Tuesday January 2nd 2018

Today started with a heavy cloud cover. If I were in another atea of the country I’d say it was about to rain. Here in Las Vegas it just meant a cloudy day. It has been 110 days since there has been any measurable rain here in the valley. That’s a new record. The forecast actual admits to the possibility of rain this weekend. At the end of the day the sun broke through in the western sky.

Selection of palm trees around the RV park laundry.

The weather has a big influence on my energy level. The cloudy start to the day caused me to role over and sleep for another hour or so. Once I did get up I was moving at a snails pace most of the day. I never got my energy level up high enough to leave the RV park. Instead I worked on a continuation of yesterday’s cleanup tasks and did some more travel planning.

I have the start and end of my trip back to Florida laid out. The middle is proving a little more challenging. The first couple of weeks of February are proving difficult to lock in. The Mardi Gras celebration is in full swing during that period in the area I need to travel through. East Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi and coastal Alabama have parades and parties leading up to February 13th. I would like to spend a few days in the area, but it may prove difficult based on a sample size of one. I tried to make reservations at one place and was informed I was several months too late. Based on the delivery of the response, I don’t want to stay there anyway.

I’m going to keep looking at my options. The worst case will mean moving through that area quickly with only one night stays. I have reservations from the middle of February through the first week of April at various places. I’m assuming that Florida will be a little easier to find places to stay after the middle of April. Easter on April first means many snowbirds will have already headed north. I plan to head north on the west side of the Appalachians at the end of April or the beginning of May. I’m looking at stops in Chattanooga and Nashville Tennessee then moving through Kentucky into Indiana. Many of the campgrounds in the north don’t start taking reservations until the staff gets back from warmer places.

While I was exploring all of my immediate travel plans, I also put some research into next winter. I plan to stay in Florida next winter. Given the popularity of the location, now is not too soon to start thinking about reservations. I need to decide if I’m going to stay in one place for several months or move around every couple of weeks. Staying in one place for multiple months probably means the center of the state. It’s a cheaper location and it has more options for day trips. I need to decide before too long, the reservation window for the state parks is 11 months. Some of the more popular state parks are already booked for the first two weeks of December.

The late day sun on the west side of the mountain to the east of the park. The sky to the east behind the mountain is still thickly cloud covered.

Monday January 1st 2018

Happy New Year!

It was a late night yesterday. I was working on my long year end Blog post while “watching” the New Years Eve Celebrations on the TV. Coverage started at eight leading up to the ball drop in New York City and then followed the new year across the country. That’s different than my experience in the eastern time zone. The three hundred thousand plus people visiting Las Vegas got to see fireworks launched from the tops of seven hotels at midnight. I watched them on TV and then looked out the window to see if they were visible from my RV home. The fireworks were visible in the distance low to the horizon. Neither the TV version or the window version kept my attention long. I love watching fireworks but not on TV or apparently distant ones low to the horizon.

The bottom line is I got to bed very late and I got up early to watch the Rose Parade at eight. I’ve been falling asleep at every opportunity since I got out of bed. The first was during the Rose Parade. I didn’t really see any of it. I should have stayed in bed.

It was a nice mid sixties day. I worked around the RV picking things up and throwing things away. The Christmas decorations are now down. The things I’ll keep for another season are put away and the others are waiting for the RV park dumpsters to have room. The cheap little artificial tree will go in the dumpster tomorrow after it is emptied. I wasn’t the only one taking down decorations. On my walks around the park I saw several people similarly engaged. The park staff will probably start taking down the club house decorations later in the week. They were not turned on tonight.

I am now in full blown get ready to travel mode. I leave here in a little over two weeks. I’m starting to re-arrange stuff in the outside storage bins and hopefully throw out the stuff that I shouldn’t be carrying around the country. If I haven’t used an item in the last two plus years, I probably don’t need it. I also need to make an appointment with the mobile lube company to change the oil in the motorhome. It is very convenient to have someone come to you rather than trying to find a place to take the big RV. I had it done here last spring.

First sunset of the year.

Sunday December 31st 2017

Happy New Year.

