We are currently in the Canyon Gateway RV park in Williams, Arizona and the wind is blowing something awful! We had planned to drive to the Grand Canyon today, but after seeing the weather warnings for today, we decided it would be much better to just stay in out of the wind. We are getting just what they predicted….25 to 30 mph sustained winds with 40 to 50 mph gusts, so the RV is definitely swaying in the wind.
What’s hard to believe are all the motorhomes and fifth wheels that have pulled out of here today to travel in these horrible conditions. Not us! Nope, we’ll just wait it out, thank you.
I’m a little disappointed that we won’t see the Grand Canyon this trip, but it’s not going anywhere and we’ll be back in the vicinity again, for sure. DeWayne made a trip to the grocery store this morning and I made up some almond shortbread cookie dough that is chilling in the fridge for cooking later. I’m wishing now that I had the fixins’ for some cornbread. I have a craving for homemade soup today, but oh well. I’m fine with crackers in my soup, but DeWayne loves cornbread, so I’ll save the soup for another time and cook some pork chops this evening.
We left Vegas yesterday morning for a leisurely 200 mile drive. I was excited that we would be crossing the newly opened Hoover Dam bypass bridge and had the camera ready. The bridge had only been opened 10 days ago and the purpose of the bridge was to save time for travellers as well as better protect the dam, since it is a high risk terrorist target. You can still go to the dam, but it is no longer part of the main road.
I had seen a picture of the new bridge on the internet that I will post here:
Now, isn’t that gorgeous? And I couldn’t wait to get pictures of this beautiful scenery and the dam from the bridge. Well……it wasn’t to be. When we got to the bridge, the concrete barriers on each side were so high that all we could see was this:
And I didn’t realize the Arizona state line was in the middle of the river, so I’m glad I had the camera up and going when we passed the sign.
I’m getting a little ahead of myself, so I’ll back up a little. I got these pictures of Lake Mead soon after we left Las Vegas, heading east on I-40.
After crossing the bridge, we saw lots of pretty scenery as ascended and descended the mountains.
Notice the river in this next picture?
The sky was a beautiful blue and the clouds sometimes looked like spun sugar.
The scenery changed again and we started seeing a lot of cedar trees, then later, pine trees.
I had to get a shot of DeWayne as he “multi-tasked” going down the highway.
We finally made it to Williams and the Canyon Gateway RV park around 5:30 yesterday evening and got set up.
We went to Denny’s where they serve breakfast all day. DeWayne loves their waffles and I wanted some bacon and eggs. Yummmm! It really hit the spot, so we came back home as full as a couple of ticks, settled in to watch TV for a while and both went to bed fairly early.
Now, like I said, we’re riding out the high winds and staying indoors today. We will be leaving in the morning and moving on to Grants, New Mexico for a couple of days. Oklahoma is getting closer all the time and I’m anxious to see all the folks back home.
That’s all for now, folks! If we don’t blow away, I’ll post again in a couple of days, but in the meantime…..
HAPPY TRAILS!!!
We only had about a hundred miles to cover yesterday, so we arrived in Las Vegas in time for lunch. Although this is the fifth time we’ve been to Vegas since we married, it’s the first time we have driven in, instead of flying in.
I need to make this short so I can get some breakfast, a shower, and get ready to move on, so I’ll post the only five pictures that I took yesterday as we made it to Vegas and into the RV park.
We ate at Sam’s Town buffet and did some gambling, but didn’t do any winning, unfortunately. The RV park is really nice and has 500 slots for RV’s. The weather is warm and beautiful here and we hope it stays that way as we work our way eastward.
Anyway, that’s about all the news and I need to get busy, so THAT’S ALL FOLKS! (for now)
I may get some more pictures before we leave town, so stay tuned. In the meantime……
HAPPY TRAILS!!!!!
We pulled out of Fallon NAS yesterday morning around 8:00, earlier than we had planned, but the day before, DeWayne noticed a nail in one of the RV tires, so we got an early start to get it fixed before we hit the highway.
It didn’t take long to get the tire fixed and we were on our way by 9:30 with just a little over 300 miles to cover for the day.
The scenery was much the same as we have seen for the last month, so I didn’t take many pictures along the way. I was able to get this picture with my telescopic lens since we were temporarily sitting still at road construction. The water was quite a distance away, so I’m glad I was able to get the picture. Sometimes road construction can be a good thing. 
I got a couple more pictures along the way.
There wasn’t much to see except hills and mountains in the distance and sagebrush in the valleys. Then we came to Beatty, Nevada. I thought the town had definite character and we stopped at the “Death Valley Nut and Candy Company” to fill up with diesel and stretch our legs.
We only had about 30 miles to go past Beatty, and once back on the road, we were surprised by the sight of a huge sand dune out there by itself in the middle of nowhere! Sure enough, we passed signs that pointed to “Big Dune” down a little one horse road that we didn’t care to drag the rv down.
The oddities of nature never cease to amaze me. I was also surprised to learn there are wild burros in this area and we saw a few in the distance as we travelled. I had heard of wild horses, but never wild burros.
Our destination for the day was the Longstreet Hotel, Casino and RV Resort, which also turned out to be OUT IN THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE! It’s 17 miles off the main highway and is surprisingly large for the area.
To the right of the main building are pens that house a goat, a couple of burros and a huge cow.
I took a bag of carrots with me to visit the animals, so I was a big hit with the burros and the goat.
I walked all around the resort today to get pictures and give you an idea of the great scenery from the RV park. Behind the hotel/casino is a big pond with lots of ducks (that are apparently spoiled as well) and it’s really pretty.
I’ll just put in the pictures I took today as I browsed around the area.
That’s our RV in the middle of the picture. How’s that for a view? I love it! The only problem around here are the flies! They are so thick outside that every time the door is opened, we have to go on fly swat patrol for an hour to get them all eliminated inside the RV. I don’t remember seeing them when we arrived yesterday, so maybe they will thin out later in the day.
We will be leaving here tomorrow, heading for Las Vegas for tomorrow night, then on down the road the day after. We are slowly but surely working out way to Oklahoma, so stay tuned for more of our journey! And in the meantime……
HAPPY TRAILS!!!
