You might wonder why I am writing a blog on spirituality that features the great country singer, Johnny Cash. Well, first let me introduce the song:

“I was toting my pack along the long dusty Winnemucca road

When along came a semi with a high canvas covered load

If you’re goin' to Winnemucca, Mack, with me you can ride

And so I climbed into the cab and then I settled down inside

He asked me if I'd seen a road with so much dust and sand

And I said, "Listen! I've traveled every road in this here land!"

I've been everywhere, man

I've been everywhere, man

Crossed the deserts bare, man

I've breathed the mountain air, man

Of travel, I've had my share, man

I've been everywhere.”

Unlike the song made famous by Johnny Cash, I haven’t been everywhere, but I’ve been to almost every city and town in Nevada and have visited all fifty states and five countries. If, when hearing this song, you may have wondered where on earth is Winnemucca, you’ll find out in the book I wrote, along with many small towns and remote destinations many people haven’t visited or even heard of.

My husband retired at the age of 63 and we moved to Las Vegas, partly because it was a destination many people visit, so we thought our friends from Pennsylvania would visit often so we wouldn’t get too lonely moving to a city where we knew no one. Also, it was a reasonably-priced place to live—there was no state income tax and housing was affordable. But, best of all, we’d have a good starting point to tour the West that we fell in love with during several earlier visits. We quickly found that indeed we did get many visitors and we loved taking them to places besides casinos and the Strip. And we also took lots of time before his Parkinson’s Disease made it impossible for us to travel, for the two of us to see just about every corner of Nevada and many of the surrounding states. After losing my husband in 2018, I visited one of the places in my book with a friend who asked me if it was hard going back to the places I had been to with my husband. My answer was, “No the memories keep him alive in my heart.” Although I am now living in Missouri, I miss that “mountain air and desert bare,” but most of all traveling those road trips with my husband. That was my main reason for writing my book, Beyond Las Vegas: Road Trips from A to Z . While most of the destinations in this book are an easy drive from Las Vegas, many are off the beaten track, some are outside Nevada, and many of those in rural Nevada will require at least an overnight stay. I hope you’ll enjoy traveling along with me and that the next time work or pleasure takes you to Las Vegas, you’ll tack on several extra days, or even weeks, to see some of the beauty that surrounds us every day, if we take time to enjoy God’s Creation. And perhaps you will decide to write a travel book yourself, to capture those memories you might have shared with a departed loved one. It was a cathartic exercise for me, and it can be for you, too. And even if you aren’t facing loneliness, just getting out into nature is a healing and profoundly moving experience. You’ll see many interesting places in Beyond Las Vegas: Road Trips from A to Z.