January 30 2011 Sunday

Excuse my typing..........I have no comma on this keyboard anymore.

The last time I posted was about January 15th and here it is the 30th.  I said I wasn't going to wait so long but then our travels really haven't been all that interesting anyway.

Don't remember what was posted last or where we were or what we did but to refresh your memory.......I played lots of cards in Bullhead City AZ at the Parkview RV Park and taught a few Zumba classes.  We ate at a few too many buffets and got buffeted out!  You saw our day in Oatman with the little donkeys and our day at Hoover Dam.

January 19th we left Bullhead City (a total of 1604 miles from home) and drove 50 miles to Parker and back to Emerald Cove RV park.  We only spent about 6 nights there.  That's where we were at Christmas and New Years and where we were when we visited Hoover Dam.  Our next stop was in Quartzsite AZ dry camping in the desert.

Colorado River Emerald Cove RV Park.

closeup of a wall in the Oatman Hotel restaurant

Oatman Hotel restaurant where we had lunch

We pulled into our favorite BLM desert camping  area called Plamosa about 2pm and found the perfect spot!  We met  our neighbors....Richard and Karen from WI......We went to the Grubsteak where Phyllis and Stan told us to go when we were visiting with them in Parker AZ......we met them 3 years ago at an RV show in Tacoma and finally met up with them on the road this year.  The second night we went back to the Grubsteak with Richard and Karen.  That night we had a campfire under a beautiful star filled sky.  The next night we had another campfire with Richard and Karen and their neighbor Chuck and Terry from CA.  The weather was great the whole time we were there.  70s for sure every day and sunny warm.  Think yesterday was supposed to be 80.  (1642 miles driven so far)  We went to the Big Tent RV show looking for rugs but didn't find anything we liked.

Quartzsite BLM land...pick up truck is our friends Richard and Karen

Across the road in the BLM land area

January 29th

 We decided to leave Q and head to Tucson to pick up some lounge chairs we bought  from a man selling them on an Alfa yahoo group.  Couldn't go wrong paying just $50 each.  The plan was to head to Tucson...pick up the chairs....spend the night and the next day head to Yuma.   mileage when we left....23396 at 7:20 am.  It was a long trip so we left early.  While on the road...Richard called to tell us he found a set of our keys!!!  Ok...change of plans.  We got the chairs...which are wonderful BTW....and headed back to Q instead of spending the night in Tucson and went back to Quartzsite for our keys.  Only about 100 miles out of our way......2148 driven so far.

Tonight we're in the RV Peddler lot....not completely dry caming as we have water and sewer this time.  Early in the morning they are going to check our jacks for us and see what's wrong with the dash panel......there's nothing wrong with the jacks.  

February 1st we're scheduled to be in Yuma at Pilot Knob RV park and just a few miles from Algadones Mexico.

Will write more then.

Feb 12th the plan is to be in El Centro CA at the Rio Bend RV and Golf Resort in El Centro CA.  I am going to teach Zumba there through the end of March.

January 7, 2011

Hoover Dam Nevada and Arizona border

Construction of Hoover Dam began in 1931 and the last concrete poured was in 1935.  Hoover Dam is multi purposed.  It was used and is used for flood control, storage and delivery of waters for reclamation of public lands and other beneficial uses.  The water storage and river control provides downstream projects to enable residents of the Southwest to irrigate million acres of some of America's richest crop lands and nearly half a million acres in Mexico.  These lands grow a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, cotton and hay throughout the year, generating millions of dollars for local economies.

It supples the water needs for more than 20 million people in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Tucson and other southwester cities, towns and Indian communities in Arizona, Nevada and California.

Not to mention the low cost hydroelectric power for use in those three states.  Hoover Dam alone generates more than 4 billion kilowatt hours a year which is enough to serve 1.3 million people.

This project was originally estimated to cost $165 million and was repaid with interest to the Federal Treasury through the sale of Hoover Dam power.  

What we learned was that they worked 24 hours a day 363 days a year.  They got 2 vacation days a year and it took only the 4 years to build.  It measures 726.4' high, 45 feet across at the bottom and 1244 feet across at the top.  It took 3.25 million cubic yards of concrete.  The first shift of the day poured a layer, the second shift moved the slips up and so on and so on.  The wall was built in massive blocks.

Lake Meade side of the dam

Turbines

You can see the size of the turbines....see the man walking down below?

