We are sitting at the far northern edge of a classic “dry” lake in the Mojave Desert. It’s not completely dry of course, but the parts that are dry consist of bunched-up crusty protrusions of the muddy salts left from the evaporating waters. It’s quite different from the smoother alkali lakes we’ve previously experienced. The air is smooth and quiet, and the trammels of Las Vegas seem far away. The distant lights of Baker are a miniscule glitter, dwarfed by the lake and the desert.

But I’m getting ahead of myself….

We spent a few days in relative luxury in Las Vegas, parked in a private driveway, entertained and fed and generally not very “camped”. The day before we left, we visited a huge, enormous, jaw-dropping outdoor store called, appropriately enough, “Outdoor World” (actually a franchise of Bass Pro shops). The size and scope of this place cannot easily be described or photographed. Suffice it to say that ten or more very large sporting goods stores would fit easily within its confines, and still not have the inventory and selection.

Two stories, probably 25-30 foot ceilings, vast open airiness and seemingly miles of merchandise. Massive log pillars holding up the whole affair.

Fishing rods anyone? There had to be 1000+ rods and reels in evidence, all ready for sampling. Maybe thirty rows of line, lures, sinkers, hooks, and all the paraphernalia of the sport. Not seen here – – the fly-fishing department, 50 yards away in another part of the store. Fly fishermen are a haughty bunch. When I asked there for a casting plug, he said “Oh, you’ll find that in the conventional section”.

A hundred-foot-long firearms case full of rifles-pistols-shotguns; eight rows of ammunition shelves; even an entire aisle of air and pneumatic rifles. You sure can tell we’re not in California.

This is about one-third of the archery section, which includes every imaginable type of bow and arrow – – and a live-fire range to try out your fancy.

Clothing, cooking, camping, boating, and likely a handful of things I’ve forgotten to mention. An entire aisle dedicated to mosquito repellents and nets. The mounted heads are accompanied by maps showing their geography of origin. The selection and variety is simply awesome. It’s pretty easy to blow a few hours in here – – spouses be warned.

But even though Vegas has Outdoor World, and even though it IS in a desert, it’s not exactly the kind of desert we typically seek out. We tend to frequent the locales with less concrete and traffic lights – – so eventually we had to exchange hugs, part company, and head out for some lonesome place we hadn’t seen yet.

Alas, the best-laid plans of mice and men oft DO go astray. About a half-hour on the road, just past Primm, traffic ground to a sullen crawl. Google Maps showed a handful of accident and road-work sites – – for the next TEN MILES. This was the second time that I-15 had sand-bagged us, and we were pretty unhappy with it.

After a full hour had passed, we had progressed three miles of the ten. At that rate, we would not have made our destination by dark. We decided to go WAY detour, into the Preserve, and come back out past the tie-up. It would normally add more than an hour to the trip, but in our case it looked like it would actually subtract an hour or more, and get us there by 5PM or so.

As we exited on Ivanpah road, the enormity of the mess was easy to see. This was our previous hour’s travel:

And this was the lead-in to our next 2-3 hours of “whizzing” along I-15.

We rolled, relieved, across the overpass and disappeared out into the Preserve.

About 30 miles of straight and zig-zag travel brought us back out on Cima road, west again on I-15 to Baker, and then off at Zzyzx. In a few more miles, we were at the CSU Desert Study Center. Too late for anything but seeking out a camp, we found a nice flat spot a bit off the road, and settled down for a relaxing Happy Hour at the edge of Lake Tuendae.

Tomorrow, we’ll look around some – we have plenty of time.