55 Degrees in 4 Hours

We left Beatty, Nevada this morning and when we left it was a balmy 52 degrees.  My buddies (burros) were along the road as we pulled out of Beatty, saying goodbye for the last time.  Last night we also heard the coyotes, also saying goodbye.  Sniff, so long!

Burros saying bye-bye

Sand Dunes Near Death Valley

We drove south US Route 95 through the south western part of the state, nothing to see but sagebrush and basin/range/basin/range mountains.  Sometimes we were not sure where the road was going - just dropped off into nothingness up ahead.  Lots of mountains, saw sand dunes right by Death Valley, very little life otherwise.

Road to Nowhere (Vegas about 30 miles away)

Dropped into Las Vegas by 1pm and traffic wasn't bad although heavy for us because we are not used to more than a couple of cars on the road.  Glad we got out of Vegas with only white knuckles, Dave's plastered to the steering wheel and mine gripping the door handle.  People are nuts. They don't leave enough room when they go around and then cut too closely back into the lane and I guess the yellow solid line on your side of the road doesn't matter in Nevada, zoom around regardless.

ATVs and bikers

Then continued on Route 95 dropping more south right near Lake Mead Recreation area on towards Needles, California.  When we started this part of the southern trek we noticed in the distance what looked like a huge lake only to find out they were growing solar panels (the reflection of the panels is blue and that's what we were looking at). Also saw dirt bikes and ATVs running around on both sides near there.

Lake? No, solar panels

 We had to get on Interstate 40 going east for awhile once we got to Needles and got our teeth jolted with the lousy roads.  You would think that with the interstate system the roads/bridges would be better.  Hah.

Got here to Moon River RV Resort which is south of Bullhead City, Arizona about 2:30pm.  And the temperature was another balmy 89 and climbing.  Right now it is over 100, I guess we are getting our just rewards for being in such wonderful weather this whole summer.  Thankfully we have a couple days to get used to this before moving south again.  We decided that if we were crazy we would drive from here straight to Tombstone Territories RV Park near Huachuca City, Arizona which is south of Tucson by an hour and half, but.  That's about 448 miles from here and it would be a killer to do.  Instead, we will stop one more time for an over night before proceeding to Tombstone.

We are sad that our travels for the summer are quickly drawing to a close, but excited to settle down for a couple of months while the rest of the country gets slammed with snow.  The good thing is that we will be about an hours drive from the grand girls which will make for some fun times this winter.