damp spring if we have one. I hear we’re headed that direction tomorrow so I don’t have much time. We have sun at home of course, it’s just not as warm at this time of year and there’s always the threat of snow and cold when you live just east of the Rocky Mountains. We can go from sunbathing to snow shovelling so fast it’ll make your tail spin.

Three days in the truck – not sure how that’s going to go. Well, actually, I have a pretty good idea. But I am going to try to find that Zen space I slipped into on the way to Yuma. I’m a brave guy. How hard can it be?