Sunday, October 18
Happy xx birthday to Geri! As we arose and readied for our trip south, Bruce showed Geri an adorable email that had come in from Rene and Helene wishing her a happy birthday with a Panda on it! Whodathunkit? A Panda?. LOL Lyndsey sent a text message of love and happy birthday from her and Mike. How sweet! Much appreciated cards lined the top of our entertainment center at home from friends and family. What a special birthday so far.
9 a.m. - Loaded up and southbound, Arizona here we come! A phone call from our friends, Dave & Linda, started our journey south. Ron called to say happy birthday. He's so good about calling on our special occasions. And the flowers Colleen sent were neatly tucked in a safe place in the trailer. A picture will be displayed later. It's a very unique arrangement! As Geri checked the Loon page from her phone, the Loons have started wishing her a happy birthday, and birthday greetings are being posted on Facebook. A warm feeling fell over Geri as she thought about all the people who love and care about her. Thank you, everyone!
After three days of off and on again torrential downpour, we were eager to get out of Washington state and go find some sunshine. Sheesh, did it rain?! It rained so hard that SeaTac airport was partially closed. The flood prevention system on the roof of the one of the terminals failed and overloaded, and rain came into the terminal blocking some security check stations and things were generally a mess. Thankfully, we dodged squalls and loaded the trailer, and it wasn't raining when we did our final loading this morning. Thank you!
The Fall colors around Olympia were absolutely stunning this morning! OMG! Even though we were on I-5 rather than in the mountains someplace, we were in awe of the fabulous display going on beside the freeway. Gotta make a note of that and make it part of a loop next year or sometime. Talk about all shades of the Fall! Wow!
We had a few rain showers this first day, but certainly nothing like we'd had the previous several days. Our destination for the night was Seven Feathers Casino and RV Resort in Canyonville, Oregon. Whatta place! It's wonderful! The RV park is way back off the freeway. Not a sound to be heard at night. Awesome! Their shuttle ran us over to the casino for dinner, and we were impressed with how friendly everyone was. Geri topped off her dinner with a slice of Turtle cheesecake to celebrate! Totally impressed and will stay there again and again and again. :-)
When we returned to our rig, Geri lit the candle on her floral cupcake from Colleen, Bruce sang happy birthday, and Geri made a wish and blew the candle out. An excellent end to a wonderful day.
The remainder of the evening, Geri spent answering emails, Facebook and Loon postings, and text messages wishing her a happy birthday. It was so humbling to receive so many happy wishes from friends and family. My gosh! Cards before we left, phone calls on the road and now this. Thank you to everyone for making my birthday so unforgettable.
Monday, October 19
We won't bore you with our day-to-day travels. Unless something really exciting happens, there will be missing days in this report. Trying to spare you too much boredom.
One amazing thing we noticed today was how little water there was in Shasta lake. The water level was so low that the lake looked more like a creek in front of Antler's resort on the Sacramento arm. Yikes! We've never seen it that low. Boy, do they need snow this winter. Although we had rain off and on all day, snow pack in the mountains is seriously needed this year.
Tuesday, October 20
Really exciting news: The sun was shining when we woke this morning! Yea! This is what we're looking for. Bruce cleaned up the truck and trailer. Ahhh, now we're talkin'! Onward!
Thursday, October 22
Beautiful drive yesterday into the Carson City, Nevada area. Somehow the Fall colors make the freeways so much more bearable. The reason we came this direction was to see friends we hadn't seen for years. Last time we saw JT and Malinda was when they lived in Torrance, California. Now they're in Gardnerville, Nevada. Talk about a change of scenery! And elevation! From sea level to 4,750'! JT and Malinda invited us over for dinner, and as a bonus, we met JT's mom, Peggy, and his sister, Susan, who were visiting for the weekend. Melt-in-your-mouth tri-tip, homemade mac and cheese, and other fixin's. Delicious! Wonderful evening of catching up on each other, getting to know John's relatives, and sharing whatever anyone knew about what's going on with the Yellowstone wolves. Yellowstone Loons, of course, came up but only favorable things were shared. ;-) Gardnerville is a pretty area, and they have a lovely home. We wish them many, many years of happiness in their new digs!
Friday, October 23
At the suggestion of one of the Loons, we drove a loop this afternoon from Minden over Hwy 88 through the Hope valley, took a right turn at Hwy 89 and went into South Tahoe. Boy has that area changed since we were there last! We hit rush-hour traffic at 4 p.m., and there were plenty of cars on the road for a small town. Lake Tahoe is absolutely stunning, so we continued on 89 to Hwy 50 and back around to the south end of Carson City. Talk about outstanding country!
The Sierra Nevadas were snow-capped with a light dusting of snow on the high mountain peaks, and there were hoo-doos and interesting rock formations intermingled with the deep green Ponderosa pines and golden colors of changing Fall leaves. These pictures were taken at about the intersection of Hwys 88 and 89.
Continuing on up the road, we came upon this batch of colorful trees.
There were lots of other leaf peepers out, too. As we were stopped in a line of vehicles at a road construction site, the woman in front of us jumped out of her car and took a picture of a little pond beside the road. Guess leaf peepers are everywhere! :-)
Approaching South Tahoe, we saw these rocks. Imagine how long they've been there and the stories they could tell of being scraped and cleaned by glaciers and weather.