This blog entry is a look back at the year 2017.  Be warned this is a long entry.   I put over 7,000 miles on the motorhome and many more on the Honda CR-V. Starting the year in Florida I spent at least one night in ten states, traveled through 2 more and did the tourist thing in 2 others. That doesn’t include the long weekend I flew to North Carolina during July.

Over the course of the year I learned that I have to plan better. At this time last year my plan was to spend January in Florida, March in Arizona for spring training and the rest of the year traveling in the area west of the Rockies and east of the Sierras. My only specific goal for the summer was to visit Glacier National Park. Sometime in March I added in the plan to be near a major airport at the end of July. That turned out to be Salt Lake City, Utah.

The thing that complicated the plan were finding places to stay. In the popular areas I was touring it is necessary to make reservations a long time ahead of time. When I departed my month long stay in Arizona, I tried an approach of making reservations no more than a week or two ahead of time. I wanted to be flexible. What happened is I had to settle for what I could get. It was often shorter in duration than I wanted, at a less than ideal place or in an entirely different direction. I enjoyed everything, but ended up rushing my visit to some areas, grouping other areas into a single stop and spending longer in some places than made sense. As I breakdown the year in rest of this blog entry hopefully it will become clear. Use the monthly archives on the right of the blog page to visit the details of each month for additional information.

January

I started the year with a month long stay at the Tampa South RV Resort. It is located in Ruskin Florida at the southern end of Tampa Bay. This location allowed me to explore the Bradenton and the south bay. The manatee viewing area at the Tampa Power and Light generating plant in Apollo was fun to visit. I also took advantage of the location to attend the Tampa RV Super Show.

Manatee moving under the viewing platform.

Today’s Pelican Picture

Horses and riders back at the shore.

February

I spent the first three quarters of February in the northeast corner of Florida completing a few things relative to my Florida domicile. Since I didn’t have reservations ahead of time, I had to move several times. The last moves for the Presidents Day holiday were well into Georgia.

The last week of February was spent crossing the country to Arizona. I had several long driving days to complete the transit in time for my March 1st reservation. I was introduced to the western winds in New Mexico. I had to hole up and wait for the wind to die down before completing my travels.

March

The month of may was spent at the Silverado RV Resort in Eloy Arizona. It’s located just south of Casa Grande about halfway between Tuscon and Pheonix. The area of desert is irrigated and cultivated for a number of different crops.

During the month I attended several spring training games on the east side of Phoenix. Most of the games were at Salt River Fields at Talking Stick in the Scottsdale area. The Arizona Diamondbacks and Colorado Rockies are based at the facility. The other game was in Tempe AZ at the home of the Los Angeles Angels.

Strike three and he’s out.

It was a busy month of touring. I also toured the following.

• The Sonora Desert Museum
• The Boyce Thompson Arboretum
• The Pima Air and Space Museum
• The Titan Missile Museum

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F-18 used by Blue Angels

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Organ Pipe Cactu’s

I also spent a week commuting to the Escapees Escapade at the Pima county fair grounds. This was a last minute add on to my plans. In the middle of February I realized it was going to be in the area during the event. You don’t get the full experience as a commuter, but I enjoyed the seminars and entertainment. I also bought a few necessary items from the vendors.

April

After a month’s stay in one place I was ready to get moving again. I started slowly moving west in Arizona during the first half of the month with stays on the Colorado River and in the Kingman Az area. In Kingman I explored some of historic route 66 from Kingman to Oatman AZ. Watching the old west shootout in Oatman with the wild burros wandering trough the crowds was a memorable event.

The second half of April was spent in Las Vegas. I was in vacation for most of my stay. I saw several shows and toured the Valley of Fire State Park and the Spring Preserve Botanical gardens. Using the flexibility in my schedule I extended my stay in Las Vegas for a third week to see another show.

The valley floor transitions quickly to rock in the Valley of Fire State Park.

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Petroglyphs on the stone face.

White sand on along the trail in the area of the white rocks.

Rock formation at Valley of Fire State Park.

