Well the day I wasn’t looking forward to finally arrived. There’s nothing exciting about having to drive for close to 7 hours in one day; fortunately we got an early start again today and we are not crossing any time zones. We got out of Bernallilo eventually – who knew such a little town could have so much commuter traffic – and got on the I25, then Nell piped up ‘drive 384 miles’, and that’s what we did. It was actually a really pretty drive, we had the Rockies alongside us almost the whole way. We passed Pikes Peak late this afternoon, which is the second most visited peak after Mount Fuji - some useless information for you.
When we arrived at the park in Monument there was a sprinkling of snow over it. We found a decent space that was not covered in snow, I think someone had pulled out of it this morning, and got set up. I had read a bunch of reviews about this park, about how uneven the spaces were and how narrow the roads were, but we didn’t have any problems. I think I need to stop reading the reviews, as some people never seem to have anything good to say about these places; if they want five star resorts they probably shouldn’t be RVing. The park is really close to the freeway, but it’s very woody and the sites seem to have plenty of space between them; maybe we’ll explore some more tomorrow but today it’s too cold.

Mike: We need to hunker down ready for the snow for the next couple of days!

Another longish drive today but not as long as yesterday or tomorrow. We headed out on the I40 again (it’s the only road around here) and made our way into New Mexico. It was a nice drive until we got through Gallup and started climbing to go over the divide at 7300 feet; the weather started getting a little bit naught and we had a lovely snow storm to drive through. Once we started descending though the snow dropped off and then it was only the wind we had to contend with. We stopped at a rest stop just after leaving the snow and were almost blown off our feet; the wind sure makes a difference to the temperature in this part of the world – we are not in San Diego windy weather anymore.




The closer to Albuquerque we got the windy it got and the sandier; I’m not sure how people live with the sand blowing on a regular basis, I’m still chewing on grains tonight!



The campground we are staying at tonight is in Bernalillo which is just north of Albuquerque. It’s a really nice little park, with nice spaces and permanent shelters, not bad for $10.00 a night, and we have beautiful views of the Sandia Mountains. Also as we were driving in I thought I saw Tal-y, but it turns out there are two Airedales staying here with us, they are almost as cute as my girl.

Mike: Never thought you would ever say that!

We had a long drive ahead of us this morning so Mike had the coffee pot go off at 6 a.m.; after getting ready we left the campground in Vegas around 7.30. We headed south so we could pick up the I40 to go east, passing over the Hoover Dam and driving through some landscape that looked like it belonged on the moon.




Once we got onto the 40 freeway it was a straight shot to the campground we are spending tonight at. Although we drove for around 6 hours today it seemed like longer since we lost an hour as soon as we crossed into Arizona, and we are now on mountain time. The drive wasn’t too bad really, a little long and a lot windy, but tolerable. I spent most of the drive looking for elk but only managed to spot a wolf hanging out in the snow outside of Flagstaff. It looked like they had had quite a bit of snow in that area and are expecting more tonight – rather them than me.
The wind was pretty nasty today which makes me very grateful for Xena; with her dual wheels we hardly feel anything. I loved Serena but life is a lot easier with Mike’s warrior princess!

Mike: Go Xena!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!xoxoxo

We got to the campground which is in Sun Valley just east of Holbrook and the windy was still crazy so we got set up (we didn’t have to unhook) and spent what little was left of the afternoon snuggled up inside the trailer. We stayed like that till we got a knock at the door, it was a chick looking for a ride into Holbrook. I can’t imagine where she came from as this park is in the middle of nowhere, some people are just downright weird!

We have spent the past few days fixing up the trailer, doing little repairs and touch ups ready to trade her in when we get to Cheyenne. Painting, staining, gluing, filling, we’ve done it all this week; who knew we had so much to do, I think cleaning is all we have left to do now and that’ll be when we get closer to Wyoming. I trailer looks excellent inside and out, we should have done these things a long time ago. Why is it that repairs that have needed doing for a while only get done when someone else is going to benefit?
Besides maintenance we have also found time to eat quite a lot, and although the egg drop soup at the Noodle house was good it was not in the same league as the hot and sour – I think another trip there tomorrow is called for.
Apart from eating, I have spent a lot of time researching both mine and Mike’s family trees this week, with our free Internet. Mike is just as much Irish, English, French and German as he is Scottish – I swear I didn’t know about the English part before we got married, if I had well we might never have gone to see the judge! My family tree was easy to trace back two generations as my relatives had names like Uriah and Obadiah, but when I got to the ‘normal’ names like James and William it became almost impossible, as looking for the right James Jones is like looking for a needle in a haystack.
While I have been doing something constructive these last few days, Mike has been peering through the slats of the blinds trying to figure out what our toothless (literally) neighbours are up to. I can't imagine where he got his nosiness from, and I'm sure if he went and talked to the neighbour he'd tell him what he was doing with all the stuff that he has sitting on the floor outside his motor home; he might even offer him a nice shot of vodka.

