ONE MORE MILE BLOG (dot)com: Road Trip, Car Show, Chili and the Nevada Outback

I decided to take a couple of the kids on a short road trip today to get out of town. A bit east from our base is the town of Mesquite, NV and this weekend the Town and Hotels were hosting a custom car show and chili cook-off.

Cars

Today was the last day for the car show and I'd guess that 40% or more of the entrants had already packed up and headed out of town. The cars that were left varied in quality with a few that were simply superb.

1970 Chevy Nova, Drag Car.

"All Business" Office!

This Nova was a beautiful - truly top quality. I suspect this car runs in the 7-8 second range in the quarter mile.

1934 Ford Coupe

Coupe Motor

I see a lot of "Typical Hot Rods" at our local car show, especially in the 1932-35 year arena. Every once in awhile one stands out. This one surely is one of those. This car appeared to be a fresh build with the latest technology used in all area.

Chili

We then hit the Chli cookoff. It was one of the ICS "International Chili Society" deals, good for entertainment and that's about it. I'll delve more into my ICS experience some time soon and, it will be entertaining.

I did do my duty and tasted all 30 or so People's Choice concoctions and made my vote for the one I liked best. Of all, only one was worth remembering.

I also remember the horrible service by the Outdoor Beer Bar hosted by the Casablanca Hotel of the "Black Gaming Companies". Will someone tell me why patrons have to wait 30+ minutes in line for a beer at a chili cookoff? ...Even when the event announcer is remarking about the single server and the long lines! Black Gaming should be ashamed!

Nevada Outback

After we toured the little town of Mesquite, we decided to take the river road out of town and wander as far as we could to determine if their was an alternate route other than I-15 from Mesquite to Overton, NV.

We didn't find that route but we did find ourselves on the Back Country Byway heading for Gold Butte. This really turned out to be a fun drive of excellent Nevada back country, dirt roads. Hell, most of this road in the dirt sections was more smooth than the majority of California freeways.

On the way we spied some awesome off-road trails, and roads that were all well marked by the BLM as well as spectacular camp spots among very serene and beautiful rock formations. We'll be back for that, for sure!

Lowrance GPS Screen

The town of Gold Butte is gone. Not much but a few littered pieces of the old abode lying here and there. Come to think of it, I really didn't see much in the way of mining activity either. Perhaps we missed some of the old town.

The slim remnants of Gold Butte

We continued on past Gold Butte and down a fork in the road that was marked to lead to lake Mead. The trail became a lot more technical in the last 10 miles and I really enjoyed the ride in the old Dodge. Tht truck is just made for this kind of stuff.