On the road again – even though the original plans changed. Tobey was planning a bike ride from Scottsdale to Death Valley with his friend, Phil, but we extended our stay to help Tobey’s mom during her recovery from a fall. Phil and Marcia came to Arizona anyway, and the guys were able to get several rides in while I stayed close to his mom. In the afternoons, Marcia and I hiked to Hole in the Rock, sightseeing, and to the Heard Museum.It was great to see them and we enjoyed spending time with them.
Tobey’s sister arrived late last week and will stay with his mom so we knew we could leave with her in good hands.
On Monday, we took off for Los Algodones, Mexico where I had a dental appointment. The line to walk back across the border was several bocks long and it took over TWO hours so we ended up spending the night on the US side of the border in the parking lot!
On Tuesday, we were on to Quartzsite. We hoped to look at some RVs here, but the “season” is about over and all of the RV dealers here have moved back to the Phoenix area. We are camping at the Hi Jolly BLM land area north of Quartzsite. The weather is hot – in the 80s! We took a long walk before dinner and were treated to a beautiful evening sky. We enjoyed the cool evening and sleeping with the vents open.
Wednesday morning we put our awning out to keep the sun off the rig and took a walk but it was so windy that we had to retract the awning when we got back! It was flapping and we were afraid it would snap. Reading and relaxing are the order of the day. We played several games of Gin Rummy and Tobey was the victor – 5 games to 1. Lucky guy.
Thursday morning we started our trek to Las Vegas but stopped to see El Garces Hotel in Needles, California. After the original station was destroyed by fire in 1906, the Atlantic Pacific Railroad built El Garces – a large neoclassical structure containing a Harvey House hotel, restaurant, and train station in 1908. It was the "crown jewel" of the Harvey House network, and among the first train stations made of concrete. The hotel and restaurant closed in 1949 as passenger traffic declined. Today, the building houses offices and is the AMTRAK station. It wasn’t open so we didn’t get to go inside.
Just across the street from the station was a Route 66 Museum so we checked it out. They had wonderful displays with railroad memorabilia, and a statue of Spike, Snoopy’s brother! Apparently, Charles Schutz lived in Needles when he was a child and they had a section dedicated to him, as well. The volunteer docent was very informative and we enjoyed our visit there. We arrived in Las Vegas mid-afternoon and found our way to the Circus Circus RV Park and got settled. It isn’t much to look at, but each site does have electric, water, and a dump station, so that is great. AND, you don’t come to Vegas to sit in your RV!
We had dinner at Greenberg’s Deli in New York New York – Reuben sandwiches for St. Patrick’s Day! We split one and were both stuffed, it was good.
We rode the bus to Fremont Street and it was packed with lots of “Irish” folks enjoying the festivities and music. We enjoyed listening to two of the bands – one of them even played rock music with bagpipes!
It was after midnight by the time we got the bus back to the RV so we slept in this morning. We are planning to check out some of the casinos today and maybe try our luck. We will keep you posted!
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