Las Vegas NV - Benson AZ

There's no getting around it. I take too many pictures. Its always been my philosophy that with digital cameras, you can always delete. Tonight, though, I am really tired, but I want to post an update as to where we are etc. Usually I upload my pictures at the same time, so I can use some if I want to....in the last 2 days I have taken about 300 pictures. Probably about 250 of them could be deleted, and probably only about 50 or so will actually get deleted. So now tonight I have to sort through all of the pictures and delete them.

Anyway, Sunday we dropped Jess off at the airport very early. We must have set about 4 alarm clocks since we usually use our cell phones but daylight savings time started Saturday night and we had no idea if our phones would automatically update the time or not- so we set other alarms as well. Her flight got off fine and she made it back to school with no problems. We drove straight back to Red Rock Canyon after dropping her off, determined to get some hiking done. The weather was much better this time around! It was mostly in the 60s. Our plan was to hike 3 trails- the first was Calico Hills trail- the rocks in this part of the park are really striped pink and white. In other areas of the park they are quite red. We walked about 2 miles or so, scrambling over boulders. That was a lot of fun for me. We saw people rock climbing, and we saw one guy hiking with his dog, and both he and his dog had backpacks. When I commented on it, he laughed and said he learned to let the dog carry his own when he noticed that at the end of a hike, he was breathing heavy and the dog wasn’t.

We drove to the next trail we wanted to hike, but after turning down a narrow dirt road to get to the trailhead, we were blocked by an official vehicle with its lights flashing. It turns out that they were in the process of rescuing 3 campers who had unintentionally spent the night on the mountain-apparently their ropes had tangled and they couldn’t get down and it was too windy to attempt the rescue the night before. We watched the helicopter fly back and forth for a bit before moving on.

We did hike Ice Box Canyon trail. This hike was about 2.6 miles, with not much elevation gain, but it was a very strenuous hike. It was along a river, and there were plenty of times we had to hop from boulder to boulder in the water. It ended in a canyon, known as Ice box because often in the winter there are icicles hanging from the waterfalls. Not this time, but there were two really cool pools and the whole hike was great, but not easy on our knees and ankles! Again we stopped along the way back to watch some rock climbers do their thing.

We ate lunch back at the truck and headed back to the trailer for the afternoon. We actually cleaned the “basement”. We took everything out of the storage area, and re-organized it.

Yesterday when we left Vegas, we had no idea where we were headed. We just started driving in the general direction that we wanted to go. About 40 miles outside of Vegas, we came to Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam. I had never seen either one before. It was interesting to cross the dam, but it wasn’t as nerve wracking as I thought it would be. It was a windy road, but it didn’t have an open feel to it like a bridge does ( I hate bridges).  We didn’t see anyplace to stop with the trailer attached, so we just kept going. While Paul drove, I did some research. One of the places we are interesting in seeing is Tonto National Forest in AZ. After taking a look at it though, it looks like it might still be a little too cold, so we decided to skip it and go a different way. We drove rte 93 and found a Federal campground (Burro Creek Campground) along the way that sounded like it would work for us for the night. I called to see if they had any availability, but the actual campground has no phone and the BLM office couldn’t say, although she did say that they are never full, and if they were full, we could stay in the group area.

When we arrived, naturally they were full, and the host wasn’t keen on letting us stay in the group area. He said he had gotten in trouble for doing that once, because he didn’t charge that person the group rate of $50. We had no intention of paying $50 instead of $7 but we finally convinced him that it made no sense for the campground to lose out on our $7.

We spent the afternoon walking along Burro Creek. This area attracts birders and people interested in geology. There are all kinds of different rocks here- several different color agates, etc.  We found a couple of small interesting rocks, but nothing compared to what the camp host had at his site!
We had a peaceful fire that night, using driftwood we found by the creek. At dusk the skies became filled with bats. I spent a fair amount of time trying to get decent pictures of them, without much success.

This morning, once again we left without really having any idea where we were going. I have been wanting to go to Tombstone AZ, and after researching while driving, we decided to spend a few days in Benson, AZ. It’s about 25 miles from Tombstone and is also home to Kartchner Caverns, which will be fun to check out.

There is another reason we wanted to stay here though. The park we are staying in belongs to an organization of people who RV full time. They are called “Escapees”. I have been using their forum to chat and get information, for the last year. So, we wanted to stop at this park and meet some other “escapees”. Every year the Escapees have a class graduation for all of the members who “go fulltime” that year. We are members of the class of 2009.

Las Vegas, NV

Wow, time goes way too fast sometimes.  Stephen left a few days ago to go back home to Boston. We are already trying to figure out when we can get together again, but life is a little too up in the air to figure it out right now.  Jess went to her stepsister's wedding and had a great time.  She spent Tuesday with them as well, so Paul and I tried to take advantage of her being busy and took off to go hiking Red Rock Canyon.  The day was nice, so we brought lunch and wore light jackets.  Unfortunately by the time we actually got to the canyon, it was 33 degreees out and snowing.  hmmmm. It would have been smart to pack warmer jackets, but we weren't that clever.  Actually, it wouldn't have mattered much.  It was snowing QUITE a bit, and the wind was blowing.  We just did the scenic drive instead, but we are interested enough that we will try to head back there tomorrow after we drop Jess off at the airport.

   Wednesday Paul and I took the shuttle to the strip, wandered around for a bit, did some window shopping, and watched the fountain at the Bellagio.  Later on in the day we met up with Jess, her stepsisters and the guys with them.  We all met at Margaritaville, had some drinks and food, then wandered the strip some more.  We saw the "Siren" show at Treasure Island and none of us were really sure why we actually stuck around to watch the whole thing. Its really silly.  We also saw the fountains at Bellagio again, which was nice for me because I have never seen them at night before.

Also on our list of things to do was visit the Ethel M chocolate factory.  We did that Friday, but they only operate Monday thru Thursday!  We did get some free chocolate though, and since it was only a  2 mile drive, it was no big deal. We came back and decided to go see a movie.  The RV Park we are staying in has a movie theater and bowling alley.  Valentine's Day was starting soon, so thats what we went to see.  It was actually a fun movie.  Once we got back home we played another game of Phase 10, the game that Jess is apparently addicted to at the moment.

This afternoon Paul and Jess went to see Avatar.  I had no interest in it, so I stayed behind to clean up, and make Jess's favorite dinner- Macaroni and Cheese.