VALLEY OF FIRE STATE PARK

May 30/10

Staying here in Mesquite, Nevada for a week was a good decision.  We’ve found plenty of interesting things to do in addition to some quiet times.  We played golf at the Palms Golf course a few days ago and really enjoyed the round.  It was a challenging course with beautiful views and we both had some excellent shots during the round.  Here are a couple of photos:

The round of golf included 2 coupons for a buffet lunch at the Virgin River Casino so we used them the next day.  It wasn’t as nice as the lunch buffet in Laughlin but hey, for almost free, it was good.

Yesterday, we drove to the Valley of Fire State Park about 50 miles away and spent the day hiking and sightseeing throughout the park.  What an amazing place!!  The rock formations were sandstone and the colours ranged from shades of red, pink, yellow, white and black.  We went on 3 hikes in different areas—each hike was just over a mile long.  We spent most of the day there and took lots of photos.  Here are a couple of the best ones:

You can view more photos in our slideshow at:

http://picasaweb.google.com/HelloStuartLinda/ValleyOfFireStateParkNevada#slideshow/5477077943601654754

Our time here is up on Tuesday, June 1, so we’ll be on the road again heading north through Utah.

NEW LOCATION FURTHER NORTH

May 26/10

We enjoyed our week in Kingman, AZ even though the weather turned cool and windy on Saturday and Sunday.  We adapted by spending less time at the pool and instead, went to the theatre to see “Robin Hood.”  It was a great movie and there were only 3 of us in the theatre for the showing.

Yesterday, we left Kingman and drove northwest on US 93 and drove over the Hoover Dam from the south side.  They have security checkpoints on both sides of the dam and wanted to see inside our trailer and in the storage compartments.  No big deal and we were on our way in 10 minutes.  The traffic was light at the dam this time and we could see that they had finished another section of the Colorado River Bridge and it now spans the gorge.

March view

May view

We got through Las Vegas quicker and easier this time even with a stop at Camping World on the way.  Most RV’ers shop at Camping World’s whenever they can, as the selection is great and the prices are good.

We had an interesting time finding the Desert Skies RV Resort with our GPS.  We entered the address as 350 Hwy 91 in Mesquite, Nevada and the GPS directed us to a school.  We had to ask for directions and found out that the true location was 350 Hwy 91 in Littlefield, Arizona which is about 10 blocks away.  The two towns are right beside each other with most businesses and services in Mesquite.  We didn’t know that the GPS relies on the town name as well as the other address information to pick the right spot.  Anyway, we found it with a bit of work and no official U-turn although there was a short drive through a subdivision.

The RV resort is very nice and not very busy at this time of year.  It has all the amenities such as heated pool, spa, laundry, library, fitness room, billiards room, etc.  The weather has warmed up to 88F today so the pool is again part of our daily routine along with the evening billiards games.  Oh, what a relaxed life.

VIEW FROM OUR BACK WINDOW

AT HOME IN KINGMAN ARIZONA

May 22/10 

It’s very nice to stay in one place for a while and not be moving on every few days.  We’ve found plenty of things to do in Kingman, Arizona and the weather has been warm and sunny with some wind yesterday and today.

We played golf on Thursday at Cerbat Cliffs golf course which is nestled in between the rocky desert, a subdivision and the interstate.  We played by ourselves and had a really good time although the greens were challenging.  The last time we played was in April back in Benson, Arizona—seems like a really long time ago.  Here are some photos of Cerbat Cliffs course:

Yesterday, we drove west on highway 68 about 30 miles to Bullhead City, AZ and Laughlin, NV.  The two towns are on opposite banks of the Colorado River with all the businesses and services on the Arizona side and all the casinos and hotels on the Nevada side.  We explored both of them and Stuart spent $5 on the penny slots.  Somewhat entertaining, if you like watching the little wheels spin around and your credit drop at a fairly steady pace.  We splurged on a buffet brunch at the Aquarius casino and certainly got our money’s worth.  We ate so much that we weren’t hungry at supper time—glad we don’t do that very often.

The Colorado River has a dam just north of the towns and behind it is the Mojave Lake.  It’s a popular spot for boaters and jet skiers who also like to run up and down the river.  The lake looks so inviting amidst all the dry countryside and with a temperature of 98F yesterday, it was tempting to go for a swim.

Today is a home day and Stuart spent a couple of hours lubricating the trailer axles.  They have an ez-lube system where you jack up the wheels (one at a time) and insert the grease with a gun into the bearing while you spin the wheel.  An interesting process and well worth it since they seemed to take on quite a bit of grease.  Need to keep those wheels rolling smoothly.

Here is a photo of RV storage in the subdivision by the golf course:

GETTING OUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66

May 19/10

Holbrook was a good overnight stop and we were able to see examples of the petrified wood that is predominant in the nearby Petrified Forest National Park.

