11/27/14 Thanksgiving on the Road

It was a quiet night at Hot Well Dunes. While there were a bunch of ATVers, by and large they were pretty respectful, not roaring through the campsites and really not doing much after 9pm. Someone started blasting a stereo at 9:15am, but I think a few other folks told them to turn it down as it went away quickly. I made a big breakfast of eggs, potatoes, mushrooms, and fried Alaskan lox.  I'm not thrilled by the texture of raw lox though I do like it on a bagel with cream cheese & onion, but I find dropping it in the frying pan for just a few seconds on each side makes it a great side dish, almost like ham with my omelet. I hit the hot tub one last time, got changed and hit the road around noon. I neglected to ask about the state of the road south from the dunes when I talked to BLM. It turned out to be paved most of the way. But the last 7 or 8 miles were utter torture, all washboard with some sections that were just awful. I hate that. I wonder if the road to Tanque is as miserable.

Anyway, I got on I-10 and headed east. I got to Deming around 4pm and looked up the LOWs (Loners on Wheels) RV Park. I had planned to spend Thanksgiving alone.  It was my dad's big holiday, so it's the day I grieve for him the most, but the 4 hours on the road had worn me out and I did feel like maybe I wanted to be around people. Especially people I didn't know, where I could walk away at any point and be sad if that's what I wanted to do.

Of course the park office was closed, but one of the staff talked me through the self check-in. I chose an electric site which would be $15 with the Passport America discount. They were pretty close to full. If they had been full there's about a dozen other parks in Deming but I would have just boondocked somewhere. I was a little intrigued by the idea of a Loners RV park so that's why I chose it. :-)

As I was walking back from the bathrooms, my next door neighbor flagged me down to tell me about the card games and bonfire tonight, and that Monday was potluck and Tues was a trip to Mexico, etc. Apparently there's a lot of scheduled stuff here. The trip to Mex sounded good tho I don't plan on spending a week here. I may drive down tomorrow though.

I made my Thanksgiving dinner of posole with mashed potatoes and a pumpkin pie parfait. Oh, and eggnog with black rum. Good stuff. Of course when I was done all I wanted to do was curl up with a book but I dragged myself out to the fire. It was nice. About 10 people hanging out & chatting. Now I've got my little fake fireplace going and am thinking about some more eggnog. Life is good.


For my friend Cathy Butterfield :-)
11/27/2014 3:43:38 PM


Parked at LOW-HI ranch in Deming
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11/13/14 Page and Glen Canyon Dam

I spent a reasonably quiet night at the Page WM. I grabbed a Subway egg sandwich and headed to one of my favorite spots, the scenic view behind Denny's. It's one of the few places you can get a good view of the dam, and there's nice views down the canyon as well. I parked and walked down and couldn't believe my eyes. Water was shooting out of the base of the dam at a high rate. I'd never seen that before! I quickly googled it and found that it was a water release designed to mimic a flood in the canyon and would end that afternoon. I grabbed a few shots, gobbled down my sandwich, and headed to the dam.

I walked across the bridge & checked out the visitors center. I noticed they had dam tours and thought that might be a fun thing to do on a less crowded day. Then I noticed the exhibits down on top of the dam and realized, "Hey dummy, take the tour TODAY so you can get shots of the water closer up!!" So that's what I did. The guy who did the tour was a font of knowledge, said he'd been there 45 years. It was a cool tour, and best of all, he got permission to let us out on the platform as close to water level as we could get. It was incredible to hear the roar of the water & stare 600 feet up the face of the dam. Just amazing. After the tour I headed to Horseshoe Bend for the sunset. I considered staying in that lot overnight as there's no signs against it, but in the end I went back to the WM.

 
Glen Canyon dam during water release.
11/13/2014 11:18:21 AM


Glen canyon Dam after the sun came out
11/13/2014 11:21:49 AM


The Colorado River raging with water released from the dam
11/13/2014 11:57:22 AM


Water release at the Glen Canyon Dam
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Dam & bridge, shot with fisheye lens
11/13/2014 1:10:33 PM


Concrete bucket used in building the dam.
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One of the turbine wheels.
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Walking along the top of the dam
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Moss growing on the walls of the canyon where water seeps through
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Looking up at the visitors center above
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Generators
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Water release from Glen Canyon Dam. Olympus OMD
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Glen Canyon Dam water release. Olympus OMD with fisheye lens
11/13/2014 2:36:05 PM


The bathtub ring
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Horseshoe bend, Nikon D810
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Horseshoe Bend at sunset, shot with Olympus OMD M1
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11/13/2014 6:31:53 PM

Quartzsite to Vegas. Long Day. Sat 1/18/14

It took some time but I finally got my butt in gear and left Quartzsite.  I had read there was a geoglyph between Bouse & Quartzsite on the scenic route so I headed that way.  My plan was to get to Lake Havasu by the afternoon so I could catch the balloon glow and the last day.  I figured I had time for a detour.  The scenery near the Fisherman was amazing.


