Monday, November 29, 2021

 

POST #22-03 

 Backroads To Oatman, AZ!

 ...We visit the old mining town on Historic Route 66!

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On Friday, November 26th, we took a day trip to visit Oatman, Arizona.  Got a late start, left our campsite at Davis Park Camp at about 12:20 PM! Sunny and very light winds once we got away from the Colorado River.
 


It was only 18 miles, but a bit of a slow drive, about an hour, due to the rough road.  We arrived at 1:30 PM.  It was CRAZY busy!




Oatman is famous for the friendly Burros that roam the streets looking for a handout, 


As well as being on the old Historic Route 66...


We met some Burros....


And made a friend!


Here is a YouTube Video of the back road drive to Oatman and going through town!

We have given some of you Agave Plants...this shows how big they can get!  They can get even bigger with an 8 to 10 foot spread!  The link explains how to keep it as a houseplant...
 

Anyway, Oatman was super busy and crowded, so we decided to get out of there!  We took the paved road back to Ft Mohave and then back to our campsite on the river...Arrived at 5:30 PM...


Tomorrow, Saturday, November 27th' we will continue south along the Colorado River to the general area of Parker, AZ and try to find a campsite.  We don't have any reservations...we shall see what we find!

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Until Next Time!!


Thursday, November 25, 2021

 

POST #22-02 

 First Three Weeks On The Road!

 ...We head south at a leisurely pace in our rolling cabin!



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We left our home in Billings at about noon on November 4th, 2021.  Got a late start!  the first leg of the trip took us to Ammon, Idaho, where we boondocked in the Cabela's parking lot.  This was further than we usually drive, about 340 miles.  Great weather.  Partly cloudy with light winds...


In the past we have boondocked in the Walmart parking lot in nearby Idaho Falls.  This Cabela's lot was far more quiet and peaceful!  Had a fairly heavy rain in the middle of the night.


The next day, November 5th, at about 10:30 AM we headed out towards Twin Falls, Idaho, with a stop to go through the loop at Craters Of The Moon National Monument And Preserve.  A drive of about 134 miles.  Clear skies, light wind...


We have been by here before, but the loop was closed due to snow.
  

This time we drove through the loop...It was spectacular and very interesting!  To see a video of our drive through the loop CLICK HERE.  We considered camping here but decided to move on because they were expecting temps in the 20s overnight.  So we drove on towards Twin Falls, Idaho...ended up at Hollister, Idaho.


We arrived at about 4:30 PM and stayed at a cool little place called Busters Saloon/Restaurant and RV Park.  


We had a great dinner and an ice cold beer.  The owner smokes the brisket himself onsite and makes his own BBQ sauce.  We had the special, a Brisket BBQ sandwich...It was wonderful!  Highly recommend!  If you're going that way and need to stay somewhere, stop here and eat!

The next day, Saturday, November 6th, we headed out at about 10:30 AM and continued south...destination Ely, Nevada...about 235 miles.  Partly cloudy with light winds.


We arrived about 2:30 PM and stayed overnight at the Ely KOA.  We have stayed here before...it's a nice place but nothing exceptional.


The next morning at about 10:30 AM (seems like we are setting a pattern here!) and continued south without a set destination.  We ended up at Alamo, Nevada, a short drive of about 149 miles.  Sunny, no wind.  We ended up at Picketts RV Park , a block off of Highway 93 at an early 1 PM.  


We wanted to arrive at our next spot early the next day to make sure we found a good campsite so wanted to keep that days drive short.

We left the next day, Monday, November 8th at 11:30 AM.  Another perfect weather day!  Our destination was at the south end of the Moapa Valley, near Overton, Nevada...


Final destination was Snowbird Mesa.  total distance of the drive was only 86 miles...we arrived at 1:20 PM.  Snowbird Mesa is a BLM Dispersed Camping Site.  We found there was no rush to get a site...The place is huge!  We got a great site!  Took this panoramic photo with our new DJI OM4 Smartphone Gimbal.  It's a cool gadget! 


