Our Travel Blog

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Driving Miss Donna - what does this mean? Whenever I want to go somewhere, if Don is home he will usually drive. He always says he is driving miss Donna! This blog is for our travels, usually with our truck and fifth wheel trailer, but sometimes in our other wheels. When we are not vacationing check in for updates, although less frequent, about our life at home and our wonderful family:)

Friday, April 16, 2010

Campground Review

Today Don and I decided that since I can never remember where I’ve been on one holiday to another that our blog would be that record.  Having decided that I am going to do a review of the campgrounds we stayed in this trip:)  So yes – that means not much new to blog about today.
Chronologically we stayed…
Great Falls, Montana Walmart
Walmarts are nice places to stay basically.  I have an IPhone app that finds al Walmarts in the US and Canada as well.  They always have a restaurant (yes usually MacDonald's) but that means hot coffee the next morning at least.
Lehi, Utah Cabelas Turns out that Cabelas welcomes RVers.  This particular one also had a sewer dump and fresh water filling stations.  And tons of room.
Valley of Fire State Park, Nevada ”Valley of Fire State Park is located only six miles from Lake Mead and 55 miles northeast of Las Vegas via Interstate 15 and on exit 75. Valley of Fire is Nevada's oldest and largest state park, dedicated 1935. The valley derives its name from the red sandstone formations and the stark beauty of the Mojave Desert.” – website statement:)
This was an incredibly beautiful state park.  We had a site with no services for $14, which included the State entry fee, and stayed for 2 nights.  Deserves a photo…
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Sam’s Town, Las Vegas Sam’s Town is adjacent to Sam’s Town Casino in Las Vegas.  We picked this location because our friends Pat and Walter were staying there.  It’s a pretty typical RV resort in a city.  Downer was that it was traffic noisy, garbage collection was anytime after 5:30 a.m., and the internet stunk.  BUT – 2 good evenings to visit friends was well worth it.
Davis Camp County Park, Laughlin, Nevada This was quite a nice campground.  For $20 a night we had water and power, and a weak internet connection.  We would come back here, and next time plan a bit better.  We stayed 6 nights, if we had said that up front we would have the 7th night free.  Also – this place has rental houses and RVs so if we were here and the kids came to visit…
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Lake Havasu State Park, Arizona We drove around Lake Havasu area, scouted this campground as the one we would stay at.  Although it wasn't a burning error, it wasn’t our best choice.  The intense lake traffic was beyond noisy, and no services was not a great idea in 30++ weather.  But the location was good, and at $18 a night not too pricey.  No photo…
St George RV Park, St George, Utah One of the funnier things we seemed to do this vacation was follow Pat and Walter around.  When we left Lake Havasu we were undecided, so tracked the Parkers down and stayed here with them for another 2 nights.  Campground – road noise but okay.  Full services at $30 per night, senior rate.
Boise, Idaho Cabelas
Yes one night:)
Farragut State Park, Athlo, Idaho
This is our second visit to this sate park and we love it.  Beautiful sites, great dump station and $16 a night for water and power.  We stayed 2 nights but could have stayed 4, except for the jobs we need to get home to:)  Only downside was an unlevel site.
The Canyon RV Resort, Radium Hot Springs, BC We always stay at Redstreak Campground in Kootenay National Park.  However this year it opens late due to construction.  I found this place on the internet, and wow!  Although pricey, it is quiet, full services and beautiful.  Sites are large.  It would be a great pace to come for a week with the kids!  $39 a night

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Our Photo Album

So I keep talking about things but have not posted any photos.  Another convenience of not having to be hooked to internet is that I could take my time creating an album to share while off line.
Let’s see how this works!

Keep Travelling and Not Blogging!

