Tag: travel

San Bernardino County

by msminnie72, posted in Nevada, San Bernardino

Last time we were in Yucaipa, Ca and now we are still heading inland again to avoid all the rain that California is getting slammed with.

Adelanto, Ca

Ever heard of this little town? Me either, which is why this was a perfect stay. It is located northwest of Victorville with a population of roughly 20.000 people. If you read the last post from Yucaipa, you will know that that area has and still is inhabited by the Serrano Native Americans here also.

Where to stay?

We stayed at a small park Adelanto RV Park http://www.adelantorvpark.com/. It only had 74 sites, but it was clean and well kept. We checked in at the office and had an escort to our site. Our site sat on gravel with full hookup of water, electric, and sewer. We stayed for 2 nights at $50 a night.

The views around this park were amazing with the snow capped mountains in all directions

What to do?

Go to McDonalds! Not just any McDonalds, but the very first one! We were inspired by the movie The Founder https://www.imdb.com/title/tt4276820/ staring Michael Keaton from 2016. Great movie to watch even if you can’t visit the original site.

The first McDonalds was a barbeque restaurant with a staff off 20 carhops and 25 items on the menu. In 1948 the McDonalds BBQ closed, for 2 months while they remodeled the kitchen to only cook hamburgers and fries.

McDonalds reopened on Dec. 12,1948,without any carhops, but Speedy was the official mascot, and so began merchandising as only McDonalds can do. The prices are hard to believe – 15 cents for a hamburger, and a whopping 10 cents for fries! Hey McDonalds – can you bring those prices back to California please!!! Within a year, McDonalds was producing mass quantities of hamburgers and fries and they began selling hundreds of shakes every week as well. This attracted the attention of (in my opinion) our villian, Ray Kroc. Ray had a vision for McDonalds, and along the way to making that reality, his methods changed the nature of what was a small business burger joint.

In 1953 McDonalds was demolished yet again for a better building with 2 golden arches which became the prototype for every McDonalds until 1968.

In 1962 the building was torn down again and a concerned neighbor prevented the wrecking crew from taking down the original street sign. A new building was built and housed Lopex Music Store. In 1992 the building was bought by the San Bernardino Civic Light Opera but was eventually foreclosed on.

This railing is to pay homage to the opera house.

In 1998 Albert Okura, a big fan of Mcdonalds bought the foreclosed property for $135,000 and decided to open an unofficial McDonalds museum specializing on the early years. The museum open on Dec. 12, 1998 on the 50th anniversary of the original McDonalds. The museum is open 7 days a week, is free but gladly accept donations. It’s good fun watching the reactions of others in the museum as they discover toys and memorabilia from their childhood. Spending an hour or so here really can take you back in time. For us, seeing the 70’s era brought back memories of our youth, and seeing the 90’s era allowed us a glimpse back to when our kids grew up.

If your old enough to remember the Styrofoam containers they got ’em here! And oh, what about all the rides and characters?

Remember Hamburgler or Evil Grimace? Oh what memories it was to visit. We used to have birthday parties at McDonalds and they were the best back in the day.

After visiting the McDonalds, of course we had to go to Redlands to get our McDonalds fix. While driving around we noticed the beautiful landscape. The picture is of the area in the past under a freeway overpass. Their were several pictures and difficult to capture while we were driving.

We were enjoying the beautiful area not far away was a small glass museum called the Historical Glass museum in Redlands. It is the largest collection of American-made glass west of the Mississippi River. All of the glass on display was all donated to the museum to fill the 6 rooms of the lower level.