We drove from Holbrook to Kingman along I-40 through the town of Flagstaff which is often considered the gateway to the Grand Canyon. Towing was a challenge due to the wind and the fact that all the rest areas along the route were closed. According to the Arizona state economic policy, the rest areas are too expensive to maintain so they’ve shut down 13 of the original 18. It really is unsafe as transport trucks and RV’s are forced to pull off to the side of interstate, or on the slip roads from the interstate to exits. Good thing we bring our restroom with us when we are on the road.

The scenery changed from flat, dry desert at Holbrook

DUST STORM ALONG THE WAY

to ponderosa pine forests in Flagstaff

to pinyon pine and junipers in the rolling hills

to rocky bluffs and mountains near Kingman.

Kingman, the Heart of Historic Route 66, is a nice sized town with a population of about 20,000 people and it has all the services and shopping that a person needs. We are staying at the Fort Beale RV Park about 2 blocks from Andy Devine Drive which is part of Route 66. There are plenty of old building and motels along the route and one diner nearby that looks interesting. We treated ourselves to lunch at Redneck’s Southern BBQ pit and had pulled pork sandwiches with slaw and a side of fried pickles. Mmm, mmm, good.

Working hard to keep it clean

MEGA CHURCH AND MOVING ON

May 17/10


Yesterday we went to the Legacy Church in southwest Albuquerque and were totally amazed by its size and attendance. There are 3 services on Sunday mornings and we picked the middle one at 10:30. As we approached on the highway, we saw police cars in the road directing traffic and thought it might have been an accident. Not so;.they were actually directly traffic into the church parking lot and there were shuttle services and valet services from the parking lot to the main door.

The church has 3 auditoriums: one for children, one for youth and one for the main service. We walked past a café on our way to the main auditorium and the foyer was huge, filled with gift shops and informational kiosks for connecting with people.

We walked into the main auditorium that had theatre style seats sloped up from the stage to the back and it seated approximately 3500 people. We sat down and the place was about 2/3 full when the service started. The music was led by about 8 main singers, with keyboard, guitars and drums and a choir of 30 on the side. Excellent music and a great message that engaged the audience. The rest of our day was relaxing.

We headed west on I-40 this morning and drove through Gallup, New Mexico and into Arizona. We are still following the historic Route 66.

We are back on Pacific Time now and are spending the night in Holbrook, Arizona. We wanted to go as far as Winslow, Arizona and stand on the famous corner (from the song "Take It Easy" by the Eagles) but the RV parks in town did not have good reviews. We`re moving on again tomorrow.

ALBUQUERQUE AND SANDIA PEAK TRAMWAY

May 16/10

Albuquerque is an attractive city, set on the west side of the Cibola Mountains, with the Rio Grande River running through it. The city is clean looking and decorated with Native American designs and southwest colours of sand and turquoise. Many of the subdivisions have adobe style houses with flat roofs.

Most of New Mexico advertises genuine Indian crafts, pottery and jewellery and there is a section of downtown ABQ (how about that abbreviation for Albuquerque?) with a variety of shops. We found one called the Palms Trading Co. and they had a good selection of genuine Hopi jewellery and some Navajo jewellery at reasonable prices. We did make a few purchases as souvenirs of our trip through New Mexico.

After shopping, we drove to the Sandia Peak Tramway at the northeast end of town. It is the world’s longest passenger tramway at 2.7 miles or 4.5 km in length. The tram is supported by 2 towers between the terminals and the span between tower 2 and the top is 1.5 miles which is one of the longest spans in the world. The elevation at the bottom is 6,559 ft. and the top terminal is 10,378 ft. We sure noticed the thinner air at the top as we were hiking along one of the trails. There were snow patches in the shade and it was cool up there, especially when the wind came up. Here are some photos:

Today is warm and sunny and we’re going to a church down the road on Route 66. As always, it will be an interesting experience. Other than doing a bit of shopping and fuelling up the truck, we plan to spend the rest of the day at “home.” If it gets warm enough, we may go to the pool for a swim. Back to the good weather life.

WET AND WILD

May 15/10

Our second night in Amarillo, Texas was just fine but we were ready to head west into New Mexico as rain and thunderstorms were on the way. We woke up to cloudy skies and managed to get on I-40 west before 8:30. It started to rain about half an hour after we started out and we could see big black clouds on the horizon ahead of us. In the flat land, it’s hard to tell how close the storms might be.

We stopped at a rest area inside the New Mexico border for a quick break and it was very black there with the wind coming up. We hurried back out so that we could keep going west while the storm was coming east. It was dark as night, then the rain started hammering down and the lightning was striking areas ahead of us. I saw one bolt that sizzled on the ground for a while so I know it made contact with something. We kept going with full determination.

You know that it’s raining hard when the road surface is covered with water while you are going up a hill. There was so much water on the road at times that we had to follow in the tracks of a semi to avoid hydroplaning. We hit one patch of water that blinded us completely for a few seconds but Big Red (our truck) and our trailer stayed firm on the road. I will admit that there was a lot of praying going on during this adventure.

