Sunday, November 07, 2010 Lorraine’s report
Hello from Laughlin, Nevada, Riverside RV Resort. We are on the top tier of four tiers. Chuck pulled into the spot facing out over the bluff with the town of Laughlin below us and Bullhead City, AZ across the way. It is beautiful out across the vista and at night the lights are awesome.
Memories, this past week is full of new memories, starting last Sunday on Halloween.
Susy and I went shopping for the first day since we came to her area. We had a wonderful time, visiting some of our favorite stores. We didn’t buy a heck of a lot, but just enjoyed each other’s time and company.
We got home in time for me to cook a ham dinner with all the fixings. Mark had Kaitlyn for the day and had taken her to Great America for Halloween festivities there. They came for an early dinner, then we all headed out for Tricks and Treating.
Kaitlyn has attended day care since she was eighteen months with a good girl friend. This year when she started Kindergarten, her friend, Grace left the school they attended and went to a new school in San Jose. We went to Gracie’s home. The girls were out Trick or Treating on Gracie’s street when you could hear Kaitlyn say “It broke my heart when you left our school to go to a new school, Gracie” They were holding hands walking down the dark street. It was just so sad to hear, but so dear to my heart, to think that at the young age of five years, Kaitlyn feels such loss by having her friend not there with her everyday at school. Life can be hard for a five year old.
Anyway, Gracie’s parents put up a Halloween theme scene in front of their home each year and this year they did Finding Nemo. The whole house and yard looked like an undersea scene out of the Nemo movie. The parents did a wonderful job on the house, as well as dressing up for the part. Unfortunately, I left my camera home for the first time in a long time from taking pictures here.
You can imagine that from another big weekend how tired everyone was, so Monday and Tuesday when we picked Kaitlyn up at 2:15, we spent a lot of down time, trying to rest her up so she wouldn’t get whatever is still going around here. Her mom was still running a fever, but went to work anyway.
When we were saying our goodbyes, I gave Kaitlyn a small calendar so she could see when we would come back to see her again. She could then mark off the days, and she liked that a lot. It was still hard to say our goodbyes.
Wednesday found us heading out by 10:30, after Chuck dumped the black tank. We stopped at Bakersfield Orange Grove RV Park for the night. The oranges are still very green, but Chuck found one that was orange and cut it open for me. It wasn’t ripe yet, but it wasn’t sour either. The RV Park should have a good crop for everyone this year; I can hardly wait.
While on the road to Bakersfield, I called friends, Barb and Dennis Bell to see if they had made it to Las Vegas. Dennis just retired from Municipal Water District in Squamish, BC after a 35 year stint, and they were taking a nice vacation to Vegas. Hurray for Dennis!
Barb answered on the second phone call. They were in Wells, Nevada. I told her we were headed to Laughlin, and she said they would come there to meet up with us. I told her the park we were going to and we planned to meet up the next day.
Thursday found us on the road again before 10 am. I got a call by from Barb and they were at Laughlin well before us. I told her the park’s name we were staying at and said we would be in about an hour after them. Parts of the road in the Mohave Desert are pretty rough and we had to slow down, otherwise we would pound the coach and our insides to death.
We made it in a short time later, found our spot and went over to see them. It was great to see them again. Barb had to have her gall bladder out this summer, and couldn’t leave BC; doctor’s orders. So they couldn’t come down to Beachwood when all their other friends were there. It had been over a year since we saw them last.
We have enjoyed each other’s company. We have eaten out, they wanted good buffet, so we went to Colorado Belle for their steak buffet: $8.99 each. Friday night was the Seafood and Prime Rib buffet; $14.99 each. Saturday evening we went to the In N Out burger place, their first time there. Today, we are using the free breakfast buffet tickets the RV Park gave us for staying here to go to brunch at the Riverside Casino. The food has been really great!
