Caesar’s Palace. A $1 bottle of water costs $2 in the vending machine in the hall. It costs $4 if you drink one from the counter in the bathroom. If you get it delivered to you at the pool it costs $8. What a country. We’ve retrieved Annie from sleepover rover. We’re done with sleepover Caesar. We’ve returned to the motorhome at the Circus Circus RV Park and leave tomorrow morning before rush hour. Tomorrow afternoon, Long Beach, California.
Time travelers
We like Brother Bill’s advice: forget the clock and go with Light, Dark, and Hungry. We have settled into a rhythm that has clock references though. I can’t stay awake past nine and can’t sleep past sun-up. Guess that will work wherever we go.
Las vegas
The Jeep was done by Thursday noon. A new starter motor. We hooked up and headed west from Benson on Interstate 10. We stopped for the night north of Phoenix at a familiar RV Park, Pioneer. Good overnight stop right off the freeway. And my favorite part: they have quail. Headed out early Friday morning. We drive back and forth all over the western United States, but this last section was particularly good. A new road for us; highway 93. A drive northwest from Phoenix to Las Vegas through the Sonoran Desert; a rolling saguaro sea. We drove from one desert to another. Gradually the saguaro cactus diminished; then a surprise, a Joshua tree forest. When the Joshua trees subsided, we were left with the sparse creosote and yucca of the Mojave desert. Gone from the lush sonoran desert with its saguaro cactus and palo verde trees to the sparse creosote and yucca of the Mojave. Next up, Hoover Dam. That’s a dramatic drive across, but another surprise. They’re building a suspension bridge waay above it. Judy the acrophobe’s hands started sweating as soon as she saw it. Soon her feet were sweating too. That doesn’t look like a bridge we’ll ever get to drive across. It will streamline traffic flow across the Colorado though. It will eliminate every motorhome stopping to open every cabinet door for homeland security inspection before driving across the bridge. Friday afternoon we checked in to the Circus Circus RV Park in Las Vegas. It’s an asphalt parking lot. That doesn’t matter though. It’s only for one night. Saturday morning we take care of some errands, like dropping Annie off at Sleepoverrover, move the coach to the storage section in the afternoon, and go check in to the conference hotel for a week. The conference starts Sunday and finishes on Wednesday. Ken Roth and I both attend this conference, so we stay on a couple days after the conference for our partner’s meeting. Quiet time to reflect on how we’re doing, what we’re doing, and what we want to do.
Texas
A different kind of bird feeder.
Life on the road
The jeep didn’t want to leave the beach either. It had one last chore to do before leaving and it balked. We had decided not to take the kayaks with us this summer, but to leave them here. We found a place in Aransas Pass, on the other side of the ferry that would store them for us. Saturday morning, we put the racks on the jeep, put the boats on the racks, and headed off for Aransas Pass. When our turn for the ferry came though, the jeep wouldn’t start. They gave us a few minutes to try to get it going then pushed us off to the penalty box. The problem was not the battery. In fact, all the next guy that got pushed into the penalty box needed was a jump. We took care of that and got him on his way while we were still stuck. A tow back to Gulf Waters, push the Jeep back into one of the boat parking places behind the office, and we were set. Pull the mothership around the next morning, back it up to the Jeep and hook up. The boats will stay on top of the Jeep and go with us this summer. We’ve towed the dead dog a thousand miles so far. We called ahead to Benson, Arizona and found a Jeep dealer who will fix it for us. No problem; all it needs is a starter motor. Small problem; there aren’t any in Arizona. No problem; we’ll stay here a couple nights while the part gets shipped from Los Angeles. We should be on our way again mid-day Thursday. We’ve made good time so far. We’ll still make the conference in Las Vegas in time.