I was right about that cloud in my last post. It turned into 5 solid days of rain, we almost washed away!

Time to get out of dodge! Arizona here we come!

 

A morning drizzle turned into some good rain on our first day back on the road until about midday, just about the time we were approaching the Californian border.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sun came out and we enjoyed a nice drive through rolling farm land and hills around Ashland.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We overnight-ed at the Walmart Superstore in Yreka.

In the distance we could see Mount Shasta, only the bottom half that is, since her head was in the clouds that rolled in late in the afternoon again.

 

 

 

 

 

There was a pretty nice sunset and much to our surprise we had a couple of deer walk right by us and the RV while we were sitting outside with a glass of wine watching the moon rise.

Very unexpected visitors for being in a Walmart parking lot!

 

  

 

 

 

The next morning Mt. Shasta was so nice to show us her top half this time. I guess that counts for having seen her completely!

 

 

 

 

 

 

After passing the town of Mount Shasta we drove more and more inland towards the south-east through the Cascade Range, averaging an altitude of about 4 to 5000'.

For a while we were surrounded by a forest of beautiful big pines. It reminded us a lot of Lake Arrowhead, although much less populated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Coming out on the other side of the forest we went down into a valley towards Susanville.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It quickly got much warmer and the scenery much more 'desert-y'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We passed Reno early in the afternoon after entering Nevada.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Followed by a whole lot of nothing-ness ....

 

 

 

 

 

...until we reached Walker Lake, where we spent the night (for free) at a beautiful, but very primitive,  BLM Rec. Area called  '20 mile Beach'.

 

 

 

 

 

As you can see, we were the only ones there. It was a gorgeous evening with a beautiful sunset.

So quiet........

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sunset the next morning was arguably even more awesome!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We continued our journey south through Nevada, passing numerous mountain ranges left and right like the Monte Cristo range, the Silver Peak Range, The White Mountains and the Yucca Mountains of the Amargosa Desert and in the afternoon we even drove for a while alongside Death Valley National Park on our right hand side.

 

The road climbs and descends here constantly, not very good for your gas mileage!

Overall, we stayed pretty high in elevation (4000') being on one of those plateaus they call 'the high desert'.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Around 3pm we arrived at the outskirts of Las Vegas and although we had thought initially to camp for one more night before driving to Mohave Valley, our end destination, we decided to keep on going since it was only about a 2 hour drive from here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Since we'd been to Vegas all ready 3 times before and we didn't feel like gambling our (little) money away we tried to stay as far away from the busy center and freeways as we could. Unfortunately that meant I couldn't get a decent shot of any of them.

 

Oh well, probably for the best!

 

Instead of driving all the way down to Needles and than backtracking a little to Mohave Valley we decided to take what we thought was a 'shortcut' to Laughlin and than cross the Colorado river into Bullhead City and drive the last 25/30 miles down from there.

 

 

 

 

 

Ha! Not our smartest move of the day!

 

First of all we had to climb up and over some mountains and a pass of the Eldorado Mountains  (nice roller coaster again!)  and than we had to make our way through about 300 traffic lights (none in-sinc and all red) through the biggest 'urban sprawl' I've ever seen, all the way to Mohave Valley!

 

 

What goes up,.....

 

 

Must come down,.....

 

 

 

Laughlin, Nevada

 

 

 

 

 

After crossing the river Laughlin seamlessly becomes Bullhead City which brought us finally into Arizona!

 

 

 

 

 

Those %#@$&!* traffic lights slowed us down so much that it costed us an extra 45 minutes to reach our destination but finally we arrive at our Campground for the winter, Moon River RV Resort!

 

 

 

 

 

We're warmly welcomed by Ray, the manager, who didn't expect us until tomorrow off course, but is happy we made it today. He shows us our site, a very nice one indeed, and after some deliberation of how and where is the best way to park we set up camp.

Since it is about 6pm we decide to only hook up electric and do the rest tomorrow. The sun sets early here and it will be dark by 7pm or so!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So here we are.

 

As you can see the moon rises behind us to justify this campground's name (I guess :-).

 

(the black right corner is caused by the shutter of my camera getting stuck every now and than).

 

 

 

 

 

Time to bring out the wine and cheese and call it a day!