Laughlin, NV - Blowing in the wind

The last time we came to Laughlin, we parked at the very top of the hill overlooking the strip.





I'd been told, in the winter, this place can get so packed in, like sardines, one beside the next but this was April, well past Snowbird season, and we were the only RV up there. We parked ourselves lengthwise, taking up at least 3 spots with our truck and trailer, so we paralleled the front of the lot.

With our chairs placed right outside our door, we had the most gorgeous views of Laughlin, the hotels, the river, and across to Bullhead City. It felt like we were living up amongst the clouds. The nights were even better, with all the flashing neon below us.

The upside and downside was the wind. The temperature was quite hot but if we opened our windows we'd get a cross wind coming through that kept everything cool. One night, however, the winds got so strong, I swore we were going to be pushed right down the hill that laid out our front door. We looked at the weather warnings where we saw the speed rated at 30-35 mph constant with gusts up to 55 mph.

At the top of the hill where we were it felt much worse. We were lucky we faced into the wind, and the truck was in front of us, shielding us some, but every so often a gust would change direction suddenly and we'd rock back and forth so hard, I was sure we were about to roll right down the steep sloped hill beside us. I now wished we'd parked further back from the hill, or down below at one of the more sheltered lots. That was the kicker to me - that we were right on the precipice. If we were pushed too hard, I could imagine us rolling over and over all the way down to the road far below. Kinda like Humpty Dumpty.

This was the first time I'd experienced wind this hard. A year later, having experienced winds with higher rated mph, I have to say, I think it was stronger up there on the hill than the warnings stated. I furiously googled sentences like "rv wind danger", "rv flip wind mph", "how much wind is safe for an rv?" and a ton of others. Nothing made me feel better. Even calling my mother, who has vastly more experience with RVs and wind than I do, didn't really calm my nerves. If she'd been there with us, and was feeling what we were that would have helped. Yes, I did just admit to needing my Mommy. I was almost that afraid.

The wind didn't die down all night and I really didn't sleep well, but we lived through the night, we didn't roll down the hill, and I now had an experience I could chalk up so I could relate to future wind storms. I find myself saying, all the time, "Well, it's not as bad as that night we had in Laughlin!"

That was April 2014. This time we were meeting up with my parents. They wanted to stay up at that top lot where they always like to stay. We wanted to stay down below. Mostly so we could just walk to the casinos, but also because that hill had scarred me. I didn't want to experience that again.

We decided to stay out behind the Tropicana for the same price, $7 per night. As we drove into town, we passed my parents going the other way. The River Palms has been sold, it's now called The Laughlin River Lodge, and part of their massive renovation is that the RV lot  on the top of the hill is being repurposed for timeshare condos.

So that was that. My parents now had to come down off the hill. They went looking for alternatives while we pulled the trailer off the truck and leveled it. I was on my way into the casino to pay when my Mother called. Across the road at the Pioneer, we could park right in the front lot, steps from the casinos and river walk for the grand old price of absolutely nothing. So that's where we ended up.

2014 Overnight spot: River Palms (now The Laughlin River Lodge)
Price: $7.00 per day
Includes: A parking spot
Dump/Water: Tropicana - we didn't use it.

Garbage: We took our garbage with us and dumped it at gas stations.
Cell & Wifi: Verizon - 4 bars of 4G LTE

2015 Overnight spot: Pioneer Laughlin
Price: $0.00 must register inside, 3 night limit. After that, they rate your play.
Includes: A parking spot
Dump/Water: Tropicana - we didn't use it.

Garbage: We took our garbage with us and dumped it at gas stations.
Cell & Wifi: Verizon - 4 bars of 4G LTE

Lake Havasu, AZ

Craggy Wash BLM

We've passed lake Havasu by a bunch of times, driving just north or just south of it, but never managing to fit it in. I had heard differing opinions about it, and I hadn't felt in a hurry to get there, but I have a desire to see everywhere so it had to be experienced, and it fit into our plans on the way from Phoenix to Laughlin.

