Thursday February 21st

Looks like the 'peace and solitude' part of the holiday is over: all the clan are arriving for the wedding, and Steven, Tina, and Fuzzy came in Thursday night. Believe it or not we managed to get everyone and everything (including two car seats) into the car at the airport and get everyone safely back to Sams Town.

Wednesday we did a couple touristy things - Ethel M chocolate factory and the scenic drive out to Red Rock Canyon. We hadn't done either of those on the last trip. Funny the things you see along the side of the road here, like a wireless tower disguised to look like a tree (not sure if that'll fool the Russians) or a homemade tow truck made from a Lincoln Town Car. Wednesday nght was out to dinner with the gang (Sean and Alicia, Brent and Carmen, Claire, Diane, and Cliff and Kathy). The day started out cloudy, and we got some rain in the afternoon (still beats the heck out of snow, though).

Thursday we spent the morning cleaning the MH and doing the last of the laundry (told you the holiday was over). In the afternoon we spent a couple hours in the casino, checked out a K-Mart, and did a dry run through the airport to make sure we could find the right terminal later. Then it was back to the park, a little more casino for me and a rest for Wendy, a bite to eat, and back to the airport to pick up the kids.

For anyone not sure of where Sams Town is, it's NOT near the strip (a bonus for me). It's out on Boulder Highway in Henderson, about 1/2 hour from the airport and 20 minutes from the strip. In the picture with the sign you can see the strip and judge the distance for yourself. The last picture I took just to show that we're not the oldest unit in the park anymore. Also, check out the lot sizes - we usually have more room that this at Wal*Mart!

Tuesday February 19th

You probably figured it out already... we have internet! Yaaayyy!

We pulled into Sam's Town in Vegas this morning, and have now done two things that I haven't done since I left:

1. Paid for a campsite - we're on full hookups for the next week.

2. Paid for internet - after not having it for the past few days, we both decided it's worth it. 20 bucks for the week, but what the heck.

The last post I had prepped was for Saturday, and now that that's uploaded here's an update on Sunday & Monday.

Sunday morning we bid farewell to Quartzsite and moved up the river to Lake Havasu. This is a long weekend in the states (President's Day), and the weather was sunny and warm, so of course all the local sun bunnies were out. Imagine Kelowna on the May long weekend. Unless there's a big chunk of Lake Havasu that's out of sight of the town, I think if all the speedboats pulled up on shore went out on the lake at once you could probably walk from one side to the other.

We stopped at the BLM dispersed campsite "Craggy Wash", which is just on the north side of the local airport which is in turn on the north side of town. Don, if you ever stop here the road goes right up the canyon about 5-6 miles and there are camping spots al the way along. We didn't know this so wound up setting up at the bottom, and only found out after we unhooked the car and went for a cruise. Had we been staying longer than 1 night it would have been worthwhile to move.

So anyway we took the car & went back into Lake Havasu, did London Bridge & some shopping. The last pic is the view of Lake Havasu out our back (bedroom) window in the campsite, by the way. Sorry, I guess I should have cleaned the window first.

Monday we moved on up to Laughlin,and overnighted at the Riverside again (same spot as the trip down). This time we actully checked in and got a permit, though. It was still free, just had to fill out some forms. Wendy did well, but I contributed my usual amount to the greater good.

This morning we made the move up to Vegas - a long drive for us after the past few days. I think we covered about 80 miles in the MH today.

Saturday February 16

We did the loop over to Bouse, up to Parker, across to the California side, down to Blythe, and home. Lots of desert to see, if you're into that. There's access to a whole bunch of backcountry roads around Vidal CA, but on the map most are marked as 4WD roads. Since the area's so dry I think a lot are probably passable in 2WD, but maybe with a little more ground clearance than the Cavalier offers. I do see a little 4WD SUV in our future sometime...

