Saturday, April 30, 2016

I got our laundry done just before the rains came!  We had quite the cloudburst and more lurking out there.  We are staying here until Monday.  We are ready to leave, but Jim called our Page, AZ campground and we can't get in!  I can't believe that!  Usually, on a Sunday night, they have many openings, but this is a popular destination, and we have four nights reserved there, starting Monday.  It will be fine.  We will geo-cache north of here tomorrow, if the rains quit.  We're fine with that, and what's one more day?  We are looking ahead at Grants, NM and want to stay there a couple of nights, but it looks like rain for all of the time we would be there, so we may have to go to Plan D!  We have had to remain flexible and have made many changes on this trip.  That is also a week away, and anything can happen.  We are still very happy with what we have seen and done on this trip, and we'd rather be safe than sorry.

 I saved these photos 'for a rainy day', and they were taken at Redstone Rock, just south of us.

 Can you see the elephant?  Ears and all!  We think this is more of an elephant than the one we saw in Valley of Fire State park. 

This rock formation reminded us of a dinosaur.  A little 5 year old was near by and we asked him if he would like to see a dinosaur, and he didn't!  His dad said his doesn't have the imagination that we have!  LOL.

Friday, April 29, 2016

We awoke to a sunny morning, 73 degrees for the day, breezy and just what we needed today to go to Hoover Dam.  It was a pretty hour's drive down to the visitor center on Lake Mead, so we checked out the Historic Railroad Trail from there.  It was designated as a national recreation trail by U.S. Secretary of the Interior, Sally Jewell and National Park Service Director, Jonathan B. Jarvis on June of 2015.  The trail is the only remaining section of the Hoover Dam Railroad system, that is preserved as a bike/hike trail to Hoover Dam.  It is 3.7 miles one way, so we put on about 8 miles today.  It was the right decision.  We had our bikes along, but opted to hike it, and we're glad we did.  The trail goes through several tunnels and offers panoramic views of Lake Mead.  The railroad was used when they built the dam to transport gravel, equipment, supplies and machinery.  When we arrived at the dam site, we were on the top floor of the parking garage, so we took the elevator to 'another world'!  We went from a few people to hundreds!  We had last seen Hoover Dam about 30 years ago, and everything changes.  It is very commercialized now, and they even charge admission into the Visitor Center!  It cost $10.00 to enter, and we didn't think we had enough time to do justice to it, so we decided to just walk around, look and head back.  We did all of that when we went 30 years ago, and I don't think much has changed. (Not saying we remember it all, but it is accessible on the internet!)  We did see the new highway over the Colorado River near the dam.  We met some fun people on our hike and chatted with them on our way.  It looks like rain tomorrow, but Sunday is our day of departure and we should be able to plan on that.  We've had a great stay here, and have done everything, and had plenty of time to do everything, so we're ready to move. 

 We saw a small herd of wild mustangs on our way to Hoover Dam today.

 One of many views of the massive Lake Mead, the mountains and the marina.

Hoover Dam - built from 1931 to 1935.

 This is a view north of the dam where it backs up Lake Mead.  Notice the light stone at water level and above.  We were told that is the water line and how high it was at one time.  It is about 130 feet low.

 We got a great view of the Colorado River below the dam and the new bridge.

 This is the south side of Hoover Dam.

 We had a snack and rested our feet at the outdoors cafe, overlooking the dam area.

We're exiting one tunnel and can see the next one on our hiking trail.  They have 5 tunnels in all.

Thursday, April 28, 2016

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO OUR GRANDSON, NICK!  He turned 21 today, so that's a milestone that I'm sure we all remembered!  Nick lives in McLean, VA.  The rains came in as predicted, so we relaxed today.  It did clear by early afternoon, so we drove down to the lake to check things out.  It's pretty quiet down there, as this is their off season.  Nothing much to report today, but tomorrow looks like another nice day, so we plan to go to Hoover Dam. 

