Amorgosa

This was an interesting experiment. This is the video of the Amorgosa Opera House. Click on the link below to view on YouTube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EViSUAuRoCE&feature=youtu.be

Thom & Carol

Where the He.. is Pahrump Valley?

Our week in Pahrump was terrific. First of all, who knew Pahrump would be a great place to spend the 4^th of July? With a combination of the small town festival in the park with arts, crafts and food vendors and the night ending with a spectacular fireworks show, I couldn’t have written a better script. The bill of fare for the holiday was, of course, hamburgers and hot dogs. Capping out the celebration, there was an additional fireworks show and much larger put on by the local casino which was about 300 yards down the street from our park. This show was larger and right above our heads. It looked like the bursts were going to land on us. Fantastic!

Day trips included Death Valley, all parts, the Amorgosa Wildlife reserve and Opera House, and a winery, believe it or not.

As one might expect, we, as native Californians had never been to Death Valley. It’s one of those places that pictures don’t really do it justice. You have to be there to enjoy the beauty of the desert. Visits included Scotty’s Castle, the Artists Pallet and the Furnace Creek Inn and Resort.

Resort was fabulous and surprising busy, even in the middle of summer with average temps at 115+ degrees. Very nice RV Park, cabins golf course, good restaurant and bar as well as a fabulous museum, with the story of Death Valley development and mining operations. We were told that Europeans are the bulk of the visitors during this season. This would be a good long weekend trip to consider for the future.

Artists Pallet is a one way drive through canyons and mountains with multiple geologic formations and colors illustrating the development of the valley from volcanic, seismic and flooding action.

Scotty’s Castle, in initially built by a Chicago businessman because of an elaborate con by “Scotty”, later continued because of their friendship and mutual love of the desert landscape and climate is an amazing story. Now a National Park, the guided tour was informative and entertaining. Our guide definitely loves his job, something that makes the tour that much more fun.

Amorgosa Wildlife Reserve in Nevada near the California border is a marshland refuge for animals and fish in the middle of the desert. To us, not being environmental students or experts, it strikes us as strange how a marshland can survive in an otherwise total desert climate. A giant oasis, I guess?

More interesting to us was the Amorgosa Junction where a ballerina from Europe while touring Death Valley decided that an abandoned rest stop was the place she would live and retire would become her home. On the property, she created, opened and performed a theatre opera house. Since the audience would not be large, she created her own audience by painting them on the walls of the theatre to watch her performance. Clearly, she is a multi-talented artist and her life’s passion for theatre makes for a “must see” out of the way place if you’re in the area.

Finally, we had to visit the winery in Pahrump. As wineries go, similar to the Arizona wineries. They are certainly not Napa Valley, but nevertheless fun. If you’ve never visited a winery, the passion of the owners and pride in their vintage is what makes the stop interesting.

For those of you who like to gamble a bit, we had two casinos right down the street from our park. Both reminded me of the “old days” when you got great and reasonable meals in the restaurants, smaller minimum bets at the tables (usually $2) and “play or pay” question when sitting at the bar. For those who do not know, casinos bars generally have multi-game gambling machines at your seat. If you’re playing, the drink is free, or you can pay for the drink. I usually play and have some fun at blackjack for bets as low as 25 cent or as high as $5 while chugging down some ice cold O’Douls. I also had a one pound chicken fried steak dinner for $10…… just what I needed for weight control, but what the he.., you need to splurge once in awhile !! By the way, this is Thom, not Carol talking here!!! I probably did not need to tell you that. Carol’s new passion is Coronitas, 8 ounce ice cold beers. She can put “em” down like a pro…

Enough rambling for now. We’ve been a week in Walker River Resort, Smith Nevada and have some interesting day trip to report on our next post. Miss you guys!

Thom & Carol

PS

I'm going to try and download a video of the Opera House later this weekend.

 

 Amorgosa Opera House

 

The stage

 

Railroad Museum at Amorgosa.

A nice couple is building the replication of the Borax days 

 

Artist's Pallet

 

 

 

 

 

Borax Museum at Furnace Creek

 

Wagon that was hauled by 20 mule teams

 

Another interesting wagon frame. Wheels are wood.

Rail engine in back from later days used after 20 mule teams.

Along the Desert Trail – Laughlin/Bullhead to Pahrump

First, let me apologize for not keeping the blog up at my once a week target. Nothing since June 19. I’m going to put myself on report !!!

