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1 to 15 November 2013 16 to 30 November 2013

Saturday November 16, 2013

Free breakfast with the room, of to the restaurant for breakfast.
It was a good breakfast.

We are back at the garage to open up the engine access.

And, we are back at the motel to wait for the repair to be completed.

At around 11 am, I go back to check on the progress on the repair.
The mechanic just finished the repair.
Here is the cause of the fuel leak. One of the fuel lines on the injector pump.

We close everything, but we still have a strong smell of diesel fuel in the room. Normal after all.

We are on the road by 11:30 am.
A good coffee as we head further south.

About 12 miles later, I decide to stop and confirm we have no more leaks.
Darn! It is leaking and more than before... I am not a happy camper right now!

On our way back to beaver.

One of the "banjo fitting" was leaking. 40 minutes later we are on the road again.

After a few stops, we have no more leaks.

A cowboy hard at work.

We see many trucks with three trailers.

WOW!

You really want all your toys with you!

We are starting to see more red dirt as we travel south.

We are not going to be very long in Arizona, only 30 or 40 miles.

But beautiful miles it will be!
As we are driving we have to go through a gorge, we start at about 4000 feet and finish at around 2000 feet.

The photos are not really showing the real beauty of the drive. This is one of the best drives we have ever done.

We finally made it to Nevada.

Mesquite is going to be home for tonight.

This is the first time we stay at a casino parking lot.

Sunday November 17, 2013

Is was a quiet night at the casino. The security went by every 20 minutes.
Our "campsite".

Diesel is cheap here, only $3.64 or $0.96 per liter.

We were at the Casablanca in Mesquite, Nevada.

We only have to drive 80 miles to get to Las Vegas.

We can see Las Vegas through the smog.

We are getting closer to "The Strip". Our RV park is close to the tower you see on the left.

We drove in the KOA by the back, it is a lot easier than from the strip.

Once we are all setup, we go for a walk on the strip or Las Vegas Boulevard.
This is the main entrance of the KOA.

The KOA is also part of the Circus Circus casino.

The entrance of the casino.

This RV park is an old parking lot, very little grass here. The positive thing is we are right next to the strip, so we do not have to use the car at all.
This is the view.

Tomorrow we start some serious touring of Vegas.

Monday November 18, 2013

Today we are going on the "Strip".
Here, we are in front of the Bellagio.

The Ceasars Palace...

Everything is so big here!

Some "Show Girls" on coffee breaks?

The Paris. We visited Paris many years ago and if my memories are still good, it looks like Paris.

The Cosmopolitain. It is so "glamor". Hummm, nice shoe.

Of course you have some street entertainers. Some are "more" special than others!

New-York New-York. We have never been to New-York, but the skyline is probably a true rendition of the skyline of New-York.

Next is the MGM Grand.

They even have small screen on the water taps advertising stuff in the casino. Unbelievable!

Inside the MGM there is a section called "Television City" from CBS.

We go in and we become critics of a TV show that will be aired later in the season.
Our computers where we will record our impressions about the show.

We also had these devices and by moving the knob we could tell how we liked the show at the exact time. 0 being not good and 100 being we love it.

Well! Michele's device decided to change the scale and stopped at 123.

This only happens to Michele.

For the Harley-Davidson fans.

We are back at the Bellagio for the dancing fountains.
The photos cannot give you what it really looks like. It was beautiful.

Some of the city buses look like Formula-1 race cars. They look from the future.

We hopped on the bus and headed to the "Fremont Street Experience".
The overhead screen is 460 meters long and a show is presented every hour.

It is un-believable how "big" it is.

A really good light and music show.
We love Fremont Street because it is a pedestrian only street and the place is smaller, more friendly in some way.

We stopped and listened to these two musicians playing rock song on the electric cello. It was some good.

Some of the sights on Fremont Street.

Nothing like a good frozen Margarita. A nice "cowboy".

Who's that? Robert De Niro and Jack Nicholson!

We really liked Fremont Street.

Tuesday November 19, 2013

We have a very big day ahead of us. We are going on a bus tour of Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon South Rim.

We have to be in front of the casino Circus Circus and take the bus for the tour. It is early to get up!

Sunrise over Las Vegas.

The Hoover Dam. The white rocks you see is the highest level the water has ever gone. It was during the 1983 floods.

A tribute to the "scalers" who worked on the building of the dam.

Because of the 9/11, commercial transport over the Hoover Dam was no longer allowed. Trucks had to detour by more than 100 miles. A new bypass bridge was built for all traffic.

Next, to the Grand Canyon.
The first stop is at the information center and IMAX theater.
WOW, what a movie about the Grand Canyon.

A replica of the boat used in 1869 to go down the Colorado river in the Grand Canyon.

Finally, we are at the Grand Canyon.

