Friday – March 31 – Happy Birthday Mike! We started out by going to Cracker Barrel for breakfast and calling Mike to wish him a happy birthday – it’s hard to believe our baby is 34 now!!

We decided to go to Oatman, an old Ghost Mining Town which was born in 1906 as a tent camp, and flourished as a gold mining centre until the 1940’s. It produced over 36 million dollars in gold at 1930 prices.

We decided to take Route 66 to Oatman and what a drive. The first 20 or so miles were through a valley, then we started to go up, and up and up we climbed with many hairpin turns along the way. We reached Sitgreaves Pass at an elevation of 3550’ and what a view from the top of the pass. On the way up I decided that there would be no way I could do the Baja Peninsula if this is what the drive would be like, I did not like the drop offs with no shoulders and to look down gave me the willies. To look straight out was okay and the scenery was beautiful, there are so many different shapes etc. to the mountains but I found it a very nerve wracking drive. At one point we met a motor home on a hairpin turn – he had a lot more nerve than we did to try a drive like that with such a large rig. It is extremely hard to believe that at one time this was the main east/west route.

Otaman was much like Tombstone with a gunfight on the main street (at least here we didn’t have to pay to watch it) and numerous stores selling mainly the same things. There were wild (?) burros roaming the main street looking for carrots and posing for pictures. It was evident that life there would have been very tough during its heyday.

After Oatman we drove to Bull Head City then crossed the river to Laughlin. The casinos were everywhere and looked very interesting but we didn’t stop and go into any – saving that for Las Vegas.

We came back via Highway 68 which again was very scenic and mountainous, but at least it was a divided 4 lane highway and therefore much easier to drive. When we left Laughlin the temperature was 24C and when we got back here it was 12C. That’s what the difference in elevation can do. The other problem here is that again I have no cell phone service, what a pain!!
 
In the Valley on Route 66 Posted by Picasa
 
And Another View Posted by Picasa
 
Another View from the Top Posted by Picasa
 
View from Top of Pass Posted by Picasa
 
Sitgreaves Pass Posted by Picasa
 
Main Street the Other Way Posted by Picasa
 
View of Main Street, Oatman Posted by Picasa
 
Wild (?) Burros in Oatman Posted by Picasa
 
Oatman Fire Department Posted by Picasa
Thursday – March 30 – Today was nice and we were on the road about 10. We got to Blake Ranch RV Park which is about 12 miles east of Kingman about 1:00. We were given a spot beside our twin, another 34’ Airstream. We talked to the fellow who has it for a bit while we were getting unhooked, then after we got set up we went into Kingman and found Wal Mart,did some shopping and then drove around a bit.

When we came back I did a couple of loads of laundry, now that is done for a few more days. The laundry room here is brand new, they just redid it and there are all new machines and it has only been re-opened for 2 days, so it was a good experience. Also, it was cheap, $1.00 per load to either wash or dry.

The weather here is much cooler than we are used to, hope it warms up a bit. We actually had to put the heater on tonight and it is supposed to go down to the 40’s overnight. I guess we have just been spoiled for the last two months and have gotten too used to the hot temperatures.
Wednesday – March 29 – It was cloudy this morning but cleared off and turned sunny in the late morning. We went to Parker and filled up with fuel and then stopped and got a few groceries. When we got back we got ready to leave in the morning, John got us all hooked up so it will be easy to get rolling in the morning. We then went down to the clubhouse to use the internet and got caught up on e-mail etc.
Tuesday – March 28 – Today is quite overcast and we have had a few brief rain showers which haven’t really amounted to anything. John has done some reading and I have started a crochet project – a beach cover up, so basically it has been a lazy day. We went for a walk around the park to get some exercise then down to the hall to use the internet, talk about a quiet day.

A few rv’s headed out this morning and there are a lot getting ready to go and leaving on Thursday. After being here for the winter some of them have a lot of packing up to do as a number of them have sunrooms which have to come off, boats to get on their trailers, etc. so it has been a hive of activity around the park the last few days.

We think we will just wait and take our time leaving on Thursday as we are only going about 80 miles, so will let the parade get out before we try to leave. Most of them will be heading north also and the road has been a steady stream of rv’s for the last few days. When we went to Quartzsite on Sunday about 75% of the northbound traffic was rv’s.
Monday – March 27 – We have decided to stay here until Thursday when we will head to Kingman for a few days. This morning the last trailer on our road left and we now have a wonderful view of the river from our trailer, we can sit here and watch all the boats go by.

Today we crossed the Parker Dam into California and took a 10 mile drive to Black Meadow RV Park. It was quite the scenic drive, the road was paved but very twisty and turney, with lots of ups and downs. There is a large reservoir up in the mountains, it looks like they pump water from Lake Havasu up to this reservoir, then we could see pipes going up the mountain so they obviously pump it somewhere from there. On the way to the park we had 3 coyotes cross the road in front of us.

The park had a mesa in it with a 5 hole golf course and trailers around the lake side of the course, what a beautiful view they had and very nice, large sites up there. The rest of the park was not as nice, the sites were very close together, especially the premium waterfront sites. Trailers with their awnings out had their awnings almost touching the trailer next door, you would sure want to be on friendly relations with your neighbours!! We also found 3 burros munching grass on the tent sites (there were no tents there). On the way back we saw four wild burros up on a hill, someone said there are a lot of them over there but for some reason there don’t appear to be any on the Arizona side of the river – go figure. All in all, we didn’t think the park was worth the drive in to go and stay there but it was interesting to see it and do the drive once.
 
Burro on Tent Site Posted by Picasa
 
View of Lake Havasu from Mesa at Black Meadows Posted by Picasa
 
A Pretty Cactus Posted by Picasa
Sunday - March 26 – We couldn’t believe how nice it was last evening, we sat out until after 10 talking to our neighbours, who are from Dryden. They have been coming here for 3 years now and said we are only the second people from Ontario who have been here in this park, it is a long ways so there are few people from Ontario down here, but lots from the western provinces.

Today we went back to Quartzsite and what a difference, pretty well all the peddlers have packed up and left, there were only a few die hards left. We wandered through the stalls of those left and picked up a couple of bargains. On the way back we stopped at a couple of grocery stores in Parker then came back and sat outside and enjoyed the nice warm weather.