 This is one shot of Lake Mead that I took today.  The light colored rock across the water, shows how low it is.  Speaking of water, our water flow into our motor home got better the second day. 

 

 This is another shot of Lake Mead.  This was my favorite picture today, as it shows a lot of colors.

This is our camping spot for the week.  The sites are large and it's very quiet here.

Wednesday, April 27, 2016

We escaped another rainy day, so we finished our wonderful sights in Valley of Fire State Park.  We had some earthcaches/geo-caches to do there yet, and a little hiking, so we did that, and went into Overton, to see what 'the closest town has to offer'.  I think we will skip our plan to buy groceries there and do it in Page, AZ when we get there.  We might clean out some cupboards of some canned goods that we need to use up!  We didn't find much in this remote little town, but we did find the post office to send some mail out.
We returned to our campground, with the feeling that we will be housebound again for tomorrow.  They are predicting rain here, so we'll plan to venture out on Friday.  We will go down to Hoover Dam and check out that area.  We are about an hour from there.  We're glad we stopped here to see this beautiful state park, and we wonder why it wasn't designated a national park.  Our campground is very quiet and today we have four RV's and the camp host, staying here.  I made chili to whet our appetites for the next few days.
 

 We are actually, staying in the Lake Mead Recreation Area, but this campground is privately owned.  We think the campground was here first, as we have never heard of such a thing. We'll have to check that out.

 Jim is holding his GPS because we needed that photo to prove that we were at this site.  We had to climb the stairs to the top to view some very old Petroglyphs.  They claim that these are 4,000 years old and they reflect the people and activities of that period.

 This is one picture I took of the Petroglyphs, and the Big Horn Sheep is a prominent figure in these writings. 

 Another earthcache brought us to this arch in the park.  It is quite nice, but this park is full of arches!

 I tried to find out what this flowering shrub is, but to no avail.  It was strikingly dark purple.  Pretty.

 Another earthcache brought us to this rock formation, called 'Beehive'.  The wind and rain causes erosion of the sandstone rocks, and results in this effect.

This little delicate flower reminded me of the Filaree that we see in The Valley, but it's not the same.  Again, I failed the test on trying to find out what it is. 

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

We woke to a beautiful sunrise this morning, and the winds died down, so we knew we would have a great day.  We went to Valley of Fire State Park, which is east of Las Vegas, and we found it delightful. We only covered half of it today, because we did all the hikes to the earthcaches and geo-caches in the park, in this particular area.  We'll go back tomorrow and finish the rest.  They charge a $10.00 daily entrance fee to the park because it is a state park and not a national park.  We don't mind, as we have the senior pass, and that has allowed us into all the national parks for free.  Anyone who is 62 and doesn't have that card, should get it.  It costs $10.00 and the entrance fee into most national parks, is $25.00.  It's a no-brainer!  We had 77 degrees for a high today, with a little breeze, so it was a beautiful day.  Tomorrow is to be the same.  We met some neat younger people on our trails, and had some good conversation with them.  One was from W. VA and the other from CT.  We didn't see anyone on the trails our age!  We know how fortunate we are to be able to do this.  I warned you that I would have pictures from today, so here they come!

 This was our sunrise and threatening clouds yesterday morning.  We knew we were in for a quiet day!

 The sign for the entrance to Valley of Fire State Park welcomed us today.  It became a state park in 1935.

 The elephant rock is an earthcache, but also one of the more popular rock formations in the park.

 These rustic cabins were built in 1936, shortly after The Valley of Fire became a state park.  They were built by the CCC and were used for travelers and campers back then.  They had 9,000 visitors to the park in 1936 and today they have several hundred thousand. 

 This is a Chuckwalla that we saw on a rock, on one of our hiking trails.  He was just enjoying the sun.

 We saw this natural bridge once we got through a slot canyon.  Awesome!

