Just two main stops in this state on this trip -- Reno and Las Vegas -- to photograph the campus signs at the two main Nevada University universities.

While in Las Vegas I was hoping to meet my now-retired cousin Lelie. However, lacking any contact info for her, I was depending on my sister contacting Lelie via Facebook. When I got a response, I learned my cousin moved just two weeks earlier back to Mississippi (she lived there before she moved to Las Vegas).

When I got to Las Vegas, I first headed east to the city of Henderson. Two things about this city. One, Bob Campbell was the city manager of Excelsior Springs when my father was the city clerk. So I knew Bob fairly well. At some point around 1980 he left Excelsior to become city manager of Henderson. Two, according to some Internet lists I have seen, Henderson is one of the top 100 largest cities, population-wise, in the U.S. And one of my travel goals is to visit all 100 of them.

When I first visited Las Vegas -- in 2004 -- it was there that I saw my first electronic billboard and thought to myself then that those type signs would come to Kansas City in the future. Now electronic billboards are ubiquitous. Even college campuses have them.

Got the chance to drive across the desert section of the state between Las Vegas and Reno. The highways run mostly through the flatter sections of the desert with mountains on both sides. Once in a while the highways cut through the mountains and still have somewhat of a climb. Fortunately, the highway department puts in passing lanes to get around big trucks and RV's and slow drivers. But sometimes that race to get around them causes some close calls.

I still want to someday drive east from Reno to Utah through Elko (I once landed briefly at the airport in Elko on the way to Reno, the terminal was barely bigger than a gasoline service station). And, I would like to drive south from Elko to Ely and other towns south of there on the way to Las Vegas area. Ah, maybe someday.

One interesting story occurred along highway 95 between Walker Lake and Schurz. Leading out of Walker Lake was a guy pulling an RV and doing between 40 MPH and 45 MPH initially in a 65 MPH zone and eventually in a 70 MPH zone. Behind him were, in order, a semi-truck, a little red car, me, then many other vehicles. The road was curvy around mountains so no place to pass. After a few miles, the truck passed the RV. Then the red car passed both the RV and the truck. Now I was behind the semi. Just about that point, a highway patrol was coming the other direction. Just as he passed me he flashed his lights and started a turn-around. I assumed he was after either the red car or the semi. By the time the highway patrol guy got turned around and passed the numerous other vehicles that were behing me (and in the meantime, I passed the truck and RV and red car (who was only going 65 in a 70 MPH zone so I figured he knew he would be the one the highway patrol was chasing) and was now the lead vehicle. I watched in my rearview mirror as the highway patrol guy passed several vehicles and finally pulled over the red car. By this time we had driven maybe ten miles. So most likely, if the highway patrol went to this much effort to chase down the red car, and was probably rather purturbed by then, then undoubtedly the red car driver was in big trouble. I will never know The Rest of The Story for this but probably an unhappy ending for the red car driver, whatever it is he did.