The house was built in 1903 by Jerome Seymour a woodworker and architect. The house stayed in the family until 1977 when Seymour’s daughter Emma Cryer past away. The house was purchased by Dixie and Doc Huckabee with the intention of showcasing their glass collection. Other glass collectors joined in and they formed the Historical Glass Foundation. In 1985 after 11 years of hard work, the doors were opened to the public
Build by Jerome Seymore and still showcases the wooden doors from his planning mill and woodworking days
My favorite display was this collection of 500 cruets.
Fun Fact-Huell Howser visited this museum. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qfqjhhFBprE

Admission is free with a suggested $5 per person donation. They do have a gift shop on site to buy your own glass as well. If your interested in visiting, they are open on weekend from 12-4p.m. https://www.cityofredlands.org/post/historical-glass-museum

Also while in the area, we are known to visit college campuses for no reason other than just curiosity. This trip was no different and we drove around CSUSB. The school was opened in 1965 and not a very big school but the views were amazing with the snow capped mountains

On our way back, I was excited to see the town of Victorville because it was new to us. We thought about visiting the California Route 66 museum but only had 30 min. till closing and we didn’t think we could do it justice. Although we only saw a small portion of Victorville, we were not all that impressed with what we saw.

We enjoyed our stay in San Bernardino and learned a lot. Stayed tuned for our next episode, we are staying in a ghost town.

A little inland and a little coastal

by msminnie72, posted in California

Hello we are the Scherfs and we full-time it in our 2023 Keystone Cougar 2100 RK Sport . We are not ones for staying at the same places all the time so join us as we find something new and we fly by the seat of our pants with no reservations made or with very short notice.

Valencia Travel Village

We decided to hit the road just as the “Pineapple Express” was heading into California. We love the coast, but not so much when the threat of torrential rains and mudslides are in the forecast. Off to Valencia Travel Village we went! This is typically a 1 night stop for us but it is a great place to stay for a weekend or even a week, if you’re so inclined. They have 3 heated pools for those hot summer days or a spa for those cool days. There is a nice play area for the kids. There are horse shoe and shuffleboard courts as well.

If you love roller coasters and have plans to visit Magic Mountain, this is definitely the place to stay. Hard to beat $85 a night and only a 7 min. drive to the park.

Long Beach, California

Between rainstorms we traveled to Long Beach to spend some time with our daughter. Golden Shores RV Resort is our go-to in this area. It’s a little pricey but it is conveniently located for what we need. It is a very nice park in downtown Long Beach. The sites are sand, nicely groomed and great for enjoying the outdoors. There is a pool and a hot tub if you don’t want to go to the beach. Each site in the middle backs up to a grassy area that our dog Jessie loves laying in during those nice southern California days. There is a small and I mean really small store on site for those “I forgot” things. Lots to do near here, Disneyland, Knotts Berry Farm, and even the majestic ship the Queen Mary are close by.

Harbor Cruise

We had 1 day with no rain and we needed some time to kill so my friend Matt offered to take us on his boat around the harbor. It was an amazing experience for us. The weather was perfect and we saw so much.

This is where Space X leases space in the port of Long Beach with its rocket recovery operations. It was cool to get close enough to get a picture and see the rocket.

The Port of Long Beach is where many cruise ships launch from. The is a Carnival Cruise ship next to the dome that used to house the Spruce Goose. Now the dome is used for customs before getting on the ship if your heading to Mexico or out of US waters.

On the other side of the cruise ship is the famous Queen Mary. She was once a luxury liner that launched from England in 1936 and was named after the wife of King George V. She has been sitting in Long Beach harbor since 1967 and has been a tourist attraction since then. She is bigger than the Titanic but only held 2,038 passengers versus 2,440 passengers on the Titanic. Tickets start at $40 and they have several different tours, visit https://queenmary.com/. If your interested in ghost tours, they even have one of those since she is claimed to be haunted. Nobody in my family is brave enough to do this with me and I don’t want to do it alone. I would love to hear from you if you have experienced anything haunted on the Queen Mary.

Driving around the port, it is amazing to see the thousands of cargo containers sitting in the port.

Dining

After a long day on the water, we didn’t want to cook so we enjoyed the local cuisine. We got dinner to go from Islands in downtown Long Beach. We both ordered the “Big Wave” and we highly recommend https://www.islandsrestaurants.com/.