 Jim is peeking at me through this tunnel in the sandstone that was formed by the wind and rain. It was quite tiny.

 We hiked through this wonderful slot canyon.

Jim at one of the MANY arches in this park!  OMG.  It's loaded with arches and alcoves.

Monday, April 25, 2016

We had a very windy night and blustery, windy and drizzly day today, so we were house bound!  It gave me a chance to do some of the domestic things, like make my granola so that lasts us for another couple of weeks.  We'll be ready to get out and check out the Valley of Fire tomorrow, weather permitting.  We are getting the cold front from the northwest, and it will meet up with the warm front in the Midwest and we are just thankful, that we aren't in that area right now.  They are predicting tornadoes in many areas, so I hope they are wrong.  We are to have cool temps here this week, and we look forward to that.  We love the 60's and low 70's for hiking .We have a week here, and glad that we do, as it looks like we may have some more interruptions with the weather.  We will hopefully, have pictures to post tomorrow.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

This was our moving day from Pahrump to a campground on Lake Mead, south of Overton, NV.  We went from a 10/10/10 resort/park to a 6/8.5/6, but we're roughing it and, we still have full hookups.  It's more secluded and quiet here, and we are quite close to Lake Mead. The one drawback we have found so far, is that we only have a trickle of water coming out of the faucet.  I wonder if that is a sign that we need to conserve!  We always carry water aboard, so we are prepared.  The reason we wanted to come to this area, is to hike and visit Valley of Fire State Park.  Thanks, Jeanie and Nick for informing us of this place.  We have loaded a lot of geo-caches/earthcaches in the park and we'll do them while we are here. They aren't allowed in the National Park's System, but they are in state parks.  Today's travels went well, but the winds are picking up now, and we are to get rain tonight and tomorrow.  We're fine with that, as we built a week in here, and we should have plenty of time to do what we want.  Lake Mead Recreation Area consists of 1.5 million acres and is a National Recreation Area, within the National Park Service.  Lake Mead is the largest and one of the cleanest reservoirs in North America.  We are still in the Mojave Desert and it consists of 87% of the park, and the rest is water.  I did take some photos from the motor home as we traveled, so I'll post a few, but I know when we get into this area, they will be much better. 

 We drove straight through Las Vegas, and alongside The Strip.  We visited Las Vegas many times for trade shows, when Jim was in business, and I didn't realize that we walked so far from one end to the other.  It looked really long, as we drove by today.  We were twenty-five years younger then, too!

 This is the famous Trump Tower.  It wasn't up when we used to go there, as were several other hotel/casinos. 

This is our preference!  We'd rather be out in the country than in the big cities.  This is just a sample of what is to come.  We're excited to start our week's adventure. 

Saturday, April 23, 2016

I inadvertently deleted Friday's post!  Sorry!  We mainly did some geo-caching and went to the happy hour/social at 5:00 and stayed for the karaoke at 6:00.  We were amazed at how many good singers they had there last night. We even got to do a couple of two steps and a polka, so we don't forget how!  The winds were strong most of the day and into the evening, but eased up today (Saturday) by noon.   As I recall, I didn't post any pictures yesterday, so this is it in a nutshell. 

We haven't been leading a very exciting life the past few days, with mostly geo-caching to report, but it is a great hobby for Jim and I when we travel.  It's good to have to fill in, when we can't find anything else to do.  We went again today and found enough to put us over the 3,000 mark for geo-caches found to date.  We are leaving Pahrump tomorrow, as the winds have died down, after a windy night last night, and we will be going a short distance to Overton, NV.  Actually, we'll be south of Overton on Lake Mead at Echo Bay Campground.  We will be there a week, so we will set up our satellite dish.  The NFL draft is this Thursday and we like to watch that, and of course the news!  We may be in a remote area, so it's best that we keep in tune to the weather and what's going on in the world.  We got groceries today, so we shouldn't need much in the way of food.  Sometimes, it's good to have to resort to what we have in the cupboards, to turn over the stock from time to time. I think we're pretty good at keeping things fresh, and not outdated.  We've been at this full-timing 10 years now, so we are getting pretty good at it.  We are leaving this wonderful campground/resort and know we'll be back some day.  Jim said it was rated 10/10/10.  I believe it!  We have found no fault with it, whatsoever. They even had a wedding in the courtyard today.  Lovely.