Coming up highway 95, along the Colorado River is a contrast of dry harsh desert and turquoise oases along the water. There are marinas, RV parks and other businesses along the river, all the way up to the parker Dam, then the river turns northwest and you come upon a number of state parks and BLM land. Every so often you see an outcropping of RVs on the right hand side boondocking on the public lands. Just before Lake Havasu city came into view, we came across an area that was completely overrun with RVs, one on top of another. There seemed to be some sort of derby or OHV motorsports event going on there.

London bridge, Lake Havasu, AZ

Driving into Lake Havasu, I got Harold to turn off and head into the east part of town up on the hill and then down towards the lake. This area looked to be a has-been area, now taken over by gun ranges, massage shops, nails, and guns shops, the lower retail rent area.  When we got down to the bottom we crossed over the London Bridge.

I began to sing. "London bridge is falling down, falling down, falling down. London bridge is falling down, my fair lady!"

Harold looked over at me questioningly. "Huh? What?"

"We just went over London bridge! Wasn't it exciting?" I responded, rolling my eyes.

"Oh! This is where they put the London bridge? You never told me that was here."

So we drove around the island that is pretty much just some expensive RV resorts with a very touristy restaurant and shop area near the bridge. We got out and walked around a bit, but we just weren't feeling it. We decided to head up to the BLM lands north of the city instead.

Up at the very north end of town, just past the Walmart on the west side, and the airport on the east side, is the turn-off to the Craggy Wash BLM Campground. We drove up the winding gravel road in a narrow cavern between some pretty high desert hills. I suppose they call them mountains, but being from BC, where mountains are huge, I hesitate to call them that.




The canyon opened up into a slightly larger expanse where an RV was parked and two men stood outside talking. A big sign told us to "STOP AND REGISTER!" So we stopped and got out.

"We're closed!" Yelled the old man from the doorway of his RV. He wore a big white cowboy hat, and his skinny, grizzled face was covered in snow white hair.

I was confused. Do BLMs close? I stood there, rooted, trying to figure out what to say.

"Come back tomorrow!" He yelled again, waving his hand at us dismissively, sounding even more grumpy.

"What do you mean? We can't camp here?" I finally came up with some adequate words.

The other man laughed. I looked over at him more closely. Dark where the other was so white. Dark hair, moustache and beard, tinged with grey, about our age, friendly and jovial, a big smile lit up his face. He was as friendly as the camp host wasn't. "Just go find yourself a spot to camp and come back tomorrow to register."

It finally clicked in my head. Duh! The camp host wasn't working today, on Sunday. It didn't mean the BLM was closed. That had made no sense to me. Of course it hadn't. It was nonsensical. He didn't have to be so grumpy about it.

Climbing up

I had read that Craggy Wash had been getting a name for itself as a very rough area with some dangerous people. We had some friends tell us they had stopped staying there after more than one run-in, but my parents had told us they loved the place, so we felt we had to give it a try. Their advice was to not just pull into the big area at the front where everyone else does but to go back to the empty spots. We followed their advice and came to an empty enough space that gave us room to breathe, in a very pretty area, that wasn't too far up. We were staying only one night after all.

We loved Craggy Wash. We stayed up late into the night around the campfire, drinking Blackberry Jalapeno Margaritas (recipe here!), looking up at the stars in the gorgeous clear black desert sky. I'm not sure if I can still call them Margaritas - we were all out of tequila so I had to sub in vodka, but whatever you'd call them, they were great!

The next day we hiked all over the hills and down into canyons. The temperature was just perfect. I could feel the warmth of the sun on my head and back and a breeze through my hair. I used to think the desert was a barren wasteland, but the more time we spend here, the more beauty I see. I was enjoying myself so much climbing up one of the craggy hills, and didn't pay attention to the tough downhill until we were all the way on the other side.