Mike: Can you imagine! I asked the neighbor where he was from and he said Wales, I'll bet he's a relative of yours. Besides miss Wales many of your relatives are English!

We finally made it to the strip today. Even though it’s only a 6 mile drive from the park, and you can see the hotels from the highway outside our park, Mike still managed to get lost – if only he’d listen to Nell once in a while.
We finally managed to get there and parked at Circus Circus (a big plus of Vegas, free parking and lots of it) and started hitting the casinos. We didn’t do any gambling or much eating but we had a nice meander along the strip from one place to the next. It was a nice stroll, and the weather was perfect, warm and sunny but not too hot. The hotels are pretty grand but the casinos well, you could be in any one of them at any time, as they all look the same. There were a lot more people playing cards, craps and roulette here than at the casinos off the strip. There were also people playing electronic roulette, doesn’t that take all the fun out of the game?

Mike: Gone are the old days, everything is electronic!

Today was tax day. Mike did them while I did my very best to be quiet and not bother him while he was doing them. It turns out that being poor has its advantages, you don’t owe any money to the US government.

Mike: Good tax planning! Done and filed online!

Buffet number two today at Sam’s Town which is about a mile south of us. We did a little slot machine feeding before eating, and checked out the cool shopping/eating area they have going on inside the casino. Then for less money than yesterday we ate food that wasn’t quite as good, although there was a killer guacamole.

Mike: This could be adictive in a very bad way!

It’s a good job we are only in Vegas for 10 days, cos any longer and I would probably weigh double what I did when we arrived. I think some of the people at this buffet have been too long in this town!

We visited Boulder Station Casino today, which is within walking distance of the park we are staying at (we didn’t walk); there were lots of people gambling away, not so much at the card tables, but at the slot machines. The flashing lights and kerchinging money noises are intoxicating, they just make you want to dump money into the machines. Fortunately they have lots of 1c and 5c machines so the dumping doesn’t break the bank, even when you are playing poker. What it does mean though is you can sit at the slots for hours on end and only part with a couple of bucks – the only disadvantage, you’re never going to be rich! We gambled (if you can call it that) for a while before getting on with the thing we really came for, the food.




We checked out the buffet before we decided to do it, but as it turned out there was plenty of veggie food for us too eat in fact, way too much. I have no self control at the best of times, and then to go to a place where you can eat all you want for $7.99, I might never need to eat again. Did I really eat this much food plus salad, yes to all but one.

Mike: Nothing like a buffet with 500 choices we can eat! I think "Gluttony"

After spending the last week in Bullhead City going in and out of Nevada, we headed north into Nevada proper this morning and made our way to Las Vegas. It was a really nice drive along the highway, but along a very quiet one; we didn’t have to share the road with hardly any traffic although we did see lots of RV’s heading in the opposite direction (maybe they’ve lost all their money in Vegas!) We left the campground before 9 and as the drive was only around two hours, and we picked up an hour crossing the Nevada border, we were in Henderson really early. So as not to get to the Thousand Trails park before they opened we stopped at Camping World and had a wander around – there always seems to be something that Mike needs in this store anyway.
We got to the park and Mike had a nice chat with the ranger as he was checking in, and we were assigned a decent site; the spaces as fairly close together but nothing that we can’t deal with for a week or so. I have to say though that I’m feeling a little inferior at the moment as some, no most, of the RV’s here are giant. Our little trailer looks lost amongst these monsters, and we are parked next but one to a F450, so Mike’s feeling jealous inspite of now owning Xena.

Mike: I still love you Xena! but Atlas WOW!


The park itself is decent, really easy access off Boulder Highway, and really clean. It also has fairly fast free internet access which has been mostly unheard of at Thousand Trails parks until now. We are about 6 miles from the strip, but only about 200 yards from the nearest casino. I’m not that excited about the gambling part of the casino but I’m sure they all come with buffets. Tomorrow we will check out our first buffet, but for today we settled for Chinese food. I think I just ate the best hot and sour soup I’ve ever had; I think we might be frequent visitors to the Bei Jing Noodle restaurant while we are here.

Off to Lake Havasu City today for their Winterfest which was in essence a giant street fair. As it was another beautiful day we wandered amongst the stalls that were selling everything from t-shirts (they had one with Tal-y on it) to handmade earrings. We even came across a stall selling welsh cakes - first time ever in this country I think - they were made by a lady from Llantwit Major.
After perusing the stalls we headed off to the river to check out London Bridge. The bridge was originally over the River Thames but when it started falling down, it was dismantled and shipped stone by stone to Lake Havasu City where it was rebuilt; total cost, $9.5 million. In Arizona, it is the second most visited tourist attraction behind the Grand Canyon.
We sat and had lunch on the patio of a Mexican restaurant looking out over the bridge, before taking a stroll along the canal to watch the remote control boat races.

Mike: The Welsh cakes weren't as good as MA's.