Sunny and hot. Windy and cool late in the evening out in the desert.
This morning we left Caliente Springs RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs. Thank you very much for the two free nights, Caliente Springs. We refilled with diesel at Valero in Thousand Palms, then went to Spotlight 29 Casino for Easter Champagne Brunch. MMMMM ! ! ! Very good ! But not cheap !
We headed east on Interstate 10. We stopped at a rest area about halfway between Palm Springs and Quartzsite so that I could nap briefly. We arrived in Quartzsite about 5 PM. I drove around town to see if any of the flea market vendors were still in town doing business. They weren't ! DARN ... I bought an item here in January and wanted another one.
We drove a few miles out of town north on Hwy. 95 to the BLM's High Jolly boondock camping area. Not many rigs left out here in the desert, compared to the thousands and thousands that were here in January. We found a nice secluded area to boondock overnight, with a nice rock campfire ring. We hiked around the desert briefly then rested until sunset when I started a campfire. The plan was to have a wiener roast. BUT ... after that ETYS Easter Champagne Brunch neither of us was hungry enough to want supper. The wieners were already thawed, so we roasted them over the campfire and put them in the fridge to have for lunch tomorrow ... or ... ?
We sat around the campfire for awhile and watched the large full moon rise from behind the nearby mountains.
Monday ; Quartzsite, Arizona to Laughlin, Nevada
Sunny and very warm. Who knew ... that roast leg of lamb and champagne ... for breakfast ... was constipating ? ! ? HA HA HA !
After leaving the BLM High Jolly boondock camping area near Quartzsite this morning we headed north on Hwy. 95. We took about a 50 km. / 30 miles detour to go see Bouse, a scruffy little desert village very popular with desert boondockers. < shrug >
I don't even "get" Quartzsite, let alone Bouse !
We stopped at Wal-Mart in Parker to buy me some antihistamine. < sniffle > Everything in the desert is in bloom ! We stopped at a grocery store parking lot in Lake Havasu City to have lunch. We stopped at a service station parking lot at the intersection of Hwy. 95 and Interstate 40 so that I could nap briefly.
We arrived at the south end of Bullhead City, Arizona around 5 PM. We drove through Bullhead City from south to north then crossed the Colorado River into Laughlin, Nevada. We checked into the Riverside Casino RV Park and were settled in our site by 6 PM. We rested for about an hour or so then drove about 30 km. / 20 miles south to the Avi Casino to have dinner in the Native Harvest Buffet Restaurant. After supper we drove across the Colorado River again into Bullhead City and refilled with diesel before returning to the Riverside Casino RV Park.
Tuesday ; Sunny, very warm, a bit windy.
We had a slow start to the day. After lunch we drove a short distance down Casino Drive to Laughlin Outlets Mall where I was going to buy a pair of Birkenstock sandals at Famous Footwear. BUT ... since I have destroyed my latest pair of U.S.$100 Birkenstock sandals in only a year, I decided at the last minute to buy a pair of SAS sandals at the SAS Factory Outlet Store. Other than a couple of pairs of Birkenstock sandals I have not worn any brand of shoes other than SAS in twenty-five years. Hopefully the U.S.$152 SAS sandals will last longer than a year !
While Joanne browsed in the mall I attempted to connect to Wi-Fi in the food court. No such luck ! Wi-Fi in the mall had not been working for about the last week. Well, geeeeez, people ... GET IT FIXED ! We drove a bit further down "the strip" to the Tropicana. While Joanne and Bo waited in the camper I sat inside the casino at a table near a bar and used the Tropicana Casino's free Wi-Fi.
At 7 PM we returned to the Tropicana to have "bottomless pasta" dinner at Passaggio Italian Garden, an annual event for us. HA HA HA ! We were back "home" at Riverside Casino RV Park about 8:30 PM. We spent the rest of the evening watching TV, episode after episode of Married At First Sight.
Wednesday ; Sunny and very warm.
