Sunday, November 14, 2010 Lorraine’s report
We moved this past week from Laughlin, NV to Pahrump, NV with Thelma & John’s friends, and our friends from BC, Barb & Dennis Bell. Our week was up there at the park and we decided to go with Barb & Dennis to check out an area we haven’t been to before. So Thursday we packed up the coach and headed out to Pahrump, Terribles Lakeside RV Resort. The wind was gusting upwards of 35 miles per hour and made for a thrilling ride.
Last Sunday found us all going to the Riverside Casino to use our free breakfast buffet tickets the RV Park had given us for staying there for the week. It was a wonderful buffet. They started with mimosas and had just about everything you could want for breakfast. Of course we all ate too much, but that was our main meal for the day.
Following that we headed down to AVI Casino to check out the swap meet they have there on weekends. Not knowing they had moved it a couple of miles down the road, we didn’t find it until we left the area several hours later, but by then they were closed.
We all had fun playing the machines, unfortunately we all left seed money there.
Monday I wanted to have my hair done, and Barb and Dennis decided to drive over to the Grand Canyon, while Chuck stayed home and did stuff around the coach. I have to say the gal did my hair just about the best it’s been done since we came on the road.
Barb and Dennis really enjoyed the Grand Canyon; Barb said when they got there she just said “WOW” for the first five minutes they were there. They drove back and got home by 6:45 to find I had cooked a fried chicken and potato salad for all of us. We visited until late, enjoying each other’s company.
The next day we were off in Dennis’s truck to do some errands for them. They had stuff to return, pick up and look for. For lunch we took them to In N Out for some great burgers, and then we were off to Christmas Tree Pass to see the ancient Pictographs. The guys hiked up to see them and take pictures, while Barb & I visited in the truck. We went home afterwards and rested.
Following the break, we headed over to Barb’s where Dennis made us drinks. Dinner was out to the Tropicana Casino for their buffet, two for one-$10. We all played, but no luck.
Wednesday found us heading out in Dennis’s truck to Lake Havasu City to see London Bridge. It was a great day for a drive; it had warmed up to the mid to high 70’s, sunny blue skies, and a slight breeze. We enjoyed walking on London Bridge and doing the tourist thing.
The guys stayed in that evening while Barb & I went to Harrah’s Casino for a couple of hours. Barb & I had a little bit of luck and it was a lot of fun.
Veteran’s Day we drove to Pahrump, set up and went to Wal-Mart with Dennis & Barb to get a few things. I was cold all day, the wind was biting; I had to put on jeans, dig out a coat and add a sweater, just to warm up.
Barb picked up a pizza for all of us for dinner, followed by a game of Pass the Love; all in all a great day.
Friday I woke up with a heavy cold, cough and just not feeling very well at all. It took me a while to get going, so we headed off to see Death Valley later in the morning than we had hoped.
Death Valley was amazing to see and since it was our first time there, we found it to be more than we thought it would be. The views, the salt flats, everything was awesome. The desert is amazing.
We left at 11:30 and didn’t get back until 5:45, a long day.
For dinner we went to Terrible’s for their steak and lobster dinner for $11.99. Chuck and Dennis had the New York steak for $11.99; then we all tried our luck at the machines. Barb had some luck while the rest of us left seed money.
Saturday we headed out to Red Rock Canyon by Las Vegas. I was still under the weather, but after taking Dayquil and some cough syrup, I was able to go. We stopped along side a road side stand and we all bought some jerky, honey and nuts. Barb also bought some dried fruit to take home.
Red Rock Canyon is a must see; being only a short drive from Las Vegas. The sheer towering cliffs, the contrasting colors, the majestic mountains are a sight to behold. They just finished a new visitor’s center that had a ton of information on the canyon that we stopped at before the 13 mile car tour. It was another great day for a drive.
From there we went to find Barb a date shake at the date farm about 37 miles away, or so we thought. I entered the China Ranch Date Farm in the GPS and away we went into the desert. It took us from a paved two land highway to a one lane gravel road with just the gravel road going through these big sandstone washes. At the end we came to an oasis with a lot of date palm trees, and a small bakery/tourist shop. Barb had her first date shake, which she thoroughly enjoyed.