Stopped in at Mayflower county campground along the river, just to check it out. $18/day or $250/month, with hookups, boat launch, etc. Looks pretty much like the typical campground you'd see in Canada in July. This one'll be closed for the season at the end of March, though.

Back to the campsite, and it was even warm enough for Wendy to change into shorts, miracle of miracles. Happy hour, dinner, a couple games of crib, and a few Corner Gas episodes and it was bedtime. Big Time Saturday Night in Quartzsite (but not much different than our Saturday Nights in Lamont).

Friday February 15th

OK, so I haven't posted for a few days. I plead extenuating circumstances. As I write this it's 3:00 Friday afternoon, and we're (Wendy and I) in La Paz road campsite back in Quartzsite. Not sure when we'll have internet again, so put your head back to Friday when you're reading this (I hope that's easier than going back to 1971, for some of the younger crowd out there. You know who you are).
So here's a quick recap on the week:
On Monday the plan was to check out a potential RV site for Wendy's arrival, and then do some other touristy things. Unfortunately plans change, as Monday morning the car wouldn't start. Crank like a bugger, but no go-go. After diddling around a little we hitched up and hauled it to a GM dealer in Chandler. Long story short, the fuel pump was gone (OK, it was still there but it was on strike) so it was Tuesday afternoon before we got it back working again.
Needless to say (but I'll say it anyway) sightseeing potential is seriously cut back when your transportation mode changes from 40 mpg to 6 mpg. So Monday afternoon was hilited by a trip to the laundromat (not an unpleasant experience when you can sit in your kitchen and play crib while waiting for the machines to finish), and Tuesday morning was hilited by intensive cleaning of the living accomodations in preparation for the arrival of the queen bee. Tuesday afternoon we picked up the car and headed back to camp.
In our travels we passed by a sign for another casino - the Gila River Wild Horse Pass casino just out of Phoenix - so we decided to check it out. Lots of RV parking and fairly close to the airport, so rather than making the 20 mile trek out to Maricopa and back we bunked in there for the night.
Wednesday morning we did a little pre-scouting for a dump/fill station, since we were down to about 1/8 tank of water and the grey tank was full. Found one at the Flying J on I-10 just west of Phoenix, then we scooted back to the airport and did a couple (OK, about 15) trial runs at finding the right terminals for Wendy's arrival at 2:00 and Don's departure at 11:30 Thursday AM. As it turned out, finding terminals at the Phoenix airport is a breeze; finding parking isn't. Anyway, picked up Wendy and headed back to the casino, where we arrived in perfect time for happy hour, then had the buffet dinner (because we couldn't cook, right? No way to wash dishes with the grey tank full).
Thursday we (Note: "we now means Wendy and I) got Don dropped off at the airport, stopped by Beaudry RV to pick up a few parts and deposit some spittle on the floors of some of the new class A's, and then hitched up and headed west. After a stop at Flying J to dump off/water up/gas up we reached Quartzsite about 4 PM. We had a short look around and wound up back in the La Paz area where Don and I stayed, mainly because I didn't want to spend a bunch of time hunting up a new site and I knew that area was OK. Wendy decided to do a little impromptu cleaning, and upon opening up a cupboard that (I swear) Don and I didn't know existed found a bag of potatoes and the remains of a bottle of wine from last fall. Honest, I don't know how she sniffs these things out. Anyway, once she was done playing in the cupboard we had a nice meal and settled in for the night.
Friday was a sleep in / lazy day. After we did get up and get breakfast done we cruised Quartzsite and the area. Don - all the big tents are now gone, as are about half the people in the long term areas. The place is starting to look like a ghost town, and I imagine in another month it will be. And that brings us pretty much right up to current.
I asked Wendy if she wanted to add anything, and the only response I got from her was "There's no freaking snow". She says that'll mean something to the folks back home, so I guess she's OK with her trip so far even though it's been a little chilly since she landed. Highs only in the mid 60's today, but it's supposed to get back to normal for the weekend. Hope so.