Not actually- we haven’t fished since hitting the road 15 years ago, but we have gone off exploring for the summer. Once the memorial day crew departed, we were in hurry up and wait mode. We wanted to prep to leave for the summer- taking the truck camper and the Bronco- but we couldn’t leave until June 6. Both of us had More medical tests, some here in Havasu, and Paul's in Phoenix starting the 7th. It gave us time for one last visit to El Paraiso, a favorite restaurant of ours.
We still packed the camper pretty quickly and put the boat into storage for the summer. Because we aren't taking the fifth wheel, it needs to be in the garage, and the boat won't fit, so we rented a storage unit.
Moving to Phoenix for 4 days in June with temps in the 105 range didn't sound like fun so we elected to stay in a federal campground near Jerome AZ, about an hour and a half from our doctors. At 7500 ft. It was still pretty warm, but not as bad as the city. On the weekend we managed to fit in a 3.5 mile hike in the forest, and lunch at the Haunted Hamburger in Jerome. Its a well known restaurant and very busy, but we managed to score excellent seats.
We have been to Jerome several times. It’s an old mining town that sits on a hillside. Its hard to believe this town once contained the second largest JC Penney store in the chain, back in the day. It closed when it started sliding off the mountain (which has happened to more than one building).
On Monday, June 10, we got the all clear to leave for the summer. We couldn't go far, however, because we had signed up for something in Las Vegas that doesn't happen until the 14th. There is an event called the Bronco Off –Roadeo, an all day lesson on how to drive a Ford Bronco off road.
Having a couple of days to kill, we decided to explore some of those things close to home that we never seem to find the time to see. The town of Searchlight is small and is best known for their police. The speed limit on the main road thru town goes down to 25 from 45 mph and believe me, they take that 25 mph limit seriously. Its well known that its a bad place to speed. We have never tried it, nor do we want to. Nearby, there are several things to explore.
Using the Boulder City Elks as our base, we first headed to the ghost town of Nelson NV. There is a tour you can take of El Dorado gold mine but it requires a reservation and a minimum of 4 people. Silly me, I thought with temps well over 100, Nelson would be deserted but it was so busy there was even a tour bus there. Yikes.
We wandered the property, enjoying the owner’s sense of humor as well as his collection of "stuff".
The water to the sink outside the single bathroom was shut off, with just hand sanitizer available:
He freely admits to being a hoarder. The RVs were interesting to look at (he builds them himself) but we decided to stick with what we have.
Having the whole day to kill we spent a fair amount of time talking with Tony, the owner, and learned a bunch about the mine and his family. And, we Did get to take the tour of the mine, which was given by his daughter and son in law. She was full of stories about her family and the mine. They bought the property 30 years ago after it had sat dormant for 100 years. The mine entrance was filled with 100 feet of silt, which was cleared out, with bucket and shovel, by child labor.
That's right, every weekend the owners’ 5 kids spent their days crawling into the mine pulling out dirt. I guess to say she wasn't happy about it would be an understatement, since according to her she ran away twice. All seems well now though.
Tony and his wife Bobbie decided to leave the mine much like it was back in 1863 when the original miners were digging it out by hammer and chisel. Still, it took them 6 years to get the mine ready for tours.
Back in its heyday there were 200 miners working this mine. There was no need for a town, since this was very early days and most of the men were single. It was very much still the wild wild west. In fact, the first 70 people who are buried in the cemetery did not die of natural causes- at least that's what they say. The mine was active until World War 2.
We learned a little more about the use of a canary in the mine. They were used as an early warning system to alert miners to potentially lethal gasses. The cage was left on the floor since gas would be heavier than air, and only male canaries were used. Apparently male canaries that don't have a mate sing complex songs incessantly, to attract one. With all that singing, the miners didn't have to keep looking to see if the canary was still alive. We also learned that they would trim the bird's nails so they couldn't dig in to the perch. I guess a canary with nails remains upright on the perch even after its dead.
Anyway Paul thought it was one of the best mine tours we have ever been on, and that's saying something because we have been on a LOT.
Also near to Searchlight there are two national monuments, one of which, Avi Kwa Ame, is fairly new. Not having much time left we chose to explore Castle Mountain National Monument.
She kindly told us where we had made a wrong turn, and how to find the national monument. Once we did, we found a few ruins of some old mining equipment, but nothing substantial.
The roads in this area were not nearly as nice as the ones leading to the mine. This land was made into a national monument to preserve the flora and fauna (from the gold mine maybe?).
Exploring done, we moved on to Las Vegas a day early. The daytime temperatures in Las Vegas right now are over 100, so as soon as we arrived we looked for a way out. We were really interested in hiking, so we packed a lunch and drove up nearby Mt. Charleston, where the temperature was in the high 70s. We did a six mile hike, Lower Bristlecone Trail, in the Spring Mountains Recreation Area.
It wasn't the greatest trail, it was probably an old logging or mining road, and the views were just ok. But, it was exercise, and killed some time. The following day was our Bronco Off-Roadeo day!
