Our August adventures ended with "Las Vegas, here we come!"  September 1st was a travel day for us as we started in Williams, AZ and took a route west on I-40 as far as Kingman.  From there we decided to travel south to Bullhead City and cross the Colorado River to Laughlin, NV.  This would let us avoid the high traffic as well as the Homeland Security inspection at the Hoover Dam.  However, the drive out of Kingman is somewhat of an adventure.  Route 68 heading west has some really nice "hills."  We were taking it easy, but the mountains, combined with the outside temperature of at least 100*, found us reaching the "overheating" point.  We slowed down and turned off the dash A/C for a while to help the engine stay cool.  The 6% grade down into Bullhead City is also a "treat."  At the bottom of the hill is the Colorado River and the banks were full of people enjoying the water.  Since we were headed for Las Vegas, we didn't stop to visit any of the establishments on the Laughlin side of the river.  While making the drive from Williams to Bullhead City we crossed the 42,000 mile mark on the Dutch Star and it was exactly 4 years since we had picked up our new coach.

Our arrival in Las Vegas at the Thousand Trails Preserve was highlighted with a temperature of 113*....whew, that's hot!  We were able to get a site in our preferred area, but all of the 50amp sites were taken.  But, the one next to us was 50amp and the campers were scheduled to leave in just a few days.  We can operate only one air-conditioner at a time on 30amp and considering the temperature we decided we were willing to pay the extra $2 a day to be a bit more comfortable.  We'd just have to get along with one A/C for a few days.  All the sites at Thousand Trails are "first come, first served" so when our neighbor pulled out of the campground on Wednesday at 4am, Tom moved our car into the vacant site.  That diesel engine was like an alarm clock!  Well, another camper had designs on the site and was also aware of our neighbor's planned early departure.  What a commotion occurred at that early hour!!!  We had followed the park manager's policy, so Tom held his ground and around 8am we moved the coach over one site and hooked up to a little more electric power.  (The other camper did find another 50amp site a little later.)  Another morning we were awakened aorund 6:30am by the sound of chain saws.  Workers had arrived to take down several dead trees about 50 ft. away from our rig.  We were blocked in by a caravan of heavy equipment but by noon the trees were gone...and the coach looked like a big pile of sawdust.  (The workers did blow us off with a leaf blower before they left.)  Sadly, what had been a nice shady spot, and a favorite for some, had become the victim of drought and disease.

We enjoyed our two week stay in Las Vegas in spite of the heat.  The casinos obviously use a lot of energy...they were honestly cold inside!  We had to wear sweaters.  But, that didn't stop us from spending time at the slot machines and the Blackjack tables.  We made the rounds of the various venues, but spent most of our time at the casinos near the Thousand Trails Preserve out on Boulder Highway.  We were disappointed that our friends, the Wolfes, had not returned to their home in Las Vegas from their summer in Ohio, and other friends who sometimes meet us in Las Vegas weren't able to join us, so we had to venture out on our own.  We did take time to make a visit to the Ethel M candy factory and tour their Cactus Garden.  Mary attended two shows, "Menopause, the Musical" and the Cirque du Soleil production of "Love."  The day we visited the South Point Casino we discovered that it was "senior day" at the movie theater, so we took advantage of that to see "Hairspray" and "The Bourne Ultimatum."  We also made a trip downtown to see the "Fremont Street Experience."  Sitting in one place for two weeks also gave us time to catch up on laundry and chores, including a trip to Camping World, and to get our mail.  Mary was happy to get a birthday project for our youngest granddaughter completed and on its way to Illinois.   We were in Las Vegas for Big Ten Football Weekend.  Wisconsin was in town to play UNLV and they billed their tailgate party as the "Largest Tailgate Party, Ever."  Badger fans filled the casinos that weekend, but somehow temperatures in the 105* neighborhood just didn't make it seem like football weather!  We were also fortunate (?) to be in town for the big Britney Spears and OJ Simpson events.  The local TV stations and newspapers covered the affairs extensively!!!
 
 

That's the Eiffel Tower!  Are we in Paris?  No, its the replica in Las Vegas!	Mary's view for many hours...over Tom's shoulders at the slots!	The light show at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.
Look closely...there are two workers with chainsaws up there in the trees.  They made a great alarm clock!	The cactus garden at the Ethel M candy company.	Here we are amid the tourists waiting for the overhead show to start at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas.

