Thanksgiving 2019

Well, maybe I should say Davis-Monthan AFB, which is just south of Tucson.  Vi had a full day of driving, but it was mostly sunshine and no sign of the storm which was forecast.  Good thing we weren't travelling on I-40 because it was closed from Kingman to Winslow (remember that song?), a distance of over 200 miles. We went south mostly along the Colorado River from AZ to CA, back to AZ and then down through Lake Havazu.  Lots of RV'ers dry camped out in the desert and Lake Havazu was beautiful - obviously it's caused by a dam on the Colorado and has become quite a touristy spot.  You may recall that they moved the original London Bridge from London to the middle of the desert there and then rebuilt it brick by brick!  Quite a feat. You could tell that they had quite a bit of rain because whenever we hit a low spot, we had to slow down and splash through the water.  The Red Baron now has a very clean undercarriage :-).  One small town we passed th...

This morning after breakfast at the Tropicana (a subsidiary of Eldorado Resorts), we headed over to Davis Dam just north of Laughlin.  Have to take kind of a roundabout way to get to the Nevada side and then you end up at the bottom of the dam with no way up or across.  So we decided to backtrack and head over to the Arizona side.  Much more friendly and a part of the Lake Mead National Park Service. Once again we were able to use our US passport for free entry - boy, has that card more than paid for itself over the past decades (yep, that's right - decades).  Kind of an interesting area with lots of really neat campsites and a huge boat launch area.  Marina was full, but it didn't look like anyone was out on Lake Mohave.  They also have some motel-type rooms which did not look exciting.  If we did spend some time down here this winter, it'll be fun to explore the lake. There was another campground/launch area about eight miles away, so we drov...

Today we decided to have breakfast at the Avi Casino near the southernmost part of Nevada. It's one of the few Indian casinos in Nevada.  Afterwards, we drove south to Oatman, AZ.  You may remember the town from previous blogs.  It's on the historic Route 66 and is an old mining town at about 2700 feet elevation.  On previous trips, we have driven all the way up to Kingman on the old Route 66, but today we were satisfied with just visiting the town.  They make a tradition of decorating the mesquite bushes on the road into town with Christmas decorations. While were driving up the road, there were a couple of women decorating more of the bushes alongside the road.  Another thing Oatman is famous for are its' wild burros - a leftover from the old mining days when they were used to haul supplies.  Calling them wild is a stretch because they unashamedly beg for food and don't move when cars try to drive through.  They're cute and could be a nu...

Tuesday morning we cancelled our tee time at Mountain Falls Golf Course - too windy and cool.  After some shopping at the exclusive, yet ubiquitious, local Walmart, we had breakfast at Mom's Restaurant.  A local establishment back in a strip mall which we had found years ago.  One of the few places you can go back to and enjoy a great meal.  . Headed south from Pahrump through the desert to Shoshone, and then over to Baker, CA.  Travelling through all desert with not a lot of traffic (OK, there was no one else on the road). There are a few off-road destinations areas and it looked like people were camped out in the desert for the Thanksgiving weekend.  According to one sign, it was the Kingston Range Wilderness. Interesting countryside, probably the north end of the Mojave Desert.  It's a far cry from what people think of when they envision California - it's certainly not LA, San Francisco or San Diego.  Just like the northern part of Cal...

Well, so far the search  for warmer weather has not been successful.  We arrived in Pahrump this afternoon to a wind, cold day.  At least the sun is shining, but it's freaking cold (that's a meteorological term).  Driving down the weather was beautiful, but then we were inside the car :-). We took a short-cut from I-80 on the USA Parkway through the Reno-Tahoe Industrial Park.  RTIC is a huge complex which has distribution centers, switch buildings, and various other large buildings which have been built in the past few years and has contributed greatly to the growth of the Reno-Sparks area.  It has sparked so much growth that Nevada converted the road through the park to a State highway and connected it to US 50.  We drove down to Yerington (such a big town that AAA doesn't even list it in their Nevada book) where we had lunch. Trip was uneventful - always a good thing.  We still marvel at how much open land there is and how beautiful t...

 Monday morning we are leaving for a Thanksgiving trip to Laughlin and Tucson in search of warmer weather.  Our plan (yes, we do occasionally make them) is to stay in Pahrump, NV Monday night and then take a round-about route to Laughlin on Tuesday.  Depending on the weather, we'll play golf at Mountain Falls Golf Course in Pahrump around noon before heading south. We think we deserve a trip to cap off 2019.  It has been a good year; we celebrated our 50th Wedding Anniversary (deserves capitals!).  It was also a good year for remembering those events which also occurred back in 1969.  Richard Nixon was inaugurated, the Eagle landed on the moon, Woodstock made upstate New York famous and Mickey Mantle retired from the New York Yankees.  On the not so good side, it was also the year for Charles Manson, Ted Kennedy, and the Smothers Brothers. On Sunday, we talked with Char as she was transiting Dallas and San Francisco on her way to the Marshall Islan...