Yucaipa California

After spending 4 days in Long Beach with rain 24 hours a day for 3 of those days, we decided to head inland and try to get out of the weather. We stopped in Yucaipa and stayed at Yucaipa Regional Park for 4 nights. https://parks.sbcounty.gov/park/yucaipa-regional-park/ Yucaipa sits at the base of the San Bernardino mountains and is a lovely little town with a population of roughly 54,000 people.  The Yucaipa valley was occupied by the Serrano Native Americans for thousands of years and the valley is known as “green valley” . Many of their descendants still live in the valley today.

If the weather is nice, this is a nice family oriented park with lots of activities such as a swim facility enclosure, pedal boats, fishing and water slides. It is a popular park during the summer months. Each site has a cement pad with patio, picnic table and loads of grass. So for $48 a night, this is a steal for full hookup.

While in town, I got the chance to visit with a fellow RV friend that lives in Yucaipa and she took me to her favorite restaurant in town. I got the half chef salad and I couldn’t finish it and I forgot to take a picture of it as well. You’ll have to trust me that is was good. It sits just outside historic Yucaipa, which is a typical historic quaint little town.

After lunch we went for a drive to see the snow and didn’t have to go very far. We drove up to Oak Glen which is known for their apple orchards.

So if your into apples or just simply want to relax in a small park with a lot of water activities Yucaipa Regional park is centrally located to enjoy a few days and relax.

Hit the subscribe button below to continue traveling with us as we enjoy a bit of San Bernardino which includes the first McDonalds.

Due to busy schedules and family obligations, we were not able to post for a bit, but we are back on track and will be posting weekly with new content every week. Spoiler Alert, we eventually leave the state of California.

California Dreaming Along 101 Part 2

by msminnie72, posted in Nevada

Hello, we are the Scherfs!, We travel around the country (the western United States so far) in our Keystone Cougar 2100 RK to see and learn about our great country. Check out our story of how we got here https://thescherfswanderingwheels.com/the-beginning/ We would love for you to join us on our travels. When we left off last, we were in Morro Bay visiting the area.

Buellton

We headed south out of Morro Bay without a destination in mind. There are not many places to park a trailer between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. Although one of our favorites places to go is Flying Flags RV resort. We have been here about 4 times and absolutely love it. When you think of resort, this place fits the bill with 2 pools and hot tubs, cottages for those that don’t have RV, bocce ball courts

Santa Barbara

The front drive and office.

We headed south out of Morro Bay without a destination in mind. There are not many places to park a trailer between Santa Maria and Santa Barbara. Although one of our favorites places to go is Flying Flags RV resort. We have been here about 4 times and absolutely love it. Next time we stay, we will have to do a review of it. But since we wanted to try to find something new, we pressed on. With my Googling skills, we decided to call Sun Outdoors Santa Barbara which is actually in Goleta to inquire about availability. https://www.sunoutdoors.com/california/sun-outdoors-santa-barbara We were informed, they had plenty of space and we could drive right in without a reservation. Now mind you, we did our research on line and knew the prices going in. I requested a site with an ocean view, and was told they were all taken but was given the next best site. The prices were listed online and was quoted $10 higher. When I questioned this, I was told that their prices change daily depending on availability. We decided to stay anyway since Andrew had to get back to work and it was only 2 days.

We found our site to be very good and somewhat private. Our site had a cement pad with some grass that we backed into. We had the pool on one side so no trailers and we had a trailer on the other side with bushes and trees between the sites. Check out that sunset! Our site had a picnic table and a fire pit with grill. 

Amenities

The Pool was heated to a comfortable 80 degrees. The hot tub was was comfortable with my feet in it just to feel it. The lighting at night was very cool!

For the kids

The kids have a big grass area to play tag or football in addition to having 2 play structures. For quieter times they have a semi-covered patio for games and patio sitting.

The dog park is big and spacious with water and a dog agility course.

What to do in the area?