 This was our table for last night for happy hour and karaoke.  From left to right,  Marge & Jerry are full-timers, Pat and Cheryl are, also, and Debbie and Len work at the resort.  A fun time was had by all.

 I should have put this on my first pictures of Pahrump, but we just got up close and personal today. 

I found our next house!  Providing one of our children will move out here and live in the house and we can live in the 'guest quarters'.  It even has two landing eagles in the front yard!  There's a drive way between the two buildings, to go back to the garage area.  Beautiful!

Thursday, April 21, 2016

Today was to be a moving day for us, but we decided to stay in Pahrump until Sunday.  We didn't go for waffles this morning, because they had sundaes at 6:00 tonight!  One has to have choices and priorities.  We went geo-caching again this morning and found 33 today.  It was a little more difficult to do the road/desert caching today, because they are working on the road in that area.  We got back around 2:00 and decided to do lunch at the restaurant connected to the winery.  We both had Icelandic Cod, and it was the best fish fry we have had since we left Wisconsin!  We basically, had a quiet day today, with nothing much to write about.  We need a day like that once in a while.  A rally group is supposed to come in tomorrow, so the campground will fill up again for the weekend.  I also, have no pictures to post tonight.  The winds are to pick up tomorrow, so it may curtail our activities for the day.  We're still enjoying this wonderful campground.

Wednesday, April 20, 2016

Today was another day in Paradise!  We just love it here in this campground and Pahrump, NV.  We started out with free waffles again this morning, but I heated up two small empty Penzey's jars (that I ran out of the spices) and filled them with Wisconsin maple syrup and took it today.  So much for their HFC syrup!  The old mainstay, Jerry, was there again, so we sat and chatted with him again.  We can't do waffles again tomorrow!  I will need to go clothes shopping if we do!  We might just take a cup of our coffee and chat a bit.  We did go desert geo-caching again today and found 30 caches.  We loaded more for tomorrow, and will do that again.  The temps are to cool down a bit, so it will be nice.  We changed our itinerary a bit.  We are looking ahead and we see Panguitch, Utah is going to be 20 degrees with rain and snow when we are supposed to be there.  So, we did some re-arranging and cancelled our week there, and made a week's stay in Overton, NV.  We will be busy there with lots to do in the Valley of Fire State Park, plus all else there is to do there.  Our campground is supposed to be right on Lake Mead, just east of Las Vegas.  We extended our stay here at the Winery RV Resort, and will be able to take in the festivities that they have planned for the rest of the week.  Tonight they had the pork dinner with 3 glasses of wine and it was absolutely delicious!  We arrived for their social hour, and 'Jerry' and his wife, Marge had arranged for us to eat with them, and then we met another couple from Oregon, who are full-timers, also.  We had a great time, and we decided to come to the karaoke on Friday night and we'll bring our Wollersheim and Montelle wine with for our table.  We keep telling them how good the wine is that we buy in WI and MO, so now we need to prove it!  We told Jerry that it was his job to secure a table!  They have dancing, and snacks, so it should be fun.  I'll make my bean dip. as it's great for something like this and it goes a long ways.  They just hauled a woman out of here on a stretcher and took her by ambulance to the hospital. They are just 3 sites up the street from us.  I saw them come in today, and she could hardly make it up the steps into the motor home.  These things happen, I guess.  We do hope she is going to be okay. 

I don't have any pictures to send from today, but wanted you to see one of the coke ovens up close. 

