Not sure what happened, but as I was closing computer, the wifi signal popped on.... just going to drop in what I wrote - no fancy stuff - before it goes away again!
Well, today was better. We seemed to have our heads on a bit straighter this morning :-) We got more sleep last night and that might have had something to do with it.
I don’t know what this posting is going to look like tonight. We are in a state park on the Colorado River with high cliffs all around us. We are at the back and there’s no wifi signal. If I go up to the office area I supposedly can get one. The phone is switching between “no service” and one bar. So the plan is to write the entry as word processing doc, walk up to the office area and cut and paste it into the blog. There won’t be any photos again - just not going to work. In the next day or so I will do an entry with the photos you’ve missed!
We got on the road about 8:30 this morning and we were through Las Vegas by 10:45. No real traffic to speak of except at one interchange where everyone was going in a different direction and there was construction. Once we got through the city and diverged from US93/US95 we turned on US95 south at Boulder City. We dropped into the El Dorado Valley. It is filled with solar farms on the west side. We found a pull out and parked for lunch and to let Roger destress from driving through Vegas! We sat facing the mountains, two solar farms, and lots of power towers. It wasn’t bad - we sat in the shade and enjoyed the view. Temperature was about 75 and there was no wind! (I think we are pushing our luck here - two days of no wind.) Hopefully photos will be forthcoming.
As we pulled into this long pull out just south of the turn off, two brand new Mercedes came screeching to a halt in front of us. One black, one white. Four guys in each vehicle. They all hopped out, changed seats and/or cars and got back on the road heading back the way they had come - towards Las Vegas. About half way through our lunch, they came flying back into the same spot and the same thing happened. It was weird. Roger and I discussed what could possibly be going on. We came up with a story to write about tonight that they were guys at a convention in Las Vegas (they were all wearing lanyards around their necks with name tags hanging on them) and had rented the vehicles and each one of them wanted to drive a Mercedes because they never had before. Sounded plausible to us. Then, just as we were putting the chairs away and Maggie was having her last pee walk, here they came again. Too bizarre. I couldn’t help myself - Maggie and I walked over and I told them we were trying to figure out what they were doing and asked if they would tell me. Two gentlemen came over and told me that they were testing tires. One little Japanese guy had on a shirt with Kenda Tires logo on it and he told me that one car had his tires and the other had another brand and that each driver was to test drive them and make a report as to how they handled. So, we weren’t far off in our guess. Then he said, “So sorry, must go I have clients waiting.” They all hopped back in and off they went. No telling how many times today they did that test run. It really was quite amusing.
We stopped in Searchlight, NV to top off the tank. The terrain this morning was up and down and we used a lot of fuel. Not knowing where we were going and the roads we would encounter nor where we would be tonight and how far a gas station would be, we decided to be prudent and fill up. This is not a task Roger does often - pulling the whole rig into the gas station. Fortunately, at the south end of town is a large one that accommodates trucks and RVs.
Roger and I are not risk takers but today we defied the odds of probability and got on the road without reservations for the night! We always have to know every night we are on the road where we will be staying - that we have a place to stay. I had left a voice mail on the main Arizona State Parks number last night explaining how I had tried to reserve a site and would someone please call me. Well, 8:00 sharp Zeb called me and let me know that none of my attempts at paying/reserving a site had worked. Whew - no huge bill to fight for a refund. He indicated that the park we were interested in had plenty of open sites and we should have no problem getting in. Of course, Roger was a bit nervous about it all day, but we did get a site. In fact, there are quite a few open. Not only was it cheaper because we didn’t pay a processing fee, we ended up in a water/electric only site sitting at the end of the park with our back to a beautiful cliff and no one on either side of us. We watched the moon rise over the cliffs across the highway! The site we had tried to get would have been in the sun, and as it was getting later in the day, this site was already shaded. Since it was 85 degrees when we pulled in, that worked out perfectly! The park is beautiful, well maintained, about 35 very large sites, no lights, restroom/showers, laundry room and with a small beach on the Colorado River. The name is River Island State Park. I would recommend it if you don’t care about wifi or phone service. OK for an overnight for us, but not sure about longer stays.
We are south of Lake Havasu City and north of Parker on AZ95 which runs along the river. I saw (Rog was driving) the London Bridge as we drove through Havasu. The city has become a huge, sprawling, metropolis of Snow Birds. The main drag is very congested and it was slow driving through town as we caught all the lights on red! Reminded us of the place we stayed in Florida only with desert plants!
I just looked outside - can’t see a thing. I’ll wait til the light of day to walk up to the office to post this!
Tomorrow, night we should be “home.”
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