Driving into Santa Barbara is only approx. a 25 min. drive. One of our favorites places to go is the Stearns Wharf. 

We actually had our wedding rehearsal dinner at Moby Dicks 28 years ago so when we are in the area, we have lunch on the pier. “Stearns Wharf, the oldest working wood wharf in California, was built in 1872 by John Peck Stearns to facilitate the transfer of cargo and people from ships to shore.” For more history on the Wharf visit https://stearnswharf.org/history/.

And of course you have to enjoy the beach while your there.

The Santa Barbara Zoo

As an animal lover, I love going to the zoo!  The Santa Barbara Zoo is AZA accredited and I was sadly disappointed. The zoo was opened in 1963 with the purpose to preserve, conserve and enhance the natural world and its living treasures through education, research and recreation.

Parking at the zoo is $11 with admission of $25. Although I didn’t find a lot of big animals or the animals that I expected to see at a zoo they did have a nice variety of animals that I wasn’t overly familiar with.

Raj, the red panda was introduced to the zoo in Aug, 23. Even though the name says panda, it is not related to the panda but is closer in relation to the racoon.

The White-Handed Gibbon was heard throughout the park with its loud “whooping” sound.

Have you heard of the Amur Leopard? No? Me either! Maybe that is because it is the most endangered big cat on the planet. I felt bad for this incredible cats because the sign claimed this leopard can jump 19ft horizontally and up to 10 feet vertically and can run up to 37 miles per hour, but not in this enclosure. This cat was pacing back and forth and didn’t have the space to really run and stretch its legs.

The cotton top tamarin was a funny creature to look at with his white wig on his head. He is actually from the tropical rainforest in northwest Columbia and is critically endangered.

The California Condor exhibit was very good and had some of the best views in the park. Did you know that the condor became extinct in the wild in 1987? All remaining condors were captures as part of a recovery program. Today there are 561 condors with 214 in captivity. Each of these birds are tagged and the lower the number, the older the bird.

As one would expect to see at a zoo are the giraffe’s and Lions. The giraffes you can feed for a small fee of $8 if your not a zoo member. The Masai Giraffe was declared endangered in 2019 due to poaching and changes in land use. These lion mates came to this zoo in 2020 and a baby for born that year as well. As most lions in zoo, they just lay around and sleep. The had a somewhat large cage for them to run a little.

I was really looking forward to seeing the Gorilla, but unfortunately the Gorilla was not available to see because they were remodeling the exhibit. The Santa Barbara zoo didn’t have many animals that you would expect to see such as tiger, zebras, or even elephants. I did take the train ride for an addition $7 hoping to get behind the scenes and learn something new like at the San Diego Safari Zoo but was sadly disappointed. So for $43 for my trip to the zoo, I can’t say it was worth the money.

Santa Barbara Mission

Along the 101 you follow the California Mission Trail. Santa Barbara Mission is the 10th of 21 missions is know as the Queen of the Missions. It was founded in Dec. 4, 1786 by Father Fermin Lasuen. What is amazing about all the missions is that they are so old yet they are still standing after earthquakes that California is known to have. With regard to Santa Barbara, the towers were severely damaged in the 1925 earthquakes and restored that same year. A self guided tour of the mission is only $15 and well worth the money.

So if you’re in the area of Santa Barbara, you might want to check out staying at the fairground RV park. We have not stayed here but we did drive there to check it out. It is somewhere we would definitely stay in the future https://earlwarren.com/venue-rental/rv-park. Whether you stay in Goleta, Buellton or at the fairgrounds it is a beautiful place to visit. Stayed tuned as we go inland to avoid the Pineapple express.

California Dreaming on 101

by msminnie72, posted in California

Hello we are the Scherfs and we full-time it in our 2023 Keystone Cougar 2100 RK Sport When the weather is good, the central coast is one of our favorites. We are not ones for staying at the same places all the time so join us as we find something new and we fly by the seat of our pants with no reservations made.