Soon, our two weeks came to an end and we hit the road once again, retracing our route back to the south.  But, instead of going to Laughlin, we continued down the California side of the Colorado River to the Emerald Cove Resort near Earp.  We stayed here only one night, but a longer stay here would be a fun experience for those into water sports.  The park is right on the gorgeous Colorado River and has a great sand beach.  There were lots of families staying at the park enjoying jet-skis, water-skiing and swimming.  But, the next day we crossed into Arizona at Parker, passed through Quartzsite and went on to Yuma.  The whole drive from Las Vegas down to Yuma was a pretty desolate drive!
 
 

The Colorado River beach at Emerald Cove RV Resort, Earp, CA.  If you're lucky, you can get a site on the beach and pull you boat and jet-skis right to your door.	For those of you that are familiar......The traffic light on Route 95 heading south in Quartzsite.  Rice Ranch to the left...a little different than in January!

Our stay in Yuma was three nights at a Passport America Park, Araby Acres.  We had stayed here a couple of years ago and had been fortunate to have some workers come to wash and wax our coach.  We were hoping that we might be able to have that done again, so we returned "to the scene of the crime."  Sure enough, we had three different vendors knock on our door asking to shine the coach!  We chose one and when we left town, we were clean and bright for a very reasonable price! (Wash and hand wax for $120)   While in Yuma we also made a side trip to Los Algodones, Mexico where the two of us got two new pairs of glasses each...again for a very reasonable price of $220 total.  (Well, we think, reasonable...there were problem s with Tom's finished glasses so they were to be mailed to us, and as I write, they haven't arrived.)

ALERT! ALERT!     Elvis lives!       We saw him at the Flying J in Eloy, AZ when we stopped to fill up our tank before parking for the winter.  He was buying snacks before he jumped into his pick-up with a big sign for "The Ultimate Elvis" on the side.  We didn't get any photos as I didn't have the camera when I went inside to pay our $253 worth of fuel  :-(

Our September 19 arrival at Palm Creek Golf and RV Resort in Casa Grande was our earliest arrival for the winter since we started coming here.  We were greeted by our friendly neighbor and head ranger, Bob Daniel, who got us all parked in our usual site.  As we checked in, Tom ran into one of his poker buddies and by 6:30 was at the card table.  There are very few people here at the moment...which actually is pretty nice.  Golf play is free till November 1st, so we were out on the course at 6:30am the next morning.  By the time we walked the 18 holes, it was close to 100*, and we headed home to cool off and take a nap!  That became our daily routine till the end of the month.  On Monday the 24th, Palm Creek closed their "front nine" for re-seeding, so Tom took his play to the regulation course across the highway for $10 a round.  Mary continued to walk the "back nine" and found time to do some chores before Tom returned.  In the afternoons we ventured into town to take care of various errands and in the process checked out a good part of Casa Grande to see what all had changed since we left at the end of April.  The biggest change is the new mall that will be opening in stages...JCPenney opened September 29, and Kohl's, Target and Dillard's will follow within a few days.  We tried out one of the new restaurants, Macayo's, and are looking forward to the others coming soon.  The workers at the park are putting in many hard-working hours in the heat sprucing up the park and doing a few remodeling projects.  E-mails have been going back and forth and many of our friends will be arriving soon from points around North America.

Saturday, September 22 found us traveling about 25 miles to the Del Webb development, Sun City Anthem, in Florence, AZ.  We had toured the model homes last year and were invited to attend a "golf event" and open house.  Apparently they had planned for a lot of people.  There were bleachers set up for attendees at the golf clinic, and a huge BBQ lunch served along the model homes plaza.  We tried to win a new car by participating in a putting contest, but we weren't any luckier than all the other participants...nobody won the car.  After touring the model homes and the magnificent community center, we realized that there were not many people still present for the raffle drawings, so we hung around till the end of the day's festivities.  That was a good decision as we came home with a new ball cap, a free oil change for the car, two free rounds of golf at the Sun City course (which is $55 weekdays, off season, and more in season) AND.....
a new Nike 3-wood hybrid club that matches Tom's new Sasquatch driver that he got last spring.  (He actually won a Titleist club, but talked another winner into trading!)  Sorry, folks, but we really weren't interested in buying a new house!  We headed to the driving range the next day to try out Tom's new club, and it has been in service ever since.

The view looking west from in front of our rig on Honeysuckle Lane at Palm Creek.