Touching Arizona Soil

No matter where I go, there I am.

I’m happy to report that our previous pattern of leaving a little earlier each morning didn’t continue on into Friday.  Friday we left about the same time we pulled out on Wednesday.  That was the good news.  Well, not the only good news.  The other good news was that we did step on Arizona soil even though we haven’t really left California yet.

This was our neighbor in Barstow.  He had 4 ATVs he carried on this trailer.  We have seen a ton of ATVs being hauled south.  I wonder where they all go.

As we traveled on from Barstow towards Needles, I knew exactly what to expect.  Now it wasn’t that we had been this route before.  We hadn’t been past Barstow on I40.  However, I had read the Western Mountain book so I knew it was a snap.  HA!  That’s what I thought.  It was a good road and the countryside was definitely high desert terrain.  Remember the song, Everything is beautiful in it’s own way?  Well, this was actually beautiful in it’s own way too.  It was definitely different than where we had spent the summer though … definitely. 

Comparison between Washington and this part of California.

However, the mountain book forgot to mention that this road is almost a constant climb.  It may be gradual at times but it felt like we were always climbing.  Then, there were times when we weren’t climbing that we were going down for miles and miles.  Add a little wind to all those ups and downs, I can vouch for the fact that even though the distance was short, it still seemed like a long day of travel.  We have talked to many who much prefer this route over the I5 and the Grapevine.  The Grapevine has a lot more traffic but when it’s over, it’s over.  I guess it’s to each their own.  Next time we travel between Washington and Arizonia via California, we will probably return to our old standard and travel over the Grapevine.

Beautiful Casino at Laughlin.

We arrived at the Needles Elks a little after noon.  Only two of their RV sites were full.  We weren’t worried that they might be full because we also knew they had a large lot that would accommodate us if they were.  After setting up, we unhitched the trailer and headed two miles north to the Arizona border!  Whoopee.  We made Arizona even though we didn’t spend the night there.  However, since we still had quite a few daylight hours left, we were able to check out another RV park that caters to quads and also look around a little in Laughlin, Nevada, 20 miles north.  Had we not decided to make Friday a short travel day we would have had to stay another night in order to accomplish this.  We also filled up the car with gas in Arizona.  It’s certainly less expensive there than in California.

Because we were still in a high elevation, the morning had been quite cool.  The afternoon in Needles definitely wasn’t cool.  We even had our air conditioner on.  

Another view of Laughlin on the Colorado River.  Many RVs were parked in the casino lots.

What is Saturday going to bring?  Well, your guess is as good as mine at this point.  Where do you think we will be?  We could stop over in Quartzsite.  We're thinking that might be an option.   Or, we could bite the bullet and go an additional 270 miles finishing up at our final destination in Gold Canyon ..... our destination at least for a while.

I don't have a clue what Saturday will bring.

Leaving Reno and into Oregon

The forecast for Friday was good. The winds were on their way east and only left a slight breeze in the area. This was good news for us. Our plans were to hightail it out of there! And, that’s just what we did. Terry is not normally an early morning person but he usually is on travel days. And, of course, that means we’re often pulling out during morning work traffic. Again, that’s what we ended up doing in Reno. However, there was definitely a difference between the work traffic in Phoenix, the work traffic in Las Vegas and the work traffic in Reno. We also pulled through other towns during the evening rush hour traffic but didn’t even notice it. There certainly is a lot to be said in favor of driving through these small towns over the larger towns.

Up until Friday morning we weren’t sure which way we were going to head. Well, we knew we’d be taking Hwy 395 as far as Susanville but from there we weren’t quite sure.

Cousin Wally had taken Hwy 44 on to I-5. He said it was a good route. It was a good route but I’m sure our mpg dropped to below 3 taking this route. Hindsight is good for so many things. It’s just too bad we don’t have it. Now that we’ve done that route I’d sure like someone to compare the same route going via Klamath Falls. That was our alternative.

The roads were good. Perhaps, they were windy but they were good. I don’t remember seeing one …. not one .. other RV taking the same route we did. We climbed up to 5800 feet several times. We saw lots of snow. Some of it was fairly fresh and in other places not so fresh. The scenery was beautiful. This definitely would not be the route for someone who does not keep tabs on current weather conditions. During much of the year the elevation could bring more snow to the area. If the snow isn’t enough, icy roads could be another hazard. In some places the trees shaded the roadway and sunlight never peeked through. There were areas where signs were posted warning of high wind gusts.

