Las Vegas to Elko, NV (a major transition)

I arrived in Henderson, NV feeling tired and decided the traffic was kinda freaking me out after being in the desert for six months… so I found the nearest large casino/hotel and just mellowed out a few days. Rested, I decided it was time to go find my brother, since he had not responded to any Facebook messages or emails.  Last I knew, he worked at the Tropicana… so I went there.  Ugh… traffic.

Sat., March 31, 2012: They sent me to the Rio and the Rio sent me across the street to the Palms Casino Resort. Finally found him, had dinner, and he walked me out to the street where we discovered the strip had just gone dark for the Earth Hour… that was neat.

April 1, 2012 Las Vegas Sun: For one hour on Saturday, darkness will replace the bright pink neon glowing on the Flamingo and bulbs twinkling on Fremont Street casinos as part of a global environmental awareness event.

World Wildlife Fund's Earth Hour returns to Las Vegas for the fourth consecutive year, and dozens of Strip and downtown properties are participating by turning off their non-essential exterior lights from 8:30 to 9:30 p.m.

I spent the night in the Rio parking lot as I really should not drive in the dark and woke to a view of every major casino in Vegas.  Trump Tower, Treasure Island, Wynn, the Mirage, Caesars Palace, the Rio and of course the Palms. (note to self… don’t park overnight in Rio parking lot… train tracks right beside the lot and it’s a party place for young folk who don’t sleep)

		Las Vegas, from my van-living-room. VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

My brother and his wife, have a fancy big BIG house. I was getting fixated on T.V. again... so I had to get out of there. Also allergies acting up over his two very loveable little dogs. Why do I have to cry every time I leave someone else's pets that I get attached to?

People – T.V. watching; Dogs – Swankie-watching.

Such cute little pups (baby brother,
and his little Grayson).

Big house, lovely home and yard, and pool.  Good visit.  (Sorry to have missed my other relatives in Vegas, but I gotta go find fresh air.  See you next time around.)

Back on the road again... and what have I got... too much wind and lots of tumbleweeds. I kept thinking of the tune to the old cowboy favorite "Tumbling Tumbleweeds."  Who sang that?

A little ways north of Vegas is a spot all Vandwellers should take note of. I spotted the water and had to take a closer look. If not for the wind... I would have camped right there for a few days and paddled the whole darned thing, but after six months not kayaking, I was in no mood to battle wind and I had a headache. This is the Pahranagat National Wildlife Refuge and camping for 14 days is allowed and free (first come first served).. small town of Alamo 3.5 miles away. 

Pahranagat Wildlife Refuge–Valley of Shining Water.

Lots of waterfowl.  230 species… I only saw about four.  Really want to spend a couple weeks there.

They even had a Photo Blind there. Never saw one of those before. This is a special place.  And they even have petroglyphs… which I also did not see.

Can't I ever get away from airborne allergens???  A controlled agricultural burn.

This is the scenery of my child's/mind's eye... I used to draw horses running across such landscape... when I was a little kid. Who threw all my drawings away?

White River Narrows Archaeological District.  Now why the heck did I pass this up... wondering as I drove by... what kind of archaeology is out here. Duh!!!! Petroglyphs. What kind of archeologist am I???

So I made it to Ely before dark and settled into a casino parking lot. It was 74 degrees inside the van. By morning it was 47 degrees and I had three inches of snow on top of my solar panel. That had to go. SNOW... there is snow on my van????  SNOW, I tell you, SNOW! This is a heck of a coming-out-of-the-desert party. NOW, I miss Quartzsite's warmth (It is 70 degree F there today).

Something occurred to me last night… not putting my brother down or anything BUTT they are very proud of their material accomplishments and possessions and they value the VALUE of things.  On the other hand, vandwellers I have met (including myself) seem to be equally proud of what we don’t own/possess and we tend to brag about how little we spend and how frugal we can live… and still have a great quality of life.  Just saying…

Other Considerations to give more consideration to:

Ely, NV. It has to get better than this... the snow I mean. O.K. some things I didn't consider: 1) where are my warm gloves and winter clothes? 2) how do I get snow off my solar panel and roof rack and trailer roof??? Keep the ladder a little more handy.