The climb down was very rocky with lots of loose gravel.

I grew most worried for the dogs, especially Toonie (our chihuahua), but I let her go and she was down in no time, without an issue. We've found in the past, that she really is amazingly good going up and down very steep hills. I guess, being so small and lightweight (just under 5lbs) has it's perks.

Teddy was a little more hesitant and didn't like it when the gravel started rolling down under his feet. Once Toonie was down the hill with Harold, I took Teddy around the hill on a less steep descent and we made it down without a problem. The only one of us injured at all was my pants - I ended up with a hole in the butt where I'd had to slide down like a 3 year old at one point. We came back dirty, dusty, and hot, but it was a ton of fun.

There's the reason we were getting such good wifi!

The Verizon reception out here was fantastic and it made no sense to us. Our Net10 phone couldn't even find a signal. We were parked in a narrow canyon so how could we be getting 4G access? Once we started climbing we saw why. There was a cell tower in direct line of sight of where we parked. We had chosen an almost perfect location for data, if not voice. Go us!





In the end, Lake Havasu City just isn't our sort of place. I expect it could be if we had a boat or were meeting people there. We'd definitely stay down below along the Colorado river and we enjoyed our too short stay at Craggy Wash. We'll come back again and spend more time.

Toonie & Teddy

Overnight spot: Craggy Wash
Price: $0.00 14-day limit
Includes: Nothing
Dump: Lake Havasu State Park
Water: Lake Havasu State Park
Garbage: We took our garbage with us to the gas station up the highway.
Cell & Wifi: Verizon - 4 bars of 4G LTE due to being in line of sight of cell tower. Net10 - Nothing.

Phoenix, AZ

Fountain in Old Scottsdale

It seems that Phoenix is turning into our way station in the southwest. We like to spend most of our time boondocking, but it's nice to have a place where we can plugin, do laundry, shop and dine out. That is what Phoenix is to us, a place to recharge, and restock.

We returned to the same RV park we'd been at last year. Palm Gardens RV Resort, in Mesa. We're still not technically old enough for the place, but this time I didn't even bring up age. The woman checking us in, looked a little hard at me, but didn't ask for ID.

"Woohoo!!! We're in!", I thought, like a teenager who had just conned their way into a bar with a fake ID. "Be cool. Be cool.", my inner voice told me. "You don't want to give it away."

We were, once again, meeting up with my parents. They had been here since the day before, placed just down the road from us, across from the laundry.

Staying five days allowed us to get into a pattern of shopping, meeting up for cocktails and then dinner. Our favourite late afternoon place is still the Postino Wine Cafe. They have four locations in the Greater Phoenix area.

We'd previously been to the Gilbert and Scottsdale locations, and this time we also visited the Tempe location, which is on the campus of Arizona State University. The trick is to get there before 5pm so you can enjoy a great glass of wine or pitcher of beer for $5. Their food menu isn't extensive, but that's not important. The only thing we ever want to order is the Bruschetta. You can choose 4 of 12 selections, and they are all just amazing.

Most Americans don't understand the level of intoxication we Canadians get when we shop in the US. Our population is so tiny in contrast and while we do get a lot of similar and same stores, we can't support the level of commercialism available in the US. We don't get as many, or as big, and our selection is much smaller - in pretty much everything:  band-aids, restaurants, clothes, housewares, food - everything.

The first time I walked into a Bevmo!, in Bellingham, WA, I thought I'd died and gone to heaven. A liquor superstore? Who would have thought? So then visiting Total Wine in Las Vegas was like another jolt. This place was even bigger!

Nothing had ever prepared me for the overwhelming shock, awe, and sheer amazement I felt when we went through the doors to the Total Wine in south Tempe. It was actually too much for me. We wandered the aisles and I felt way too overwhelmed. Thankfully, I had a list, or I'd have never bought anything. I went looking for my new favourite boxed wine, and found every single style and brand you could ever think of. I went looking for beer and it was a football field length aisle of every type of beer I would ever want. I couldn't focus on anything in that aisle and didn't buy anything.

