Seeking Warmer Weather

Sept 19th we left Wallowa Lake to begin our journey to Las Vegas, NV, where we will put the RV in winter storage.  In the meantime, we will take our time & continue to see the sights as we go along.  Our first stop was another Oregon State Park just outside a town called John Day.  It was a nice quiet park with plenty of grass, which we like.  We wanted to visit the John Day Fossil Beds.



 



This is one of the richest fossil beds on Earth & some of the fossils recovered there go back millions of years.  They had a really nice Visitor’s Center with exhibits & an informative film.



When you look at the tiny seeds & bones recovered, you can only imagine the patience & work that  has gone into finding these things.  The rock formations & colors here were also very unusual.

 
We also paid a visit to a rather unusual museum, called Kam Wah Chung Heritage Center.


                   

It was the home/business of 2 Chinese men who came to Oregon during a gold rush.  One was a DR, who became well known for his healing herbs & cures. 
               

The other a business man.  When the second one died it was sealed as is.  It has now become an Oregon State Heritage Sight.  It has everything left as it was in 1948. I practically had to drag Collins there but I thought it was very interesting.
After leaving John Day, we passed thru Bend, OR & started feeling cold temps.  We stopped for what we thought would be an overnight near the border of OR & CA & ended up staying 5 nights.

View from the RV Park

             

The winds decided to blow & we had gusst up to 80 mph.  There was no way we were going on the road in that kind of  wind!!

After leaving OR, we decided on a stop in Carson City, NV.  We camped in the parking lot at the Golden Nugget for a few days.  Carson City is a nice, clean small town with easy access to Virginia City, 

           

The Silver Queen

         


          


We also decided to make a stop in Lake Tahoe.  We took one day for a trip around the Lake.  Since it was the beginning of Oct, there weren’t a lot of people around.


            
            

We were kind of between seasons for them.  Too late for boating & swimming & too early for skiing.  However, the morning we were leaving, we woke up to snow flakes!  That wasn’t in our plan!  It had started snowing in the mountains & we did encounter snow as we drove along the east side of the Sierra Nevada Mts.  Unfortunately, because of the snow, we really didn’t have any views of the mountains.  Luckily for us, the roads were warm enough that none of it was sticking to them.

I wanted to go to Death Valley.  Our timing wasn’t so good, because it was during the government shutdown.  I guess because the main highway thru it runs from CA to NV they at least had to keep that open.

            

           

          
        

We had planned to stay in one of their campgrounds a couple nights, but of course, that didn’t happen.  Most of what you want to see are the rock formations, etc.  So we pretty much saw everything from the road.  There were a couple spots that looked like big lakes, but as we got closer, I realized it was more like white sand. 
       
They are salt flats & borax.  The salt is almost pure table salt & the borax was actually mined there in the 1880’s (think 20 Mule Team Borax).  Borax is often used as a laundry additive. 
       

I thought Death Valley would be a huge desert, which it is, but I didn’t expect the interesting mountains & rock formations.  I was glad we were able to at least drive thru it.

Here are some pics of Las Vegas as we came into town.

         
          

Nov. 24^th The last 75 days have been relatively uneventful. After traveling over 6,000 miles in 90 days thru Canada & Alaska, which is the distance we would normally travel in 8 months, we decided a good rest was in order. We snuggled into a great  location in Las Vegas with beautiful weather & stayed for six weeks. Now this isn’t to say we did nothing; we were, in fact, busy with a lot of putzing. Not only did we get back into our fitness center routine, but we also treated the RV to a major once over. This included washing & polishing the entire outside, not a small task for a 41’ long 12’ high rig, as well as changing all the gas, oil & air filters, greasing the chassis, buffing out all the little scratches accumulated over the last two years, polishing the chrome wheel rims (a two day task in itself), cleaning the entire inside and finally, much the same for the car.  


Our RV spot in Las Vegas

Southwest Landscaping

         

Southwest Landscaping

          

Las Vegas Sunset

Being concerned that all of the mountain travels may have affected the RV’s brakes, we brought it to a Freightliner representative who advised us the four drums & all pads required replacing: a $3,300 cost. For several reasons we felt this report was questionable & therefore took the RV to a second site. After pulling the six wheels & drums, the tech pointed out that the rear tires hadn’t been previously removed & that, in fact, all of the drums were in great shape & we might want to replace the two front pads only because they were showing minor cracks. $800 later we were on our way.     We visited the Vegas strip two times &, after asking around for recommendations on the best show, we saw “Vegas the Show”.   

Dancing Waters at the Bellagio

Eiffel Tower at the Paris Hotel

         

Decorations at the Venetian Hotel

      
 

Lobby at the Venetian Hotel

 
                 Karen did her normal wheeling & dealing and got us second row dead center seats, no more than 10 feet from the stage. Thoroughly enjoyed the show but walking the strip itself was a disappointment. Now you have huge hotels spread out for miles verses the smaller, closer places of old where you easily walked from place to place along a street lit up like Disneyworld .  We did see several hundred Marines in their Dress Blues, in town from Pendleton (California) to celebrate the Marine Corp Birthday. Few realize the Corp is the oldest United States military service, most people thinking it would be the Army. They look so young, like they should be home making out with their girl & not in uniform adding to their chest of ribbons by going in harm’s way. Karen then reminds me that was me 50 years ago; doesn’t seem possible.  

Downtown Las Vegas

           

They have an LED Light Show on a canopy over the street

           Adding to the disappointment was our trip to the TV show “Pawn Stars” store. It’s in an older, industrial part of town, the outside needs paint, it’s small, nothing to write home about & none of the “stars” were around.            There is one geological site we really enjoyed: Valley of Fire. It’s about 40 miles outside Las Vegas &, upon coming around a curve in the road, you see hills and mountains the colors of fire. Wind, rain & millions of years have solidified the then sand into rock & carved beautiful features into the remaining faces. After four years on the road, one can’t but be awed at the sites created over ions to the U.S. landscapes. This, & meeting so many nice people, is a large part of what traveling is all about.                        We are presently in Altus, Oklahoma and it’s snowing (3” so far). Snuggles is having a blast in it and acts like it’s her private playground.                        We changed our original plans to leave the RV in Vegas once Karen realized Altus put us a thousand miles closer to Illinois & a better jumping off place for next year’s schedule. Although the snow and cold was a surprise to the weather forecaster & us, it was a good thing we made the move. While the mountain passes between Vegas & Altus were rough when we came thru them, with a semi-trailer & RV flipped over by the strong winds, they are that much worse now with the unexpected snow, ice & winds. Winter is early.  We left for IL the day after Thanksgiving.  Luckily for us, the weather was beautiful & we had an uneventful journey.