Tuesday, April 19, 2016

We did all we wanted to do in Death Valley, so today we went to breakfast at the clubhouse, as they were having free Belgian waffles, and tonight it's tacos for $1.00.  Because they were beef, I made myself a taco salad of the toppings and it worked just fine.  We met new people at both food happenings, and we all had a good time.  Most of us are going to their pork dinner tomorrow night and each person gets 3 glasses of wine from the winery connected to this resort.  That meal is $15.00 a person, and we feel that will cover the cost of the wine and the meal is free! We have yet to get to the wine tasting, but tomorrow is another day.  We did some geo-caching this morning before the heat arrived, and then I thought it might be a good time to do laundry, so that's done for another stint.  We so enjoy this campground and think it ranks as one of the best we have ever stayed at.  Everything is so clean, and they are very friendly here.  We stayed at Saddles West the last time and it doesn't even compare! 

This is the Pahrump Winery and RV Resort where we are staying.  This building houses the check in center, the office, and clubhouse.

 This is the back patio and a second swimming pool.

 This is the main swimming pool and hot tub.  The laundry is also in that building off the pool.

 This is the winery where they have wine tasting and also a restaurant. They are rated Nevada's # 1 winery.

 A small gazebo and rose garden are located on the side of the winery/restaurant.  Can you see the full moon?

The sunsets are just gorgeous out here!

Monday, April 18, 2016

Today was to be the 'coolest day' for our stay in Pahrump, NV, so we got up early and went to Death Valley to finish the things we didn't get to do the last time we were there.  We had stopped in 2013 but the road to the charcoal kilns (coke ovens) had been washed out, so we couldn't see them at that time.  That was on our agenda for today, along with a hike into Mosaic Slot Canyon.  It is a narrow, marble slot canyon, and the marble is like it is polished, and it's quite slippery.  We have been to Antelope Canyon in Page, AZ, but that is a red sandstone slot canyon and it is much different from this one.  We were glad we started out early, as the day warmed up quickly.  The charcoal kilns took us to a higher elevation and along with more vegetation, was the bonus of roadside flowers!  They were very plentiful all along the road to the ovens, and that surprised us.  There are no flowers in the basin, as it's so hot and dry there, and everything seems so parched.  The elevation at the ovens was 6500 feet and the basin in the valley is -285 (below sea level).  It was a real treat to see many of the same flowers that we had seen in Joshua Tree NP.  We even stopped to check out a huge sand dune that had formed in the park.  Death Valley has so many different things to make it an interesting place to visit.  We did like visiting it better in November than April, though.  I will shed a little light on the charcoal ovens, as they were built in 1879 and they were used to produce charcoal for the Murdock Mine smelter.  They filled the kiln with pinyon pine logs, that were plentiful in this area, and burned them, reducing them to charcoal.  That process took 6 to 8 days.  It took another 5 to 6 days to cool them down and then, they would be hauled to the Murdock Mines.  They were used to extract silver and lead from the rich ore that was found in the mine. We plan to kick back a little tomorrow and possibly do some geo-caching in this little town.  We always find something of interest when we cache.

 Jim at the entrance to Death Valley National Park.  There was a geo-cache in the area, also.

 We had to ask the female ranger what this flower was.  She said it was called Rock Lady and we found it tucked into a small alcove in the Mosaic Slot Canyon.  The leaves are quite picky.

 Jim is making his way through the marbled Mosaic Slot Canyon.

 These 4 mule deer crossed the road in front of us.  Jim thought they were just plain old mule deer and I thought they were WILDLIFE!

 There were 10 charcoal kilns in this remote area.  Each one could hold more than 4 cords of wood.

 This was another strange flower for us, and the ranger thought it was Purple Mat.  Very delicate.

 This is the huge sand dune that we saw.  The sand was so hot from the sun that we didn't walk in it for long.

The thermometer at the visitor center registered at 101 degrees.  That's hot, but it's a dry heat!