It all settled down after an hour or so and I even took my turn at driving on this leg. We arrived in Albuquerque, New Mexico at noon (time zone now back to Mountain Time) and have settled in to the American RV Park west of town. Nice to be here safely and we plan to stay for a few days.

Albuquerque Highway Interchange

PALO DURO CANYON STATE PARK

May 14/10

We survived the night in Amarillo and the next day was clear with less wind so we were able to go on a sightseeing trip to Palo Duro Canyon State Park about 25 miles away.  It is the second largest canyon in the US and it was impressive.

We started out at the overlook at the entrance to the canyon and these are some of the views:

The road winds down the cliffs into the canyon bottom and then makes a loop around the sides.  We stopped at different spots to check out the incredible red clay which provided a wonderful contrast to the green vegetation.

We didn’t have time to hike 5.75 miles to the most prominent feature called Lighthouse Rock but we did hike up to a hole in the cliff.  The hole had been created by flowing water at one time but is dry as a bone these days.

On the way back, we saw some Longhorn cattle that are simply amazing:

 And just east of our RV park on Route 66, there is a quirky place called Cadillac Ranch.  A fellow named Stanley Marsh buried 10 Cadillacs in a field by the road and people are encouraged to paint whatever they want on them.

 Check out the Stanley Marsh story at this site:
  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2220

After the day of sightseeing, we decided to go out for supper at the Country Barn Steakhouse and had rib eye steaks served with a large salad, rolls, fried okra, onion rings, sweet potato and ranch style beans all for $26.99.  We were sure full after the meal and glad that we didn’t go to the place that offered a 72 oz. free steak.

TORNADO ALLEY

May 13/10

We left San Angelo on May 11 and drove to Lubbock, Texas (home of Buddy Holly) for one night.  While we were there, we watched the local news and they were having a big memorial for a huge tornado that destroyed most of the city 40 years ago.  That’s when we started checking out Tornado Alley on the web and realized that we were now in it and that tornado season is in full swing.

Our plans were to go to Amarillo and stay for more than a couple of days if we liked the RV park, the weather and the area.  It was a short 2 hour drive to Amarillo the next day to a nice RV park west of town on I-40.  When we checked into the park, the weather was warm and sunny, but they told us that a tornado had formed in a field about 4 miles away a few days ago.  We were also advised that the restroom and shower buildings in the park served as the storm shelters.  It was little disconcerting for fair weather folks like us and I was having visions of our trailer getting sucked up into a tornado like Dorothy’s house in the Wizard of Oz (and me without my ruby slippers).

As the afternoon progressed, the wind picked up and it was really howling by suppertime and then all through the night.  We were watching the local TV channel and they were putting up tornado and severe thunderstorm warnings for about 10 counties east and southeast of Amarillo.  We could see the big thunderclouds in the distance and kept watching to see if they were going to come our way.  The storm didn’t get closer to us but the wind was so strong during the night that we pulled all the slides in so that it was less noisy and we could get some sleep.  What a night!!

CULTURAL OBSERVATIONS

May 10/10

Crystal City, the Spinach Capital of the World was a definite disappointment. Other than seeing a small Del Monte processing plant at one the end of the town and the statue of Popeye on the rutted, empty building main street, there was no sign of any spinach fields, products or farm workers. However, Popeye stood proudly on his spinach can and Stuart kept singing 3 or 4 different versions of, "I’m Popeye the Sailor Man….” over and over again:

We left Crystal City in the clouds and rain on May 9 and drove north on US 83 to San Angelo, Texas. It was an interesting drive through hills and lush green vegetation to sparsely vegetated rangelands and into grain fields at our destination.

We are staying in the San Angelo State Park which is a few miles out of town and have a view of the OC Fisher Lake. It had a lot more water many years ago.

This is a nice respite from the private RV parks as there is plenty of space at the sites and the neighbouring sites are not close at all. The services include 50 amp electric and water hook-ups at the site and a dump station for the sewer. Very peaceful although it has been windy for the last 24 hours and it is hot (98F) again.

We’ve noticed that drive-thru services are really big in this part of the US. Some banks are completely drive-thru with no inside staff or services and there are beverage and snack drive-thrus in most towns also.

This is a motor bank (drive-thru) that looks sort of like a highway toll booth area:

And this is a “Party Barn” cold beverage and snack drive-thru:

Everyone here has the Texas drawl and they greet you with “How y’all doin’?” They don’t expect an answer but we are conditioned to reply “Fine and how are you?” It gets us a few strange looks. We haven’t seen more than a couple of vehicles from other states in the past few weeks—seems like no one else is visiting Texas.

Texans are generally courteous drivers and most of them obey the speed limit which is usually 65 or 70 mph even on the secondary roads. They have signs on the road encouraging people to drive friendly – the Texas way. There is police presence on the highways (including some photo radar) so the speed limit is enforced. Hey, maybe that could work on the freeway in the Lower Mainland of BC!! It sure makes for a safer and easier drive, as everyone is travelling at the same speed.