Sandbagging us in a Sandy valley

tabs · 07-17-2004, 10:06 PM

One of our reporters who we shall call Gene reports that one of our correspondents has a Gold strike and has bin sandbagging us in a Sandy Valley. Not that it matters much so long as you have good springs for your matress.

ubiquity0 · 07-17-2004, 10:24 PM

Time for another watery casino cocktail Tabs?

tabs · 07-18-2004, 08:53 AM

Naw, I'm out on the lake hoping to catch the big fish.

singpilot · 07-18-2004, 07:43 PM

You'd have to have lived out in rural Jean to get this latest tabbyism

Gold Strike is the casino on the offramp to the towns of Sandy Valley and Goodsprings. Right between them is my mountaintop retreat at the top of Columbia Pass (Rural address is Jean).

The fishing has been good on Lake Mead, probably beacuase the lake level is at it's lowest in 25 years. Less lake means less room for the fish to hide.

It does take longer to get your boat to the buffet bar, tho.

tabs · 12:58 AM

This is the refuge of no mortal men.....Shangrala out in the Mojave is more like it....a place where time is suspended or the Twlight Zone begins....No one would suspect that a circumspect desert road leads to such a place. A place where time is forgotten.

My story begins one Saturday afternoon on a drive to check what is out in Jean. Getting off the 15 freeway on the way to LA. There are 2 casino, 2 gas stations, a correctional facility, an airfield, fire station and a couple of commercial buildings and that is the town of Jean. Heading out on a desert road into the mountains I went through a thunderstorm with lighting bolts lighting up a grey sky....and there, something must have happened to suspend time for there comes a fork in the road in mens lives and I decided to take the side road to Sandy Valley after driving through the desert canyon known as the Columbia pass you enter into a green valley. There is nary a gas station, restruant or store in the place...there is an airstrip, mobile homes, manufactured homes, a church, horse ranches and a solitude of times past. A veritble refuge from modern life...yet only 45 miles or so from Las vegas.

Heading back through the canyon I decided to head up over the rim and found myself in the town of Good Springs an old frontier town of 30's style bungalows and a single saloon by the name of Petes, all out in a desert where the unsuspecting traveler on the highway would guess there is nothing but barren desert....

tabs · 07-19-2004, 01:04 AM

BTW I stopped and had the Buffet at the Gold Strike, it was OK for $7.99 for dinner....What is amazing is that just down the road in Primm there is an outlet mall...so there is some first class shopping to be had just a stones throw from the land that time forgot.

singpilot · 07-19-2004, 06:37 PM

I went to a housewarming 15 years ago in Sandy Valley for a recently retired friend who bought one of those fly-in homes on a small runway.

You know, garage that faces the runway, attached to a garage that faces the street for cars.

The drive there was thru Columbia Pass, and I really liked the solitude, views and remoteness, yet still close to LAS. There was a single 'Land for Sale' sign at the top of the pass. I stopped, wrote the number, and called a couple of days later. Some poor guy had bought an entire canyon (60+ acres) at a BLM auction, and couldn't get financing. Was REALLY needing to get out of it, or he would lose his 10% down.

I paid him off and took out a signature loan just to secure the deal. Closed 10 hours before it all went poof the next day. Was like $1100 an acre. Almost sight unseen. I had flown over it going in and out of LAS, and had sorta seen it by the plot map.

Typical BLM conditions. Cannot bother the wild Mustangs or Burros. Am required to 'permanently seal' the 17 mines in my canyon. Meant dynamite them after surveying and clearing them of anything living or dead, haha. Yes, they were all spent out. Two silver mines, and the rest were copper and bauxite.

I fenced off the mouth of the canyon, and sold the bottom 6 acres to another retired friend, who built a log cabin kinda thing in the shade of the canyon wall. Elevation at the bottom of the canyon is 3200' MSL. At the top, almost 4900'. Is 15 to 25 degrees cooler than on the desert floor. I allowed a cell tower to be built at the very east edge of my ridge, looking out on I-15, and they pulled the power onto the site. They let me hook my property to their access. Water is from an artesian well at the bottom of the canyon. The quality testing came out cleaner than what comes from the tap in Los Angeles.

The ridge has a lot of ferrous metal veins running thru it, and attracts a lot of lightning strikes. Whenever it actually hits the mountain, it forms a little molten pool, ranging in size from an ounce to a quart. These harden up within an hour or so, and then fill with rain water, and eventually sprout some vegetation. Lots of cactus on the hillsides, and yucca and wildflowers in the canyon.

It is really a spectacular retreat. My only worry is that there are plans to relocate McCarran out to the present Jean airport in the future. The real estate around the LAS airport has gotten too valuable.

Those damn airplanes, just when you think you have found a nice quiet spot.

motion · 07-19-2004, 06:55 PM

singpilot, explain this Jean, NV thing to me. Do you actually live there? If so, WHY??? Yes, I've been through a zillion times.

singpilot · 07:02 PM

8%.

No state income tax.

When California falls into the sea, I will have a "New Malibu" beachfront estate.

The 'Jean' experience IS different from up where I am. Next time you go thru, I am on top of those purple mountains on the west side of I-15.

Adam · Adam's Garage

Sounds awesome, Singpilot!

DanTheCat · 07-20-2004, 10:49 AM

Sounds fantastic. The lightning strikes sound really interesting, I don't think I've ever seen anything like that before.

How's the roads in and out, any fun? Desert driving can be fun, I recently went thru eastern oregon on a road trip.

Dan

motion · 07-20-2004, 11:53 AM

Gotcha... I'm sure its a great place. Just wondering why Jean NV of all places

tabs · 12:28 AM

Hey MOtion didja read my posts.....thats why...It really is beautiful land....a place that not many people know about even in LV.

THe good thing Sing has is 2 friends he can go visit that are nearby...so he really can't get too lonely out there. That for me would be an important consideration.

304065 · 07-21-2004, 06:45 PM

Just returned from a touch and go in LV, no time for friends, barely time for hedonism. McCarran is VERY close to the strip, good view of ops there.

singpilot · 07-21-2004, 09:22 PM

Yep, is too close. That's the problem. The land has gotten too valuable. When I first started flying to LAS, it was still a drive to 'town.'

I am not out at 'the ranch' much this time of year. Another two weeks or so, the temps will not go below 100F, even at night. Most I have seen is 121F. Just too hot for doing anything. I stay over at the coast with the A/C on for the humidity.