From Parker strip, we headed north up to Laughlin, NV, Bullhead City, AZ for our first two week stay. We stayed at Ridegview RV Park located right across the Arizona- Nevada bridge. Our site has an unobstructed view of the river and Casino Row, which was particularly beautiful at night. I can’t say we enjoyed the weather as the average high temp was about 120 degrees with our last full day capping out at 127. Almost as bad as home, but when you’re living in a “giant hallway” and not able to get outside unless you want to drop from heat stroke, it can be trying. Out next summer road trip will be moving rapidly up north (Lesson #1)

Day trips started included trips to Oatman, AZ, Davis dam and lake Mohave behind the dam, Laughlin (several times), AVI Golf Resort and Lake Mead Recreation area.

Oatman, AZ is an old mining town that survived after the mines closed by adapting as to and attraction along the Mother Route 66 because of the wild burros (descendants of the old mine work burros) allowed to freely roam around the town. While comfortable and somewhat tame around people, Carol learned why they warn you about them being wild. Her purse of the day was made of straw and one of the burros sneaked up behind her and began to eat her purse! Unfortunately, I wasn’t quick enough to get photo or video. I would have had a “priceless” commercial.  She was fighting that beast with vigor and eventually won the battle. Too funny!

Lake Mohave is located behind Davis Dam and is the smallest of the three lakes on the Colorado River project. It’s fairly narrow and not too far down river from Hoover (Boulder) Dam, so it’s not a long ride to the Lake Mead recreation area up river. There are some nice resorts and camping sites along the river and lake. The old Davis dam community is now a Mohave County Park along the river and clearly one of the river rats’ favorite weekend spots.

Golf at the AVI resort, located on the Nevada side of the river, down river from Laughlin and located on the Mohave Indian reservation is a beautiful desert oasis. While we did not go into the Casino and hotel complex, it looks like a very comfortable place, similar to the Talking Stick Resort in Scottsdale for you Arizona readers and others who have visited it. I played the course in 3 hours because no other fool was crazy enough to be out there in the sun (I won’t report my score for this one).Track was great and I would recommend it a good golf weekend trip location. The resort also had a really nice KOA RV park next to the gold course. Affordable prices even at winter rates.

Two weeks at one location for road trip purposes seems too long if the day trip opportunities are limited (Lesson # 2).

Well, we’re off for our last road trip for the Pahrump stop, so will close this post out and report hopefully before we leave for Walker River in northern Nevada Monday. WiFi at this stop is horribly slow, so need to look into that issue (Lesson # 3).

So long for now and hope all is well with you guys ……. We’re still singing Happy Trails.

 

Carol with Burro Food - Oatman

 

View From Our Campsite

 

Oatman

 

Oatman In formation

 

Fun on The River Below Davis Dam

 

Mohave County Park on the River - Great Place

 

Lake Mohave behind Davis Dam

 

 

Off We Go ! -- Along The River

Well, we're finally off! First week we went to Emerald Cove Resort on the Colorado River along the  Parker Strip. Had a beautiful river site, which was nice to watch the watercraft flying by.

Bob and Barb joined us for moral support and we had a blast. Went into Lake Havasu City and checked out the London Bridge, always a fun place to hang out.

We've had some interesting learning experiences about RVing with some glitches in the coach needing attention. I had to reconfigure the satellite settings on the King Dome (sounds like I know what I'm doing, eh?) and shut off the icemaker water line because it has a leak (I'll try to fix later). The worst problem is the awning not retracting, so we'll have to figure that one out with a service tech. But no worries, it hasn't affected our trip or enthusiasm.

We are now in Bullhead City across the bridge from Laughlin, NV. Our site is on the bluff and we have a great view of the casinos. What a great view at night. We'll be here for 14 days and then off to another desert site for the 4th of July before we head north to cooler weather. We've got golf planned (early morning start time), the old town of Oatman (wild burro town) and some more travel on old Route 66 looking for old traveler rest stops and "stuff" stores.

Anyway, here's some photos from last week and one of our current site view. After labeling the photos, seems like we spend a lot of time at bars. Must be because of the desert heat? As usual, most bars only carry O'Douls for me.