May

On the first of May I started north. I had successfully reserved a site in the Reno area for about a week. Once I found all of the interesting things to do in the area I attempted to extend the reservation for another week, but could only get three more days. I packed a lot of touring of Reno and the Lake Tahoe area. It was a little early to be visiting this area. The snow still covered the peaks and the tourist things around Lake Tahoe had closed for the winter season and hadn’t opened for the summer season.

View out the front window of the car of a mountain on the west side of the lake that I will be navigating around in a little while.

Marker buoys waiting to moor all of the summer boats.

Long west bound freight train. It had three engines in the front and one at the rear.

I traveled east from Reno on Interstate 80 when I left the area. The second day of travel at altitude east of Elko Nevada I got to experience driving my Motorhome in whiteout snow conditions. I stopped for the night in Wells NV to let the squal line pass, before heading north to Idaho.

The Twin Falls, ID area was a pleasant surprise. The Snake River Canyon, Shoshone Falls and all of the agricultural land were not what I had expected to find. This is another area that I will return to. I couldn’t stay longer because of the Memorial Day holiday. To find a place to stay I had to move another one hundred plus miles north east in Idaho to Arco Idaho.

BASE Jumper leaving the bridge over the Snake River.

Barely clearing the trees.

Shoshone Falls

Shoshone Falls complete with rainbow.

Arco is the nearest town to two significant tourist draws. The first is the Craters of the Moon National Monument and Preserve. This area of volcanic rock looks like the surface of another planet more than the moon. I visited the park twice to explore the different areas. An artifact of the Atomic age is another one of the tourist draws near Arco. On the grounds of the Idaho National Laborartory is the Experimental Breeder Reactor Number 1. This structure on the registry of National Historic Landmarks is the original Breeder Reactor that once powered the town of Arco.

June

My first stop in June was at the KOA in West Yellowstone Montana. I managed to find an eight night stay. This gave me five days to tour Yellowstone. It was lots of driving, but well worth it. All of the animals and geysers were memorable.

Fountain Geyser

Old Faithful

Bison with calfs in the Mather area of the park.

Rushing water heading for the Upper Falls of the Yellowstone River. The climb down to the top of the falls was not as long as the climb to the Lower falls. I made this hike but turned around a quarter the way down to the lower falls.

The little ones follow quickly.

Here are the Google Photos Albums from Yellowstone

• Yellowstone National Park Day 1
• Yellowstone National Park Day 2
• Yellowstone National Park Day 3
• Yellowstone National Park Day 4 
• Yellowstone National Park Day 5

The second stop in June was close to a week in Butte on my way to Glacier National Park. I managed to get a week near the west entrance to Glacier National Park. It was a little early to visit the park. The Going To the Sun road which crosses the continental divide in the park was not open. It didn’t open until almost a week after I left the area. The good thing was I got to walk along a long stretch of the closed road.

Lake McDonald looking southwest.

Panorama of the cliff side the road to Logan pass follows. This picture was taken near the end of my hike before I turned around.

Here are the Google Photos Albums from Glacier National Park

• Glacier National Park Day 1
• Glacier National Park Day 2
• Glacier National Park Day 3

By the end of the third week of June I’d accomplished all of the things on my rough plan for the year. I started heading south to be near Salt Lake City for the end of July airplane trip. I also needed to find a place to stay for the Forth of July Holiday.

July

I spent the first two weeks of July on the Nevada Utah line in the town of West Wendover NV. This is located on the west side of the Bonneville Salt Flats. I enjoyed the small town Forth of July Parade. I booked a two week stay because I was tired of the struggle to find a place to stay. It really was a mistake. Other than the salt flats the only attraction were the casinos. I spent more than a few days inside my air conditioned RV watching TV with the outside temperature in the high 90s.

Police cars from Wendover UT and West Wendover NV lead the way. They are followed by a color guard from the Civil Air Patrol cadets.

The second stop in July was at the Utah Lake State Park in Provo Utah before moving back to Salt Lake City to be near the airport. July ended further south in Utah getting ready for a packed month of August and September visiting the National Parks of Utah.

LDS Temple

Outside of the Tabernacle.