The one thing I couldn't find, was the main reason I'd come: Prickly Pear Syrup - for cocktails. We'd seen it being sold in the souvenir shop at Kartchner Caverns just a few days before. I'd wanted to buy it but couldn't get past the exorbitant price. Googling it showed me that it was available in Total Wines. What's more Arizona than a cactus cocktail? So how is it, that with everything they have in there, I couldn't find something they showed on the web site, that is so ubiquitous to the landscape there?

"Nobody bought the stuff so we stopped selling it." said the clerk when I asked her about it.

So I guess it's just one of those touristy things. Bummer.

We asked for directions to Bevmo! and they happily obliged. Nice of them, considering they are the competition, but what else could they do? Refuse and look like jerks? Walking through the doors of Bevmo! I felt more relaxed. It was tiny in comparison - still humongous to us, but this felt safer, easier, and I found my Prickly Pear Syrup! I found some other great flavours too. I think really that Total Wines store in Tempe is just too big for me, for my senses to handle. I'd go back, if I were looking for something specific, but for browsing, I'll take a Bevmo! any day.

I never did get a photo of it while we were on the road.

Prickly Pear Margaritas - it's supposed to make 4 drinks, but we call it 2 and a half.

6 oz. Tequila
4 oz. Triple Sec
4 oz. Lime Juice
2 oz. Prickly Pear Cactus Syrup
1 oz. Orange Juice

Directions: Mix ingredients and pour over ice.

I tried making this Margarita with Jose Cuervo Gold first, then Silver, and finally Patron Silver. The two Cuervo's were very similar, but the Patron was so smooth it was dangerous to drink.

River walk area in Old Scottsdale

On Thursday, we went to the Art Walk in Old Scottsdale. For 40 years, the art galleries here have opened for night visitors 7-9pm, Thursdays only. My parents told us there were many less places open than when they'd previously visited, but it was an interesting evening in a beautiful location.

Some of the art was very commercial, while other pieces were downright hokey, and then there were the ones that were just right. There was nothing I was prepared to buy, but lots I enjoyed looking at. That's what life is to me, these days, for the most part. It's part of minimizing life - limit things, and maximize experiences. We had already dined that evening, so next time we visit, we will make sure to come down to one of the gorgeous places here along the river.


For Harold's birthday, he'd chosen Mexican, so I googled "Best Mexican in Phoenix" and came up with a long list of candidates. I eventually zoomed the list down to 4 and then down to the final selection, "Comedor Guadalajara". From the outside, this place looked like a dump. It was right beside the highway and had absolutely no charm. But once inside, it was quite nice, very Mexican looking and quite full already, even though we were on the early side. Our meals were delicious. Their specialty is seafood but they did have some vegetarian options as well. They did not disappoint at all. On our way out, we passed a long line of people waiting to get in. We would definitely go back.

We visited the Phoenix Park 'n Swap for the first time and, just like in Total Wines, I was overwhelmed by the sheer size of it. After awhile, it starts to feel repetitive as well, so after two aisles we had made our purchases and decided to get out of the crowds.

The one thing I had wanted to purchase was one of the metal geckos I have seen people put up on the walls of their (more stationary) RVs and home patios. Yeah I know, I just spoke up above about minimizing things, but well, every rule needs to be broken sometimes. After viewing the selections, we decided the best option was this one, the wine bottles and glasses. It's quintessentially who we are - winos wine afficionados.

Overnight spot: Palm Gardens RV Resort, Mesa, ZA
Price: $40.00/night ($19/night with Passport America) Full hookups
Includes: A back-in space, garbage, water, sewer, power, pretty bad Wifi Garbage: individual garbage cans for every site.
Cell & Wifi: Verizon - 4 bars of 4G LTE.
Antenna tv reception: Great!

