Thanksgiving 2019

We left Las Vegas this morning in a round-about fashion because I-15 northbound was closed due to a fatality accident caused by a car going the wrong way on I-15 and he hit an Amazon tractor trailer - guess who won that encounter! After our normal stop at Costco in North Las Vegas for gas and breakfast stop at Einstein's Bagels, we were on our way.  One stop at Beatty - when we drove through Beatty several years ago, we planted an avocado pit in an open area just south of Beatty - so far there has been no sign that it took root, but we always check just to make sure :-). Uneventful trip north with beautiful weather - didn't cloud up until we got closer to Reno.  There was a drop in temperature from 61 in Las Vegas to below 40 when we arrived in Reno; however, it was just cloudy with no rain or snow as we arrived home.  Stopped to pick up our mail and then we arrived home safe and sound to find the house still standing - always a good thing Good to be home even if th...

Back in Nevada again after an uneventful trip from Phoenix.  Traveled north on 60 up to Wickenberg, AZ.  Took a little while to get through the sprawling metropolis of Phoenix, but we finally made it into the desert country northwest of Phoenix.  After leaving Wickenberg, we got on US 93 up to I-40 where we had no choice but to travel on I-40 for ten miles to west to Kingman and then back on 93 to Hoover Dam.  Somewhere along the way, the route changed to I-11 which is eventually going to go all the way from Phoenix to Las Vegas and then north to the Canadian border - don't think we'll see the completion of that project! North of Kingman going to Hoover Dam, we paralleled the Colorado River far below us.  Pretty sight when you catch sight of it - it's a green slash among the rocky (not The Rocky) mountains.  When you cross the Colorado into Nevada, it's impossible to see the river and there are no scenic pull-outs, so it was on to Las Vegas.  We're...

Had a great trip up from Tucson today.  Beautiful weather and not much traffic.  My driver doesn't like interstates, so we found some US highways which went north from Tucson up through Florence and then over to Apache Junction, ending up in northwest Phoenix.  On Hwy 79, we stopped at a rest area which had a Tom Mix Monument (how good is your memory of Western heroes?)    Interesting to see the different types of cacti in the desert.  The saguaro reigns supreme because of its size, but the others are just as interesting. It's nice because we got an early start on the trip up to Las Vegas, so we only have about 230 miles tomorrow. It also gave us an opportunity to look around at some of the real estate in Sun City which we had been curious about.  Sun City is a 55+ community, most of which is a Del Webb community.  Looked at two open houses, but we're not sure we're ready for that kind of living - too close-knit.  I always rememb...