Again, we didn’t get home until 5:45 or so. I must say the dogs have been really good, with us being gone all day. They are happy to see us when we return.
For dinner we went to Saddle West Casino and Resort. The guys had the B-B-Q buffet, while Barb had French dip and I had an omelets. Chuck brought me some chicken noodle soup, which helped my cold.
We played the machines a bit and I finally had a bit of luck, the rest of the group not so.
So this week we have seen a lot of beautiful vistas, wonderful colored rocks, some wild burros, a couple of tarantulas on the road, and a snake. The weather has been great, warm most days, cooler at night, down to 39 degrees, windy but no rain. We’ve enjoyed getting to know Barb & Dennis and had a lot of fun with them.
We were so sorry to hear about Rob and Norma having to put down Toby, you have our sympathies over your loss. He was such a great dog!
Hey Dave & Sandy in MN, saw on the news this morning you were having snow already, you all ready to head south yet? Let us know and we will save a spot for you!
So until next time……Lorraine
11/14/10 Chuck’s report
We’ve had a busy, fun week. We enjoy being in the desert and doing some exploring. And of course, there is the always present Casinos too. This is the first time Dennis/Barb have been to the desert, in fact, the first time they have seen a cactus they told us. I think they have enjoyed exploring and visiting the desert too.
We went to the Sunday brunch at the Riverside Casino on Sunday morning, a good meal with good friends. Of course, we all tend to overeat at these things so it was our only meal that day and still we may have had too much. Later we went an Indian Casino in the area, AVI, where we played the slots and visited some more.
Monday Dennis/Barb took off to see the Grand Canyon. We elected to stay closer to home, we’ve been there once before and probably will make that a stop on one of our future trips. Lorraine had her hair done then prepared a fried chicken dinner for when they got back from their trip. They were on the trip for most of the day, didn’t get back until around 7 so they were ready for a bit of a rest. We played cards after dinner and continued with our visit but it wasn’t too long before everyone started yawning so we called it a night.
Next morning Lorraine and I did some work around the coach, she also did a few loads of laundry before we headed out for the day. We went into Bullhead City, stopped a couple of stores. Later we went out to a place our friends Joe/Alice introduced us too a couple of years ago where there are Petroglyphs marked on the rocks. We had to drive out out of town about 10 miles, then about 5 miles on a gravel road then a walk of about 1/2 mile. Lorraine and Barb decided to wait at the car while Dennis and I made the walking trip out and back. I will include a few pictures rather than try to explain the markings.
After we got back to our campground and walked the dogs, we decided to find a good place for dinner. We went to two casinos and tried our luck on the slots first, bad idea maybe but what the heck, if you don’t play, you can’t win. (But you never hear anyone say you can lose if you do play, do ya?) Anyway, we ended up at the Tropicana for a buffet dinner, seems to be some of the cheapest and good food in town.
Wednesday the four of us got in their truck and headed out for a visit to Lake Havasu. Lorraine and I had made a short trip here once before but we didn’t get to visit the London Bridge, that’s right, the real London Bridge is here. Back in the ‘70s they bought it, took it apart, shipped it over and rebuilt it here. It spans a short inlet but is the main tourist point in town. We parked the truck and spent some time at the bridge, now we can say we’ve been there, done that.
While on our trip, we talked about our upcoming plans. Dennis/Barb were planning on heading to Las Vegas the next day and we were planning on staying in Laughlin for another week. But we both changed out plans and decided we would all head to Pahrump the next day. I think Dennis and Barb are quite content to just see different areas on their first trip down here and they will head over to Las Vegas tomorrow.
After we got back to our campground, the gals wanted to check out Harrah’s Casino on our last night in town. Dennis and I both declined to go, instead we stayed back and rested. After they got back we played cards at our place for awhile again before calling it a day.
Next morning we weren’t in a hurry to leave, only had a couple, three hour trip to Pahrump. Our neighbor came over for a visit before we left and told us of a shortcut we could take that would keep us from climbing the mountains twice. So once we got set up, Lorraine and I took off to fill up on diesel but we couldn’t get into the gas station so just left, planning on fueling up somewhere along the way. We met Dennis/Barb just outside town and headed off.
