On The Road Again!

The first few days of our 2018 summer travels have been ever so nice!

When we sold our house and took off in an RV, I secretly wondered how long it would last.  Well, we are now over the five year mark, and we have not had a single regret. Oh, we have had some pretty rough moments, and there have been times when we wished we could have separate rigs. But those kinds of difficult times would probably happen in a house as well. We are human, and we have been married 52 years!  At the same time, good times seem better, and travel keeps us mentally and physically challenged and alert.  

Every time we have headed north from Southern California in the past, we have taken the fastest and easiest route, straight up the central valley on I-5.

This time I routed us on the east side of the Sierra Mountains. New roads, new sights.

Before heading north, we decided to go to Las Vegas to visit our good friends Joe and Betty. We met them several years ago at an RV park west of Yellowstone. We have kept in touch and meet up for dinner from time to time. They also have an Alfa, but have recently put it up for sale. They feel it is time to "hang up the keys." I only hope we have as many wonderful years as they have had. 

Our destination out of Las Vegas was Mono Lake, back in California. I remember driving past it once as we were returning from a ski trip to Mammoth Lake, and wishing we had time to stop to see the area.  Now we will have a few days to take in the sights, and the weather is more suitable.

One of the joys of RVing as retired people is we can take our time. Mono Lake is about 400 miles from Las Vegas, so I decided to make it a two day drive. Our first stop was at Tonopah Station, just an overnight in a parking lot behind a casino.

We really enjoyed the desert and mountain scenery going north. 

Below are two images taken through the windshield. There were more interesting views, but there were no good turn-outs to stop at with a large motorhome towing a Jeep. 

Alkali Silver Peak was in Mineral County (but this is not it)

This mountain had numerous road tracks. We think there was mining involved. 

We arrived at our RV park at Mono Lake just after noon giving us time to go over to the Visitors Center to see the exhibits, talk to a ranger, and watch the movie.

We also took a short walk along an educational nature walk that overlooked the lake.

There was just a bit of haze in the air, but the water was silken smooth. I have never seen so many shades of blue.

There were other things to see beside the lake, including baby swallows in their nests under the eaves,

and the pretty pink blossoms of Pink Peach bushes.

The ranger gave us some good suggestions for some easy hikes. 

Time to get these old bodies of ours moving again!

One last picture for the day: 


I really don't like to have a camera strap around the back of my neck. That is why I bought my COTTON 3G Camera Harness System, but I didn't have it along for this short walk.

Craig caught me taking a rest.

I also see I need a hair cut!



Tomorrow: ranger guided walk on the shore at 1:00 PM.

Sunday - Tuesday, Small Repair and The Valley of Fire

When we were preparing to pull out of Grand Canyon National Park on Sunday morning, we had some trouble with getting the bedroom slide to come in. Craig tried pushing it in from outside, but that didn’t help much. We had the engine on fast idle to provide more voltage to the slide motors, but then turned it off. Craig kept trying the “in” switch lots of times, and was about to give up when one activation made the slide twitch a bit inward, the next made it come in a little more, and the next depression of the switch brought the slide all the way in. We were thankful that we didn’t have to get a mobile fix-it man into the Park to fix a balky slide.

But this was the second time this slide had problems coming in, and it was definitely time to do something about it. We were headed toward Nevada, so we looked up “Las Vegas” on the Alfa repair forums. This yielded only references to “Johnnie Walker”. No, they weren’t about drowning your repair worries in Scotch, there is a company called “Johnnie Walker RV” in Las Vegas.

We drove to Las Vegas and boondocked at a nearby Walmart.  It seemed a reasonable idea after cuddling through a bunch of cold GC mornings, but the Vegas heat quickly got to us.  It was about 95° Sunday afternoon, and Walmart hasn’t gotten around to providing hookups so we could run our AC. Going to an RV park was mentioned, but lethargy had set in. We opened all the windows and enjoyed a few breezes along with the sound of the many 50 MPH vehicles on the road that was 20 feet away.

But we like to think of ourselves as tough, like when Merikay said at about 4 AM “I don’t know when I’ve slept so well!”.  We were up bright and early and pulled into JWRV at 7:30, which put us second in line for service.

They got right to work and had our problem solved by 9:30. The switch was bad.  If you ever have an RV problem in or near Las Vegas, look up Johnnie Walker’s RV. Their price was reasonable and the fact that they fit us in so quickly was very nice.

