October, 2003
We began October with a glorious week in the "High Country"....Summit County, Colorado, elevation 9300 ft.  We were parked in one of the most beautiful RV parks existing...Tiger Run RV  Resort  along the Blue River near Breckenridge.  The sites are all widely spaced, double wide and beautifully landscaped.  The surrounding views are of mountains, blue sky, pines and golden aspens.  The park also has great recreation facilities including an indoor pool and a nice clubhouse.  Our main reason for being here was to visit with our son, Reid, who is a photo-journalist for the local paper, The Summit Daily News.  We read the paper on-line daily, but its fun to see "the real thing."  While in Summit County we enjoyed meeting some of Reid's friends and co-workers, had a delicious dinner at the home of Reid's girlfriend, Kim, and of course enjoyed being outdoors in the beautiful mountains.  Kim owns a renovated and updated log cabin in Frisco...a comfy, cozy and charming place, and is a publisher of real estate books.  Tom and Reid played a round of golf at the Keystone Resort and we made a side trip to Black Hawk to check out the casino action.  We even went to the high school homecoming parade.

On Monday, October 6 we continued heading west...pleased at how smoothly the diesel pusher took to the mountain passes.  We made our next stop at Moab, Utah in the Spanish Trail RV Park...a beautiful setting.  On Tuesday we spent the day hiking various trails in the Arches National Park.  The rock formations are amazing and the colors beautiful.  It was about 80*and sunny -- we had a fantastic day.   On Wednesday we turned somewhat southeast and went to Aztec, New Mexico.  We had quite an ordeal getting into the Ruins Road RV Park as they were rebuilding the road and it was closed to traffic.  With a little help from the construction crew we were able to get into the park, but not without damaging some of their handiwork.  (They were able to repair it over the next several days.)  In Aztec we spent three days visiting with Tom's Aunt Dorothy -taking her to lunch and for drives in the area.  She is a wonderfully healthy 93 years old and quite a personality!

Heading out again on Sunday, October 12 we drove across the Navajo Indian Reservation.  There is very little evidence of habitation in most of the area, and sadly when there are houses, they often are surrounded with litter and junked vehicles.  Occasionally we passed an attractive school complex and once in a while a small store or rug and jewelry stand.  We passed on visiting the Grand Canyon again, for the time being, and went on to Flagstaff where we spent the night in the Wal-Mart lot with about a dozen other Rvs.  On Monday we went on to Kingman.  In Kingman we attempted to locate a winery that we had visited several years ago.  At that time it was just beginning to grow grapes in the desert and its owners were building their home.  Apparently they are all still there, but progress has not gone ahead as planned, and they were not welcoming visitors.  So, instead, we drove out to the town of Oatman, AZ.  We certainly weren't expecting much as we drove through barren rocky desert on the old "Route 66," but as we came around a bend in the road and entered a canyon - there was the town.  It is certainly "in the middle of nowhere" and is pretty much a tourist trap.  Oatman's main street is a about a block long, reminiscent of the "Old West," and is fronted on both sides with gift shops, antique stores and a few saloons.  It's biggest features are the staged gunfight that takes place in the middle of the street and the many mules that wander in and out of the groups of people and back and forth across the street and up onto the boardwalks.
Our adventure in Oatman behind us, we headed on to Las Vegas, arriving at the Thousand Trails Preserve around dinner time. We had no trouble crossing Hoover Dam in the RV, but we did have to stop and be searched at a checkpoint a few miles before getting to the dam.  On our last trip in this area, the dam was closed to traffic and we had to take another route.  We were a few days ahead of our reservation at TTN,  which caused a few problems at the Ranger Station, but we managed to get things cleared up and get settled in.  For the next several days we took care of various "housekeeping chores" and did some exploring around town.  We hadn't been here in about 18 months and checked out a few of our favorite places as well as some things we knew had changed.  We took advantage of quite a few of the coupons for which Las Vegas is famous and enjoyed the various buffet meals.  At the Palms Casino we coincidentally arrived as they were filming "Celebrity Poker Showdown" and were able to watch Carrie Fisher, Tom Green, Mimi Rogers and a few others play poker.  (Episodes will be shown on the Bravo Channel staring Dec. 2)  According to the newspaper, Ben and JLo arrived just after we left.

Reid, with his girlfriend Kim and her Golden Retriever, Maya.

Tom with his Aunt Dorothy WIlliams in Aztec, NM.
Tom with some of the "natives" in Oatman, AZ.
The Colorado River at the Hoover Dam...notice the "bathtub ring"...the water level is down about 90 ft. because of the drought conditions.
at Arches National Park, Moab, UT.

In our casino hopping adventures, and using our Las Vegas Advisor vouchers, we were able to participate in some Blackjack and Slot Tournaments....the most profitable being at Binion's Horseshoe Casino in downtown Las Vegas where Mary took first place and brought home the $775 prize.  Between that and a few blackjack sessions at some of the other places, we made a profit for our two weeks in "Sin City."  We went to lunch one day with former Toledoans, Bonnie and Don Wolfe, who now live in Las Vegas.  It was good to catch-up with them as we weren't in Toledo on their last visit there.  We also had a great visit with former Michigan-O-Bounder friends, Nancy and Dick Maxwell.  They now have an Alpha "See-Ya" motor home and were passing through Las Vegas on their travels.  We had last seen them at the FMCA GLASS Rally in Michigan last spring, and will see them again later this winter in Casa Grande.  Sadly, we weren't able to get together with our nephew, Scott Close, who is in the Air Force and stationed at Nellis Air Force Base.  They keep them busy out there!

During the last week of October we moved along the Colorado River.  First, on Monday, October 27 we drove from Las Vegas down to Ehrenberg, AZ. for two nights.  We stayed at a Western Horizons Resort with a site right on the Colorado River and for sitting through a very brief sales presentation, got the two nights for free.  We had to drive into Blythe, CA for groceries.  Our 36th anniversary, the 28th, was the first day in weeks that we'd eaten all three meals at home-but we had celebrated with dinner and a show while in Las Vegas.
On Wednesday we moved on down the river to Yuma for three nights at a Colorado River Adventures park.  Our three days here were clouded with smoke from the California fires only about 150 miles away.  We "checked out" the nearby Indian casinos and some of the neighboring RV parks as we've heard so many people say they spend the winter here.  (We didn't find any that "stole our hearts.")  We also made a trip into Mexico at Algodones.  The winter crowds have not arrived yet, so it was a pleasant stroll through the border town.  We felt that Algodones is cleaner and a little more pleasant than our experiences at Progresso in Texas, but we managed to spend little money.  Friday night, Halloween, we attended a bon-fire and free "cook-your-own-hot dog" dinner at the Yuma Lakes RV Resort.  The bon-fire felt good as it had really cooled down after the sunset.....and a fitting end to the month of October. 
Bonnie and Don Wolfe in Las Vegas.