Greenfield, Ca

We rolled out of Morgan Hill on a bright and sunny Monday morning, and I called ahead to see if Yanks had availability for 2 nights. Sure enough they did! We drove the 80 miles down the 101 south of Monterey and landed at Yanks RV It seems to be a fairly new park with few trees, but the sites are pretty awesome. Our pull through site was perfect for us to unhitch in case we needed to go anywhere. This fits the bill of luxurious resort. 

There’s a heated pool with a hot tub and an outdoor sitting area with a fireplace right outside the gate. Next to the sitting area is a clubhouse for your club rally or family reunion. There’s also a fitness center with a few machines inside. This is a beautiful park with nice proximity to the freeway. Only downside for us was we were kept inside most of the time we were there due to those lovely California rains! But hey, at least it was beautiful when we got there and beautiful when we left!

Paso Robles, Ca

We found this cute little RV park off the 101 called Paso Robles RV Ranch. https://www.pasoroblesrvranch.com/ There is something to be said for small parks. They usually are not crowded, they are unique and are often more affordable than the big RV parks. We called 2 hours before arriving and with our Good Sam discount we stayed for $73.70 for 1 night

When you first pull up to the office, you see one small vineyard along with views of 8 or so other vineyards. Our paperwork was on the window and we never even went into the office so I can’t even tell you what the office looks like.

Across the driveway was a beautiful green area just outside the office. A picnic area and the pool are also close by. We weren’t there long enough to enjoy their beautiful amenities, but a walk around the grounds is always a good time. 

Since we are full timers, getting propane is a must to support us with heat and my favorite activity of sitting by our Outland Fire Bowl that travels with us.

We highly recommend this little park, both for it’s locale and the very personable owner we were able to chat with.

We didn’t have very far to go so we decided to spend a few hours and have lunch at a spot that had views that one dreams about. Any guesses where? Here is a clue!

Did you guess Morro Bay? What a great place to stop, put the slide out, have lunch and enjoy the views. After lunch we drove 10 min. to our RV park in Morro Bay. We had no idea what to expect and it was a diamond on the coast.

We learned, as much time as we have spent on the coast in 30 years, we never gave Morro Bay a chance. It was less crowded that other beach cities near by that are far more popular and their was a lot of shopping to do in town.

We didn’t feel like cooking our first night so we decided to get dinner to go.

We picked up dinner at Rose’s and it was quite good. I had the Halibut and my husband had the Morro Bay Fish.

Just before retrieving our dinner, we sat at the Marina and watched the spectacular sunset. I can never get enough sunsets in my life. What a sight!

Wildlife of Morro Bay

The birds of the Marina seemed to want their picture taken as the posed for me. Can you hear the pigeon say this is my good side? I can’t get over a pigeon is such a dirty bird but so pretty in color.

The water creatures were a little harder to capture. The sea lions sunning on a dock a bit of a ways out are hard to see but boy could you hear them loud and clear. And the sea otters were difficult to get as well but with patience, I did manage to get one.

The next day we explored the park. The office is the first thing you see when you enter the park. We got our directions to our site which looked like a doozy! Blind side back-in to a cul-de-sac??? That’s a new one! Achievement unlocked!! We worked as a team and actually made it look easy if I don’t mind saying so myself!

There aren’t a whole lot of amenities here, but with the ocean so close, there’s plenty of entertainment nearby. They do have quite a few laundry facilities and a off leash area for our dog Jessie

The Views are amazing

I can’t even get over these views on this beautiful day!

Be sure to check out the three 450 ft. iconic smoke stacks in Morro Bay. The power plant has been at its waterfront location before the city was even incorporated. It used to burn natural gas to generate electricity, but was permanently shuttered in 2014. My husband captured this unique view of the stacks with his drone. Current City Plans are for the stacks to be torn down by Dec. 2027. https://www.morrobay.org/plan/frequently-asked-questions/#:~:text=What%20are%20those%20three%20stacks,it%20was%20shut%20in%202014.