While we were on our last trip to Death Valley in January, Cyndi sent us an email suggesting we make our way up to Valley of Fire State Park, north of Las Vegas. Unfortunately, our reservations conflicted with getting there at the same time she and her husband were there, but we put it on our “someday” list as a place we wanted to go.

Thank you Cyndi. We spent two days there, and were delighted by the unusual rock formations.  You would think that after almost a week at the Grand Canyon we might be tired of looking at rocks, but each park has its own specialness.

Here is a sample of the sights in the Valley of Fire Nevada State park.  

  

Our RV spot was $30 per night with water and power hookups. A dump station is available. Sites were first come first serve, no reservations, cash or check only. There were only a few sites with hook ups, so early arrival is recommended.

Back a few days ... Las Vegas Casinos

Today we're sitting around in the lunch room at Alfateers while they are working on our rig.  We've been chatting with another couple who are also here for service. 

It may not be Quartzsite, but we are hanging out with other RVers and swapping stories just the same.

It seemed like a good time to catch up with my last post about our time in Las Vegas.

We spent a few hours walking around the strip the first night we were here, but it kept being a bit cold to go again.  Since I wanted to see more of the interior spaces of the casinos, we went down in the afternoon when it was warmer.

Here are a few of the things we saw:

New York New York

Paris

Monte Carlo

Egypt

Ceiling in the Luxor Casino.

Stained Glass Ceiling

And just for fun,
The Las Vegas Sock Market

Las Vegas

Since I have never been to Las Vegas, I thought it might be fun to see the place.  CSI Las Vegas was one of my favorite shows when we had TV at the house. 

I checked my Passport America book and found a resort there.  I called and yes, I could get the PA discount and could make a reservation.  I booked for three nights, and although I didn't have to make a deposit, I requested an email confirmation.  Good thing I did, because when I checked in the desk lady didn't want to give me the discount.  I showed her the printed confirmation that noted the PA discount.  "Oh" she said, and found us a spot.

As I was walking out of the lobby (a quite nice place) a silly looking old lady wearing leather pants and a golf cap approached me with a hand full of coupons for the area. She was hustling people to sit through a sales presentation the next day. The lure was a "free" notebook computer, plus two free nights at the resort.  It was OK with Craig, so I said yes. We sat through the presentation saying "no" to everything.  At the end of  it all we managed to pass on the "no name" notebook as well. We would have had to pay $39 in shipping and handling. The salesman turned it into an extra free day's stay.  The best part was that we don't have to come back.  They let us add it onto our current stay.  So we ended up getting to stay at a decent place with two nice pools, a hot tub, and an exercise room  six nights for only $75 total.  Can't beat that! 

Pool at Oasis RV Resort, Las Vegas Nevada

On Friday, shortly after arriving, Craig hit his head on the underside of the slide while hooking up the water, and felt he needed to be driven to an ER.  Head cuts bleed profusely, and he had taken some Aleve earlier in the day which acts as a blood thinner. I looked at the cut when I gave him a wash rag to press on it and declared it "not too bad." But he was shook up by the blood running in his eyes and dripping on his shoes. By the time we got to the ER the bleeding had stopped. A doctor checked it and said he was fine and didn't need any stitches.  He felt silly, but I was happy because I would rather take him to the ER for a little thing than a heart attack or major accident.

That night we walked around the strip and went into a couple of stores and the MGM Casino. The weather was pretty cold and we were tired so we went back to the Alfa early.

I did a weeks worth of wash Saturday morning after the presentation, and then we went to The Mob Museum.  Several people have told me it was a great exhibit, but I have to say I was not wowed by it. 

I have seen several documentary shows on the History channel that covered the same subjects.  Some of the pictures and most of the stories were things I had seen before.  

Not money well spent.



Sunday there were two NFL playoff games Craig wanted to watch, so I went shopping at one of the outlet malls.  I'm not much of a shopping fanatic, but I enjoy looking for clothes more now that I'm thinner. I bought one new top and some fun socks.

Monday we went to Hoover Dam, which is the subject of my next post.  I feel we are making every day count, but are also taking our time to do mundane things like grocery shopping and the wash.

I could really get to like this lifestyle!

Beware of what you wish for.  While in Death Valley I said that I wished I knew more about geology. Like many RV parks, the Las Vegas resort has a free book exchange.  Guess what I found.

It is an older text book from California State University.  I have started to read it and am sure it is for a Geology 101 course.  I remember a lot that I have read so far, but my knowledge is mostly from grade school science, the Discovery Channel, and signage at park visitors stations.

It is never too late to learn!
What do you want to know more about?