Laughlin, NV

So we arrived in Laughlin yesterday to stay for a few days.  Rally weekend has ended and it's pretty quiet here.  HOT but quiet - it got up to 98 yesterday and probably the same today - HOT but yes it's a dry heat!!!   a very very dry heat!  My skin looks similar to an alligator and I should invest in Vermont Bee Balm and/or Bath and Body Works stock because I feel like I am keeping them in business single handedly!  

We are surrounded by mountains of course - but Rick has suggested I may have posted enough mountain pictures (what can I say I guess a girl from Vermont has a "thing" about mountains) so I will post Rick's picture of the Laughlin Strip at night.  This was taken from in front of the "house" last night - high above the strip.  Unfortunately we can't see the river from here but we can roll down and down and down from our site to see it - or walk in the heat - or take the shuttle (thank goodness for that shuttle)

Our last weekend in Kingman

So yesterday while Rick was doing this ...
Laughlin River Run sight seeing  ..............

I was doing this ....  I needed a "pine tree fix" and the owner of the campground we are at now told us about a place 20 miles or so from here - way way up in the Hualapai (pronounced Wallapie).  So after several hours cleaning and doing laundry (it really can take hours to clean a motor home when you don't keep up with it) Arlo and I set out for our adventure ..... up and up the mountains we went.

Below is the Lodge of the Hualapai Mountain Resort - rather rustic and dated accommodations in their seven rooms.... but the food - oh my goodness the food.  I had the best steak I've had in a very long time - cooked perfectly and tender, tender, tender .. very yummy!

So today after Rick and I helped Arlo celebrate his third birthday we headed back up the mountain (without Sir Arlo who really needed to rest after all the celebrating we three did).  I really wanted Rick to see this place - I just knew he'd love it.  Doesn't he look like he is enjoying himself?  He probably didn't need a pine tree fix but it just seemed like HIS kind of place.  Plus, they have elk all around the place ...

Click on the picture below to enlarge it and see one species of elk - posing for "The Amigos" ...  sure would have loved to have had "The Amigos" there with us to enjoy (we miss you guys).

So back to Sir Arlo's birthday..... he got a breakfast fit for a Sir - steak and eggs.  Sure glad he has a birthday only once a year!

a new addition

Tomorrow Sir Arlo gets a nephew ............ isn't he adorable?  His name is Snoopy Whelan.  And we ALL hope that Sir Arlo will love and enjoy his nephew and be very nice to him when they finally get to meet.  WELCOME TO THE FAMILY SNOOPY ... congrats Pat and Beth.

The volunteer beer servers

So the adventure for today was to volunteer with this Lodge and put RICK on this side of a beer cup ......  an oddity for sure ...... and who knew we knew how to pour beer after beer after beer.......
But we sure had fun!
The local Elks Lodge had a booth at the local Harley dealer (Mother Road HD in Kingman, AZ) for the bike rally in Laughlin, NV known as The River Run.  I try to volunteer at the lodges we stay at but there was no rv hookups at the Kingman Lodge but they had a sign up sheet for beer server volunteers - it was a match made in ................... Kingman .... and it was a blast.

our trip on route 66 (to Oatman, AZ)

Well I finally got these photos to upload - it's only taken a couple days!

On Tuesday we went to Oatman traveling on Route 66 from Kingman.  It amazes me that at one point this was THE major road.  Below is a picture of it winding through the mountains - how about those switch backs.  It is 28 miles from that tower in Kingman out to Oatman and probably 14 of those miles were on these kinds of roads.  

Oatman is an old mining town that is really commercialized now - with staged gun fights in the street throughout the day.  And burros - I'm still not sure I understand about the burros but they are "wild" burros that live in the hills surrounding the town and come into town at will and people feed them carrots..... I guess that is the concept I have difficulty with - wild animals being hand fed by people???  What am I missing here?  Also, according to the locals I spoke with they just sort of tolerate them and realize that most people come to town to see the burros so they are a good source of income for the town!

We had Arlo with us on this trip because we thought he'd be home too long otherwise.  Not the best way to visit this town but it's what we did.  I also found out that it probably isn't the best idea in the world to have a dog around a burro.... something we won't do again for sure.  

more travel pictures

I wanted to do several posts of pictures taken along our way up to this point but because I am having trouble uploading pictures - it is slow and I can only seem to do five pictures per post - I think this will be the last picture post.  I want to start doing posts of where we are at the moment and what we are doing.  So I think we'll add past travel photos to the picassa share site which we will add to the links section to the right.   Or use this link  http://picasaweb.google.com/tpw0607    

Ah one of my favorite cities - New Orleans.  Chad discovered recently how much fun this city is too - not sure Amy agrees right about now.  The people here just really know how to have fun fun fun and have such marvelous attitudes...... I wish I could remember the french saying that reflects this city but the translation is "let the good times roll" and Na'lins sure knows how to do that.
This is a picture of the first major mountains we encountered in our travels.  This was taken somewhere between New Mexico and Arizona.  Having grown up in Vermont I thought I knew about mountains - NOT.
And this is the bikes on a side road somewhere in Las Cruces, NM.  The trees that look very bare are pecan trees that have had a rather harsh trimming.  I thought pecans only grew in Georgia and was surprised to see them in New Mexico and there are LOTS of pecan orchards in NM.
Isn't this a great morning shot?  Sometimes this is a benefit of having to do the 6:30 or 7:00 AM morning dog walk.  This was at a nice campground we stayed at in El Centro, CA.  While here we happened upon the Blue Angels doing a practice routine for about 45 minutes - it was awesome!  El Centro is there winter home - WHO knew?  we didn't.

San Onofre Beach at a State Park in CA - isn't it beautiful.  We had to walk down a steep dirt road to get to the beach but Arlo sure loved having this HUGE stretch of beach to himself.

Some pictures of our journey

Below are some travel pictures.  I am having trouble uploading them so there will likely be several posts of pictures.  Hope you enjoy them.  

The Wright Brothers Memorial at Kitty Hawk, NC.  It was surprising to me how little this memorial was signed!  We drove by it several times before we finally found it.  It is beautifully done just not easy to find!!
The town of Washington, NC has these decorated crab statues throughout the town.  Various businesses and civic organizations decorate them and they are great photo ops for Sir Arlo.The Beach at Wilmington, NC was nearly deserted when we were there.  I did see why Josh and Trish are anxious to get back to this area tho!

AH isn't this a lovely view!  This is what we woke up to for 17 mornings over Christmas and New Years while we were at the Elks Lodge in Tavernier, FL - between Key Largo and Islamorada.THIS was our Christmas day in the Keys.... talk about FORTUNATE!