We had another late start to the day. Joanne did laundry. I worked on March month end financial statement updates and reconciliations. We took Bo for a long, leisurely walk and obedience session. We watched a lot of TV. Networks that we rarely have an opportunity to watch ; Discovery, The Learning Channel, Arts & Entertainment, Food Network, Travel Network.
We used a discount coupon when we checked into the Riverside Casino RV Resort. It was for a three night stay, plus a buffet brunch for two, and a buffet dinner for two. We were planning to have dinner in the Riverside's buffet restaurant tonight, but changed our minds this afternoon and decided to keep our buffet dinner for two voucher for a subsequent visit, probably in a year. My intestines need a rest. HA HA HA !
Thursday ; Laughlin to Beatty, Nevada
Sunny and warm in Laughlin in the morning. Cloudy and cool in Beatty in the evening.
This morning we prepared for departure, checked out of Riverside Casino RV Park, drove across the street and parked in the casino's parking lot, then went inside to have buffet brunch using a voucher we received as part of our three night stay in the RV park. After eating we departed Laughlin heading west on Hwy. 168, then north on Hwy. 95 to Las Vegas.
First stop in Las Vegas was Camping World. We bought some sheets for Harvey the fifth wheel trailer in Yuma and a mattress pad for Elsie the truck camper. The sheets for the fifth wheel trailer will have to be hauled all the way to Keremeos, BC, then back to Yuma, Arizona < rolling eyes >, likely via Manitoba and Texas < sigh > ! Next stop was Dollar Tree, then Ralph's for some groceries. As I was entering the supermarket ...
< blink blink > ... Elvis was leaving the building. HA HA HA ! Welcome to Las Vegas ! ! !
Driving through Las Vegas on the freeway was ... challenging and stressful. We got lost briefly. Not the first time it's happened. Won't be the last ! Once through the city we headed north on Hwy. 95 again. Stopped briefly just north of Las Vegas to admire the Mojave Desert plants and trees. Stopped at Amargosa Junction ( turnoff to Death Valley ) to refill with diesel. At Beatty we turned west to head about five miles to the mining ghost town of Rhyolite. We were hoping to be able to boondock overnight in the parking lot of the museum there, then visit the ghost town tomorrow.
We pulled into the parking lot of the museum, I turned off the truck engine, stepped out of the truck and ... I could hear something happening under the front of the truck. YIKES ! ! ! Coolant spewing ! ! ! I opened the truck hood and all I could see was ... coolant spewing ! ! ! We jumped back into the truck and I raced five miles back to the little village of Beatty. I thought it would be better to be in the village than out at the ghost town if I needed to use the cell phone, get a tow truck, find a repair shop or ... !
Once in the village I parked in a gravel lot between a fuel bar and the Chamber of Commerce. Seemed like a reasonable place to boondock overnight. Seemed like an easy enough place for a tow truck to find me, if necessary. Joanne went inside the fuel bar to inquire about a local auto repair shop, while I stuck my head under the hood and watched coolant spew ! HMMMMM ... seemed to be spewing out of the water pump.
Joanne returned from the fuel bar in a few minutes to tell me ... the local mechanic was on his way. Too small a village for a service station / auto repair shop, but ... it has a resident mechanic. In a few minutes he arrived, stuck his head under the hood ... YUP ... water pump shot ! Nearest auto parts store is seventy-five miles away. And they don't deliver ! BUT ... he had just overhauled a Dodge truck with a Cummins 5.9 diesel engine ... AND ... had replaced that truck's water pump ... SO ... he had a used but perfectly functional water pump sitting in his shop that would fit my truck !
I poured a gallon of water into the radiator and followed him home to his backyard shop. WOW ... fully equipped shop ! We parked beside the shop. He'll replace my water pump tomorrow morning !
Friday ; Beatty to Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Site, Nevada
Sunny, mild, windy.