The day we went through it was perfect. I can’t say we were lucky but I can say we certainly knew that the day was to be clear, wind would be gone and the temperatures were high enough to melt any overnight ice.

The terrain continued to change the more the road headed west and then as it turned north. The deserts and scrub were left behind for the green grass, spring flowers and tall, tall trees. Mountains in the distant were absolutely breathtaking.

Our first tentative overnight location was to be around Phoenix. That is Phoenix, Oregon and not Phoenix, Arizona…. been there, done that. However, we still had lots of hours of daylight left when we got there. Thus, we set a second tentative over night location. This was to be the SKP park in Sutherlin, Oregon. That’s right. That’s where we were heading. (OREGON – pronounced OR-Y-GUN and not OR-E- GONE).

I had downloaded GPS coordinates for the SKP parks. Needless to say, whoever figured those coordinates out, didn’t do a very good job. We ended up at the post office in the center of Sutherlin. Instead of wasting time looking for it, we trudged on down Interstate 5 towards Eugene and spent the night in a déjà vu location.

If you travel through Oregon, notice the weigh stations. Many are closed but the scales still work. You can drive through and weigh your rig. The weight will be on the LED screen in front of the driver.

The Monaco RV Service Center and Cummins Service Centers are located just north of Eugene in Coburg. Both of these facilities have RV hookups on their service lot. We know. We stopped there last fall. That’s where we pulled in, plugged in the electricity and passed out for the night. There are several parking areas by the buildings too so if the RV parking spaces were full, we could have just spent the night and not hooked up.

It was a long 475 mile day. Terry swears all the traveling was uphill and then more uphill. The next leg of this journey is on pretty level ground with no more mountains to cross. Only 140 miles to go …. at least for now.

Travel safe.

Carson City and Rock’n in the Wind

We knew there was a reason we needed to stop at Reno. Again, we were thankful we did make it to there and didn’t stop sooner. The wind blew and blew all day Wednesday and during the night it rocked and rocked the motorhome. There haven’t been many times on the road that we’ve needed to pull our slides in and take our antenna down due to storms but Wednesday night was one of them. The weatherman predicted strong winds and high gusts during the daytime but also predicted they were to subside later in the evening. Well, he missed it. The strongest winds came through about midnight and lasted for about 4 hours until the forecasted thunderstorms were to move into the area. The rain came but the thunderstorms never did. One more day of wind and then we’re out of here.

We had talked to the RV park manager about taking a trip to Virginia City during that day. However, he advised against it with the strong winds. He said there are sections of roads where it's not necessarily uncommon to see an RV or a truck on its side due to the winds. Instead we did decide to take the 30 mile ride down the freeway to Carson City in the Jeep. This is the town Mark Twain’s brother lived in and Kit Carson was famous for.

Have you ever seen a sign at the entrance to a freeway and then again on the freeway forbidding RVs? I hadn’t but it was there. The crosswinds from over the mountains made even holding the car on the road difficult. It also was not a good day to play tourist in this historical city. After all, who really wanted to be outside in all of this?

We didn’t. We drove through Carson City and that was about it. On a nice day it would be a very interesting little town to wander through. However, this was not the day to do it. The weather was just too nasty. Even though we can say been there done that, we also know that sometime we would like to return.

Guess what we found on our way back to the RV park?? A WINCO! I was so excited. We had to stop and fill up our basket with dog treats and a few other odds’n ends. It certainly is nice to know that we’re finally back in WINCO country! However, this one is a little different than others we have been to. This store had a section with slot machines. We probably should have figured that since it's in Nevada.

I also found the perfect little driving range. It’s just a few feet from where we are currently parked waiting for the winds to pass over. There were a few golfers bundled up and trying their luck regardless of the wind. I thought this might be a place Jerry and Ed would like to try out their golfing skills. All of the little buckets on the water have markers showing the distance just like the flags on a driving range.

We did take another little drive up the freeway. We were actually thinking about moving Thursday morning but then decided not to bother and just stay put for one additional night. We did see a couple motorhomes on the road but just the two. It makes you wonder if the folks don’t check the weather before they head out or if they are out there just daring something to happen. One was having a very difficult time staying in his lane. Of course, there were no warnings on this one but sometimes I think people need to make some safe decisions on their own.

Friday it'll be up over the Siskiyou Mountains and down into Oregon. Winds are predicted to be gone out of here so that's just what we're going to do .... get out of here.

Travel safe, everyone.