Maricopa, AZ

On Monday, we drove up from Tucson to Maricopa, AZ, an outlying town in the Phoenix metropolitan area. We pulled into a very full parking lot at the Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino and found a spot in the overflow lot.

After getting the trailer and dogs taken care of, we wandered into the casino where we both lost $20 and left in disgust. No perks at all here. No free play, no free drinks, just a faceful of smoke and 40 bucks down the drain. At least we got a free overnight spot.

The next morning, while walking the dogs, we came across two tiny burrowing owls in the little dirt area between the highway and where we were parking. Teddy got super excited so we pulled him away and Harold set up to get some photos.


They were surprisingly unphased by us. I suppose that's necessary when you're living between a casino parking lot and a highway. I had always thought owls sleep during the day and hunt at night.
I have since found out (Thank you Wikipedia!) that Burrowing owls are different. They do hunt after dark but they are also active during the day. I also learned that due to living in open grasslands, these little guys have developed long legs and can sprint as well as fly when hunting.

As soon as we got our photos, we pulled up roots and made our way to the Palm Gardens RV resort in Mesa, AZ where we stayed last year.


Overnight spot: Harrah's Ak-Chin Casino
Price: Free, No limit, No hookups
Includes: a spot to park
Dump: [View sanidumps.com]
Water: [View sanidumps.com]
Cell & Wifi: Verizon - 4 bars of 4G LTE.
Antenna tv reception: Didn't check.

Tombstone and Bisbee, AZ

On Sunday, my parents offered to look after our dogs while we drove down to Tombstone and Bisbee. We left early, forsaking breakfast to get on the road, but the temperature was already pretty hot. By the time we drove into Tombstone, we were both pretty hungry and the sun was blaring hot.




Cars lined the road into the touristy part of town, but we were lucky and found a good parking spot. We traipsed up the gravel lot into an old western town that was a whole lotta hoopla and not a lot of substance.

They have volunteers all over town dressed as old west citizens and they got right into character, with the floozy women making advances on men and the gunslingers getting ready to fire on each other and us. Harold isn't one of those men who enjoys the wanton attention of floozy women - at least not in front of his wife, so he didn't give them a chance at all. He just pushed on by and got pictures of men who do enjoy their attention.

We had a pretty bland breakfast at one of the old west restaurants and then came outside to see a group of aged bikers roar up on their super fancy Harleys. The couples all appeared to be of retirement age, and spared no expense on looking like official bikers, except with super high end gear and clothing. These were no Sons of Anarchy - this was more like an elderly Town & Country take on living life as a biker. The clincher was watching all the older biker mamas helping each other climb off the backs of their old man's (literally!) hogs. No spry chickens here. I wonder how many actual miles they put on their bikes.