We have an altitude readout on our GPS, Laughlin was under 1000’ and in the next 5 miles we climbed to over 3500’, a l o o ong hill. Once we got to a wide spot in the road called Searchlight, we took the cutoff our neighbor told us about. He told us it was a two lane road but in very good shape and an easy drive for a big rig. Boy, I don’t know what we did to piss him off but did he lead us astray. Our 2 1/2 or 3 hour trip took over 5 hours, we crossed three mountain ranges and at one time we were over 5400’ high. It was a very scenic drive but no shortcut and for sure didn’t save us from making long climbs up and down the mountains. Oh well, it’s another road we can cross off the map at least.
Once we got to Pahrump, we followed our GPS to Terrible’s Casino, only problem was we didn’t know there were two Terrible’s Casino in town and of course we were at the wrong one. Barb found the correct one on their GPS so we followed them as we backtracked a few miles and out of town away to the right one. This one is nice with the RV sites situated around a small lake or close to it. There are some fish in the lake and fishing is allowed but we haven’t taken the time to try it yet, probably won’t get to it.
We stopped at the office to register and found they were almost full, due to the Veterans Day Holliday weekend. Of course we didn’t make reservations but they were able to get us in the same loop, petty close together. Dennis/Barb got set up but we found our site had too many trees and we couldn’t get television reception through them. So it was back to the office and try to get a different spot. We ended up about 10 sites down the loop we were in, not as close but at least we have all the utilities we like (50 amp power, water and sewer) plus an open shot with no trees to block our antenna. All the lakeside sites were either full or reserved of course but have an open view of the lake from our site.
Once we got set up, we made a quick trip to Wal-Mart then we met at Dennis/Barb’s for dinner, a pizza they had bought and cooked in their oven. We discussed playing cards again but Lorraine hasn’t been feeling well so we decided to call it an early night and meet in the morning.
Next morning Lorraine felt even worse so we had waited until the medicine she took started working before we made the decision to take off on another adventure. This time we decided to see part of Death Valley National Park, we had never been there so it would be new to all of us. Not sure what to see/do, we stopped at the office and got a few suggestions from the gal at the desk. We took off with our GPS set for the visitor’s center in Death Valley and a map of the area. There aren’t too many roads paved roads and we had a few places we wanted to see so we determined our route and took off.
We stopped at the Amargosa Opera House but it was closed so all we got to see was the hotel. We stopped off at a couple of view points and drove through some pretty scenery. We took a short detour drive through Artist’s Palette for more scenery, this time with lots of colors. We stopped at Devil’s Golf Course, never did figure out why they named it that. This an area below sea level that once in a while gets some standing water. They told us the water that gets here started as rain or snow in Nevada and has to seep through the mountains where it absorbs lots of chemicals and such. When the water evaporates, it leave some salt pillars behind at what used to be the bottom of the lake.
We also made a stop at Badwater, the lowest spot in North America at 282’ below sea level. There can be water standing here also and the place got its name because some miner’s horse wouldn’t drink the bad water in the area. After leaving here, we wanted to go to the China Ranch Date Ranch but we had to get back to take the dogs out for a walk so postponed that place until another day. After another busy day, once we took care of the dogs, we decided no one needed to cook so we headed over to the casino for dinner. This time we ordered one of their specials vs. having another buffet.
Saturday morning we once again decided to head out to visit another area. There is an area not too far out of Las Vegas that has these multi-colored hills and rocks called Red Rock Canyon. Lorraine and I have visited this area before and wanted to show it to Dennis/Barb. They have built a new visitor's center, very nice. We drove around, stopped at a couple of lookouts and enjoyed the day. Later we made a quick decision to head to the Date Ranch so Barb could get a Date Shake. She has heard about these and Lorraine also mentioned to her how good they were so she really wanted to try one.
Once again, we set the GPS and took off, only a short 30 miles or so. But what we didn’t know was it wanted to send us down this gravel road (which by the way was flooded) so we took the longer way to the ranch. No problem except it also sent us down a gravel road, this one only two miles long. Again, what we didn’t know soon came into play as we ended up going through these cuts in the hills with the cliffs close by, in fact, in one stretch it was down to a one lane road. We told Barb that even if she didn’t like her Date Shake she was going to eat it anyway due to the route we had to travel to get there, ha.
