Arizona

ARIZONA

After three days of traveling, we are in Arizona and have good cell tower reception. We left Salem on Thursday, November 1, and had good service until we left I-5 and headed through the mountains toward Klamath Falls. All the way from there until we got to I-10 near Quartzsite (167 miles west of Queen Valley) did we have decent cell/Internet reception. There were a lot of areas that were good for phone, but not decent enough to maintain good Internet reception for a long period of time.

Our trip south has been pretty good with great scenery and no real major mishaps. The only real problem we had was just after crossing the Oregon/California border on Thursday, we saw a Red Tail Hawk. He was near the side of the road, but as we got closer, he swooped down in front of us.....note, we were traveling around 60 mph.....anyhow, as he swooped down, then started rising, we thought he was going to miss us by flying over the top of us. Wrong! He hit the upper portion of our windshield just off the middle on the driver's side. We thought for sure he cracked the windshield, but couldn't stop right away to check it out. What I could see from the inside was just a smudge where he hit, and no crack. When we finally did get stopped, Ken checked it out from the outside and could see where the hawk hit, but no damage was done. Guess the good Lord was watching out for us that time. Later that afternoon, we stopped at a nice little town called Likely (likely name...lol). The fire station had a nice large lot where we pulled into, and Ken checked to see if it was ok to stay there. They said no problem as long as the fire trucks could get out (they could). The day was a beautiful sunny day and up to 57 degrees, but as the sun went down, it got cold. We settled in and closed everything up and kept it as warm as we could. We were boondocking, so the only power was from the inverter and generator.

The next morning (Friday) when we got up, it was 30 degrees and frost was everywhere. We turned furnace on and were warm and snug, but it took a while to defrost the windshield. The sun was up and once again, it turned out to be another beautiful sunny day. We took highway 395 to Reno, then I-80 to Fernly where we topped off the fuel tank at a $3.38 a gallon (ouch, but better than Oregon's prices). We then traveled south through Fallon and ended up at a nice little rest stop near Tonapah, Nevada (125 miles north of Las Vegas). Our high that day was 68, but with our elevation being about 5,500 feet, we knew it was going to be another cold night. It really didn't get cold until after 4 in the morning. When we got up, it was 35 degrees and no frost. Just a nice clear sunny morning.

Saturday was another uneventful drive as we went south through Las Vegas (just before noon) and on to Laughlin where we stopped at Avi Resort & Casino RV Park. What a difference in temperature as we got further south. Laughlin was 75 when we parked the coach and got settled in. The Avi is a few miles south of the town of Laughlin on the Mojave Indian Reservation and it is nice place to spend the night (or several days for that matter). They have a nice casino right on the river with a beautiful sandy beach. At about 9 pm, they have a fire works display that lasts for quite a while. They also have an extensive fireworks store where you can purchase a huge array of goodies (no we did not buy any).

After we had parked and got settled in our site, we found out from a friend that there had been a 100 car pile up near Fresno due to dense fog. Normally, we would have been on I-5 or even highway 99 near Fresno when the accident happened, but because Ken wanted to go a more scenic way, we weren't anywhere near the accident. Guess the good Lord was still watching over us.

Will post more once we get settled and have some pictures to show.