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Laughlin, NV from our campsite in Bullhead City, AZ on
the opposite side of the Colorado River
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October 19, 2007 From Boulder City to Laughlin, NV was a straight desert drive except for the last 20 miles. That part is mountainous. We came to Laughlin because we haven't been here before. It's a small area filled with high rise casino/hotels in the middle of nowhere on the west bank of the Colorado River. The slide-out room hasn't been working well again lately so we looked up RV Care Center in Bullhead City, AZ - just across the river from Laughlin. They fixed the slide-out problem in less than an hour and we were on our way to the Avi Casino about 11 miles south of Laughlin. |
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October 20 - 25, 2007
We've had an interesting week here at the AVI RV
Resort. It only took one day for us to figure out that our next door
neighbors were having domestic problems. A small fight broke out between
them the second day we were there. Their area looked like "trailer
trash" from the start and we should have told the management we wanted a
different spot. Another lesson learned. At least 5 adults were
living in the RV but the number might have been higher.
At 4 the next morning, some or all of the neighbors broke out in another fight
and three police cars showed up along with a fire truck, ambulance and
three campground security jeeps. Lots of noise and blue and red lights
went on for over an hour. The next morning we learned from the park office
that the principal bad actor in the altercation next door was recently released
from prison and already had a new warrant out for his arrest. Garrey told
the management what we thought about their decision to put us in a spot next to
that mess and they responded by giving us a refund of the amount we had paid for
our 4 nights there. We moved to a different spot on the opposite side of
the park for our remaining two day stay and the dysfunctional family was evicted
later that day.
Over the next two days we enjoyed the casino's pool and had a nice buffet dinner too. We played cards but not much. We left them with only about $30.00 in gambling losses between the two of us. Karen played the penny machines and even they went quickly.
One day we went for a drive to Oatman, AZ, an old gold mining town in the mountains, which now is just a street of old original shops. But the old Oatman hotel is still in operation as a restaurant-bar and a second floor viewing of the unused rooms like they were in the early 1900's. We had lunch there while waiting for the shoot-out on Main Street at noon. The burro's come out of the mountains about the same time for their carrot treats on the streets. Karen, of course, had to buy a bag of carrots to feed them and they took them gently unless you didn't get one out of the bag soon enough for them. Some the young burro's weren't finished nursing yet and couldn't eat carrots but they sure were cute. The shootout was well done and funny.
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October 26,
2007
Today we drove to Kingman, AZ for a one night
stay. There was a smoky, red sunset resulting from the fires burning
in southern California. We visited old town Kingman which was on
Route 66--it still has some of the old hotels, train depot, restaurants,
and antique shops which Karen especially enjoys.
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October 27, 2007
The campground in Kingman was expensive so we drove about 12 miles east to a less expensive one called Blake Ranch RV Park & Horse Motel that is next door to the biggest truck stop we've ever seen. We signed up for a week here and it's an OK place but the noise from the truck stop at night is a bit too much. With our windows closed it's mostly just "white noise" though. We'll move to another (more quiet) site back in Kingman later this week. We're staying in northern Arizona for a while because the elevation is higher and the weather here is in the mid-seventies. We're enjoying that.
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October 30, 2007 Today we got our "kicks on Route 66." We drove to Kingman then went 50 miles northeast on Route 66. That took us to the heart of Peach Springs, Arizona. The part of 66 from Kingman to Flagstaff - about 150 miles east is the longest intact stretch of America's old Main Street according to local Chamber of Commerce literature. Peach Springs is the headquarters of the Hualapai Indian Reservation and that's the only thing happening in town these days except for the Hualapai Lodge, dining room, and gift shop. We stopped there for a coffee and piece of pie. The gift shop did not have any trinkets of the Hualapai, or the Supai, who live on the banks of the Colorado River in South Grand Canyon. They had some pretty glass angels that were made in China though. I-40, about 15 miles to the south has sucked all the tourism and incidental travel market away from here. The Reservation recently had a glass sky-walk built over the west end of Grand Canyon to draw more tourists to the area. |
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The Frontier Motel on Route 66 in Truxton, AZ is still in business because they got a got a government historic preservation grant to restore their sign.
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