Sorry about that, but vacationing and blogging aren’t going together for me.  Between facebook, gmail, facebook chat, reading work email, texting and surfing, I keep forgetting to blog!
So I am trying Live Writer – anyone use it?  Some immediate advantages thus far are that you do not need to have an internet connection to write the blog.  Two benefits to that are that I won’t forget what to write (hopefully) and I can write better posts, adding as I think of something.  It apparently has an IPhone app as well so I will see about that.  In addition it has a spell check which I really need.
So since our road trip to Mexico we have moved on.  We spent 4 nights at Lake Havasu State Park.  It was a beautiful campground, but did have some drawbacks.  It was noisy being on the water as the boats seem to never stop.  And there is a large boat that shuttles folks back and forth to the Havasu Landing Casino and Resort, across the river in California.  I am not talking about a small amount of traffic, but LOTS of it.  As well the sites did not have services.  In moderate temps that would be okay, but it was tooooo hot for no A/C.  So we ran the generator for a couple of hours daily, but would have been better to have a consistent cooling source.
Lake Havasu was also very windy while we were there, as was Laughlin.  But that was not so bad in the 30+ weather.
As you know we travelled to Mexico on Thursday.  Friday we took in the sights at London Bridge in Lake Havasu.  If you are not familiar with that attraction, it is a bridge that was purchased from London England in the 60’s and moved to Lake Havasu and reconstructed.  Purchase and moving costs were just over $7 million.  Now it is a quaint area with restaurants, shops, etc.  Pretty cool.  And lots of waterfront boat docks as well.
Saturday we went on another road trip.  We went north a ways to see the town of Chloride.  This is an odd story.  In 1966 an artist decided to go up the mountain and paint some murals on rocks.  This sounds far more interesting than it was:)
Saturday night we rode the shuttle boat to the casino, had some supper, gambled enough to recoup our losses for supper and drinks, etc. and headed back home.  It was enjoyable and cool outside on the boat.
Our plans were to leave on Sunday.  We had thought to go back to Valley of Fire park, but as we were driving decided to change entirely.  I texted Pat and her and Walter were in St George, Utah, so off we went.  We stayed with them for 2 nights before heading out.  On Tuesday am we took off for Boise Idaho, stopping at the Lehi Utah Cabelas to pick up a boat motor for Jeremy.  We had an overnight at Cabela’s in Boise and off again.
Today we travelled to Farragut State Park, north of Coeur d’Alene Idaho.  It is one of our favourite state parks.  It is also close to a quaint town called Bayview, which boasts one of the best internet cafes I’ve seen.  Great coffee, pie and internet!
Not sure where the next few days will find us.  If Radium Hot Springs campground is open we will go there for one night.  Our plan is to be home on Saturday.  And Sunday we will see the grandkids – miss them lots!
Talk soon – goodnight.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Road Trip Report

On Thursday we got up EARLY 7:00 a.m. and headed south to Yuma and Mexico.  It was just over 2 hours and then we were walking across a border check into Mexico.  Unique expereince is all I can say.  We went to Los Algodones for a stroll to see what I could buy or what we may want to explore.  But in that quaint little place if you don't want dental (counted 33 offices) eyewear (counted 29) or medicine (counted 11 pharmacies), then there is not much need to visit:)
But it was a cool experience, and we travelled back home through California, along the Colorado River, and across the Parker Dam.
It is unique to see all the boondockers in the dessert.  Don and I excel at staying in the trailer for long periods of time without services, but the money these folks spend on solar power, etc. would sure pay for a lot of serviced camp sites.
But it may be us some day.
Today we are relaxing.  I finally finished my last exam in the secong last class of my National Advanced Certificate in Local Authority Administration, which I call Local Government.  I only have the Law class left then I will be done.
We are off to the beach for the day - so have a good one.  One week left for us and then it's back to the normal life!

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Well hello again!

Sorry about the lengthy delay in blogging, but wi fi has not been that strong.  I've manageed a few facebook updates, but photos etc are difficult.

So here we are it's Wednesday a whole week since I wrote!  We had a great visit with Walter and Pat.  They have a lovely new trailer that is very nice to live in.  Great rear kitchen and a king size bed in the bedroom!  We did get to Freemont Street and the seafood buffet, so that was nice.  Wednesday we spent driving around shopping, picking up a few odds and ends.  Pat and Walter had friends flying in from Saskatoon on Wednesday afternoon, and once they arrived Pat cooked a great supper and we visited.

We left Las Vegas on Thursday, but not bright and early by any means.  We had the breakfast buffet at Sam's Town for the second day.  The only time I like lying about my age, BUT how come they believed I was 50??

We pulled into Laughlin aroung 12:30 pm and decided to stay at Davis Camp on the river.  You can see why from the photo:)

















We set up camp quickly then headed to the Bullhead City Walmart to visit with my brotherWarren and his wife Cherie.  They were headed home to Alberta from the winter in Needles CA.  We had an early supper at a mexican restaurant and headed back to our site.
We knew Don's high school freind Ivan was in the area as we read his blog, and sure enough on Friday as we were returing to our site and Don and I are discussing what type of trailer Ivan pulls, there he was on the road.  He joined us for a few drinks at happy hour, then we headed to the casinos for appetizers and more drinks.
On Saturday we did a bit of a road trip and toured the area, although we have been in Laughlin many times.  Ivan joined us for supper on Saturday night, and Don and him spent Sunday driving around and touring.  I HAD to do some homework on my final exam, and was glad Don had someone to visit.  Supperagain at our site, then we said our good byes to Ivan, as we all planned on leaving the next day.
Not like Don and I, but we actually just left Laughin this morning, a week later.  We were cozy in our site and in no hurry to go anywhere.  We visited the Laughlin casinos a couple of times, drove to some new explore areas, and generally did a lot of nothing.  The internet conncetions have been sad, so I haven't been skyping like I expected to:(
We are now camped at Lake Havasu State Park, another site on the water.  I will post some photos later, as it appears we actually have strong internet connections.
Happy travels to all!