Saturday February 2nd

Headed towards southeast Arizona today, but we'll have a quick look at the car show before we take off. Probably go down through Gila Bend/Casa Grande direction (if you happen to have an Arizona map in front of you) - probably a good idea to avoid the Phoenix area this weekend.

Currently (~2PM Saturday) we're in the parking lot at Holt's Shell in Gila Bend... where there's free WiFi, and we just dumped off at the free dumpstation and filled up with free drinking water. Propane's a little under half, if you're wondering (haven't filled up yet this trip), and we have a little over half a tank of gas (filled up at Bullhead City on Wednesday).

(Time passes)

Finally got out of Gila Bend about 5:00, after geting all caught up on the emails. Got as far as Casa Grande & stopped for the night. There were "No Overnight Parking" signs all over the place at Wally World, so after restocking up with groceries we drifted back up the main drag. K-Mart was supposed to be OK for overnight, but before we got back there the Home Depot lot was just too tempting.

Friday February 1st

We decided that there was no rush to move on down the road so we might as well stay an extra day in Quartzsite. Treated ourselves to a showere this morning (still working off the tank of water we took on Sunday), made an extra pot of coffee, and caught up on the 'puter work a bit.
Since we'd decided to hang around Quartzsite for another day we asked around to see if anything interesting was happening in the area. Turns out there was going to be a black powder rendezvous over in Boise, about 25 miles. Seizing the opportunity to both go for a tour and see something neither of us had before, away we went.
Took a little driving to find the rendezvous, and it was somewhat less that we expected. The club members dressed up in the 1800's costumes & whatnot, but we really couldn't get very close to the shooting. Coming back we stopped in at a few more tents in Quartzsite and then back home for cocktails and a dinner of steaks, baked potatoes, and corn (you're thinking: didn't they eat the exact same thing yesterday? NO! This time we had corn instead of brown beans. Totally different.)
There's been a lot of demand to replace the picture I took off the blog last week, and since I'm getting short of interesting photos right now I'm putting it back in - shhhh! Don't tell Don.

Thursday January 31

We decided to spend the day touring around Quartzsite, so puttered a bit then unhitched the car for the first time. The first pic is our actual campsite, actually taken Wednesday night with the sunset in the background. There are a half dozen other units in the same general area, most of them have bigger dogs so Gabby's pretty happy. The closest neighbours are from northern Nevada and have a pup about Gab's size named Paco. They've been exercising each other out in the desert.

We wandered the vendors in Quartzsite for a bit - not too much happening, lots of empty tents. They're in between the RV show and the car show, and I think a lot have packed up for the winter. Same stuff you see at all the shows forthe most part (miracle glue, never go dull knives, harbour-freight type hardware, etc.). Took a drive up into the mountains a bit, and finished the day off with a nice barbeque (steaks, baked potatoes, brown beans).

Wednesday January 30

Been without internet for a couple days, so I got behind. Honest, we're still out here. Currently it's about 2 PM on Saturday and we're at the Holt's Shell parking lot in Gila Bend, where they have an excellent free Wifi service (plus free drinking water and free dumpstation, so we're set to boondock again!). So here we go:

On Wednesday we went back into the Riverside to the (free) classic car show, before heading south to Lake Havasu and Quartzsite. I really liked the "Solarwind" (see pic). Also very neat was the chance to take an aerial photo of our campsite (the car show was on the third floor). I've circled our unit for you, so you can get the flavour. Not a bad site overall, despite the guy next door (to the left in the photo) having the desire to run his generator past midnight and also having a bit of a leaky sewer pipe right outside our front door.

Don actually wanted to stay over until Friday, since there was a contest happening Thursday night, until I reminded him of the average age of the patrons here. We both agreed then that discretion being the better part of valour it might be a good idea to miss this one.

Stopped off in Lake Havasu to see the famous London Bridge. We were halfway across before we realized we were on it... duh.

Finally finished off the day arriving in Quartzsite about 5:00 PM and found a spot a few miles south of town.

Tuesday January 29

At the Riverside in Laughlin. Using another RVer's signal I think, so won't talk long. The only way I can even pu the signal is laptop on the dash & reach over the steering wheel.

Tried to stay at the Colorado Belle, which was supposed to be RV-friendly... but the security guys came by with a note about "In compliance with Clark County Ordinance 24.03.110..." etc. So we moved down a couple blocks to the Riverside and hunkered in with about 60-70 other rigs (I'm guessing at least 3-4 units each from BC, AB, and SK). So naturally we went inside and donated some cash to the Riverside folks and NOT the Colorado Belle.

Forgot to mention... I think Don and my arrival here brought the average age down quite a bit. In the buffet line tonight were about 100 people besides us... there MIGHT have been 2 under 50. Good buffet, though, for $11.85 (including tax).

