2011 New York Trip-Day 1 - 07/20/2011 / 17:37-19:12

2011 New York Trip-Day 1 - 07/20/2011 / 17:37-19:12

My first planned stop is a comedy of errors.  My goal was the “Lost City Museum” – a museum of Indian artifacts that had to be moved when Lake Mead filled up.  The museum is in Overtaon, NV --- about 10 miles off of I-15.  I called from the car and found (from a recorded message) that they were already closed before I got there – but that they would open at 8:30 Thursday morning  So, my plan was to find it and then find a motel and go to the museum first thing in the morning.

The address I had from my “Off The Beaten Track” book was 721 Moapa Valley Blvd.  Well, I found 725 (Lake Meade Baptist Church) and 601 (the Moapa Valley Water District HQ) – and there was NOTHING in between. I circled back twice and could find absolutely nothing between those two addresses.  I called the museum again and verified again that it was 721.  I started up the phone’s 3G Mobile hotspot and got my netbook fired up.  Note – sitting in a car in 108 degrees is not the most comfortable way to surf the web.  Anyhow, I got the same address: 721 Moapa Valley Blvd.  Finally I decided I would just find a motel and call the museum in the morning to find out where in the heck they were hiding.

According to GPS, the three closes motels were the Overton, the Plaza and the Best Western North Shore.  I called the Overton and got a message telling me the number had been disconnected.  The Plaza at elast had someone answer, but they asked me to call back in 5 minutes.  I decided to try and check out the North Shore through the Best Western website.  Although I found a multitude of references to the “Best Western North Shore”, I never got the Best Western site to find it.  I finally called them on the phone to check for rooms.  Meantime, while waiting for my 5 minutes, I drove down the block to where the Overton motel used to be.  It has gone out of business.  Back on the phone with the Plaza.  The guy answering the phone said that “they aren’t back yet”.  I finally got him to tell me they had rooms available, but he did not think they had WiFi.  I got testy and asked why it was so difficult to book a room or get information.  Answer: ‘They” have not come back from the store yet”.  I hung up and gave up on seeing the museum and I headed back to I-15.

As I drove along, I called the museum one more time to verify the address.  This time I notice it was on “South Moapa Valley Blvd”.  Well, it turns out the church and water district are on North Moapa Valley Blvd . . . and the museum is on South Moapa Blvd.  In my defense, the website for the museum does not give ANY address, and the book I had just said “Mopapa Valley Blvd”, which the GPS took to mean North Moapa Valley Blvd.  I guess I will cancel my plan to send a terse e-mail to the museum. All told, I wasted 95 minutes NOT finding the museum.