Searchlight Nevada
Today I am driving out to Searchlight Nevada with my mom and my son, and I was just thinking about all the guests my parents have hosted out there through the years. My cousin Fanney from Sandgerði went there when she was 13 or 14, and crashed my scooter into a neighbor's garage. He did not know my cousin was from Iceland, but he did know my parents were from California, so he shouted out, "Crazy Californian!" when the accident happened. (people in Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington have a prejudice against Californians, who are not as conservative as the rest of the West).
When my parents first bought the place--a doublewide trailer with a big cement porch all around it and a few storage sheds--my dad used to let people take the keys and go out there. It is a weekend place that sits empty most of the year, afterall. But the list of things to do to get the "house" operational, and then back in "stand by" mode was hefty, and people invariably forgot to turn off the water or turn off the pump or something else, and then my dad would discover a month or two later a major utility bill for a house that was supposed to be all turned off. So the key got lent out less and less.
Thus when my dad does decide to make a trip out to Searchlight, there is always an eager list of people willing to join him. I remember one time there were I think 10 of us staying out there, three or four of us sleeping on the floor in the livingroom (the house only has two bedrooms but sleeping on the porch or in one of the sheds is not out of the question).
The draw of course is not the house itself, even though the view from the porch over the Nevada desert is really nice, especially in the early morning. Rather, Searchlight is a great base of operations. From there, some can head out boating on Lake Mojave. Some can head down to Laughlin, Nevada. Some can take a dune buggy ride. Some can go out to Las Vegas.
It is usually a bit chaotic, all those people trying to decide who wants to do what when. But I gave up a long time ago on trying to be the ring-leader/organizer. The point afterall out there is just for everyone to do their own thing.
When my parents first bought the place--a doublewide trailer with a big cement porch all around it and a few storage sheds--my dad used to let people take the keys and go out there. It is a weekend place that sits empty most of the year, afterall. But the list of things to do to get the "house" operational, and then back in "stand by" mode was hefty, and people invariably forgot to turn off the water or turn off the pump or something else, and then my dad would discover a month or two later a major utility bill for a house that was supposed to be all turned off. So the key got lent out less and less.
Thus when my dad does decide to make a trip out to Searchlight, there is always an eager list of people willing to join him. I remember one time there were I think 10 of us staying out there, three or four of us sleeping on the floor in the livingroom (the house only has two bedrooms but sleeping on the porch or in one of the sheds is not out of the question).
The draw of course is not the house itself, even though the view from the porch over the Nevada desert is really nice, especially in the early morning. Rather, Searchlight is a great base of operations. From there, some can head out boating on Lake Mojave. Some can head down to Laughlin, Nevada. Some can take a dune buggy ride. Some can go out to Las Vegas.
It is usually a bit chaotic, all those people trying to decide who wants to do what when. But I gave up a long time ago on trying to be the ring-leader/organizer. The point afterall out there is just for everyone to do their own thing.
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