Tombstone was pretty much what we expected, and I don't want to denigrate it but all in all, it felt like a huge tourist trap. Not a big surprise. We had to see it once. Now we're done - and we have the t-shirt to prove it. Next stop Bisbee, AZ. Bisbee started as a copper, silver, and gold mining town in 1880. It was named after Judge DeWitt Bisbee, co-owner of the Copper Queen Mine. Mining was very successful, the population grew exponentially, and suburbs grew up around it. In 1917, miners tried to unionize and in retaliation, the Phelps Dodge Corp. had 1000 of them rounded up and transported to New Mexico. I've read about that happening in other places. I know it happened to railroad workers as well. Workers in the "old days" had little protection and were expected to take a lot of risks. Eventually mining slowed to a crawl and the population moved on to other places. In 1976, the Queen Mine Tour was added as a tourist attraction to make up for the loss of mining in the area and the population rose slightly as a result. In 1970, the artist Stephen Hutchison and his wife Marcia Hutchison purchased the Copper Queen Hotel for $1.00. They renovated it and a number of other downtown buildings and began to advertise it as a tourist destination. The actor John Wayne came to visit often and decided to partner with a developer on ventures in the town. As a result of all the gentrification, hippies and artists flocked to the area. Today, the town is a very livable and walkable town with a great artsy southwest vibe. We drove down the windy hillside Tombstone Canyon road through town and parked at the bottom. First we walked up Brewery Avenue, a winding little alleyway with restaurants, a brewery, an elevated park and old buildings lining the road. I was surprised to see a vegan restaurant and disappointed that we'd already eaten in Tombstone. Unfortunately, WHyld Ass has since relocated to Flagstaff due to low numbers in Bisbee. A little further up we came to a dilapidated building covered in colourful graffitti with an area set aside to leave items for anyone who needs them. Up top was an elevated park, where we witnessed an argument between a few homeless people who had just finished having a feast of found food items. "Bitch, you better not be back anytime soon!" The woman screamed at the man, as he walked away. "Shuddup! Shut yer mouth!" The man yelled back. "Bitch, bitch, bitch! Yer justa bitch, bitch, bitch!" She screech-singsonged. I didn't want to get involved but as always, I have a hard time not watching the drama go on. They just ignored that we were there and I made sure to pretend we weren't noticing. There were a few more parting shots taken by each, then the man was out of sight. The woman turned her attention to the sole person (other than us) who was left, and kept right on yelling about the "Bitch-f'ing-bitch-bitch-bitch-f'er-bitch" who was now long gone. I wanted to know what had happened, but she seemed to be quite upset and potentially dangerous, so we moved on. I didn't want to be her next "Bitch!" We'll just never know. We wound ourselves up and around the hill. A number of the old storefronts had been converted to housing. In one, the front doors were thrown wide open and two musicians sat there, one playing a banjo, the other a mandolin. We stayed to watch for a bit, then moved on, their music following us up the hill. The homes are all old, unique, and built into the sides of the hill and the road seemed to keep going and going. We turned around and came back down. Hot and clammy, it was the perfect time to visit the Old Bisbee brewery. It sits right at the bottom of Review Alley, with the brewery vats in a building on one side of the alley, and the two story tap room on the other. Inside were a few people, but we followed the din of voices from up and outside on the shaded patio. There were so many good selections, so we opted for a sampler of 7 different brews: Father Kino's Sonoran Wheat Beer Classic Pilsner Copper City Ale - definitely the best. If I were to choose one only, it would be this one. Double Hopped IPA Royal Stout - I generally prefer the lighter ales, but this was also very tasty. Root beer - The dark, foam topped one. It was very tasty, but I would have preferred the "Indigenous Holy Grail IPA" it replaced because they were out of it. Salut - The clear water looking one. In 1863 the vineyards that supplied Paris with wine were decimated by aphids and wine became super expensive and rare, so brewers created this wine like beer incorporating peach and elderberries. It became very popular but when the vineyards came back, the French government banned the making of it to protect the wine industry. The brewer here trained in Europe and researched it then recreated it. It's an interesting taste, like a cooler. We preferred the others. We were really torn over buying a growler of beer to take back with us. In the end, we chose a logo beer glass, a photo and our memories. After our beer respite, we wandered up the Tombstone Canyon, visiting the Copper Queen Hotel and a number of small stores. We wound back and forth between the road and side alleyways. The sun was scorching hot now so we tried to stay on the west shaded side. Unfortunately the east side was where most of the interesting stores were so we went back and forth. Once we reached the top, we wandered back down the hill again and finished our hike back at the car in the late afternoon. Overnight spot: Casino del Sol Price: Free, No limit, No hookups Includes: a spot to park Dump: [View sanidumps.com] Water: [View sanidumps.com] Cell & Wifi: Verizon - 4 bars of 4G LTE. Antenna tv reception: Major networks came in fine. Lots of Spanish and Christian channels as usual (I need to learn Spanish. The Mexican dramas look fun to watch, plus it will come in handy when we drive through Mexico).