Friday, Chuck took us all out to see the wild burros that roam the town streets freely in Oatman, AZ. We spent a nice day walking through the town, enjoying the warm weather, shopping the quaint stores, and watching the free gun fight show on Main Street. We had a great time there in Oatman.
Saturday, Barb and I went shopping, more like looking since we both didn’t buy too much. Chuck and Dennis stayed home and watched the Huskies lose and kept the laundry going.
After the In N Out, we stopped by the Riverside Casino, got our cards, Chuck checked out how much the Letterman tickets were, and the breakfast buffet times, then we played for an hour. I lost, but Dennis won a bit as did Barb.
So many new memories this week; and the weather is wonderful, with temperatures in the high 80’s down to the mid 60’s at night, and as everyone says,” It’s a dry heat”. I love it!
Until next time…….Lorraine
11/7/10 Chuck’s report
It’s been a pretty busy week for us, leaving the Bay area, two travel days and exploring here in Laughlin. Last Sunday Lorraine and Susy were able to spend some time together, they went shopping. Later Mark and Kaitlyn came over to our coach and Lorraine fixed dinner for all of us. We all then hopped in the car, drove over to a friend of Kaitlyn’s for some trick or treating. Kaitlyn is for sure at the right age for this, she really had a good time.
Monday we picked up Kaitlyn after school once again and had a good time with her for the afternoon before her mom came by after work. We ordered in pizza for dinner before they left to head home.
Tuesday found us finishing up on our running as it was our last day in the area. We hit a few stores then picked up Kaitlyn from school for the last time on this visit. Later went with Susy to a local Italian restaurant she found, good food and a good time for our last night with them. After dinner, we returned to the coach, loaded up all of Kaitlyn’s stuff in the car and said our goodbyes. We stood there with heavy hearts as they drove away, everyone waving furiously.
Next morning we got everything put away, dumped our holding tanks, hooked up the car and headed Southeast. We made it to Bakersfield, a normal halfway stop for us when we leave the Bay area and head East. We pulled into Bakersfield Orange Grove campground, got set up and didn’t even unhook our car. We had full hookups so Lorraine started doing laundry, she hadn’t been able to do laundry when we were at the Elks lodge for the past two weeks. We walked around the campground trying to find some ripe oranges but it’s too early yet. But we did enjoy the warm, dry weather, Lorraine said her arthritis is already feeling better, yea.
Thursday we headed out again, two travel days in a row. Lorraine had contacted Dennis/Barb, our friends from Canada who were making a trip down South. They were planning on going to Las Vegas but changed their plans and agreed to meet up with us here in Laughlin. In fact, they actually got here, checked in and set up about an hour before we got here (boy, California needs to do lots of road repair in places!!). But once we got here, Lorraine walked over to see them while I pulled into our site. We had made reservation about a month ago and asked to on the top level on the bluff. We are situated such that we are overlooking the town, river and valley, a very good view out our front windshield.
After we finished setting up and visiting for awhile, we headed out for a buffet dinner. Not sure which one we wanted, we drove through town, checking out all the billboards and marque signs for the different casinos before we decided where to stop at the river boat, Colorado Belle Casino. We had a very good buffet where we continue our visiting, we haven’t seen them for over a year so we had lots to catch up on. I think Dennis really liked our waiter, there was lots of Honey and Sweetie name calling back and forth between them. Shortly after we got there, three tour bus loads of folks showed up and it started getting crowed and noisy but we still had a very good time.
After dinner we all tried our luck on the slots, everyone left seed money that we will have to pick up later. We were all ready the head back to our rigs after a full day of travel, visiting, dinner and some time on the slots. I think everyone said they had a very good nights sleep, ha.