And then there's Lake Tahoe itself. The air was a bit hazy as we drove around the east side of the lake looking for a place to take a picture. The hills across the lake barely showed up in pictures, so we chose this one of Zephyr point. We've always thought Tahoe was beautiful, and we still do.
Great way to spend the afternoon!
Sunday, October 25
So after an eight-hour drive yesterday from Minden to Pahrump, outside Las Vegas, we were sitting in our trailer today having a nice relaxing afternoon. Screen door and windows were open to let the breeze and fresh air in on a beautiful day. Bruce had gone to a golf course earlier in the day and hit a bucket of balls, and Geri did a little bit of housework while he was gone and chilled for the rest of the time. Rough day! Anyway, we're sitting in the coach when there's a knock on the side of the trailer. Geri went to the door, and this male voice said, "Is Bruce here?" Say what?! Who could be here he knows? Bruce went to the door and saw Reggie from Palm Creek! They play golf together in Arizona. Oh for heaven's sake! Reggie had seen our truck when we went grocery shopping earlier in the day, and decided to find us. Reggie went and invited his wife, Arlene, over and we had a great visit. Whatta surprise! They're around the corner from us, and plans have already been made for happy hour at their place tomorrow evening. It's a small world, indeed.
Tuesday, October 27
Noon - Good thing Bruce went golfing yesterday. The winds are literally howling right now at sustained 50 mph or so and gusting higher. We put the satellite antenna to bed rather than risk a giant hole in our roof! Sand kicked up by the wind is thick enough to blocked views of the mountains around us. Sure glad we're not on the road trying to get here or away from here!
Bruce played a little executive course yesterday called Lakeside, and Geri rode along in the golf cart. The layout is great, but they haven't been able to water much all summer so it's not in very good shape. Come to find out, there's a war going on over water rights. Willow Creek, another course that has been closed and not used all season, gets the largest percentage of the water. They're watering a dead course rather than give much needed water to Lakeside. Go figure! Evidently, Lakeside is beginning to get more of the water, and they're watering the greens but there's still much to do. Nothing on that course is in any kind of shape to call it good. Small town politics are alive and well. Hell, small town? There's that kind of crap no matter where you go. What shouldn't be so hard to decide gets hung up in rhetoric and red tap. Still, it was a beautiful sunny day. We could hear birds singing (love listening to the grackles) and enjoyed the ducks in the "lake" quacking at each other. Some American coots made their funny little noises while swimming around, and a hummingbird protected his territory by ferociously darting around the cars in the parking lot. They're funny little birds We had no place to go in particular other than golf that day. Things could be a lot worse!
We had planned to go to Sheri's (no, not Shari's restaurant), but 50+ mph winds that were gusting to 65+ mph kept us inside. Sand filled the air and didn't look like something we wanted to go play in. Never have we actually seen sand blowing sideways past the trailer! Amazing! Sure glad the trailer is facing north and south so the wind is catching us in the back. Yikes! They weren't lying when the high wind advisory was posted. We'll have to catch Sheri's next time. We've heard the tour is fun, and the lunch and gift shop are great! But, alas, 'twas not to be today. The satellite dish even had to be put away because of the high winds.
Thursday, October 29
Our drive yesterday from Pahrump to Laughlin was uneventful. Windy, yes, but uneventful still the same. Our destination for the next few days was Laughlin/Avi Casino Resort & RV Park. Avi is pronounced ahh'-vee, like Mojave without the Moj. Very nice, albeit in a sand pit. No grass, just sand. Good food, reasonably priced at their casino and a quiet park for RVers. Located on a golf course and the Colorado river with a boat launch and swimming beach. Bet it's crazy here during the summer months.
Bruce checked out the golf course and decided it's a little rich for our budget. Weekend rates, including Friday when he wanted to golf, are $89/round. Even to hit balls on the range, it's $7.50/half-hour and $10/hour. That's a first. Never had pricing like that before. Usually one buys a bucket of balls and stays as long as they choose. Here you're allowed only a certain length of time. Hmmm, strange. Another interesting note is there are two beautiful, fairly new courses nearby, whose rates are the same as Mojave Resort golf course here at Avi, and there's not a soul on either course. Now we ask ya. If you ran a golf course, wouldn't you want people playing it? There hasn't been one person on either course for two days that we know of. Ummm, lower the price and get people out there? Ya think?!
Anyway, this morning we headed for Oatman, Arizona to see the wild burros. Ha ha, fun! The story is here.
Sunday, November 1
Absolutely nothing in the world could top Oatman, so we relaxed in the trailer for the past two days trying to recover from all the excitement. :-) Nah, we had laundry and grocery shopping, etc. to do. A drive through the cities of Bullhead and Laughlin proved to us that this is not an area we care to frequent in the future. We're not gamblers, to speak of, though we did drop about $40 in the slots at the casino where we were staying. Of course, the casino kept it all so they could continue on in their fine fashion.
Today, we drove from Avi to La Paz county park north of Parker to spend three nights before landing in Casa Grande on Wednesday. The purpose of our visit to La Paz was two-fold. We planned for Bruce to golf at Emerald Canyon. In talking with a friend, Howard (no, not Geri's cousin), Howard indicated he and his wife would like to join Bruce. Cool! This is how it went.
