FRIDAYS JEEP TRIP

For entertainment today we took the Jeep back up into the hills south of our camping area. Here are a handful of pictures.  To our surprise and pleasure we only encountered one other vehicle on the whole trip.  Our bones thanked us when the trip was over.  They got a lot of knocking around on the rough roads and washes.  Reminded us of sailing in lumpy water.  You can never relax.

(CLICK ON PICTURES TO ENLARGE)

Arrow indicates approximate area we got to on second ridge.

These guys look soft and furry - from a distance.

Click to enlarge and appreciate the detail.

First view looking back towards Quartzsite. From N33 34.422, W114 06.499

Telephoto from same spot above.  Now you can see RVs in the distance.

This tire cover is normally black.

Quartzsite, Arizona

We are the coach at the far left.  Last one to arrive yesterday evening.

 We are in Quartzsite, Arizona for one of the largest RV and Gem shows in the country.  The area is primarily land that belongs to the federal Bureau of Land Management, otherwise known as BLM.  There are already thousands of RVs spread out here in the desert on BLM land and by the end of the week there will be thousands more.  The group we are with are pictured above and this is less then half the coaches expected so our group will number about 40 coaches, mostly Tiffin motor homes.  The RV show does not start until tomorrow so today is pretty laid back just getting to know some of our new neighbors.  We are "camping" in that we have no electrical or water here.  We are just "roughing it" on our built in tanks and our generator.

Jeeps are popular tow vehicles.  Lots of roads to ride on here.

Lost of space here too.

Valley Views

By Pacific Northwest standards there is not much breathtaking about these photos.  After all this is the middle of the Mojave Desert.  They were taken on a short day hike with our friend Larry when he and Linda were visiting us last week.  These are somewhat crudely "stitched" together photos of the view at the top of the hike and give a pretty good idea of the lay of the land on this west side of the Las Vegas valley.  If you download the panoramas  (right click on image and choose "save image as") you may be able to zoom in on them to get a better look.  Not sure you can do that within the blog.

Larry at the top.

About a 220 degree panorama of valley west side and "The Strip".

The Las Vegas Strip

BROWNIE R.I.P.

A week ago Monday, October 28th, was another sad day for us.  Our Emergency Backup Kitty, Brownie woke us up at 3 am crying loudly.  We found her on the floor with what appeared to be a paralyzed rear end.  She could not use her back legs.  We did what we could do for her at that hour and got her to a vet later in the day.  The vet determined that she had serious heart disease and that as a result she had thrown a blood clot that lodged in her spine and caused the paralysis.  She felt too much damage had been done to hope for any recovery of the use of her legs and it was also just a matter of time before she threw another clot.  Brownie was 72 in people years.  She had a good last few weeks but we really had no choice but to say goodbye to her.  We were with her until the end and it was just as hard as it was with Gizmo back in September.  We were unable to tell son Paul about this until yesterday so delayed posting.  At this point I think we will remain "catless" for a while, perhaps permanently.   Goodbye Brownie.

Better Days

"MOUNTAIN" HIKE

Not a lot to report blog-wise since we have arrived in Las Vegas.  Yesterday we revisited a local park that has a "Mountain" that you can climb.  It is a fairly steep hike up.  It is maybe a half mile.  Because the Las Vegas valley is so flat however, the view from the top is pretty good, for desert that is.  I took our medium point-and-shoot camera.   Here is a picture of downtown Las Vegas from the top of the trail.  The view from there is actually an unobstructed 360 view but the rest of it does not have much of interest photographically speaking.  There is a lot of history in the valley however and some interesting facts on various signage.

LAS VEGAS

Doesn't look very big but actually just right for us.

Arrived in Las Vegas at 1:30 yesterday after leaving Bakersfield about 9:30.  Made good time.  We just beat the predicted winds which kicked in about 5 pm here.  Blew pretty hard most of the night.  Comfortable but still breezy this morning.  Having Arlyene's Mom and Aunt and Uncle over for dinner tonight so lots of small chores today.  Coach and Jeep are still dirty and will have to stay that way for another couple of days.  I just won't look.

Brownie is already quite comfortable here.

GLITCH PART TWO

MR. GLITCH

Just got word from Larry that they are only half repaired.  Still waiting for another part and it is not likely to arrive until tomorrow.  That leaves us with little choice but to move forward on our own as we need to arrive in Las Vegas on Thursday.  Oh well, we will no doubt have other opportunities to hang out during the winter and spring.  Onward......