Arizona Bound

This evening we are in Laughlin, Nevada spending the night at Avi Casino RV Park. We left Salem at 10:30 Monday morning and drove south to Eugene where we merged onto hwy 58 going east across the mountains to hwy 97. All of the trees turning different colors of yellows and oranges made the trip so much nicer than staying on boring I-5. The highway was clear until we neared the summit where we ran into very wet, grimy, melting snow. Thankfully, it was melting and not icy. It was that way until we crossed the summit and headed down the east side. We were clean until then…..well, you can imagine what our Jeep looked like.

The rest of the day was uneventful. We crossed the OR/CA border about 3:30 and traveled through Alturas, CA to a small town called “Likely,” where we spent the night in the Fire Department’s parking lot. We weren’t the only ones to use that site. Another coach along with a semi hauling a long trailer also stopped there for the night. Surprisingly, it was very quiet because everyone going through the town had to slow to 25 mph.

After a good night’s rest and waking to a cool 34 degrees, we were once again on the road. Again, the day was sunny and clear with temperatures topping out in the high 60s. We crossed the CA/NV border about 10 am and drove south on hwy 395 to I-80 in Reno, then east on I-80 to Fernley where we fueled up for $3.56 a gallon (we took on 65 gallons--ouch). Once out of Fernley, we took hwys 50 and 95 south through Hawthorne and stopped at Miller’s Rest Stop (3 pm), which is about 5 miles south of Tonapah. Because of the nice weather, all the bugs were out and our windshield was a mess, so Ken washed it, then tackled the Jeep’s windshield. What a mess! The grime from Oregon was a mixture of dirt, gravel, and salt, along with the melted snow. The windows and the rest of the Jeep were like sandpaper. He couldn’t do anything about the Jeep itself, so had to wait until we got to Laughlin where we were able to find a car wash and get most of the grime off. It still needs more cleaning, but at least now, you can see the real color of it.

At the rest area, it turned out to be a beautiful evening. The sunset was awesome and watching the full moon rise in the east was even more beautiful. Even took a couple of pictures. These are just of the moon!



The temperature, which actually topped 72, quickly dropped and we closed everything up and called it a night. The rest area is strictly for cars and RVs, so no trucks were allowed to enter and we had a very nice quiet night along with the security of other RVers staying beside us.

This morning (Wednesday), we woke to 33 degrees, but everything was clear and bright. The Sun was out all the way south through Las Vegas and on to Laughlin. At Vegas, we were surprised to see that most of the freeway was finished and clear of workers. Traffic was even pretty light as we got to the north part of town (10:30 am). However, just as we got toward the southern end of the freeway, we encountered a traffic jam.



As it turned out, there had been a minor fender bender and the traffic cleared as soon as we got past it. Temperature was up in the 70s when we drove through Vegas, but as we got closer to Laughlin, it was getting warmer. When we got here, it was 88 (what a change from this morning).

We are now settled in for the night and will be pulling out early in the morning and hope to be in our site in Queen Valley sometime late afternoon.