Ely gets exciting in June I guess…  with bathtub races???    http://www.elynevada.net/events/bathvideo2.html

I saw a parking lot next to a hotel/casino that had plug-ins for campers and RVers.  Several men were on top of their rigs this morning pushing the snow off.  Consider SNOW and how to get up to your solar panels.  You might try to avoid snow at all costs, but it can sneak up on your while you sleep.

Plan for today… or sometime this week… find winter clothes and gloves… and get the ladder out and more easily accessible.

Well, that was fun.  Resupplied.  Saw this GB vehicle in the store lot.  Found a side street up the hill near the P.O. and parked.  Heard a whiney outside… and looked out to see this…

How special is that?  It doesn’t get any better than this, until tomorrow.  (That should be me! lol)

Altitude: 

Six months at 882' in Quartzsite. Then a week in Vegas at 2,000+'. Now Ely, NV 6,427' and next Elko NV at 5,060'. Then to Salt Lake City, UT at 4,226'. Then Rifle CO at 5,650' until job starts up the mountain near there to 9,000 feet. Good question. Can I do it. I think the headache and breathing problems were triggered by the pollution of Las Vegas valley (it's really bad folks) and the two dogs at my brother's (and the vegetative state I got myself into checking out their 'thousands of t.v. channels." I live outside because I will die inside. Already with a migraine pill and sinus treatments, my head is clearing... now to get the chest to clear up. Fresh mountain air (cleaned by the snowfall last night). Will just rest here in Ely until I feel better. Blogging, sleeping, blogging and sleeping. Lots to do in this here van-home... and I"m never bored.

Parker AZ to Henderson NV

(continued from “Yes, there can be “too much quiet?”)

A child’s painting, hanging in the Aquatic Center.

OK, to follow up on my last post about Noise vs. Silence… I came “out of the wild” and first stop had to be to get a large coke from McD’s.  I walked up to the counter and as the boy said “Can I help you?” and I went to reply, a small child came in the door and let out this banshee-type blood curdling scream that just about made me jump over the counter and into the arms of that poor boy who wanted to take my order.  I mean the sound just about burst my eardrum and I was so nervous afterwards that I couldn’t speak for a minute and forgot all about why I was there.  And I thought, no… SILENCE is better  especially if you are trying to go to sleep in the Parker Wal-Mart and the parking lot sweeper keeps going by.

Parker was good. At Parker if you go to the Bluewater Resort and Casino on the north side of town... and then down to the Marina (for guests only) you can pull over on the wide open dirt area on the left... I spent the day there. Could easily have launched the kayak from there. Also in the main parking lot were boondockers I saw around Quartzsite all winter. It's a good spot.

I left Parker yesterday afternoon planning to just drive to Lake Havasu City, find a Laundromat, and then find a place to park.  It got dark before I got out of the Laundromat … and I couldn’t read the street signs.  Tried Wal-Mart and realized I COULD NOT overnight there… went to the next road north (London Bridge Rd) and drove a ways and just pulled off the side of the road.

So, don't count on parking at Lake Havasu City, AZ Wal-Mart! Not allowed.  Gonna stay dressed in case I get rousted and explain to officer that I don't usually drive at night... as my eyes don't work right and I can't read street signs. Hope he lets me stay til I can see where I'm going. Where I hoped to go was Rotary Park to kayak for the first time in six months, in Lake Havasu City.

The signs around town are scary... posted fees about all the overnight parking fines (went back but couldn’t find that sign to photograph).  Might have been at another business.  My policy is: if I see no other campers/ boondockers or vandwellers... I don't stay and I don’t spend. If others are risking it... I might. This is one huge parking lot, spick and span, and mostly empty at night.

Hey, there is also an aquatic center here that I plan to visit after my kayaking, and have a nice swim and good shower before heading deeper into civilization. Below are my impressions of LHC... and I like the backwardness of Quartzsite better than this high and mighty town.

The Rotary Park… lots of senior citizens walking, talking, laughing, playing baseball, etc..

Lake Havasu City Report: 1) Rotary Park – don’t count on going there if you have a trailer or an RV. They are not allowed in the park and there is no place to park a larger vehicle. Only small single spaces. I drove in any way to check it out and try to get to the south end of the park. It was chained off. There was plenty of space (looking at Google maps) to park there and launch. Nice park for the hoards of retired senior white folk that were swarming around. They even had a senior softball league, and a skate park???? A skate park??? So, if your kayak is on top of your van… and you can carry it (I can’t carry mine and must use a cart)… this location might work for you and it is free.