Inside of the Tabernacle with a few people listening to the organ music.

August and September

In August and September I visited many of the National Parks and Monuments of Southern Utah and Northern Arizona. I started with a stay in the Melon capital of Utah, Green River. This was my base for exploring Arches National Park and the Islands in the Sky unit of Canyonlands National Park.

Arches required quite a bit of hiking to see the good arches. It was in the 90s both days I visited the park. The exercise was well worth the views. Canyon lands National Park was more of a driving experience to look at a big hole in the ground. It was also an enjoyable visit. I didn’t get to visit the town of Mohab or the southern unit of Canyon Lands National Park. These will have to wait for another visit. Hopefully, my next visit to the area will be in the spring or the fall.

Arches National Park

Close up of Delicate Arch. Note the people that hiked up to get a close view.

Tunnel Arch

Landscape Arch

Mesa Arch at Canyon Lands National Park

Green River View. The winding green water at the bottom of the canyon is the Green River.

Grand View Point Overlook

From Green River I traveled back to the west. I stopped in Richfield UT to visit Capitol Reef National Park and to sit out the total eclipse. I didn’t want to be on the road during the eclipse. Capitol Reef National Park was different than the two previous Utah National Parks. For one thing, it wasn’t as developed. I traveled several miles on a dirt road that twisted and turned around the cliffs and boulders on a dry river bed. You’re right in the middle of the scenery.

My next stop after Richfield was the larger town of Cedar City. It was my base for visiting the Cedar Breaks National Monument and Bryce Canyon National Park. Cedar Breaks is on top of the mountains just to the east of Cedar City, but Bryce Canyon was a significant drive. I would have like to be closer to Bryce Canyon, but finding a decent place that had an available space wasn’t possible. On a future visit I want to stay closer to Bryce Canyon so I can visit in the early and late part of the day.

Cedar Breaks was another case of looking down into a big hole in the ground. The hole had some very interesting and colorful rock formations. I walked around the rim of the Break for a good hike at over ten thousand feet of elevation. There were also some meadows with pretty wild flowers. It would have been even prettier earlier in the year.

Cedar Breaks National Monument

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Field of yellow wildflowers along the road at the visitors center.

Bryce Canyon is another case of a hole in the ground full of impressive hoodoos and other colorful rock formations. The difference is that you can hike down into the canyon. I got suckered into one such hike by the beautiful scenery. It was very steep going down and seemed even steeper coming back up the same trail. Again it was well worth the hike.

Bryce Canyon Hoodoo.

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The trail goes through several rock fins.

My next stop in Utah was over the labor day weekend. I booked reservations for the labor day weekend in the St. George Utah area in late July. From that base I toured Zion National Park and other things in the St. George Utah area. Zion National Park around the holiday weekend was very busy. I managed to visit on a day that wasn’t to bad. I took four short hikes during my one day visit to the main canyon. A couple of days later I visited the Kolob Canyon Unit of the park. This is the opposite of the main canyon. Instead of being on the canyon floor your once again up high looking down into a big hole in the ground. It was different, but impressive.

Zion Canyon

A little water fall on the Virgin River

This deer was busy eating.

From St. George Utah I crossed the Arizona strip to Lake Powell. The Arizona Strip is the section of Arizona north of the Grand Canyon. I had reservations at the campground in the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area on the banks of Lake Powell. I made those reservations at the end of July as well.

I booked two excursions in the Glen Canyon area. The first was a full day boat tour on Lake Powell to the Rainbow Bridge National Monument. This was very impressive. The boat passes through canyons and by rock formations that appear to grow right out of the water. The hike form the floating boat tie up to the Rainbow Bridge National Monument is fairly short and flat through some more impressive scenery.

Rainbow Bridge

Another look behind the boat at the narrow canyon the boat passed through.

Bad weather behind the boat. It never really caught up with us.

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The second excursion was a raft ride on the Colorado River in Glen Canyon. It starts at the base of the Glen Canyon dam and goes down river to the Lees Ferry just before the river enters Marble Canyon considered to be the start of the Grand Canyon area. The raft pilot was a real character.