Turbine building  one on each side.  The one you see is on the AZ side and the one in the bottom of the picture, you see just the roof, is on the Nevada size of the river.

Colorado River

Bridge dedicated to Pat Tillman, killed in action and O'Callahan, a politician

We walked across this bridge........actually about halfway across.  Quite scary!  It's also a highway so traffice no longer has to drive over the dam.

January 13, 2011

Then we spent a day at the Golden Nugget Casino.  There was a chili cook-off in the parking lot.

We went to Joe's Crack Shack's seafood buffet that day and eat ourselves silly!  We ate all the crab, shrimp, mussels, clams that we wanted.  We waddled out of there and played the slots till about 5:30pm that evening still feeling stuffed with too much food!  We lost, just in case you're interested, but we never bet more than $20 or so.

Looking towards the clubhouse (red brick on the building) from our front window.

Looking to the right out our front window 

Friends from Billings visited us....their rig across the street from us.

Diane and Dick Emmons, Billings, MT
We've been friends for 40 years!!  It was awesome to spend 3 days with them.

 January 15, 2011  Saturday

Our GPS took us on this road to Oatman, AZ today.  Can you say "cheap GPS"?  don't buy cheap!  11 miles of this crap!

Chuck feeding the donkeys

they just keep begging and will come up to you and grab the bag of carrots if you're not careful

Baby about 3 weeks old

Oatman, AZ where dockeys rule!!  This is Route 66 that you see here.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring!  Stay tuned for more updates in a couple days! 

We are having a wonderful time this year.  The weather has been a little colder than normal but we're expecting 70 degree days this coming week.  

Don't know if I mentioned, but I teach Zumba in the clubhouse on Tuesday and Thursday mornings and attended a class last week, Zumba toning, on Thursday.  I will be going to a class on Tuesday, a regular Zumba.

I've been playing pokeno and 65 in the clubhouse in the afternoons and evenings but for a few days I had a cold and didn't do much.  That was before our Hoover Dam outing.

December 26, 2010

Colorado River

I tried to update the blog about a week ago but it wasn't working properly so I got really behind.

We spent a day on the Colorado River in our little portabote.  That was fun and as you can see the water was calm, it wasn't sunny but it wasn't cold either.

Emerald Cove RV Park 

Emerald Cove is where we were staying.  And this picture is of one of the river channels.

We found the VFW in Parker and spent some time there the Tuesday before New Years.  Then we went back New Years Eve to hear the karaoke and music but it was all over by 8pm so we went back to our park and listened to the karaoke there till about 10pm.  Just couldn't make it till midnight!  On Sunday they had what they call a meat draw where you buy chances to win meat.  Every half hour you buy tickets for the next draw and they did it about 6 times.  We won a free lunch, two free drinks, a free breakfast, 2 whole chickens, a bottle of sparkling champagne and ham hocks and beans for soup!  It was an awful lot of fun.

While at this park, we went to the show Christmas day to see True Grit and went one other time to see The Little Fockers.  We spent that one day on the river, lots of relaxing time watching TV, reading and I did some beading.

We left the park on January 5th and headed to Bullhead City, AZ which is where we are today, the 11th of January.

New Years Eve at the VFW in Parker, AZ

January 11, 2010 Tuesday

It's been pretty windy in Bullhead City but it always is. We did have two beautiful days with no wind and lots of sun. Warm weather, in the 70s, is supposed to be coming.

I teach a Zumba class on Tuesdays and Thursday mornings but have been down with a cold so didn't make it today, the 11th. I should be able to get back to teaching on Thursday.

Some good friends from Billings arrived on Monday. They are just starting out learning how to travel this way in their 28' 5th wheel. We went out to dinner at the China Buffet and got caught up on all the Billings gossip. Today they went off to WalMart and check out a car museum while we went to the post office to get our mail. It's been so awesome to see Diane. We've been friends for 40 years!

It's sad but tomorrow our friends leave for Quartzsite, AZ. We'll be heading down there in a few days and are supposed to meet up with them again for the Big Tent show, which is an RV show.

Jack Ass Flats golf course at the RV park

Emerald Cove RV Park, Earp, CA

Emerald Cove RV Park Earp, CA

More next time.................Tomorrow we're going to check out Hoover Dam and Friday we want to drive up to Las Vegas for the day.