T&C

 

The Getaway of Happy Campers

 

View of River at the Casino

 

River Bar at Casino

 

Pool and Bar Area at Emerald Cove

 

London Bridge - Lake Havasu

 

Parker Dam

 

Parker Strip Below Dam

 

 

Laughlin View from our Campsite

Preparing For the Road Trip

We're back from Mazatlan and really enjoyed our first time using the full two weeks. For any of you considering a trip to Mexico, I would suggest you look at Mazatlan as a destination, particularly in the months of April and May. We think it's one of those best kept travelers' secrets. The weather is always good with little or no rain (none while we were there this year), diverse options, and friendly people.

Old Mazatlan has a European feel to it with a center plaza with a beautiful Cathedral, opera house, beachfront restaurants near cliff divers beach and fine dining. The Hotel Zone up the coast a few minutes away has the Cabo San Lucas feel with resort hotels and a dining and dancing party atmosphere. A few minutes further is the Nuevo Mazatlan zone with marinas and the finer and newer resorts (we stay at Emerald Estates in this area). Perhaps we like it because it reminds us of home in Southern California with much shorter driving distances.

This week, we've been getting ready for the road trip. Who knew all the prep work and checklists would keep you in a constant state of agitation? !!!  The good news is that we've had plenty of advice and support from our friends who were road warriors and have settled in Dolce Vita. Their contributions have been immensely helpful and supportive. We thank you all.

Some blog housekeeping stuff before we get going:

First, we've had some questions about making comments in the blog sphere. I'm told that to make comments that it is necessary to create or have a "url" identification in Google or other applications. I really don't know if that's worth it or necessary because we can always communicate via email when I put out a blog post. I don't have any restrictions set on comments, so if I'm reading it, so is everyone else in the world.

Next, we've had some questions about getting into the blog from the email notice of a new post when we add a post. At the bottom signature of our email is a hyperlink to the blog that should take you directly to the blog when clicked.

Finally, we've placed you on the blog post notice because you've indicated interest in it in the past. If you're bored or tired of our "ramblings", then just let us know and we can remove you from the post notice. Not to worry, our feelings won't be hurt. We know how busy you are and we don't want you getting unwanted spam from a couple of rambling senior citizens.

Anyway, enough for this post. The adventure starts again Monday. Love you guys!

Thom & Carol.

Hello from Mazatlan

Well, it's been a rough week here in Mazatlan. We've had to put up with perfect weather, excellent food, a villa with a private pool and lots of fun with Jim,(my brother) and his wife Rebecca.

We arrived a couple of days before Jim, so we went to stock up the kitchen and bar with some good stuff. It's nice to be able to decide whether or not you feel like grilling some steaks or going out to a nice restaurant. Best of both worlds !!!

Here's some photos of the property and villa to give you an idea of the rough life. The adventure is still new and it's hard for us to realize that when we get home, we won't have to get back to work. I suppose it will take some time to adjust to this new lifestyle.

Anyway, just a quick note to report on the adventure. We'll post more when we get back. Hope all is well with everyone and life's treating you right.

Thom & Carol

 

The lovely bride relaxing in the pool

 

The Main Pool

 

On the Beach

 

More Main Pool

 

Swim Up Bar

 

Our Villa Front Door

 

 

Jim & Becki hanging out !

Cruising California - A Good Start

Can you think of a better way to start retirement than cruising the California coast on the Princess Sapphire with some very special people? Neither can I !!!

Carol & I, Bob and Barb with adjoining balcony staterooms on a seven day cruise starting in Los Angeles. Ports of call in San Francisco, Santa Barbara, Catalina, San Diego and Ensenada, Mexico.

As most of you know, I was born and raised in California, but by taking some shore excursions on the cruise, I gained a new perspective on the stops and understand why it's still on the top tourist lists. I learned things I never knew about Santa Barbara and San Diego even though I'd been there many times in my life. Also took the Alcatraz tour which I had never done before. Most of my prior visits to the City by the Bay were to watch my Los Angeles Rams beat the 49'ers. I think Carol and Barb were considering leaving Bob and I on the Rock, but we managed to "escape" with lots of persuasion and a little begging.

Next stop, Mazatlan, Mexico. Looking forward to this trip for some relaxation with my brother. So far, retirement has been exhausting !!! Something's always happening. No complaining, but definitely have some learning to do about pacing.

 

On the Rock !

 

 

Coming into the Bay

 

Coming into San Diego

 

The Ship Anchored in Santa Barbara

 

Catalina

 

That's our dream boat when we hit the lottery in foreground

 

 

 

 

Hoping all is well and happy for you guys. Post comments if you like.

 

Thom & Carol