Today was partially sunny and mild. Pretty decent weather !
This morning after boondocking overnight in the Wildhorse Casino RV parking lot we went over to their Arrowhead Travel Plaza and refilled with diesel. Then bought a gallon of Lucas diesel additive. While paying for the Lucas we joined their "loyalty program" to get discounts on future fuel purchases. HA HA HA ... it's called "Rewards On The Rez". We used their dump station to dump the waste holding tanks and refill the freshwater tank. We adjusted the air in the truck's rear tires. What a great place to boondock overnight.
We continued southeast on Interstate 84. We stopped at La Grande to do more tax free Wal-Martin' and have lunch. More southeast on I-84 until we crossed from the Pacific Time Zone to the Mountain Time Zone, then more southeast on I-84 until we crossed from Oregon into Idaho.
At Nampa, just before Boise, we found our way to Garrity RV Park, a reasonably priced Passport America park with Wi-Fi and cable TV. Joanne wanted to watch Amazing Race tonight. We checked in, set up in our site, took Bo to the dog run, then walked around briefly enjoying the nice weather and getting the kinks out of our bodies after four days of driving.
We had supper, watched TV, and I worked online.
Monday ; Nampa / Boise, Idaho to Jackpot, Nevada
Today was sunny and warm. Finally ! ! !
The long awaited and much anticipated furniture buying day had finally arrived. We checked out of Garrity RV Park and drove a short distance to RV Furniture Center. After seeing their products last spring, this summer we ordered a custom upholstered dinette suite, and were fairly confident that today we would also buy a Flexsteel sofa bed there. RV Furniture Center manufactures wood and upholstered furniture for RV's, and is also a retail dealer for the Flexsteel line of RV furniture. As soon as we walked in the door we saw the dinette table and chairs with the upholstery we had chosen. Beautiful ! And great workmanship. AND ... two sofa throw cushions in the same material as the dinette chair upholstery ! And sitting beside the dinette suite were the two Flexsteel sofa beds that we were interested in. In just a few minutes we selected the sofa bed we wanted.
The owner of RV Furniture Center and his two sons came out to our trailer in their parking lot to help remove our old dinette table and chairs, and love seat. The love seat had to be disassembled / demolished to be removed through the door of the trailer. Six years ago I had to remove the trailer's largest window to get the love seat in. I did not want to have to remove and reinstall the window again today ! One of the sons took our old dinette table and chairs in his pickup truck to donate to a local charity. The demolished love seat went to the garbage. They brought the new dinette suite in, and then the sofa bed. They bolted the sofa bed to the floor, saving me the trouble.
The new furniture is great ! It makes the entire living area of the trailer seem brand new ! The workmanship is excellent. The service was excellent ! The prices were excellent ! T'was a very pleasant buying experience. And I'm very difficult to please ! Thank you, Ray and RV Furniture Center.
We were out of there much quicker than I had anticipated. We stopped at Camping World for me to cancel a special order I had placed, and to explain and apologize in person ( I bought it a few days ago at the Spokane store with a coupon ). We stopped at Lowe's to buy a couple of items.
We were southeast bound out of Boise on Interstate 84 before noon. We stopped for lunch at a roadside rest area. We stopped in Mountain Home to refill with diesel at Pilot. Just before reaching Twin Falls we turned south on Hwy. 30 to avoid having to drive through Twin Falls. After driving south and east around Twin Falls we turned south on Hwy. 93. We stopped in Buhl to buy some groceries. We crossed from Idaho into Nevada and stopped for the night at Cactus Pete's Casino in Jackpot, Nevada.
While Joanne prepared supper ( MMMMM ... chicken and shrimp étoufée ) I went into the casino lobby to work on my computer.
Tuesday ; Jackpot to BLM Elk Viewing Area south of Ely, Nevada
AHHHHH ... a beautiful, sunny, warm day, temperature reaching 70 degrees ! A pleasant but long, slightly boring day of driving south across endless, scruffy, high desert. At any moment I expected to see John Wayne ... or Clint Eastwood ... loping across the highway on his horse.
We pulled out of Cactus Pete's Casino's parking lot this morning and before leaving town we went to an old, abandoned campground that we know of, and dumped our grey waste tanks in the old abandoned trailer dump station. We drove over to the Chevron station and refilled our freshwater tank, then continued south on Hwy. 93.
