Friday, February 23: Today I was heading up to Bullhead City/Laughlin with Mar and Gar. It is Mar’s birthday so we were spending it at a casino in Laughlin. They were going to head out before me and stop in Needles to see some boat racing friends.

It had not seemed as cold overnight and it was sunny and a tad bit warmer in the morning. I took my time, drinking my coffee, taking a shower, putting things away before emptying the black water and unhooking the camper. I left around 11:00.

Of course, the wind had picked up considerably and I was on a two lane road again but I wasn’t being blown around too much. At least at first.

Misty did not like being back in the camper and it took her about 30 minutes of meowing and going in and out of her travel kennel before she finally settled down.

When I got to Parker there was a big sign that said Winter Weather Advisory. Drive with Caution! I was thinking, “Oh, shit, what am I getting into?” Plus, all along the road there had been signs warning of flash floods. I could see that I was heading into some very dark clouds and areas where the rain was coming down. The winds picked up and pretty soon it was raining hard and coming at me from the side. The rain kind of came and went for probably 10 miles, then stopped for the most part.

It was interesting country I was driving through. I was in the Mojave Desert and could see a great expanse of flat barren desert but with mountains around that were brownish grey, or in some cases looked almost black. Tumbleweeds blew past along with the dust. Every once in a while I would see RVs off to the side all by their lonesome in some scrub. Once I even saw 4 mailboxes along the road but didn’t see any roads leading off the highway but in the distance a gleam of a vehicle.

I stopped before Bullhead City at a quilt shop I had found. Went in and wandered around for a little bit but I was mostly looking for bag patterns and didn’t find one I liked. So I left and got back in the truck. Misty was wanting out big time but settled down fairly quickly. I texted Mar to find out how far out they were and she replied that they were just pulling into Needles. I couldn’t figure out how I had gotten so far ahead of them. (Turns out they had made a couple of stops along the way and also went the Lake Havasu City. I had gone a different route as their way showed 32 minutes longer on Google maps.)

By this time I was already most of the way through Bullhead City, which seems like just a big strip mall along the highway. I looked up state parks on Google while at a light and found one along the river. Of course it was back the way I had just come. So, I turned around and headed there to wait. Mar and Gar hadn’t decided where they wanted to stay the night so I couldn’t wait there.

I pulled into the Big Bend of the Colorado State Park and paid $10 for the day use area. The ranger made sure she told me to go to the right because campers weren’t allowed to the left. Okay…

Well there was only one other car that I could see so I pulled into the scenic view area and stopped. It was kind of straight in not right or left. And I am usually such a rule follower, hee, hee.

Misty was very happy to be out of the truck and on her leash again. I was happy not to be driving and blown around the road. I walked Misty around a bit and could hear in the distance the boom boom of someone’s bass. The only other car there was playing their music very loudly. Figures.

There were some nice views from the park of the mountains, clouds and river. Lots of big, big homes with terraced areas down to the river all along the banks of the Colorado. I could see black clouds in the distance even though the pictures don’t show them. I thought sure we were going to get soaked again.

Misty finally gave up her exploring and crawled under the quilt for a nap. I almost felt like crawling in with her as I had developed quite the headache along the way and was feeling worn out from fighting the truck in the wind. But I listened to my book on tape instead.

Marilee texted that they were on their way after a while and that they were going to the Riverside Casino to see if there was dry camping available. I told her to let me know when they were settled and I would show up.

I got there around 4:00 (or 5:00 depending on what side of the river the phone thought I was on) and it was literally a parking lot along the busy road between two casinos.Some pretty sketchy looking vehicles parked around, too. I got parked and didn’t even bother putting down the jacks. It wasn’t a very conducive place to let Misty roam around on her leash so she had to stay in the camper.

The Arctic Fox in the distant by the fence

Mar texted that they were heading to the casino around a half hour later so I got ready and put on long pants and shoes since it was cold outside. We walked around the casino for a bit and Mar found a blackjack table while Gary and I found a bar. We sat for a few minutes then went to find Mar. I decided to head back to the camper and have them call me when they were ready to go to dinner.

I had asked Mar where we were going for dinner and she said there was a place in a casino about two down from Riverside. So while waiting I was looking up restaurants. I found one in the second casino called Daniel’s that I thought might be it. Mar thought that sounded right so we headed there. Well, it wasn’t right. We ended up backtracking and found the one she thought they had gone to before.

By this time it was almost 7:00 and we were told there was an hour wait even though we could see empty tables all over. Garry asked about that and she said they had reservations. I think they just didn’t have staff enough to cover all the tables. He put our name in and Mar went around the corner and got our name in at Outback too. The Outback call came first so we went there.

I hadn’t been to an Outback for quite some time but didn’t want steak as I had just had prime rib on Tuesday. Gar and I both ordered the pork and Mar got the Alice Springs chicken. The pork was really good and cooked just right. Mar said her chicken was also cooked better than when she had eaten it before. Overall, a good dinner!

Mar had won and Gar had lost $100 playing earlier so Mar didn’t want to play again knowing she would end up losing what she had won so we headed back to the campers.

I have to say I don’t think casino parking lot camping is for me. I have never heard so many souped up loud vehicles in my life! Not sure if it is a Nevada thing to have loud trucks and cars or just a redneck thing. I also heard a lot of loud thumping music go by. Then I woke up at 1:45 AM to someone in an RV playing their music loudly but, again, all I could hear was the bass.

Not sure what is next for me but I will be back on the road today, I think.