November 17 to December 7, 2004 - Southwest in November

November 17th we left Benson and traveled 164 miles to Casino Arizona at Salt River in Scottsdale, AZ to dry camp for a couple days.  Here is our "campsite":

We were up against the side so Evita could get her walk:

We had an early morning appointment on the 18th at our dealer for some warranty work and decided that no one would mind a big diesel starting at 7AM at the casino.  Our warranty appointment went fine so we came back and camped another two nights at the casino while we got some shopping done for Christmas.

On the 20th we moved 91 miles to Escapees North Ranch in Congress, AZ for ten nights.  Here is our campsite:

We did get a nice sunset view:

Thanksgiving dinner was with eight other people we did not know before we had dinner.  We had a great time and enjoyed visiting with our tablemates.  Friday after Thanksgiving was leftover day and the park's fridge broke down overnight so we did not have any leftover turkey.  There was still plenty of food.

We got to meet Sharlene Minshall again, author of many books and someone we had met at Life on Wheels.  Sharlene has a lot here.

Bill also met Terry of www.hitchitch.com since Ron and Terry were parked a short ways from us.

Pictures around North Ranch

November 27th trip Hassayampas River Preserve

November 30th we drove 157 miles to Ridgeview RV Resort in Bullhead City, AZ. 

We had a three day free stay based on the sales presentation.  They gave us a nice view site where we could look at the casinos of Laughlin, NV across the Colorado River:

A telephoto view from Laughlin of our campsite where you can just see the satellite dish behind the motorhome:

The county park just upriver has campsites on the river:

Looking north from the Nevada side at the county park and the power lines from Davis Dam:

Davis Dam:

Laughlin at night from our campsite:

We did buy a membership in the campground chain since they had many campgrounds in Washington state also. They gave us two more "free" nights to think it over so our total stay was five nights.

On December 3rd we drove down to Lake Havasu City and looked at London Bridge:

Our friends Ann and Dick were also in Bullhead City so we got together with them for lunch at Black Bear Diner, a chain we really like.  We also tried the buffet at the Flamingo Hilton, which was good but not great.  (The Flamingo changed ownership and became the Aquarius in 2005).

On December 5th we drove 88 miles to Las Vegas International RV Resort in Las Vegas, NV.

This campground was cheaper and quieter than the one we have stayed at before in Las Vegas, Arizona Charlie's.  Unfortunately we learned it was going to be torn down and turned to condos in spring.

Our mission in Las Vegas was mainly to shop but we did stop by to see the lights at Ethel M Chocolate Factory in Henderson.  We messed up and didn't bring the new camera or a tripod so Bill had to experiment with the old camera to get these pictures:

He tried black and white mode on this shot and it came out kind of well:

Now we were ready to head to Death Valley.

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