Our site was near the edge of the cliff with a view to the north.  Watch this Drone Footage of our spot on the MesaOr click the photo below..


Bill and Ted enjoyed looking out over the valley too!



We also got some time-lapse video with the DJI OM4 Smartphone Gimbal.  Watch the time-lapse HERE or click on the photo below... 


Snowbird Mesa is cool!  



We spent two days here and will return next time we are in the area!

On Wednesday, November 10th we left the Mesa and headed south towards Lake Mead...Our destination was Callville Bay Marina and Campground.  A distance of about 42 miles.


We passed by two places we have stayed at before, first Valley Of Fire State Park ( looking back we should have stopped and stayed again) and Echo Bay Campground. We passed it by because the lake level in Lake Mead has dropped dramatically since we were last there.  We didn't know about it at the time we were there, but out in the Lake a bit is the final resting place of a WW2 B-29 bomber.  


It was down around 300 feet at the time it went down, and tours out of Las Vegas were taking technical divers on tours of it but now that the Lake is lower and more casual divers can reach it at 110 feet, the Park Service has prohibited any diving on the wreck.

At any rate we reached our final destination for the day of Callville Bay Marina and Campground.



Cool place!  Lots of palm trees and oleander (poisonous) bushes!  Quail came by to visit every day!


Also a nice restaurant overlooking the marina in the bay...




Encountered a little buddy on the sidewalk near the restaurant!



Watch him run in this video...


Been looking for one of these guys all the years we have been coming south...This is the first one!

Callville Bay CG was a fun place..stayed here four days..

On Monday, November 15th at about 9:45 AM we left Calllvile Bay and drove down south to our next destination...about 111 miles, following Highway 95.  Almost crossed into California, but just missed it...Phew!





There is a nice Govt campground...$10 a night with the old folks discount!  That's us!

 

Interesting trees here...this is a eucalyptus tree...


We spent five days at the Katherines Landing Campground.  During the time we were there we went into nearby Bullhead City, AZ to pick up a replacement hotspot that T-Mobile had sent there to replace one we had that failed.  Took 2 trips....first one we waited 1 1/2 hours for them to get to us.  Could see that they would close before they got to us, sow we went back to the camper.  Went back the next day, waited 2 hours for our turn and due to some screw up in their system they couldn't process the return without cancelling the original order and actually ordering a second hotspot even though they had one right there in hand.  After several calls to their "customer service" they couldn't  correct the problem...so after four hours we gave up and left with no working hotspot.  Luckily we had a Verizon hotspot which I was able to activate online!  T-Mobile is a disaster...I could never recommend them!

Anyway on Monday, November 22 at 11 AM we moved 6 miles down the Colorado River...


To Davis Camp Park, a Mojave County, AZ public park.  After we went into Bullhead City to fill up with gas, we got to camp about 12:30.  We picked a spot in the dry camp area, backed right up to the Colorado River.  There was only one other rig in the campground, so we picked a great spot with the cabana on our door side, had lunch and laid down for a short nap before we set up camp... 


When we woke a carload had pulled right next to us, unloaded their stuff onto the picnic table right outside our door and proceeded to make something with fried onions on their tabletop grill.  


30 plus empty spots and they park right next to us!!  So we pulled in the slides, raised the jacks moved down several spots.  The rest of the time they were there they were giving us the evil eye like we were the bad guys!  Oh well!  we ended up with an even better spot anyway!




It's fun here on the river...They raise and lower the discharge from nearby Davis Dam.  Here is a short time-lapse video of the Colorado River rising...Click on the arrow to watch!


A tour boat goes by a few times a day...


It's been very windy here, can't do much so inside here editing videos and working on this Blog!  Click on the arrow to watch some wind!


We will probably stay here a few more days...we have a whole month starting December 1st in Wenden, AZ..about 150 miles away. we may stay here till then, or stop somewhere in between.  We shall see!

Today is Thursday, November 25th...Thanksgiving!  We wish you all a great and safe Thanksgiving!!

Visit our YouTube Channel --- MtMikey for all of our videos! - Please Like and Subscribe! -

Until Next Time!!