First stop is at "Hopi Point". It is just like in the Canadian Rockies, it is so big it does not look real.

It is monumental.

Our last stop is at "Mather Point" for the sunset, but the sun is playing hide-and-seek with the clouds.

You can take a mule train down the canyon. We can see the trails they take.

Some photos of the sunset.

The sunset from the parking lot.

And, we are back at the motorhome.

It was a long day, more that 8 hours on the bus, but it was the best way for us to see both the Hoover Dam and the Grand Canyon.

Wednesday November 20, 2013

A light day for today after the busy day yesterday. We start with good old laundry moment.

We took a short walk to the Circus Circus and watched a free show.

It was good. We also spent a few dollars on poker machine.

I like the look of the bar.

It was good to take is easy today.
The weather is not very good today, Cloudy skies and rain in the afternoon.

Thursday November 21, 2013

Now the rain is falling steadily. The forecast for the next two days is rain.

We still go and visit more casinos on the strip.

First stop is the Mirage and pick up our tickets for the show Love from Cirque du Soleil. This is the entrance of the theater.

The aquarium behind the counter is huge. It is so nice in the casino.

Of course we did drop a few dollars in the slot machines.

Our next casino is the Venitien. We were in Venice in 1989 and this feels like we are there again. The sky is only painted, not real.

Remember, we are still inside a building. This is St. Mark's Square.

You fell like this is magic and you are really in Venice.

Our next stop is at the Ceasars Palace.

Everything is so luxurious ...
Once again, the sky is only painted. It looks so real!

We are now in the Harrah's casino.

After the Harras, we head back to the Mirage for some diner and the show Love from Le Cirque du Soleil.

Some good wings for diner.

We could not take any photos of the show, but let me tell you, The Beatles I love and for the first time I got to see the Cirque du Soleil, it was just WOW!

After the show, we took the bus, but towards the south, away from home. We wanted to see the strip at night.
Once the bus was at the end, it turned around and we headed back home to the Circus Circus.
The rain did not help, but we still saw the lights of all the casinos on the strip.

A cold front is coming down from Canada and it is not nice in Vegas. The locals say they have not seen rain like this for decades.
Even the temperatures are way cooler than usual!

This was another full day.

Friday November 22, 2013

With the rain still coming down, we decided to head for some shopping and go back to the motorhome and relax.

Saturday November 23, 2013

This is our last day on the strip. Michele remembered when she was here in 2001, she had a very good breakfast buffet at The Orleans casino. So off we go!

So much food!

The Orleans has more than 100 bowling lanes.

On our way back from The Orleans, we decided to drive the Strip under the rain. Who can say they did that?

Rain, rain and it does not stop.

Sunday November 24, 2013

This morning, we are leaving the KOA for the Camping World store of Las Vegas. We are scheduled to change the fridge, the furnace and install a new washer/dryer combo.
Let's get back to this morning. we decided to take the Las Vegas Boulevard with the motorhome so we can say we drove the Strip with the motorhome. It is a guy thing!

It is a little busy, but not too bad with the motorhome.

The Luxor.

The South Point. Does it ever look "rich" with all the gold?

We had a little "adventure" with our trip to Camping World. Me and Michele were sure it was the Henderson store we booked our appointment, so the Henderson store was entered in the GPS. I could not remember the roads we were traveling... We are almost there and I double-check, poop, I made a mistake. So 50 kilometers later we are back at the "right" Camping World".

Our home for tonight.

Once the motorhome is set up, we un-hook the car and drive to Red Rock Canyon.

Water is very scarce in Las Vegas. No grass by the highway here!

What a great idea to camouflage a cell tower into a tree!

30 minutes later we are in Red Rock Canyon.

It costs only $7 to get in.
The information center is very good. Beautiful and instructive.
Here is a view from inside the information center towards the Red Rock.

It would be very easy to spend many hours in this information center. There are so many things to discover about the desert and the mountains.

Don't worry, it is not a real one...

It is illegal to feed the burros (small donkey).

Getting ready for the shot!

And the two love birds.

A beautiful place to do rock climbing.

The red sandstone comes from the oxidation of the iron in the sand many millions of years ago.

We drove the 13 miles scenic loop of the park. It is so beautiful. It is a scenery, we are not used to see in the East.

Back at the motorhome and the parking lot of Camping World, we watch some TV and go to bed to be ready for tomorrow morning.

Monday November 25 2013

A day for installations and repairs.

From left to right with the red arrows.
This is the hole for the vent of the new washer/dryer combo.
The open panel is where they connect the new fridge.
The closed panel is where the new furnace is located.
And, the missing window is where they passed the old fridge out and the new fridge in.

Our old fridge, we will keep the wooden panels for other uses on new project.

Here is another view of the missing window. They had to remove a lot of items to get the fridge out and in.

