Last Hike

We went for our last hike of the season today.  The reason it is our last hike is because the Snakes Are Out.  Actually we quit hiking a couple of weeks ago but some of the hikers wanted to see if they could see a real live rattlesnake.  We really didn’t want to have any confrontation with snakes so we decided to hike the higher altitude in hopes it would be cooler and the snaked wouldn’t be out.

Well we didn’t get very far into the hike when I (not knowingly) stepped over this guy.

 

Yep a real live Diamond Back Rattlesnake.  I didn’t even know I stepped over him until the guy following me said snake!  He was about to place his walking stick when he realized he was about to place it right in the middle of this guy.  I turned and spotted him right away and noticed he was looking right at the guy behind me.  I said, “You might want to step back”.  It didn’t take long before the rest of the hikers were surrounding the snakes to get a look.  He was pretty lethargic since it is early in the season and they are just warming up.  Even after tossing a few rocks at him he barely lifted his head to see where they were coming from.  Never did rattle.  I didn’t really want to excite him too much in fear that he would try to retreat and since we had him surrounded there was no were to go besides through one of us.  At this point the hikers decided they saw what they came for and were ready to get out of there.

What a great time

As you know we just spent a week in Vegas mainly for this weekends NASCAR race.  We found it was cheaper to get a weekly rate at the campground rather than the 4 nights for the race.  We could always find something to do.  Turns out we did none of the Vegas stuff.  Instead we spent one day seeing the Red Rock Canyon, another seeing the Hover Dam and bypass bridge, and went to the strip to see the NASCAR hauler parade.  The rest of the time we spent in the infield with our daughter and their friends for the NASCAR weekend.  What a great time we had.  Everything went extremely well from the trip there and back to the touring and the race.  I remember before we went fulltime we didn’t want to go home after a great weekend on camping, I got the same feeling this time.

Now we are back in the resort here in Havasu and there is plenty to do here as usual.  It won’t be long before everyone heads home and Susan and I will be one of the few left here for the summer.

 

Here are a few more photos.

 

The first Shelby made

1100 Horse Power Shelby

 

Observation Deck

 

Dam Bridge

This morning we headed out to the Hover Dam.  Actually we have seen the Dam before but since then they built a bypass bridge that I wanted to see.  This bridge is a bit down stream from the Dam and spans 1900 feet from Arizona to Nevada.  At 900 feet above the river it stands way above the Dam.

We walked down the bridge walkway where we got views of the Dam.

Then we went to the Dan and got a view of the bridge.

The Arizona Nevada state line in the middle of the bridge

The lake is really low on the other side of the Dam.

 

After coming back from the Dam and Bridge we found out that the hauler parade was tonight instead of tomorrow night as it usually is.  The hauler parade is where about 50 NASCAR car haulers (semi trucks) parade down the Las Vegas Strip all lit up and their horns blasting.  Pretty cool sight to see.

Red Rock Canyon

We decided not to do the Vegas thing this trip so today we went to the Red Rock Canyon.  This is a site west of down town with…well…red rock canyons.  As with the Grand Canyon, pictures don’t do it justice.  You just have to be there but here are a few.  I will have to come back some time with my hiking buddies.  There are about 19 hiking trails to do.  Since some of them are 3 to 4 hours long we will not be doing them in one day.

 The weather so far has been great but it is supposed to turn ugly in the next few days.  Hopefully it won’t be too bad for the race this weekend.

Las Vegas Nevada

We left Havasu about 9:30 this morning and arrived in Las Vegas at about 11:00. 

This is about a 2.5 hour drive and no we didn’t make it in 1.5 hours.  We went through a time change that gained us an hour.  The trip was good and the motorhome ran great for sitting still for a year.  This is the first time I towed the Saturn Vue and I did notice the difference.  The Vue weighs about 800 lbs more than the SC2 did and it shows going up the hills…or maybe it was the year old gas I had in the tank.  Anyway it towed great and easily.  We don’t need to be at the NASCAR track until Thursday so we have a few days to play.

Waxed again

Got the motorhome waxed again.  It came out much better this time but still not perfect.  I got to admit though they gave it a valiant effort.  This time they used a different wax especially designed for fiberglass.  I will probably go over it in a month or so by hand with a good cleaner wax designed for fiberglass gel coat.

Tomorrow we will be getting things ready to head on over to Las Vegas.  We will be heading out Monday morning.  Not to early though since we will be traveling from Arizona time to Vegas time and pick up an hour.  Can’t get there too early.