Hwy 95 Las Vegas to Reno

One of our friends had been to the town of Beatty and she commented that it was a sad, sad town. Well, that’s where we were heading but not because it was Beatty. We were heading that way because it was on the route we were going to take if we wanted to visit the Rhyolite Ghost Town. We weren’t really sure whether we would be staying there but we still had to drive through it. Other than being close to Rhyolite and Death Valley, Beatty is well known for their hot mineral baths. That was an option. There is a little RV park a few miles north of town that rents out private mineral bath rooms. The charge is $5 for the hour and the private room comes with a dressing area and your own mineral water hot tub. We had to think about it but other than stopping to take a look decided to bypass it.

By the time we arrived in Beatty, we were glad we had decided not to stay. Unless you were intent on driving into Death Valley from there or soaking in the mineral baths, there didn’t appear much going on in Beatty. Even some of the RV parks looked sad. If we had decided to stay, we would have DEFINITELY chosen the Beatty RV Park. It looked to be the nicest one of all. However, we drove through the town and definitely agreed with Loralie that Beatty was a sad, sad town.

As we continued our trip north on Hwy 95, there were several other towns including Mina, Goldfield and Luning that we thought were also sad towns. At some time in the past, these towns must have been hopping but the life no longer seemed to be in them. We thought they were falling apart and in desperate need of repair. Tonopah was at an elevation of about 6100 feet and appeared to be thriving. Hawthorne was at the edge of gorgeous Walker Lake and also seemed to be a healthy little town.

The route from Las Vegas to Reno was a nice route. We thoroughly enjoyed traveling the back road and not on the freeway. The only issue we thought was the constant climbing. We’re sure the road never went downhill even though it must have. The terrain was high desert but the closer we got to the Reno area the more obvious the mountains to the west became. We even traveled through some green pastures. What a difference from the desert of Arizona where we had spent most of the winter.

One of the reasons for heading this way was because we had never done it. We also wanted to visit Virginia City. Remember the Cartwrights? Well, as we sit at the base of the mountains now and rock with the wind, we have decided that’s going to have to be put off for another day and another trip maybe. If we’re rocking here, the park manager warned we’d really be rocking on the mountain. Oh well …. we know not everything works out as planned.

We’ll probably hang around here for a couple more nights waiting for the wind to head on East. The terrain will definitely change even more from this point on. Tuesday was a 441 mile day. It was long and we were very tired. No ... we were actually exhausted. After we had decided not to stay in Beatty, we set the GPS for the Hawthorne Elks and that was to be the night's destination. Instead we forged on and went the additional 133 miles to Reno and I'm so glad we did. There are a couple areas between there and here that warn of high crosswinds. Travel on Tuesday was a little windy but had we waited until Wednesday it would have been horrendous. Sometimes things do work out.

Travel safe everyone.

Kingman Back to Las Vegas

With our uneventful night at the Wal-Mart in Kingman where the city does not allow overnight parking behind us, it was time to head on to Las Vegas for a few nights. A few of the other RVers had already pulled out of the parking lot before we were outside getting ready to go. We had to stop first and visit with our very nice Australian neighbors.

Back to fun projects

Two couples from Australia were off to spend six months together in the United States touring. Upon arrival they purchased a motorhome and at the end of their stay, they plan to sell the Class “A” motorhome before returning to Australia. I’m certain this was the smart way to do it. They indicated they had checked into renting one and decided this was much less expensive. We swapped some information and places to visit and headed on our way. I’m sure they’ll have a very good time on their very long vacation.

The wind was really ripping as we headed out of the Kingman area but it didn’t last long. Oh, it was windy alright but once on the road it wasn’t quite as forceful as it was when we first pulled out. We had a short 100 mile drive and arrived at our destination before noon. We know we’ll have a few long days ahead of us in the next couple of weeks so these short days are supposed to make up for the ones to come.

Dinner was at Dessy B’s Steakhouse. Terry hadn’t been there before but I had been with the Hyder’s when he was out of town. The place certainly isn’t fancy but the food was so good that I wanted to take him there too. The salad bar is fantastic, the steak perfect and the service flawless. We liked this place.

One more repeat will be to Terrible’s Casino but not to play slots. It’ll be to repeat their buffet. With coupons in hand we’ll be able to have the best brisket ever at their buffet for about $5 each. What a deal that is!

Tuesday we’ll be on our way north towards the Rhyolite Ghost Town (maybe). That’s the plan and you know how well we stick to our plans.

See you in Rhyolite (maybe).