Our new fridge. We had a 9 cubic feet fridge and now we have a 7 cubic feet fridge. The reason we changed size is that our fridge model is no longer made. We will adjust to the new size.
The top arrow shows the little frame they had to add to secure the new fridge and the lower arrow is to show you where we will install a new sliding pantry, eventually.

This is how the walls of our motorhome is made.

We also fill up with propane because we will be in the desert in Quartzsite for a week .

We are spending the night in the parking lot again. This way if something is not working right we can bring it back in tomorrow morning. We will have the fridge on propane to make sure is cools alright and with the cool night we have right now, we will test the furnace. We will not use our washer/dryer combo because they recommended that we leave the gray water tank open when we use the washer.
A nice view of the mountains east of Las Vegas.

So far, we are happy with the work that was done on the motorhome.

Tuesday November 26 2013

Good news. Everything works good. We are now heading to Quartzsite.
Look at the smog coming from California. Unreal!

A big field of solar panels.

The road follows the contour of the land. The dip on the road is called a wash. This is where the water flows when it rains. It does not rain very often in this area. And it is cheaper to maintain than a bridge.

A part of this road is dedicated to the veterans of the wars. We missed a few of the signs with the camera.

What a name for a town! Cal Nev Ari is in Nevada, really close to the border with California and Arizona.
So, they named the town Cal(ifornie) Nev(ada) Ari(zona).

What a name for a pass in the desert.

We are only going to be in California a short time.

Do you think they want us to turn left?

The Colorado river. It is the border between California and Arizona.

Lake Havasu City, it only exist because a dam created an artificial lake here. There are a lot of campgrounds and boats here.

The campgrounds are beautiful, but the golfing must be very expensive because water is expensive in the area.

We are finally at our destination, Quartzsite.

Why have camels on the town logo? I will write about it in a few days ...

Once we got our camping permit from the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), We dump out gray and black water and fill up with fresh water. This campground is primitive. More details later.

What a nice sunset.

We will be here for about a week.

Wednesday November 27, 2013

We are the BLM of La Posa South. The BLM is like our crown land in Canada. Some part are controlled for the camping. The one we are in does have a dump station, fresh water and dumpsters available for the campers, some don't.

This is our first time in a BLM and in the desert. We purchased the seasonal pass, from now until the end of April, for $180. This pass also allows us to camp at 10 other BLM in California and Arizona.

We will come back to Quartzsite in January for the big Swap & Meet.

So, here is our site, you just pick a spot and park there. In this photo we look east. The ground is what is called "desert pavement" or gravel.

Looking to the west.

And, looking out the door If you want to know where we are exactly, click here.

We bought some anti skid for the lower edge of the door. This one is done.

And, the new one is on.

We are at the chamber of commerce/information booth to find out what is to see and do here in Quartzsite?

WOW! Did we get information, the lady was very helpful.

Next, we drove on the main street to see what it looks like.
A good sense of humor, a fishing pole over a dry wash.

We just liked this statue.

From the overpass for the I-10, we look south. The motorhome is about 5 kilometers further.

Fixing diner with a nice glass of red wine.

The sunset in Arizona are just plain spectacular. This is the same sunset, but at different time.

We just started our week in the desert and so far we love it.

Thursday November 28, 2013

This morning, I am biking in town. Another view of the fishing pole over the wash.

It was a very laid-back day today. We did some shopping at a few RV parts places.

Friday November 29, 2013

Lets talk about the temperatures here in Quartzsite. It is not all that warm in December and January. It can reach +20 C in the daytime and low of +10 C at night. Starting in February it does warm up nicely.

It is nice in the sun to read the news from CBC.

This afternoon we are looking for good deals in town.

Nice camel!

Our new fridge is nice, but missing some more shelves. One of the place in town sells used RV part and we purchased 2 shelves for the fridge. One to replace the one with "hole" for the milk and add one in the freezer.
Some modification were required, but it looks nice now.

We still cannot get over the sunset here. They are just fantastic.

Since the campground is not a private park, no activities take place in the campground. The town makes up for it.
We went to the campers bingo. We came back home a little lighter. This is our first bingo for the winter 2013-2014.

Saturday November 30, 2013

Some information about Quartzsite.
In the summer the population of Quartzsite is about 3,400 person. Comes winter, 1.5 million people will come in Quartzsite, some for a few hours and some for the whole winter. Unbelievable!

This morning we are at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in Quartzsite. We bought some Christmas decorations and I found some fluorescent light for only $5, they are $8 to $10 in a RV store. We love shopping in Thrift Stores.

We drove around some residential area of town. We love the type of bricks used for the low walls around some yards.

Nothing to add to this one!

We are back at the swap & meet, Michèle is doing some shopping and I go to the Day Care.

So beautiful, the little reflection in the photo is not from a dirty lens, but from the dust in the air.

Until next time.

Life is good...