Mile 252. After finishing work in Mesquite, Lou looked for a different hill to climb and found it on Mesquite Heights Road. This is also the road to the city landfill, and like several others in Mesquite, it has houses built up right to the Lincoln county line. Mesquite is bordered by a county line to the north, a state line to the east, and the Virgin River to the south, and is filling up quite nicely in between. Tortoise parked at the last intersection and went up the hill to see what views he could get on his first walk in Lincoln County. Walking thought was provided by Linda Burton ...
Cheerio!
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| Today's turnaround point |
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| View from the back of the well worn Lincoln County sign |
Since we haven't heard much from the Boredom Committee in awhile, Tortoise is going to take a chance on discussing one of his favorite topics: useless geographic and population data, and other semi-related trivia. Depending on whether you believe the Census Bureau or the welcome sign to town, Mesquite's population is somewhere between 16,000 and 20,000. It is a tiny speck officially in the Las Vegas Metropolitan Area, which currently has 2.1 million residents and is ranked 29th largest in the nation. Many of those residents haven't heard of Mesquite, and many more who have, think it is in the Vegas Valley, not 80 miles northeast. Once upon a time, Tortoise ran an ad in the Las Vegas Review-Journal to recruit employees and got lots of responses, most of whom lost interest when they found out how long their drive to work would be. They had no clue of this when they picked up the phone to inquire about the jobs.
So Mesquite is a tiny part of a far away giant metropolitan area. On the other hand, it is arguably more influenced by St. George, which is in another state both geographically and demographically, yet only half as far away. Mesquite is also smaller than St. George, which at 155,000 people in its metropolitan area is ranked 262nd in the country -- but the two communities are still much closer in size than Mesquite is to Las Vegas.
This brings us to a consideration of Mesquite's influence on its immediate neighbors. To the south, across the Virgin River, is the Nevada ranching community of Bunkerville with about 1,500 residents. To the east is Scenic, an unincorporated community in Mohave County, Arizona. It is slightly bigger than Bunkerville, but has no schools nor even a post office. For schools you go ten miles or so to Beaver Dam, and for a post office you either do the same, or ... you get a post office box in Mesquite. That's what most people there do. Why, you ask? Well, Lou had an interesting conversation with the Littlefield postmaster awhile back. The post office (and the schools for that matter) in Beaver Dam carry the Littlefield name. But then we are digressing from our digression, so let us continue with the boring primary digression, which is to discuss the conversation with the postmaster ...
Tortoise: "How long does it typically take a letter to get here?"
Postmaster: "That depends on how many times it passes through Kingman on the way."
Tortoise: "What?!?!?"
Postmaster: "Our zip code here is 86432. That means our mail is sorted with the other mail in the 864 zip code prefix ... in Kingman. So if you send a letter here, it goes through Kingman first. But since most letters come most of the way by air, they pass through the Vegas airport first, then to a sorting center where the 864 prefix is identified and they are routed to Kingman for further sorting. In Kingman, they are supposed to be grouped with other mail going to our 86432 zip code. But because the only road from Kingman here to Beaver Dam is through Las Vegas, the mail goes back through the same sorting center they passed through on their way to Kingman. And more often than not, that sorting center sends the mail intended for us back to Kingman, continuing an endless loop. More than once, people have had various services cut off because they didn't pay their bill, which they didn't receive, because of this endless loop."
Tortoise: "Sounds like it would just be easier to get a post office box in Mesquite."
Postmaster: Grunts.
Then there is Mesquite's neighbor to the north, the various communities of Lincoln County. Mesquite has already annexed the land out to its landfill and water tank, so it already has several miles of land in Lincoln County. If its growth continues, it wouldn't be too far fetched for it to be one of the smallest communities in Clark County, while being the largest in Lincoln County. Even though the only way to get to, say the Lincoln County Courthouse, from here is to either go 129 miles on the Carp-Elgin road off exit 100 of Interstate 15 (blink and you'll miss that one). Most of that road isn't paved, Google says it will take you 4 hours to drive it. Or, you can go 156 miles through St. George and Enterprise, which is still about 2 1/2 hours. Right now, Mesquite has no residents in Lincoln County, as you can readily see in the pictures above, but that could change before too many more years pass. Those future residents might have an interesting time dealing with a county seat that far away, serving the 5,300 residents scattered across 10,000 square miles in the city of Caliente (population 1100), and the census-designated places of Alamo, Beaverdam, Bennett Springs, Dry Valley, Hiko, Mount Wilson, Panaca, Pioche (the county seat), Rachel (population 50 and the headquarters of Area 51 UFO watchers), and Ursine.
Now that the Boredom Committee is awake and cheering, Tortoise will provide the numbers on today's walk, his first in Lincoln County, and the fourth Nevada county he has walked in. (Clark, Douglas, and Washoe being the others)
Today's walk was 3.41 miles, done in 55:29 minutes at an average pace of 16:16 minutes per mile. It had an average 5.5 tortoise rating earned by climbing 174 feet in the 1.71 mile uphill portion. Average elevation was 1962. This walk burned 542 calories. It was Tortoise's forty-first 5k walk of 2016.
Here are the overall stats so far for 2016:
252.49 miles walked, compared with Lou's goal for this date of 261.15 miles.
18,065 total feet climbed so far in 2016, compared to a year-to-date goal of 16,072. Lou hopes to climb more than the 61,316 feet he climbed in 2015 -- but in 16 minutes less each day than his 1:07:04 hour average in 2015. So far in 2016 Tortoise's walks have averaged 50:41 minutes each.
His average pace so far in 2016 has been 16:28 minutes per mile, slightly more tortoise like than his goal of 16:05 minutes per mile, but a noticeable difference from his 18:25 minute per mile pace in 2015.
Lou has walked 283 consecutive non-Sundays since his 8 missed days May 2-11, Overall he has walked on 386 of the 395 non-Sundays in 2015-16, a 97.72% consistency rating.
One step at a time can lead to great things!
And now for today's walking thought ...
"At the funeral services for a remarkable daughter of God, someone shared that this sister, as stake Relief Society president, worked with others in her stake to contribute quilts to give warmth to suffering people in Kosovo during the 1990s. And like the good Samaritan, she went out of her way to do more as she and her daughter drove a truck filled with those quilts from London to Kosovo. On her journey home she received an unmistakable spiritual impression that sank deep into her heart. The impression was this: 'What you have done is a very good things. Now go home, walk across the street, and serve your neighbor!'
"The funeral was filled with additional inspiring accounts of how this faithful woman recognized and responded to the extraordinary and pressing calls--and also the ordinary occasions -- of those within her sphere of influence. For example, she opened her home and her heart to help struggling young people at any hour -- day or night.
"... we can be assured of Heavenly Father's help as we get down on our knees and ask for divine guidance to bless His children. Heavenly Father; our Savior, Jesus Christ; and the Holy Ghost are ready to help."
The tortoise is smiling!
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