Glen Canyon Dam from river level.

One of the outflow tunnels

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While I was at Lake Powell I also drove to the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. It was a long drive, but I’m glad I made the trek. The additional elevation changed the desert vegetation I’d been seeing for so long. In addition to the impressive Grand Canyon I saw some Aspen trees changing into fall colors in among the tall pines.

Grand Canyon North Rim 

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After my stop at Lake Powell I was running out of energy for my National Park touring. I booked a two week stay at the Dead Horse Ranch State Park in Cottonwood Arizona. My goal was to slow down my pace of travel.  On the way to Cottonwood I took a detour and paused in Holbrook AZ to visit the Petrified Forest National Park. This National Park is totally different than the ones I had been visiting. The mineralized wood that had its origin in far southern latitudes is very different. It gives an interesting view into the land at the time of the dinosaurs.

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Close-up of a piece of petrified wood.

September ended with me in Cottonwood AZ. I took an excursion train ride through the Verde River Canyon. The train starts from the old mine tailings in Clarkdale AZ and goes into the canyon and back along the same tracks. Watching the scenery from the open air cars was a pleasant afternoon.

The train before departure.

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Canyon sides were often very close to the train. In the 680 foot curving tunnel they were supposed to be closer, but it was too dark to know for sure.

Front of the train around the side of the canyon

October

I spent the first week and half of October in the Phoenix suburbs at the Lake Pleasant Regional Park. This was an interesting place I found to spend the time before my reservation at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. I managed to reserve a weekend at the Trailer Village in the Grand Canyon National Park. It was fun to see the wildlife in the park as well as the canyon. I even forced myself to getup early to watch the sunrise over the canyon.

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Sunrise over the Grand Canyon

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From the Grand Canyon I made my way to Las Vegas. I made a five day stop on the way at the Lake Havasu State Park. I was really running out of travel energy by this point in the year. When I got the idea to book three months in Las Vegas, it was like a cow heading for the barn at milking time.

North side of the London Bridge in the Desert.

November

The big event during November was the Aviation Nation Air and Space Expo at Nellis Air Force base. This big year end celebration by the Air Force Thunderbirds and
other Air Force units was a real good show. Watching the new F-35 and F-22 jets do their thing was a lot of fun.

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F-16 painted to honor victims of the October 1st shooting.

Heritage Flight. P51, 2 A10s and an F-22

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December

In December I have enjoyed the Christmas lights in Las Vegas, but have been put off by all the traffic.

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A gold Father Christmas.

Another view of sunset at the Las Vegas RV Resort.

Another Coot swimming away.

Other Google Photos Albums:

• Arches National Park
• Canyonlands National Park Islands in the Sky
• Capitol Reef National Park
• Cedar Breaks National Monument
• Bryce Canyon National Park
• Zion Canyon National Park
• Zion Canyon National Park Kolob Canyon
• Lake Powell and Rainbow Bridge National Monument
• Glen Canyon Raft Trip
• Petrified Forest National Park
• Verde Canyon Railroad Excursion
• Grand Canyon National Park South Rim

Saturday December 30th 2017

The day started with the temperature in the high 40s. As the sun warmed things up it got into the mid sixties before the clouds started to move in. Tomorrow is forecast to be a cloudy day with temperatures a little lower than today.

Las Vegas Wash passing through the Wetlands Park.

I stayed home today. The idea of fighting the crowds at any of the tourist areas was not appealing. I probably should have picked up some groceries, but that idea didn’t get me moving either. The pictures in this blog entry are from Friday’s visit to the Wetlands Park.

Wetlands Park scene with desert in the foreground, wetland in the middle and mountains in the distant background.

The RV park is filling up. The snowbirds that left the north right after Christmas have been arriving the last couple of days. I think there are only a couple of sites left open tonight. Most of the sites are filled with full time RVers or snowbirds. These weekend there are some rigs from Arizona and California in the sites that get used most often for shorter term stays. I suspect these are people that are in town for the New Years Eve excitement.

Overflow canal along the Las Vegas Wash in the Wetlands Park.

