Episode 2 - Getting Settled

We arrived in Bullhead City, Arizona and booked into the Bullhead RV Park upon the recommendation of a couple we met in Las Vegas. It seemed like a nice park with all of the amenities like a pool, hot-tub, clubroom, cable at all sites and offered quite a few activities.

The sites have trees and shrubs around them. They are staggered and that gives each site a degree of privacy. There are about 150 sites and about 75% are snowbirds, mostly from the northern states. As a matter of fact there is only one other Canadian RV couple here and they are from Gull Lake, Alberta. We've seen very few Canadian licence plates - probably the dollar is the main reason as well as a fear of travel.

Bullhead City, Arizona is across the Colorado River from Laughlin, Nevada and about 30 miles from Needles, California, so it's central and a good base to travel from. To get out of the Colorado River Valley (where Bullhead City and Laughlin are), we climbed from 550 ft. to about 3000 ft. in about 10 miles of steep (6-7% grade) roadway.

Talking about steep roadways, since 9/11 they are not allowing truck or RV traffic over all power dams - that includes the Hoover Dam and our local Davis Dam - that means heavy truck traffic re-route through Bullhead City. That means real heavy traffic on those steep hills. In the last three weeks there have been five runaways that ended in trucks piling in to cars at the bottom of the hill which has cross roads and intersections. Last Friday night one piled into eleven cars before flipping over on the bridge that connects Laughlin and Bullhead City. Luckily no one was seriously injured. We were over at Laughlin at the time which meant we had to drive up the Colorado River. We were able cross the Davis Dam to come home - about 20 miles around.

We go over to Laughlin quite often to take advantage of the cheap meals in the Casinos (.99 for a full breakfast, $1.96 for supper or $3.95 for a buffet). There is no way you can cook and eat for that at home. Besides, Lynne likes playing Black Jack and is pretty good at it. One of the casinos, The Avi (on a Reservation in Nevada about 10 minutes away) has a free Black Jack tournament every Friday and she made it into the semi-finals.

Here are some shots of the area and some of the Casinos complete with Christmas decorations.

The Casinos are really hurting since the terrorist attack, but we hear that Vegas is worse. There have been a lot of layoffs there so all the Casinos are trying to attract customers with all kinds of promotions.

Episode 1 - Getting away from the Cold

We managed to leave home on October 16 after the frig decided not to work. We went off to a RV shop and got it looked after and we were on our way. We made sure we had all our paperwork in order to cross the border so that there would be as little hassle as possible. When we got to Coutts, there was a line-up of trucks about half a mile long being searched. We got into the car/RV line - they asked us where we were born, where we were from, if we had any citrus fruit or guns and where we were going. Then said "have a good trip" - so much for increased security.

The first night was spent at a Flying J truck stop in Butte, Montana and then on to Twin Falls, Idaho. We spent a couple of days around Twin Falls and went out to a area called "Rock City" which isn't a city at all but an area up in the high desert almost on the Idaho/Nevada border. It is a desert with rock outcroppings that have some strange shapes to them. We also toured around the Snake River Canyon area.

To get a better idea of what I writing about I have included a few pictures. If you click on the "Thumbnails" below, they will open so that you can get a better view of them.

( This is the format we will use throughout)

After leaving Twin Falls we headed south into Nevada on Route #93 to Wells, Nevada. We had a strong cross wind all the way which made the driving tough so by the time we got to Wells we were happy to call it a day.

Now Wells, NV is a ghost town refusing to die. The town at one time depended on the railway for their economic base. This is where they would add extra engines so they could haul the cars up to the high desert and then south and west. As the railways changed to diesel engines there was no need for the extra equipment so the Wells yard was shut down. Then they ran the new highway around Wells. That become the last blow for the town.

We drove around Wells looking for a place to stay over night and found a real nice RV park. While searching for the park we ended up in the part of town that at one time was the main business section near where the railway yards once stood. We have added some pictures to give you an idea of what Wells looks like today.

After spending a few days around Wells we decided to head south to find the warmer weather. We headed out with another couple from B.C. (Don and Luella) in their motorhome. We started to climb up to the high desert.

Once we got out of Wells we once again started to get winds out of the west which meant that it was hitting us on the side of the trailer. It was hard to make any kind of time on the road. Later we found out that the wind was gusting up to 60 mile per hour.

We arrived at Ely, Nevada in the afternoon and decided to stay there overnight at KOA campground. We woke up the next morning to cold weather (17 F). We left as quickly as we could and after a few hours arrived in Las Vegas and the temperature was 83 F. I guess that's what happens when you start out at 7300 ft. and drop down to about 500 ft.

We pulled into Arizona Charlie's Casino & RV Park on the southern side of Las Vegas - away from "The Strip". Getting to the park was "interesting". We had to change from the main interstate highway (I-15) to Boulder Highway which means that you have to go through the interchange called the "Spaghetti Bowl". While in the middle of the bowl and following the motorhome, a"local" decided to cut crossways in front of Don & Luella. Don had to slam on the brakes and seeing that I was following close behind I had to do the same and this is all happening at 75 mph. I found out exactly how good my trailer brakes work as well as the ABS system on the truce. In the meantime I am getting the finger from another driver for slowing up his driving time. Ahh, the big U.S. city.

We stayed at Arizona Charlie's for a couple of days. The food was great and inexpensive and it had the greatest "bath house". Of course we donated some of our money to the casinos. Then it was time to head for Arizona and a slower pace.

Here are a couple of great carved Pumpkins from Arizona Charlie's.

And with Halloween came our arrival in warm weather