2019 Road Trip

Well, we thought about making a run for it, but 6 hours of driving today brought us safely into Winnemucca, NV.  Redmond was still almost another 6 hours away!   A very nice dinner and a clear southern view which allowed DIRECTV to bring us the Seahawks game has made for a (hopefully) last night on the road. Driving North through the central NV is certainly a unique experience.  The nearly 100 mile stretches with no services, actually almost without any civilization at all, is truely unique. We've had a wonderful time on this trip, and even though we are giving up the warmth of Arizona, we are looking forward to being back home.  See you all tomorrow...

We arrived on Friday at Vonn and Jeff’s in Las Vegas and have spent Friday and Saturday nights here.  We have felt like a very comfortable fixture in their home.  We have our own bedroom and bathroom(shower).  It has been like a vacation from our vacation. It’s always more fun to eat food with friends and it tastes better too.  We have watched movies, played cribbage and talked and talked and talked.  Another friend, Carol, that I used to work with at the phone company cane over for an afternoon and we talked some more.  It has been so good to see all of them! This morning, Sunday, we attended church with Vonn & Jeff, had lunch and got on the road. We stopped in Pahrump to see Front Sight, the gun range Bob went to earlier in  October, very nice!!!   We decided to keep driving and will spend the night in Beatty, NV. This has been the latest we have driven since leaving home, we are on a mission now!  Only 700ish miles and 11 ho...

We left Parker and traveled north along the Colorado River, through hills and then mountains.  What a contrast to yesterday where we hardly went over a hill.  That land was flat, field after field, cattle lot after cattle lot.  You could see forever or until the next mountain range in the distance. Today it is through the the mountains that are rough and jagged volcanic features, and no real green with sagebrush being the main form of vegetation.  Not even cactus. Along the river banks there is a lot of green, with grass, palm trees, cat tails or something similar.  It looks like an oasis! We went by Lake Havasu and the resort city, stopping to see the London Bridge.  We were here about 35 years ago.  Seems there are a lot more buildings/businesses, cars, people, you know the usual.  Houses are nice, some really nice, yards are landscaped usually with rock and trees but occasionally grass, I think... at least it’s gree...

Today we started working our way back North.  We need to be in Las Vegas on Friday, so we've got to complete two days of moderate travel.  We traveled towards Yuma and were able to get off I-8 and on to the old US 80, which led us through the rich agricultural land and on to US 95.  We traveled North through Quartzsite and with the growing heat of early afternoon we decided to stop for the day in Parker, AZ. Being on the banks of the Colorado River is a refreshing change from the cactus and dust of the Sonoran Desert during the past week!

Today’s outing was the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We went to the Visitor's Center and watched the film, looked at the exhibits and Bob even found packets of cactus and desert wild flower seeds.  There was also a short nature trail around the center. We continued South to the border crossing, and then Bob wanted to take Wilbur and I on the Aho Mountain Drive (a 21 mile loop) to get a more up close and personal feel for the Sonoran Desert.  I was not in favor of this idea!  The temperature was "hot", the road was rough gravel and the sign said the maximum allowed vehicle length was 25 feet. Well that’s not a problem because Wilbur is only 24 1/2 feet, not including bikes!  The sign also cautioned us about not talking to or otherwise confronting strangers because we were within walking distance of the border.   It was also pointed out to me (Vana) that another option was going to the tribal casino we passed on the way into Why...

We were back on the road this morning.  We headed west towards Ajo, through the edge of Tucson and across the Togono O’odham reservation and we ended up in Why.  Don’t ask why because I don’t know why.  Bob says, why not.  The town of Why is on the edge of the reservation, and at the North end of the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. We finally found the heat!  It was 88 by the time we set up for the night, and we actually had to turn the air conditioning on.  It’s interesting to constantly have the border patrol present.  We've been stopped at check points, seen helicopters and drones flying, passed numerous patrol cars and trucks, and tonight we're camping a quarter mile from a border station facility.  It’s something we don’t live with in Oregon. Tomorrow we'll visit the National Monument, but this evening the view is from the Coyote Howls Campground in Why, AZ.