Week ending Oct 31, 2019 Jackpot Nevada to Laughlin Nevada

From Jackpot, we drove south to Caliente, to stay for two nights so we could visit Beaver Dam State Park, the last of the four state parks near Caliente.  When we arrived in town, John took advantage of the 2 hot dogs and a soda for $1 deal, again.  The next morning we saw a nice little deer with antlers browsing in the RV park.

On Friday we drove a few miles north of town, then east on 27 miles of good gravel road to Beaver Dam State Park.  About a mile before getting to the park, we started a steep downhill,  peaking at 14% grade.   The park is just east of the Utah border.  There is one long (2.2 mile) walk along Beaver Dam Wash, which had an advisory that there were many creek crossings.  We found the creek to be about 1 to 2 feet deep with a good current.   There was a warning at the beginning of the trail to wash and dry watercraft due to New Zealand mud snails, an invasive species.  We also found the walking to be a bit tough, as there was a lot of soft sand to slog through.

Beaver Dam Wash

a few oaks turning color

looking down into the park

On the way back from the park, we did an extra couple of miles detour to a Barclay.   On the way, we came to a memorial at Skyler's Corner. Skyler David Hafen, a 10 year old was riding a motorcycle on the road on the family farm  when he collided with a bus carrying prisoners fighting a fire in the area.

Barclay is on the Union Pacific railway, which runs up a valley from Caliente across to Utah.  There was a sign on the road above Barclay that it is private property, so we turned back.

Barclay church

On Saturday, we headed south again.   On highway 93 heading south toward I-15 west of Vegas, we saw an unusual line of V-shaped power towers.  They were designed to minimize the environmental impact with a small footprint.   Ironically, one of the power sources that energizes the line is wind.  Shortly after construction, the wind blew down several of the towers.  The solution to the problem was to wrap the metal poles in spiral cables, to change the vibration that the wind puts on them.

V-shaped power towers

We stopped for lunch in the truck at the truck stop at I15.  While Joan was making sandwiches, a semi parked in front of us, and wanted to know if we were leaving, since he wanted to park in our spot on the side road, just before the turn into the truck stop.  We accommodated him as we were just there to make the sandwiches.

From there, we headed into Vegas, down the busy 515 south through the city, and on to Laughlin on the Colorado.  There we paid for a week.  Fortunately they had a site for us in one of the larger short term sites, rather than the narrow ones we usually get, where we don't even have enough room to put out our steps.   It's a little quieter here in the fall than when we come through in the spring.  

After staying for a couple of days, we decided to see if we could extend our stay.  The weather this fall continues to be cooler than normal, so we aren't keen on boon-docking.  There is good walking from here either along the riverwalk, or north to the dam, so it is a good spot to stay.   We couldn't get any of the larger double-sized sites, since they are booked up to 2 years in advance but are able to stay in our site until Dec 5.

We have had a few days of high wind, so didn't get out for a decent walk until Thursday. 

Week ending Oct 24, 2019 Summer Recap

Finally heading on the way south again, so time for a recap of our summer.

We took good advantage of the Vulcan Golf Course StaynPlay package, booking 79 rounds of golf each.  We only had to cancel two days due to rain.   Pulling our hand carts the 12 km to the golf course, around 18 holes and back to the trailer was great exercise.

We went with Trev and family to Chain Lakes.  John paddled out in a kayak with Trev and Anthony.

George came to visit us in mid-July. He brought us a flash drive with scans of the photos he took when we did a 3 week trip around Great Britain in 1983.

Carol and Dave visited with us for a few days. 

Janet and Trish came out from Sicamous shortly after.  We enjoyed visiting with them and doing an 9 hole round at the golf course. 

Karen and Dominique came for the August long weekend.  

George stopped in again in mid-September.

Then we went up to Edmonton for a couple of days, staying at a hotel in Nisku, to visit with John's Dad, Ann and Daniel, Joan and Alf, Buncha, and Fern.

We had arranged to get our broken sewer valve replaced near Okotoks on  October 1 on our way to the campground in Black Diamond.  However, we had a snow storm that made the RV shop's yard impassable.  We scheduled another day that was spoiled by another snowfall.   As it turned out, we should have scheduled a day during the summer and taken the effort to pack the trailer up to get the repair done.

Elizabeth came out to visit us in Black Diamond. 

On October 15, we headed for Regina to celebrate Dominique's grad from university.  We stopped at Killton Hill RV Park near Swift Current, then the #1 RV Park in Regina.  It is a new park created due to the Regina Bypass construction going through the house of the owner's land.  Only about 20 sites, with about 6 units there long-term.  A little awkward to get into unless you know the area, recently, since the roads are changed due to the bypass.  We got caught up on laundry at Karen's on Thursday.  On Friday, we attended two ceremonies,  the first in the morning for Dominique's certificate from Campion College, at the UofR, and the second for her degree in Psychology with a certificate in Public Relations from the UofR.   On Saturday, we got to meet Dominique's boyfriend when we went to the Rock Creek Tap and Grill to celebrate.

On Sunday, we headed back to Alberta, as we had to pick up our final mail for the summer and John's prescriptions.  We decided to stay in Milk River, about the same distance with the trailer as Vulcan, and drive into Okotoks the next day.  However, we missed the turn in Bow Island due to stopping at the UFA for diesel, past the turn.  Instead of going through Foremost to Milk River, we went south from Taber.  This brought us out at Warner, so we stayed in the campground there for a couple of nights rather than going further south to Milk River.

On Tuesday we headed across the border, stopping at our usual spot at Lincoln Road in Helena.  It was 'converted' to a KOA this year.  The only difference we saw was a $11 increase in the nightly rate. Maybe they have plans, but the office is only staffed for a couple of hours in the morning.  After getting set up, we headed to Verizon to get our US phone activated.  We were able to retain the same phone number again, but Verizon has dropped 3G support, so we had to buy a compatible phone.  The plan the rep put us turned out not to have hotspot capability, a priority for us.  However, we were able to get the plan changed, to a cheaper version.  

Wednesday morning, we woke up to a snowstorm.  Fortunately it was a light one, so the snow didn't stay on the highways as we headed south.  We made our usual stop for bread, pancake mix and some cinammon buns at Wheat Montana.  Then we continued on to Fort Hall for the night.  

Thursday we had to wait for the weather to warm up from about -6C, since that can freeze the water lines under the trailer.   With all of the cold nights this fall, we have gone through 3 30 lb propane tanks, so far, running the furnace to keep the water lines warm.   We left about 10 AM, when it had warmed up to just below freezing.  We stopped at Cactus Pete's Casino RV Park in Jackpot at the north end of Nevada for the night.



spoiled by another snow storm.