I have no desire to join hundreds of thousands of people on the Las Vegas strip or on Fremont street. At least the folks on Fremont street will have entertainment. Most of the people on the strip just mill around, drink and wait for the fireworks at midnight. With all the security concerns even going in and out of the casinos is going to be a problem. It sounds like New York City will have stronger security but in light of the October 1st shootings here in Las Vegas security will be much greater than previous years. I will watch the events on television. I don’t think I can see the eight minutes of fireworks on the strip from here and driving among the potentially impaired doesn’t strike me as a good idea.

I spent the day reading, watching TV and getting a few tasks done.

Friday December 29th 2017

If it wasn’t for my clock with the day of the week display, I wouldn’t have known today was Friday. The TV had sports from ten in the morning forward and it just generally acted like a weekend day. The weather was terrific with the high temperature in the mid sixties. The weather forecasters on TV seem to be starting to complain about the record period without rain and the higher than normal temperatures. I think they should just be thankful they aren’t experiencing the snow and bone chilling cold of the north and east.

Las Vegas Wash in the Wetlands Park with the Las Vegas strip in the background.

This area had more ducks than coots.

For exercise today, I went to for a long walk in another part of the Wetlands Park. Today I walked in the Las Vegas Wash area of the park. The wash in this area looks like a river, complete with rapids and mini waterfalls. There were also many more people in the park today including a Cub Scout Pack on a nature exploration hike. I still experienced large areas without seeing people, but in the wash area there were lots of people taking advantage of the good weather.

The bird life in the wash area was different than the other areas of the park I have explored. There were more ducks in this area than the American Coots I was misidentifying in the other area. I also saw a couple of Blue Herons coming in for a landing on the banks of the wash. I tried to get pictures of the herons landing with only limited success.

Blue Heron starting its decent.

Blue Heron on the final glide for landing.

Overall I took a much longer walk and spent a lot more time in the park today. I continue to enjoy this oasis in the desert. It would be interesting to see what the area is like in the spring. To bad that I didn’t know it was here during my visit to the area this past April. I need to keep the Wetlands Park in mind for future visits to Las Vegas. I don’t think that will happen until 2019 or 2020.

American Coot looking for lunch.  It just returned to the surface from a dive.  Water drops can be seen on its back. 

Turtle taking the sun.

This turtle kept its head moving.

Another Coot swimming away.

Thursday December 28th 2017

Today’s weather was bright and sunny with the mercury peaking in the mid sixties. After yesterday’s encounter with the traffic on the roads and the people at the outlet mall I didn’t have any ambition for a repeat performance. I remained at my RV home doing various chores and tasks today.

Sunset didn’t have a lot to reflect light off. It was a very clear day today and a similar forecast is in place for tomorrow.

I also read through many of this years blog entries to get ready for a year end summary. I’ll probably publish that on New Years Eve if I can get the backlog pictures uploaded to the “cloud”. Internet access is driving me crazy the last couple of days. The RV Park’s WiFi isn’t the fastest in the world, but it has been adequate until recently. Microsoft in its omnipotence has seen fit to download a major update for my computer. Not only did that take internet bandwidth, it also seems to be making my computer slower. If they are force downloading updates for other people in the RV park, the continued slow access might be explained.

I could switch my internet connection from the RV parks system to my 4g cellular data connection. It would be faster, but I have a cap on my monthly data usage. Unused data roles over to the next month. Since I will be on the road next month, I want all the role over data I can get. I’m sticking with the slower RV park WiFi for now.

A little later that the last sunset photo, this one captured the sun reflecting off a jet.

For exercise I took three walks around the RV park. There are still many RVs in waiting mode. Most are from cold northern locations. I imagine the occupants have flown back to places like Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba in Canada as well as the north US states of Montana, Washington and Minnesota. These are representative of the license plates on many of the empty RVs. After the new year I suspect this place will show a little more evidence of life.

Wednesday December 27th 2017

Today’s temperature reached the low sixties which is about ten degrees higher than normal. There has been almost no wind the last two days causing a different type of problem. The air is filled with dust making breathing difficult for some people. It also reduces visibility considerably. The wind will return by the weekend, but the temperature will continue warmer than normal through New Years day.