We refilled with diesel at Flying J in Wells. We stopped for lunch on the shoulder of the road in the middle of nowhere. Most of today was "the middle of nowhere" ! As I was leaving the trailer after lunch, Sully wanted to follow me out the trailer door. Okay ... I let him walk out the door and down the steps. He took about three steps in the warm, soft desert sand and ... flopped over and took a dust bath. HA HA HA ! When we resumed driving a few minutes later, Joanne wanted to know why Sully was so dusty. Gee, dear,
I don't know ! HA HA HA !
Shortly after lunch I felt so sleepy I decided to stop for a nap. It was a lovely sunny day. Sully enjoys afternoon naps with me on sunny days. We were in no hurry to get anywhere today. While I napped Joanne worked on a sewing repair.
After a brief nap and more hours of driving across scruffy desert we stopped for groceries in Ely. By the time we finished our grocery shopping it was dusk and we were ready to stop for the night. We didn't find any good boondocking spot in the town of Ely, so we continued south on Hwy. 93 until we reached a roadside rest area / BLM Elk Viewing Area where we boondocked for the night. Had the place all to ourselves !
Wednesday ; BLM Elk Viewing Area south of Ely to Cathedral Gorge State Park
In the middle of the night I woke up ... cold ! DARN ! The bedroom heater was not working. Out of propane. DARN ! I got up, put on shoes, and stepped outside to change propane tanks. As I was switching from the empty tank to the full one, I heard a noise off to the side of the trailer. I shone my flashlight over there and saw nothing but then heard the start of ... HUH ? ... a stampede ? A herd of elk ? ! ? Scared the dickens out of me !
Today was another sunny, warm day. We prepared for departure then did an obedience session with Bo, since we had the large parking and picnic area of the BLM Elk Viewing Area all to ourselves. We had a great obedience session which included some "search" since there were places for us to hide then call him, and ... HA HA HA ... Joanne went over a cattle ( or elk ) grate in the road and called him to come. With great reluctance, he gingerly crossed the cattle grate. Good dog, Bo, well done ! Bo has been afraid of cattle grates and has refused to cross them ever since he fell and got stuck crossing a cattle grate at an Escapee park in New Mexico a few months after we got him almost eight years ago.
We continued the boring southbound drive on Hwy. 93 across the endless scruffy desert of Nevada. No wonder this is where they chose to blow up atomic bombs ! We got off the highway at the town of Pioche to find and view the free municipal campground we had heard about. Shortly after that we reached Cathedral Gorge State Park, our destination for today. We had been here twice before, and quite like the place.
While I napped with Sully, Joanne began removing the Similkameen Day Tours lettering off the sides of the truck. Today she completed one side, the side facing the sun, which made the plastic decal lettering easier to remove. We walked around the campground and surrounding area, getting the kinks out after spending the last seven days sitting in the truck a lot. As planned, I started a campfire and cooked supper over the open fire, a treat that we both enjoy.
Thursday ; What an unusual weather day ! It started out sunny and mild, became cloudy and cold, then cleared and warmed late in the afternoon.
Today we rested after seven days of driving, worked on some "home improvement" and maintenance projects, and went hiking and exploring in slot canyons. Bo loooooves exploring in slot canyons. HA HA HA ... what a funny little dog.
Received a phone call from a fellow in Penticton, asking questions about our lot 89 for sale at Riverside RV Park Resort. Hope we hear from him again !
< huge sigh > While doing some maintenance work on the truck's batteries, I got battery acid on my zippered, hooded sweater. DARN ! Ruined another one ! I ruin about two a year ! Good thing I buy them for five bucks or less at thrift shops !
We went for a short hike over to the nearby slot canyons, then explored in some of them. Bo fearlessly rushes into slot canyons and goes in way faster and further than we can, coming back with a look of disgust because we're too slow or simply too large to follow him in that far. HA HA HA ... good dog, Bo, well done < rolling eyes >.
After our hike our last project of the afternoon was to bolt the new dinette table down to the floor. It's a temporary job. I didn't have the right hardware to do the job as "elegantly" as I would like. I'll redo the job in a couple of weeks in Yuma. In the meantime, now the table can't move around as we travel.
