Route 66 Kingman, AZ Christmas 2013

Since we had never been in the Kingman, AZ area, which also has some of the original Route 66, we decided to spend a few days checking out the area.

We checked into Blake Ranch RV Park, about 12 miles east of Kingman, on Saturday and got all settled in for a few days.  The park was rather quick as it was the Christmas holiday.  There were a few snowbirds and there were a few overnighters coming and going.  Nice campground and great for overnighting.

On Sunday we took a little road trip to the old mining town of Oatman, AZ. 

This little town has some tourist attractions including some regular residence, burros, who will beg for food at every opportunity.

One of them even befriended Robin even though she didn't have any food to offer.

Several of the old store fronts now offer all kinds of touristy stuff including some really nice local art and crafts.

The scenery was great on the way up and back.

The next day we headed in the other direction to the little town of Seligman, AZ for some breakfast at the Road Kill Café.

A review of the menu was on the wall when we entered.

We had breakfast and then headed out of some of the original Route 66 that would take us back into Kingman.

The next day was Christmas Eve so we stayed in the RV park and Robin fixed us a great Prime Rib dinner with mashed tators and veggie.. YUM!!!!
Christmas Day we got up early and headed home as Robin had to be at work the next day.
The trip home was uneventful except for and occasional wind gust. 
An end to another great mini vacation.  MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!
See you next year.

Here is a link to more of the pictures we took along the way, enjoy!

More Route 66

Annual Thanksgiving Weekend at Lakeside RV Park in Pahrump, NV.

This has become an annual event for us every year on Thanksgiving weekend.  I think this is our fourth year going to this RV Park.

We started out at our usual 4am depart time, the weather was good. 

Our first stop in Peggy Sue's Diner, north of Barstow, for breakfast and to also give Buddee his breakfast and walk.  We arrived at the Diner a little before 6am so we fed Bud and he got his walk in before we had breakfast, Diner opens at 6am.

With everyone fed we are off to Pahrump.  We go to Baker and hang a left headed to Shoshone.  It is a nice two lane road across the desert.  It is usually a busy weekend for off-roaders dry camping along the road.  This year was no different and we saw several little cities of all kinds of RV's and off road vehicles along the road.

We hung a right at Shoshone and arrived at Lakeside RV Park in Pahrump at about 10am.

We love this campground for its fall colors.

 

After we got checked-in and got setup we called friends who have recently retired to the community of Pahrump.  We then joined Eldon and Nancy for a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner at Preferred RV Park in Pahrump.  We had a great time visiting and enjoying the traditional Turkey and dressing.

Usually we head into Death Valley for a day trip of sightseeing, but this year we decided to check out Mt Charleston and the snow.  It is nice to just visit snow and not have to live in it.
So Friday that's what we did.  It was a nice drive and I have added a few photos of the day trip.

 

 

 This is heading up Kyle Canyon with Mt Charleston up ahead.

 

 

 As we got closer the snow got deeper.

 This was up at the Lodge area.  We didn't see any ski lifts open, but did see some sledding going on.

 The return trip back to the main highway we headed down Lee Canyon.

 

On Saturday we met with Eldon and Nancy at the Nugget for a morning brunch and then they joined us at the MH for a nice afternoon visit.

Sunday we were up early and headed for home after a great weekend.

 

 

 

Grand Tetons-Yellowstone Trip

We started our two week vacation on May 25th heading for two days and three nights in the Grand Tetons NP and six days visiting Yellowstone NP.

First night stop in Cedar City UT at the KOA we got up at 3am and were on the road by 4am.  Arrived at the campground without incident and got setup for the night. 

Got up and on the road by 9am the next morning heading for Traveland RV park in Logan UT for our second overnight stop. Unfortunately our second day of travel was not without incident. 
Just south of Salt Lake City the passenger front tire tread separated from the tire doing 65mpg down Interstate 15.  Let me tell you there was several more gray hairs added to my head.  We managed to limp off the freeway and called Good Sam Roadside Assistance.
They managed to find a new tire and have it on the rim and back on the RV in four hours.  Whew!!!  Don't want to do that again. Still managed to make it to our destination on the same night.

Here is a picture of the tire!

 



The next day we got to our first destination, The Grand Tetons NP.  This park has some fantastic views and very majestic mountains.  It is very hard to put into words so I hope that the pictures will do it a little more justice. I will admit the pictures do only so much and they can't show the views like being there in person.  We spent two days and three nights in the park, staying at the Colter Bay RV park.  Nice park with Full Hookups and close to the Jackson Lake Marina.  We did have rain while we were there so there wasn't much sunshine but we still managed to do what we wanted to do while we were there.  Most of the rain was at night so it made for some good sleeping weather. They said there was a resident fox but we didn't see it while we were there.

   

 

Then we were on our way to Yellowstone NP.  This is one of our favorite parks, so far.  We love all the animals that we see when we go there. We setup up our home base at Grizzly RV Park in West Yellowstone. Nice RV Park with Full Hookups.  One of the reasons we decided to do a spring visit was being able to see all the young animals and to avoid the mosquito population.  The weather is a little cooler but that is okay with us.  I would much rather use the furnace a little in the morning and evening than having to use the A/C.  The sleeping is much better also.  We spent most days inside the park driving around and checking out all the animals. One of the best viewing areas for animals is the Lamar Valley area on the Northeast side of the park.  One day we spent staying in West Yellowstone, we did some shopping and Robin did some laundry.  The last day we were in West Yellowstone we took a little side trip to Mesa Falls Scenic Byway in Idaho, about thirty miles from West Yellowstone.  It was a nice little scenic drive with two stops at two awesome waterfalls.  The last falls we stopped at, the Ranger Station had a scope set up watching an Osprey nest with Mom sitting on her eggs.  Pretty cool to see.

 

 

Rancho Jurupa Campground

Last weekend we had the opportunity to check out a new local campground in Riverside county.  It is a county park, website here .  It is only a 40 mile drive from the house so it makes a good weekend getaway.  Though it might be considered an urban park it has a nice country feel to it. 

The campground itself has two camping areas,

Cottonwood loop, the newer of the two, which is where we stayed.  This loop is much nicer than the Lakeview loop, but it is a little further away from the lake, It is still within walking distance.   It offers FHU and free wifi and cable. So it has lots to offer for a county campground.

Lakeview loop, I am not sure of the amenities of this loop, but it definitely has more mature shades trees.  In the summer that would definitely be a plus. 

As I mentioned it also has a stocked lake, and I actually saw someone carrying a nice stringer of fish.

There are also a couple of kids playgrounds in the day use area and a mini golf course.

The sites are good sized and if you review the campground map carefully you can find some that have large grassy areas around them like Site# 217, the one we were in.

Across the street there is a big sport park, we did not check it out.  Sounded to much like work.

We were both getting over a cold so we stayed pretty close to the site and just sat and enjoyed the sunshine.  The weekend ended in a very windy night that had us chasing our patio furniture around at 2am.

It was a nice campground and one we will definitely be going to again.  One thing you might want to consider is that it will probably get rather warm in the summer months.

Didn't take to many pictures, but enjoy the few I did take.