My Christmas Cactus continues to bloom. There are now about eight open blossoms with an equal number of unopened buds.

I resumed some of the shopping I had put off during the Christmas rush today. It was a few days to soon. The South Las Vegas Premium Outlet Mall was jam packed. It seemed to be about equally split between residents and tourists. I consider the families with lots of kids almost definitely in the locals camp and the people speaking strange languages or heavily accented English almost definitely in the tourist camp. Others groups are harder to be sure, but somehow I think I can tell.

I am shoe shopping to find a good hiking or walking shoe with a thick sole. The tread on the walking shoes I started off the year with has worn almost smooth and the cheap hiking shoes I bought in September are almost in the same shape. The cheap price must have been associated with a softer rubber compound in the soles. They seemed to have worn down after the first hike.

The outlet mall had plenty of shoe stores. There were name brand outlet stores and stores selling multiple brands. All of them were offering the same sale. It was a buy one get one at half price sale. To achieve any real savings you need to buy two pairs. I don’t want two pairs of shoes. My storage space is limited and I already have types of shoes I don’t wear. I also wasn’t impressed with the current styles of shoes for men. Some of the shoes I was seeing today would make a rainbow envious. I don’t want red shoes with florescent green accents or blue with yellow stripes. Finding the black walking shoes was a challenge. In the end I left without buying anything. Maybe a better sale will start in the new year.

Traffic in the Las Vegas valley continues to challenge my patience. Today I saw two more fender benders. It is rare to travel the roads around here without seeing an accident or two. I think the odds of getting into an accident increase every day you stay here. Another reason to move on soon.

Tuesday December 26th 2017

The first half of the day was cloudy and cool. During the afternoon the clouds started to clear and the sun warmed the air into the high fifties. The cloudy start to the day heavily influenced my day. My motivation to leave the RV park was hidden with the sun. I stayed home all day.

Sunset this evening at the Las Vegas RV Resort.

Other residents of the RV park weren’t similarly influenced. A number of residents checked out and resumed their travels today. I’m not sure leaving the day after Christmas was a good idea. The TV was showing video of the backup on the highway leaving town. Many other residents haven’t returned from their holiday travels so the quiet relaxed atmosphere at the RV park continues.

I only have three weeks remaining before I start my journey back to the east. The east bound journey should be slower than my west bound trip last February. I came from Florida to Arizona in eight days. I have about thirty days from the time I leave Las Vegas to my first reservation in Florida for my east bound trip. My west bound trip included many three hundred mile plus days in a row. I may have a few long driving days going east, but I’ll be staying at many stops for more than a single night. My first stop after leaving Las Vegas will be in the Parker Arizona area for three nights. I’ll take two days to get to the Benson Arizona area next. My stop in Benson will be for a few days to tour the Tombstone AZ area. After that I’m still working with Google Maps, campground listings and the calendar to figure out my plans. One big goal is to go through Houston TX on a Sunday. Tuscon, El Paso and San Antonio are also complications, but I’ll deal with them if I can minimize Houston. I want to make reservations for a few of the nights in February. I’m worried about Mardi Gras on the thirteenth and Presidents day on the eighteenth.

The east bound travel window shrunk when I decided, over the weekend, to attend the Passport America Rally in Fort Walton Beach Florida starting on the 19th of February. It’s on the way and sounded like fun so I made a reservation. That will be the first of two rallies I will be attending in 2018. I’ve already committed to attend the Escapees Escapade in Sedalia Missouri the last week in May. I’m not going to plan my travel to attend these events, but when they are scheduled in the areas I’m traveling through I’ll consider attending.

Another view of sunset at the Las Vegas RV Resort.

Monday December 25th 2017

Merry Christmas everyone.

The day started cool and cloudy. By afternoon the sun was peaking through the clouds and warming things up nicely. The temperature peaked in the mid sixties. That’s about ten degrees warmer than the average.