Wendy: We bought NOTHING at Camping World, although there was this new Bounder for $83,000 that was kinda tempting... but we knew you wouldn't like it.

PS - the mirror pic is another Bounder that followed us to Searchlight, but we lost him there.

Monday January 28

Slept in this morning, then decided to do the bacon & egg breakfast thing since we had water. So did that, showered, washed up the dishes & cleaned up a little bit (up to our standards, anyway). Right now it's 1:00 PM and we've moved down to the Travel Info Centre in Mesquite... free WiFi @ 54mbps so it doesn't get much better.

Very windy here all night and today, coming from the west (so it'll be a headwind when we leave for Vegas). Temp is supposed to get to 50F today so went with the shorts. I'm sure everyone will recognize me as Canadian.

Got into Vegas about 4:15; parked behind Bally's. Met up with Miles & Mark, did a little gambling, had dinner (treated ourselves to restaurant), did a little gambling, and in bed by 11:00. Pretty boring, eh?

Sunday, January 27

It was cold this morning in Blackfoot (-7C). Not as cold as Alberta is, though, so I'm just very very greatful we left when we did and I wish we could have taken everyone up there with us.

We were up early this morning, for a Sunday. Correction: I was up early, and Don didn't have much choice after that. Took Gabby out for a stroll and she was quite appreciative after 2 days "cooped up" with only 5-10 minute breaks. Wendy will know what I mean by "appreciative". We stumbled across open WiFi at a Radio Shack as we were leaving the parking lot, as some of you who caught the hastily-written blog yesterday already know.

We touched four states today (Idaho, Utah, Arizona, and Nevada), although we kind of cheated on three of them. Mapquest up the route from Blackfoot ID to Mesquite NV and you'll see what I mean. Still, Don says it's the first time he's been in 4 states in a day so that's a milestone. I've driven through the northeastern US, so I think my record is about 12 states in a day (not difficult as they have a lot of states the size of PEI there). Enroute we also touched a whole bunch of weather patterns, from cold to snow to rain to sun to cloud to snow to rain to snow to rain to sun to rain... all with nice gusty headwinds and crosswinds to make life interesting.

Right now however I'm writing this while sitting at the dining table, with the window open to a fresh breeze ruffling the leaves on the Palm trees at the Virgin River casino (nope, haven't seen any, in case you were wondering). We're parked with 3 other RVs in the back of the casino lot under the big sign... hell, just look at the picture. I went in and spent my requisite $1 after supper (hot dogs), but I was quickly bored and came out to take Gab for a walk and have some desert with her. Don's still inside representing our interests, so I have a whole bunch of time to write up these postings & enjoy the quiet.

We're now officially in holiday mode, not only because we've left the snow behind but also because we got the water lines dewinterized and the tank filled in Utah (mile 78, about 16 miles north of Cedar City, at the TA Travel Centre, for future reference). The last couple of days we've been living out of a 5 gallon water jug, which must have been plenty because it's still half full. But sometime in the next 3-4 days one of us might have wanted to wash, so it's just as well we have the water now I guess. I think tomorrow will be a short run into Vegas, dry camp at one of the casinos, wash up the vehicles, and try to meet up with one of Don's buds for a buffet or something.

Saturday January 26

First, let me just say that I've got all the sympathy (empathy?) in the world for those stuck in Alberta. Normally I'd be gloating over the temperature difference but this is just too much to be amusing. For everyone going through that cold snap, please please please don't do anything dumb and risk your heart or frostbite. Stay indoors and stay warm until at least the weekend when it looks like it'll warm up a bit. I promise to not gloat about the temperature until it's at least not dangerous up there anymore.

Now, the picture of Don I put in the original post wasn't very nice. In all honesty, I let Don drive a bit on Friday (see pic) but after that I relegated him to Navigator/GPS Operator. And since I-15 goes all the way from Sweetgrass to Vegas, well, there's really not much for a Navigator to do.

So, to recap: Saturday morning started out in the rest area north of Great Falls, and ended up in Blackfoot Idaho at the Super Wal*Mart. In between we stopped off in Great Falls to stock up the pantry, stopped off at a pullout between Great Falls and Helena for lunch, and stopped a couple times for gas. All was routine except for a lot of wind and blowing snow and a little detour through the Idaho countryside when the GPS lady decided we wanted to go back to the Wal*Mart in Idaho Falls instead of ahead to the one in Blackfoot. She and I had words (OK, it was mostly my words) after that one, but of course she then proceeded as if nothing had happened. Witch.

The last picture's for Wendy - Bob & Linda eat your hearts out.

Friday Jan 25

Headed out at about 10:15 by the time I got everything hooked up.

Notice how clean they look.