April 9-12, 2022 Shoshone, California to Las Vegas, Nevada

 96 and sunny. 

This morning we went to Len Warren's bird talk at the Shoshone Museum. It was excellent. This weekend is the Baker to Vegas Law Enforcement relay challenge.  Teams of 20 runners run a relay from Baker, Cal to Las Vegas-120 miles. It is a yearly thing. Over  8,000 runners, guests, family members and support staff pass through Shoshone. These are communication and support vehicles. Town and the highway is very crowded as they run through. It is a pretty hot day- high of 96 for the runners. I spent the day in my lawn chair working on my latest basket. 

The newest masterpiece is nearing completion. 8 x 6 x 2 so far. Dinner outside on the patio. I cooked homemade tomatoe soup and grilled cheese on homemade bread!

The sky was kind of hazy, got a faint sunset. 

Driving to Las Vegas in a dust storm. We had to take the back way the road through Pahrump was closed because of a shooting at the border. 

81 degrees in Vegas, it would have been sunny if you could see the sky through the blowing dust. The view from our window at the hotel.  We are at Southpoint Casino for the glass expo starting tomorrow. The hotel and the casino. It is culture shock after being in Shoshone for so long. 

Right before sunset we sort of saw the sun through the blowing dust from our room. There are mountains out there, hopefully we will see them tomorrow. It is green because of the tinted window. There was no red sunset, it just got dark. Too bad it might have been cool through the dust. 

My first day of class at the Glass Expo is excellent. I took the first day of a two day class on Advanced Fusing by Patty Gray. Patty demonstrating combing hot glass. Some examples of combed glass. We will be combing tomorrow.

Some examples of the techniques we are learning. Patty demonstrating how to use a circle cutter. 

My first piece will be the nautilus shell done in the technique of the bottom piece with iridized glass. The cold glass working area with the class behind. A couple flat laps, wet belt sanders, and grinders.

 Some of the kilns with student projects waiting to be fired. More kilns. A smaller ones are used for vibrograph and pot melts besides regular firing. We will be using them tomorrow for combing glass. And some class project demos. 

The top piece here is a piece that Susie, who is sitting next to me is working on. The bottom piece is my wave piece. these are both before firing. The sun is shining today. Our view from our room of the pool and mountains.

We walked down to look at the pool. This is the hot tub. From the pool looking at the hotel. Our room is on the 10th floor on the right side. 

The dress code for the bowling tournaments. They have a bunch of bowling alley's and have tournaments . There is also an arena for livestock events and rodeos, a cinema, a race track and a lot of convention rooms. John is relaxing and enjoying our view. 

There were no clouds for sunset, not much happened except the sun going down, We also have a good view of one of the flight paths for the airport. It is green from the tinting on the window. I brought some homemade burritos for us. There is no microwave in the room, so John is heating them up with the iron!!