Plans Change

We are now in Snowbird RV Park in Fort Mohave, Arizona on the south end of Bullhead City. This wasn't our original plan but... plans change. Last Sunday when I wrote, we were in Apache Junction and just had a wonderful dinner with friends, Mike and Jackie. On Monday we had dinner with more friends, Wes and Carol. Wes was my boss when I worked in construction during college oh so many years ago. In fact, Wes was one of the prime movers in me getting to college at all. We had not seen him for at least 25 years -- maybe longer. So it was fun to visit for a few hours and we look forward to more visiting next year.

Instead of leaving that area the next day as we originally planned, we decided to stay longer and see the area around the Superstition Mountains. So we hooked up the Alpenlite Palace and moved 5 miles out to Lost Dutchman State Park right at the base of the mountains. Beautiful! We drove up to Tortilla Flats -- a gorgeous drive up the Apache Trail (now highway 88). I bought Joyce lunch in the Superstition Saloon (don't tell the superintendent!). Actually it is more restaurant than saloon but they do have a bar and if you choose to sit at that location the bar stools are saddles. Funky, huh? The walls are plastered the one dollar bills that people have left along with their name or business card. The next day we hiked a trail to see the poppies in bloom. We were 7 to 14 days too early to really see the desert in its finest blooming glory.

Wednesday came and we headed to Prescott to see Marilyn and her family. She and the kids attended Allen Creek while we were there. Actually she started attending two Sundays after we did. So we had dinner with them both Wednesday and Thursday evenings. When I say "them," I mean Marilyn, Joy, Nelson, and Marilyn's mother Polly. The rest of the family is married and still living in Grants Pass. It was fun to visit for awhile. We were close to them when they went through some hard times.

On Friday... instead of going southwest to Quartzsite and then north to Lake Havasu City we changed plans again and left early in the morning for Williams so we could take the train into Grand Canyon National Park. Yes! train ride. This was a special treat for us and it was a fabulous day. We left the campground at 7:20 (I'm sure everyone was glad when I got that diesel out of there) so we would have plenty of time. We did. We had time to look around the gift shop, drink a cuppa coffee, and watch a wild west shootout. These Arizonans like there shootouts! When we got to the park we only had 3 1/2 hours before the train headed back so we took a bus tour which enabled us to see more than if we were walking. After the tour we took our box lunch (which they gave (?!?!?) us) and walked to the rim of the canyon to eat in full view of God's wondrous splendor. The weather was beautiful -- about 55 to 60 degrees and sunny. Now the nights... that was different. It had been dropping to about 15 to 20 degrees at night. So we didn't stay in Williams. When the train got in we fired up the F250 and headed for warmer climes. Which was Blake Ranch RV Park, 12 miles east of Kingman. We got in there at 8:00 which is a lot later than we usually stop but this was an exception.

Now, I have a question for you who know about these things. I wasn't really worried about the interior of the RV freezing because I can use an electric heater to keep the inside warm. But the RV is not arctic equipped and I worry about the drain lines freezing. My question... will they? How cold does it have to get? The gray water drain (that's the sink and shower for you who need to know) is a 1 1/2 inch plastic pipe about 18 inches long. The black water drain (toilet!) is a 3 inch pipe about 18 inches long. I'm not really worried about the storage tanks freezing overnight but if the drain pipes are full of the color appropriate "stuff," what does it take for them to freeze? That why we didn't stay in Williams -- or even in the Grand Canyon RV Park. In Prescott, it was supposed to get really cold so I left the drains open the first night but since we were leaving early the next morning I didn't want to deal with a frozen drain hose. What I did was invest in a gallon of RV antifreeze and dumped it in the tanks. Did I need to? I await your sage advise.

It is beautifully warm here in Bullhead City -- but also a little windy this weekend. We attended church at the Nazarene just down the road then went to Laughlin. If you are not looking at a map, Bullhead City, AZ and Laughlin, NV are just across the Colorado River from each other. Since Laughlin is in Nevada, it is a casino town -- Bullhead City is the bedroom community. I took Joyce to a couple of the casinos just to look around... and to eat brunch (good prices). I'm really corrupting her -- first a saloon, then a gambling hall. Oh, my! Our next stop will be Las Vegas. I think.

Well, stay tuned. We have found some warm. Maybe we'll stay here! Who knows?

(PS: my blogger spell checker doesn't work sometimes so if you see any errors just call them typos -- they couldn't be because of my spelling ability!)