Once again I cooked supper over a campfire. And this time, I stretched my campfire cooking horizons a bit. I cooked salmon fillets, rice pilaf, zucchini, and brussel sprouts, each item wrapped in foil. Everything turned out perfectly. First time I cooked brussel sprouts over an open fire.
Friday ; Cathedral Gorge State Park to Valley Of Fire State Park, Nevada
Another unpredictable weather day !
This morning at Cathedral Gorge State Park it was cold and cloudy. We prepared for departure and drove over to the trailer dump station to dump the waste holding tanks and refill the freshwater tank. As we finished it began to rain. BRRRRR ! We drove south on Hwy. 93 through rain that was at times heavy. The sky cleared and the temperature rose significantly when we entered the Mojave Desert. We stopped for lunch and a nap at the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge.
South on Hwy. 93, east on Hwy. 168, one mile on Interstate 15, south on Hwy. 169. We stopped to buy some groceries at Overton. Then ... WOW ... Valley Of Fire State Park. What an astounding area of red rock formations ! We got set up in a campsite, and were planning to light a campfire and cook supper over it when ... BRRRRR ... again ... it suddenly became very cold and windy as the sun set ! Forget the campfire ! DARN !
Saturday ; Valley Of Fire State Park to Laughlin, Nevada
This morning we prepared for departure, then went for a leisurely walk around the campground. I took many "CoolPix" with my new Nikon CoolPix camera. We departed the Valley Of Fire State Park campground and drove west on the state park road back to Interstate 15. As we were driving, there was a long line of ... 1, 2, 3 ... 22, 23, 24 ... WOW ... 24 brand new Camaros heading into Valley Of Fire State Park. HA HA HA ... must be a Chevrolet marketing photography session.
We drove southwest on I-15 to Las Vegas, our planned destination for today. We found our way to Sam's Town RV Park, and after checking it out decided to just keep driving.
It was only about noon, and there was nothing interesting or attractive enough about the RV park or nearby to entice us to stay. We headed southeast on Boulder Highway to the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson where we stopped at a 99 Cents Only store to do some shopping. When we stepped out of the truck in the shopping mall parking lot ... UH-OH ... there was water coming out of the trailer underneath the door ! ! ! Not a good sign ! We opened the trailer door to discover that our full five gallon water jug had just tipped over and shattered. Five gallons of water spilled on the trailer floor and was finding every opening it could to leak out !
We cleaned it up as best as we could, then went shopping. After shopping we walked over to the next mall to have a late lunch at Burger King. We're usually quite impressed with Burger King. Not this one ! REALLY terrible service ! Interminably long wait for our food. Food was burned ! Somebody from Burger King needs to pay a visit to this franchise and straighten them out !
We headed out of Las Vegas / Henderson on Boulder Highway and Interstate 515, then turned southbound on Nevada Hwy. 95. Joanne told me to "drive like stink" to outrun an ugly little storm cloud that was approaching from the west. I successfully outran it, but not before stopping to take a picture of the heavy rain coming out of it, falling on the Mojave Desert, just before it reached us. The rain, not the desert !
It was still daylight so Joanne suggested we cross the Colorado River into Bullhead City, Arizona, and go do some Wal-Martin'. Yes, dear ! Whatever you say, dear ! There's nothing I'd rather do than go Wal-Martin' on a Saturday afternoon, dear !
After Wal-Martin' < sigh > we drove through Bullhead City and Fort Mohave to cross back over the Colorado River into Nevada again, at the Avi Casino south of Laughlin. We decided to boondock overnight at the Avi Casino's RV parking lot. We went into the casino to pick up a Laughlin "Entertainer" magazine, and check out the Avi's Native Harvest Buffet Restaurant. Well ... how fortuitous ! Prime Rib 2-4-1 night. ETYS prime rib and everything else ... $11.49 per couple ! We ate and ate and ate until Joanne had to ... ! ! ! HA HA HA ! She said it was perfect. "Nature" called when she had 3 spoonfuls left of her Cherries Jubilee dessert. HA HA HA < SNORT > HA HA !
DSK
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