Ah the life of Riley! We have a new schedule here – wake up – have breakfast- go to the pool. I love it! We had some running around to do and after a snack and a rest we headed back to Laughlin for Happy Hour at Bubba Gumps.

Next stop the Riverside Hotel and Casino where we earned our free play and coupons. Its an older place but Don Laughlin (who I’m guessing is the namesake of Laughlin) has a car collection there. I’m not a car gal but if I were there were a few I’d be happy to see in my garage! There were vintage slot machines and car memorabilia as well.

My fav was a handwritten letter to Henry Ford thanking him for the great automobile he had made and explaining how dependable it had been. The letter was signed by Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde. I saw it but evidently there is some dispute as to whether its authentic but is an interesting thought. Clyde had a soft spot for the Model B in the 1930s. Look I found a copy!

Today we needed to address the yellow center line paint that has been speckled on our truck. Its been there for awhile and just had to go. While JP spent an hour at the detail shop I did some window shopping at some familiar stores (Kohls, Target, Ross) and then back to the pool to relax.

Late we made a trip over to the Avi Casino and Resort. Its not in Laughlin but outside of town a ways and is an Tribal Casino. It has everything you would need including its own white sand beach. Baskins and Robbins and we called it a night.

We were out and about here in Bullhead. The city is young (established 1984) and was a mining area on the Colorado River which is evidently – endless! It’s a nice little city of sprawled across the desert with lots of cottonwood trees.

Later in the day we headed to Katherine’s Landing on Lake Mead. It’s a full-blown marina with lots of boats for rent and sale. Houseboats, fishing boats, and JP’s new favorite the party boats. At the docks edge near the restaurant live a school of giant carp that will follow you hoping for a feeding. Kinda scary the way the hold their mouths open waiting for a treat! I don’t believe fish are supposed to do that!

Laughlin is only about 10 minutes away so we made a stop there. We checked out the Colorado Belle that houses its casino in what looks like a giant paddle wheel boat. It has all kinds of old posters and crystal chandeliers. We had to go to the Edgewater next door as well since the free play at the Belle could also be used at the Edgewater. No win but no loss – we left happy!

Rollin’ . . .

We are off to Bullhead City today. Though we have done a fair amount of investigating online it doesn’t appear to be action packed. That’s OK though – Laughlin is 30 minutes away and we are veering of to Las Vegas for a couple of days. At the end of this leg we are heading to LA to spend some time with the kids. We’re leaving Lucky behind at a storage unit so we don’t have to pull him through LA and we will pick him up after and head back to Oregon where we have a surprisingly busy schedule!

Prep Day

We head out in the AM so we got trailer biz today. The trailer and truck are all clean and road ready. We had drinks on the dock and hung our feet in the not so warm water. The big plan for tonight is dinner and movies in Lucky. It’s up early for us so we can get settled into our new digs before dark.

Lake Havasu and Back

We headed to Havasu thinking we might take in the boat show but decided 90 degrees and crowds didn’t sound like all that much fun. Instead we looked in a few stores and went to the library to use the internet. Made a trip to In and Out Burger and then went to Smallcakes to get some cupcakes for dessert.

Tonight was waterfront frenzy!The upside to being in a site right next to the river is the view. The downside is Friday night! The river was busy with skiers and ski -doos and jet boats all day but when the sun went down the daring (otherwise known as reckless or possibly drunk) were running the river. Long after dark they were doing high speed (crazy loud) jet runs down the river. 

Friday night must be date night for the Great Tailed Gackle because they were strutting their stuff on the trailer roof and making sounds like they were crazy too!

In the Evening we went to Bill Williams National Wildlife Refuge. Its really set up! There are long paths to the fishing piers that ate lit with solar lights. They have wooden benches and rod holders along the fishing piers. We finally got a fish! It was a 5 pound catfish! We let him go (I do believe catfish are possessed) so he lives another day. 

*Little Note: It seems there are highway road signs I haven’t come across before. There are caution signs for crossing for donkey and wild horses and the ever popular UNDULATIONS 15MPH sign that we saw early in our trip near Sacramento. It may be one of a kind?

Shopping – Sort of . . .

We took our time deciding what we would do today in this bustling metropolis of 3,000 folks in the desert.  First stop was brunch at the casino and then we headed into town to shop for some extra summer clothes. It seems that our small collection of summer clothes (usually stored for our 2 week vacation away from Bandon) just isn’t cutting it. We shopped at Bealles Outlet (think Ross/TJ Max) and JP found a couple of things. We scouted out downtown to no avail and settled on the not so big Walmart Store where I eventually found a pair of shorts (why are the women’s shorts between stationary supplies and sporting goods?) and we headed back to camp so I could catch up using their Wifi. We decided to go to the show (yes again!) to see Going in Style.

Parker Dam

Parker doesn’t have a whole lot to do, but we made a trip out to Parker Dam. Its pretty cool. Its closed from 11:00 PM to 5:00 AM daily. The road is narrow and has donkey/burro warning signs. We found a spot called Take Out Point that looked interesting and thought it might be a night fishing possibility.

Then on to Blue Water Cinema for lunch and a movie (Beauty and the Beast) and back to camp to relax. In the evening, we headed out to Take Out Point for some night fishing. They have several individual fishing docks in the area behind Parker Dam that is a part of Lake Havasu. It’s close and yet remote.

We settled in about 8:00 (still 89 degrees) and not even the slightest breeze. It was really lovely!  The half-moon lit the night to an almost twilight color. We could see the peaks surrounding us and their reflections in the water. It was amazingly quiet, no birds or bugs or animal sounds at all. There wasn’t any of the usual background noise, cars, boats, or voices either. There wasn’t even the sound of water rolling in or splashing on the shore. I can’t remember hearing that much silence. I thought it was fascinating. I do believe I could hear my self thinking. . . .

Alas no fish – I’m thinking JP will be water bound when we get back to Oregon!

Day Trip to Oatman AZ

We headed out with the pontoons today with the hope of finding some good water to fish to the North of us, outside of Lake Havasu. We did some investigating but didn’t find anything riveting so headed another half hour east to Oatman.

It’s an old mining town on Route 66 with donkeys roaming in the streets waiting for tourists to feed them the donkey food sold in the many souvenir shops there. It’s all about tourists and bikers and there were plenty of both.

The old town buildings are still there though and the hotel has preserved the room where Clark Gable and Carol Lombard spent their honeymoon. They used to come back to town when they wanted some privacy and Clark would play card with the miners. It’s in the middle of absolutely nowhere – good call Clark!

The hotel bar was fun. Dollar bills everywhere. Even one signed and hung by Ronald Reagan. JP asked if anyone knew how much money in one dollar bills was in the bar – the fella from the kitchen said that it hadn’t been counted but using a mathematical formula they estimate it to be $250,000.00. We spend our money on a beer and headed back to camp.

We finished of the evening with another movie (Ghost in The Shell) and round of slots. Played for awhile and left with what we came in with. That’s a win!

Lazy Day!

We hung out at camp most of the day. Parker isn’t very big but did have a Walmart so we did some shopping and then after dinner we headed to the Blue Water Casino for a movie. They have their own Cinema with 4 movies playing – all new releases! For us that is big time because we don’t have a TV. We watch old movies we have accumulated on the road on our lab top when we aren’t reading. The movies are inexpensive ($5) for Seniors so you can’t beat that. We played a little at the casino after the show and JP came out a bit ahead but I lost my $20. Oh well tomorrow is another day . . .