But get there we did, no problem. Barb ordered and ate her Date Shake, sharing it with all of us even. The gals also bought some dates and such too. It was dark by the time we made it back to our rigs so once again we decided no one needed to cook so off we went to find some place to eat. We once again ended up at a casino, Saddle West, where the gals ordered off the menu while Dennis and I tried their buffet. After dinner we tried the slots for awhile before calling it a day, another busy, fun filled one at that.
This morning we had plans to go over to Dennis/Barb’s for breakfast but Lorraine didn’t feel very well when we got up so we cancelled and had a quite morning and gave her medicine a chance to kick in. She hasn’t felt good enough to go outside and do anything yet so we extended here for two more days. Dennis/Barb had already extended for another day too but it looks like everyone will stay close to home today. Dennis bought a bike rack and doesn’t have to store his bikes in the basement so he wanted to do some reorganizing today while Barb did some laundry.
So once again we changed out plans and it turned out to be a good decision. We have really enjoyed being with Dennis and Barb and exploring with them. The desert has lots of different ecosystems and varies a lot depending on which area you are in. Some has very little signs of any life, hardly any plants in fact. Other areas has lots of cacti and other bushes/ brushes. We’ve seen two tarantulas, two snakes, two coyotes, a bunch of wild burros, horses and very few birds.
The weather has been just about perfect here, getting up to the 70s and 80s but cooling off to the high 30s, low 40s at night. Plus it’s a dry heat, as they say, so our arthritis isn’t bother either of us as much as when we are in a wetter area. I have had to switch to long pants however as it feels cool with all the wind. But all in all, we like the desert this time of the year!
We told our grand daughter we would be back to their area on Wednesday this week and we plan on keeping that promise to her. As it stands now, we are paid up and scheduled to leave here on Tuesday morning. Our normal travel schedule would have stopping one night on the way to the Bay area so we actually have an extra day to spend somewhere, either here or along the way. As usual, our plans aren’t very firm and we will make it up as we go along.
I will now go through all the pictures that Lorraine took this week, over 500 of them, and add some to the blog. Then I’ll get this posted and get back to normal for the rest of the day.
Sunset in Laughlin, NV.
You’ve heard of the People in Wal-Mart pictures? Just can’t take him anywhere!!
Here’s a tarantula (big spider) we found in the desert.
A a bit further we ran across this snake. Really, Dennis actually ran it over, poor thing.
Driving through the desert.
We went out to see the petroglyphs or ancient marking on the rocks.
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Heading for Lake Havasu, where the London Bridge is currently located.
And there’s the London Bridge, out in the middle of the desert on this lake.
Swallow nests along the bridge.
And to prove we were there - - -
Views from the bridge.
Both the boat and palm trees look out of place at the London Bridge.
We stopped for snacks, tried small samples of beer.
On the way back, clouds make the desert look different.
We find a cotton field with bales of cotton alongside the field.
Proof Barb is stealing cotton and trying to figure out how to get a bale of cotton too.
Back out in the desert, these are Joshua Trees. Haven’t seen so many or so big before.
Getting to Pahrump.
Out in Death Valley National Park.
That’s our car down there, we climbed up to an overlook view point. Here we are at Sea Level but it’s pretty dry.
That’s not an optical illusion, we drove down there. Lots of different colors, sorry the pictures don’t do them justice.
Here we are at Devil’s golf course, salt crystals formed when the water retreats.
And now at the lowest place in North America, 282 feet below sea level, still pretty dry here too.
Oops, there is some water here.
Two coyotes looking for a hand out, they’re wild but come up close to the car for food.
Back at our campground in Pahrump.
Red Rock Canyon, not too far from Las Vegas.
Some more wild burros alongside the road. There goes Dennis to give them two apple cores.
Taste good, let’s chase him and get more, Run Forest, Run.
Driving through some close encounters with the canyon walls, heading towards China Ranch Date Ranch.
They cover the date bunches, not a job for me. Here is a bunch of dates that were covered.
Barb showing the dates. Some of the cactus (cacti?) in their “flower beds”.
Some old mines along the way, I think these were gypsum mines.
Whew, really hard to keep the number of pictures down, Lorraine took too many good ones. Plus wanted to show some of our travels in the desert too. Hope you enjoy them however.
Thanks Chuck
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