Friday Lorraine once again got busy doing laundry before we set out. Our plans for the day was to go to an old mining camp, Oatman. This place was one once a thriving place but once the gold petered out, the residents left, leaving the buildings intact and leaving their burros too. Later the town started getting tourist back by having little shops and such, and it is on Route 66. It never would have made it except for the burros who continue to live in the area after the miners left. Once the town starting coming back, the wild burros started coming into town for free food handouts. The burros are now the magnet that draws all the tourists back to town. They freely roam the main street, getting lots of carrots from the tourists. It’s funny to see, once they realize who just bought a bag of carrots, they crowd around that person until they have fed them all the carrots, then they move on to their next handout. They aren’t too aggressive but they do push each other out of the way when they are maneuvering for the best spot to get a carrot. And one has to watch out where they are walking as they leave lots of “cakes” on the road. The locals try to make sure they stay off the wooden sidewalks but ever once in a while they will follow someone who still has carrots up the stairs and down the sidewalk.
After a good day out exploring, we returned to our rigs, took the dogs out for a walk then met at Dennis/Barb’s rig for a pre-dinner drink. We then headed back to the Colorado Belle for another buffet, a Seafood one this time. We had the same waiter, he remembered Sweetie. After dinner we walked down the boardwalk to another casino where everyone except for Barb once again left seed money to hopefully be picked up on a return trip.
Saturday the gals had plans to go to the outlet mall and the main mall for some shopping. Dennis and I were left home where we finished up with some chores we were assigned, watched some football and had a couple of adult beverages each. This was a good time for all, the gals liked their shopping trip and Dennis and I were glad we didn’t have to go shopping, ha. Later we took Dennis/Barb for their first experience at IN N OUT a hamburger chain that started in Southern California and has spread throughout California, Arizona and Nevada. They both agreed with us that they do hamburgers right at IN N OUT. Plus every time I go to one, I think about an ex-coworker of mine, Steve, who was from Arizona and told us about them before we every experienced one for ourselves. By the way Steve, you and Amanda were right, they are good and we like going there.
Today agenda is yet to be set, all we have at this time is to go over to a Sunday brunch. We got two coupons for free breakfast buffet when we checked in at the campground and decided to use them today. Once we get there we will then set up our plans for the remained of the day. We probably will head over to the swap meet but more on what we decide next week.
As for next week, we are debating whether to stay here for another week or go up to Las Vegas with Dennis/Barb. They haven’t been there before and I’m sure we could show them a lot but there is something to be said about experiencing things yourself the first time. I’m sure we will have conversations about that and make up our minds soon. I need to check on available spots a the 1000 Trails there, it would be a show stopper if they don’t have any spots available for us for a week. Oh the work I have to do on the road!
If we don’t head up to Vegas, we will stay here for another week, we’re already set for it if we want. We like the area and the weather has been just short of fabulous. We’ve had daytime highs in the 90s (a bit too hot but it’s a dry heat) and nighttime lows in the mid 60s. We been setting outside more here than we have in awhile, and of course it is shorts and sandal time for all. Tough life we live, huh?
And now for some pictures of our week.
On the road, lots of fields still growing food and such.
Cotton field in the second picture.
Rows and rows of roses.
Grape vines covered to keep the birds off until they are harvested.
Orange trees at campground in Bakersfield. Not ripe yet but we will get them next time we go through there.
Another large windmill farm, lots of these across the nation.
We’re starting to see some cactus here in the desert.
Salt flats along the way.
Large, open spaces out here.
Colorado River in Kingman, Arizona.
The casinos in Laughlin, Nevada.
Casino lit up at night.
Lorraine, Dennis and Barb standing in front of the Colorado Belle casino.
On the road to Oatman, Arizona.
That’s tailings from the gold mills on the right.
Downtown Oatman.
Dennis and Barb dressed up for the occasion.
The wild burros that come into town for free handouts.
Dennis and Barb at the café where we had lunch.
The “big” gunfight in town, pretty hokie but the money donated goes to a good cause.
Dennis wanted a close encounter with a cactus. He said the stickers are sharp, (sometimes I wonder if he is).
And that was our week, hope you had a good one too. Remember, if you don’t know where you are going, you may end up some other place. Plan you life accordingly.
Thanks Chuck
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