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1/18/2014 12:41:56 PM

Mountains near Bouse, Az

1/18/2014 12:44:15 PM

The glyph is interesting.


1/18/2014 12:45:15 PM


1/18/2014 12:52:45 PM

The Bouse Fisherman Geoglyph. It's updside down in this shot, with the lighting it was nearly invisible from the other end.

1/18/2014 12:54:18 PM

More boondocking near Bouse

1/18/2014 1:26:38 PM

South of Lake Havasu I drove across a bridge with stunning views over the Bill Williams Wildlife Refuge.  I stopped to get some photos.  The whole 'amber waves of grain' thing seems so surreal in this desert landscape.


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1/18/2014 2:29:02 PM

Bill Williams River National Wildlife Refuge


1/18/2014 2:29:39 PM

Well......after that I rolled into Lake Havasu.  And ground to a halt.  The traffic was horrendous.  I sat and sat, drove over London Bridge and sat some more.  Someone squeezing by hit my mirror and folded it back.  The check engine light was on & the temp was rising, as was mine.  I had had enough and made a u-turn and got the hell out of there.  I knew there was supposed to boondocking near the airport just north of town.  I never saw the road.  However, a few miles further north I saw some rigs parked off to the side & turned off to check it out.  It was another 14 day BLM area.  There were some cool rock formations and it was probably going to be a decent place to watch the sunset.  I found a reasonably level spot between a few rigs and parked.  As I was sitting there looking at the GPS I heard the sound of levelers going down.  And down.  And down.  I looked up to see an older Class A parked right at the edge of the mesa teetering precariously on almost fully extended jacks.   As the driver tried to eke out the last bit of height the rig fell off the jacks.  For a minute I thought they were gonna roll down the hill.  I got the video camera out in case they tried it again.  :-)  Luckily they were able to retract the folded jacks and apparently decided level was overrated.  :-)


Watched these guys nearly roll down the hill when they fell off their jacks. They're not the reason I left though. :-)

1/18/2014 4:53:47 PM

So I had lunch and relaxed for a while.  But an unease was growing on me.  I had no cell service, and this one guy kept walking back and forth by me, and I just wasn't digging the vibe.  I resisted it for a while as I didn't have anew plan or destination and driving in the dark isn't optimal.  Research was impossible with no service.  I finally decided to leave.  It's not like I haven't driven RVs in the dark before, they don't turn into pumpkins at sundown.  I figured I'd see where I ended up.

I drove north and had a choice to make at I-40.  West through Needles CA & up into NV, or east towards Kingman.  I got gas and took the west option which was a mistake.  Not only did I have hundreds of miles of nothing to drive through, but the sun was in my eyes while it was up.

I saw a sign for camping at the Needles CA exit so thought I'd give that a try.  Well I never saw the camping and the town was not appealing.  I got back on the highway and resigned myself that I might be driving all the way to Vegas.

Needles, CA

1/18/2014 6:29:41 PM

Bates Motel, Needles Ca.

1/18/2014 6:29:51 PM


1/18/2014 6:30:22 PM

I'm sure there were places to stop along the way, but in the dark it's hard to tell what might be ok and what isn't.  I almost stopped at a little town called Searchlight, NV but at that point I figured it was worth pushing on to Vegas.  As I approached Henderson I saw a small casino called Rail Pass and pulled in.  Signs directed RVs and trucks to an upper lot, which said no camping, but another sign 3 nights allowed per stay.  And another said No barbecues or campfires.  I checked some online resources which said it wasn't allowed by city ordinance but the hotel was very accepting of RVers.  I figured I'd give it a try and just be very stealthy when I was in the rig.  All I wanted was dinner and a beer and I figured I'd be out like a light.  As I locked up the rig and headed in to the casino I was passed by a Boulder City police car.  I was glad he saw me heading in.  :-)

The buffet was nothing to write home about but the beer was cold.


1/18/2014 7:37:19 PM

As expected, I fell asleep pretty quickly.  A few times during the night I heard the slow crunch of tires as someone drove close to the rig but I resisted the urge to twitch the curtains.  And if anyone knocked I was playing dead.  :-)  No one did though.