This morning John, the town of Beatty's resident mechanic / "gear head" took about two hours to remove the blown water pump from our truck and replace it with the used one he had kicking around his shop. Charged me a hundred bucks. Seemed reasonable to me ! We were on our way about 11 AM.
We drove five miles to the mining ghost town of Rhyolite and explored their museum, ruins of buildings, and cemetery for about an hour and a half. We drove back to Beatty so that John could examine the water pump replacement job and ensure that there were no leaks once the engine and coolant were hot. Everything was fine !
Beatty and surrounding area are as white trash / hillbilly / trailer park trash as anything anywhere in the Ozark Mountains of Missouri. John has a young "assistant", a young man maybe still in his teens, works part time as John's "Joe Boy" for chump change. And the "Joe Boy" has two even younger "hangers on" who tag along just because they seem to have nothing better to do with their lives. I drove with all of them in John's truck to the town's convenience store to get some distilled water to pour into our truck's radiator. These teenaged boys / young men listen to ... country music ! Old country music ! Patsy Kline music, for gawdsake ! And refer to Chevrolet El Caminos as "beaner" ( Hispanic ) cars. < shaking head in despair > If these fellas don't escape Beatty soon ... they'll be trapped and won't stand a chance ! That was my second trip to get distilled water. We didn't get enough the first time. My first trip was with John, in a 1958 Ford Ranchero that he is rebuilding / restoring. It's a LOOOOONG way from completion. And nowhere near roadworthy at this point in time. And has a license plate that expired in 2002 !
Beatty is home to the "downwinders", those people who lived downwind of the atomic bomb test explosions conducted in the 1940's and 1950's at the nearby Nevada Test Site. And it seems obvious why the U.S. military chose this area to detonate atomic bombs. Except for the town of Beatty, the area is just hundreds of miles of endless scruffy high desert in every direction.
For the first couple of hours that we drove north this afternoon, every ten or twenty miles there was ... < blink > ... a brothel. Usually a fifty to seventy-five year old mobile home trailer a few hundred feet off the highway, with a sign advertising the business name, like ... "Shady Lady"... and the fact that it was a brothel. And usually a few junked vehicles in the yard. Who would stop there ? And ... why ? I mean ... look at the trailer ! ! ! And the old Camaro up on cinder blocks ! ! !
For the rest of the day all we saw were ... Mule deer ... Pronghorn antelope ... wild burros ... and wild horses. I drove too far / too long today. By the time we stopped for the night Joanne was tired, hungry, and crabby. We stopped at dusk at a small unserviced campground near a petroglyph site.
Saturday ; Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Site to Winnemucca, Nevada
Overcast, mild, windy.
This morning we left the Hickison Petroglyph Recreation Site campground and headed east on Hwy. 50 to Eureka where we refilled with diesel. Then it was north on Hwy. 278 for about another hundred miles of endless scruffy high desert. At some point along Hwy. 278 we pulled off the road to have lunch. For the last two days we have continuously been at altitudes between 6000 and 6500 feet above sea level. Chilly ! Especially after the sun has gone down !
When we reached Interstate 80 we turned west. We stopped at a roadside rest area and dumped our waste holding tanks at the sani-dump station but the freshwater was still turned off for the winter. We stopped at a Flying J at Battle Mountain to refill our freshwater tank and refill a propane tank at the outrageous price of $3.90 a gallon, almost triple the price of propane in Yuma, Arizona ! What a rip-off ! I couldn't help but notice that it was a dollar a gallon cheaper in Winnemucca.
From Battle Mountain we continued west on Interstate 80 to Winnemucca where we boondocked overnight in the free parking lot of the Winners Casino right in town. Not a typical casino, just a small downtown hotel and restaurant. We were here before, about a year and a half ago when we were shopping for a truck camper on our way from BC to Arizona. We had supper listening to Prairie Home Companion on the radio. Afterwards I worked on the computer while we listened to a zydeco music festival on the radio.
DSK
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