Merry Christmas

The last two years I’ve been in Florida for Christmas. The Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Mexico played a part in the Christmas day activities. Here in Las Vegas the relative humidity is under 20 percent and there are no nearby oceans, so I settled for a casino. This afternoon I went to the nearby Sam’s Town Hotel and Gambling Hall for dinner and entertainment.

The casino buffets are a big draw for holiday meals. It is fairly economic way to feed a large group when the fast food places are taking the day off. Families from all over the valley visit the casinos for their holiday meal. I was in line behind a group with six or seven kids and with about five adults. The staff had to reconfigure a large section of the dinning area and find six booster chairs. Unfortunately, it was at the time of a shift change so it was a really slow line to get in to the dinning area.

The food was good, but the selection was odd. For the meat portion of the meal a choice of turkey, ham or roast beef was available. I had some turkey and some ham. They’re fairly traditional food for Christmas. It was the things they had to go with it that was odd. Similar to my experience at Thanksgiving, the vegetables were in short supply. Except for the stir fry in the Asian area, the only vegetable I found was a green bean casserole. I didn’t even find mashed potatoes. There were baked potatoes, steak fries, stuffing and onion rings. I had plenty of good food to eat, but a dietician wouldn’t call it balanced. For desert I over did it a little with apple pie, a yellow cup cake and a cream puff. Hey! I was sitting right in front of the desert bar.

Las Vegas’s version of snow and it’s inside.

After dinner I pumped some money through the machines while I watched the activity around the casino. It was a busy place. Many of the patrons were dressed for the holiday in Christmas sweaters, Santa hats or red velvet. All of the popular slot and video poker machines were in high demand. A couple of people were even winning. I saw two different jackpots paid out. To bad it wasn’t paid to me.

I finished my visit to Sam’s Town by watching the Christmas Laser and Fountain show in the Mystic Falls Park atrium.

Sunday December 24th 2017

This Christmas Eve day was not quite as gloomy as yesterday. It only had about a three quarter cloud cover so it was brighter and a little warmer. The temperature got to the middle fifties today.

For those reading this on Christmas day. Merry Christmas.

When I got up this morning I had an email from Amazon. Some of the items I order last weekend and expected next week had been delivered yesterday. Another package was due to arrived today. Amazon has a fulfillment center in North Las Vegas and uses its own drivers to deliver many items to valley residents. Packages are dropped off at the RV Resort office. I hung around my RV home until I got notified that the package had arrived at the office. I’ll write more about my gifts to myself and the motorhome in another blog entry.

By two in the afternoon I was free to leave the RV. The packages had been delivered and the first round of NFL games was over. I went to the Wetlands Park for some exercise and to visit the birds. Other people had similar ideas. There were more people walking in the park than I’ve seen on my visits during the week. I kept crossing paths with one family with young children. A walk in nature seems like a good way to distract the kids from tomorrows activities.

View to the east of the Wetlands park of the Sunrise mountains.

View to the west showing the clouds that covered the Las Vegas valley most of the day.

The birds swimming in the ponds were as entertaining as ever. Since my last visit I have learned that the birds I was calling “ducks” are actually American Coots. This seems to be a major faux pas on my part. I didn’t mean to offend the Coots, the ducks or the bird aficionados on the internet. So if you’re an American Coot reading this blog entry, I officially apologize. I’m also including a picture of a pair of Mallard Ducks to give them equal time in my blog.

Mr. and Mrs. Mallard duck.

An American Coot. There are many more of these birds around than there are ducks. 

On each visit to the Wetlands park the landscape changes. The reeds and grasses are turning brown and falling down. More of the wetlands are becoming visible. I think it will take more sever weather to completely knock down the reeds. I am enjoying the changes, but I’m not sure I want the bad weather it will take to complete the job.

The slow and lazy atmosphere here at the RV Park continues. I am convinced many of the RVs are empty while the residents are off visiting for the holiday. Others were gone from dawn (at least from the time I got up) until dusk today. Were they doing last minute shopping? Tomorrow I’ll go to one of the casinos for dinner and some gambling entertainment. It sounds a little depressing, but it isn’t. I’ll be surrounded by people having fun and enjoying the day.