2) Aquatic Center – Lap Swim hours are limited and I couldn’t find my goggles. It was not lap swim time. So I paid $5 to soak in the Jacuzzi and then had a nice long hot shower with swim suit on. Pool is great, Jacuzzi is great, locker room/showers are shabby. Only two privacy stalls with no curtains. They did have changing stalls with doors which I made full use of. Two ladies got me talking about my kayaking and were floored/shocked that I had kayaked 40 states in two years ALONE. Wonder what they would have thought if they knew the rest of the story? As I was leaving the pool area I heard the one lady who had moved to an exercise class telling the other ladies about my experiences. I was the talk of the day. Geez their lives must be very boring. But it was worth $5 to have a nice hot shower that didn’t use salty water like the ones in Quartzsite. Each time I had a Quartzsite shower I itched for days.

Is that really me???

This was me in 2002!????

On to check out the Lake Havasu Museum of History in town and then head toward Vegas.  O.K. photo proves I was there… museum is in the background (of top photo).  Only open from 1pm to 4pm.  It was 11am.  So down the road I went.  It will have to wait.  (Mike Riddle… I stopped by!)

Lake Havasu City, AZ (City or Prisons?) VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

It's like all these senior white folk are living in prisons here. Many many walls, gated and iron-fenced townhouses, apartments, rv parks, etc. No I don't enjoy that. I've seen and learned more about the local desert area in six months then those folk will learn the rest of their lives.  LHC wants to corral everyone into a little box (called RV Campgrounds, etc.).

Funny thing I saw near the Museum.

Tried the State Park – multiple boat ramps, lots of parking, but I was not in the mood to pay and it was getting late in the day to launch.  They allowed me to drive through and look as long as I didn’t get out of the van.  How very nice of them.

Up the road a little ways was this sign so I stopped to check out Mesquite Bay II Wildlife Area.  O.K. they got rocks.  I walked a ways and decided there would be no way to get the kayak to the water, I couldn’t even get me to the water.  But a nice spot and rock hounds should stop and explore.  Found agate and jasper and fossils there.

Boat Launches… wish I had found this information before I went to Lake Havasu City:  (taken from http://www.fws.gov/southwest/refuges/arizona/havasu/fishing.html)

There are free boat launches on Topock Marsh at North Dike, Fivemile Landing (on County Route 1) and Catfish Paradise (on Oatman Highway/Route 66).

Local boat launches that allow access to the Colorado River include the Topock Gorge Marina, Arizona (exit 1, I-40), Park Moabi (located 11 miles south of Needles, CA on I-40), and Havasu State Park at Windsor Beach (on London Bridge Road in Lake Havasu City). There are many other private and public boat launches along the Colorado River.

No Wake zones exist in the harbor of Fivemile Landing on Topock Marsh and the entrance and harbor at Topock Marina.

Anyway, I found a method to keep from collecting a lot more rocks… wear clothes that don’t have pockets, take no water, so you have to return to the van when one hand gets full of rocks (camera in other hand).

This is all I came away with.  Proud of me???  I am.

On up the road, more things to amaze me…

What is this bird… he makes the strangest sounds.

To deDucks… I kept saying your little burro prayer… but didn’t see any at all (pouting now).

Isn’t this just awesome????   I want it as my hood ornament.

Someone is really living in that… at Searchlight NV.

This guy passed me… five jet skis on that trailer????

Not sure what this is but I’m thinking very large solar farm???

Even hit a bit of the Old Route 66.  What a hoot.

Oh, and a new experience on the road today, I met my first Dust Devil.  I thought “Hey, look at that cute little th . . . . !” about the time it hit me.  It felt like a sand storm smashing into the van and felt like it might flip the trailer.  I’ll take those “cute little devils” more seriously next time I see one and slow down. Today I got my first “Dust Devil Whammy!”

Safe in Henderson, NV tonight and will touch base with family here in case they want to visit.  Also need to resupply since I WOULD NOT shop at LHC Wal-Mart.

Thinking about adding something new to my blog… an expense record for the day.  Might help others, might help me more!!!  Just thinking.  Someone is doing that??? RVSue???