What to do while here

Shopping! We went into town and spent a couple hours walking around town. I did manage to spent some of Andrew’s hard earned cash while we were out. There are outlets in Pismo Beach as well that you can spend some time at https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/pismo-beach

Whale Watching I would have loved to go out whale watching but it was the wrong season. Be sure to check out what month is a good time to go out.

Wine Tasting There are too many places to list to visit. We drove to Avila Beach to meet a friend to go to Peloton Cellars to do some tasting. We enjoyed our experience and each bought a bottle of wine.

Food in Avila

After wine tasting, we had dinner at Custom House and I can honestly say the food was really good but the service was lacking. We looked at the menu online to determine if that was where we wanted to go. When we got our menus, they were not the same. We still had a great time sitting outdoors and enjoying the sunset while we had our dinner. https://oldcustomhouse.com/

So for 2 nights, we paid about $129 which we didn’t think was too bad since you’re on the California coast. We enjoyed catching up with our friend and dined well while we were here.

Please hit the subscribe button on the bottom of the page if you want to follow along as we continue our travels down the coast of California! Beware – storms ahead….

Coyote Valley RV Resort – Morgan Hill, California

by msminnie72, posted in California, Morgan Hill

Hello, we are the Scherfs!, We travel around the country (the western United States so far) in our Keystone Cougar 2100 RK to see and learn about our great country. Check out our story of how we got here https://thescherfswanderingwheels.com/the-beginning/ We would love for you to join us on our travels. 

On our drive from the central valley we headed east on 152 and stopped at the famous Casa De Fruta for a break for Jessie our dog. When we stopped, little did we know we would get caught in a downpour, which needless to say, meant the truck smelled let wet dog once we got back on the road. While here I bought a whole apple pie and a slice of chocolate marble bread to snack on. This is such a great place to stop when its not raining because there is something for everyone here. A train ride, a merry go round (which was under renovations), a play structure all for the kids. My husband and I have stopped and had dinner at the restaurant before and we would do it again. The fruit stand is a bit pricey, but fun to walk around. There’s also wine tasting for the adults as well as a gift shop. Oh, and keep an eye out for the peacocks – they’re beautiful!

We decided on a whim to head to Morgan Hill to go visit our son who is moving to the area. I called https://coyotevalleyresort.com/ the day before to get a reservation for two nights and it was not a problem.

This if the office, just pull into the right side of the island.

When you enter these gates, make a right and follow the signs to the office. After you check in, you get an escort to your site. Our escort is a truck driver when he is not at the resort and he definitely knew what he was doing when helping us in to a blind passenger side back in. My husband and I have great communication when getting into a site and typically we don’t need help but we will not say no thank you either. It was a great experience! He even came back to power blow our site and rid it of the leaves the recent winds and rain had left behind. He also happily took and filled a propane tank for us, returning it a short while later. The price was about what you might expect, and it certainly was convenience of charging it to the site tab was well worth it.

Our 26 foot 5th wheel and our truck. There was plenty of room for our son’s car as well. Nice spacious sites.

The main clubhouse is connected to the office with a pool and a lounge area off to the side. It seems a really great place to have a group gathering, or a rally, or even a family reunion.

The dog park is just on the other side of the building. It was big enough for him to run around and enjoy his off leash time which he hasn’t gotten a lot of since the weather hasn’t been great lately.

Because the park is so big and I think it was recently expanded, they have two clubhouses, pools, laundry facilities and dog parks. Who doesn’t want to have choices?

Dining

Sometimes when we have been driving a bit or I haven’t taken anything out for dinner, we will enjoy the local eateries. This time, we enjoyed Red Robin for dinner and it was delightful! The Morgan Hill location had our order to go ready when we got there. Unfortunately we were so hungry we forgot to take pictures so trust us that is was good! The next day, we had Chipotle for lunch and had it out on their patio since Jessie is not a service dog. So they had 2/3 of the order correct but I didn’t eat mine till the next day only to find out it was not what I ordered. Oh well, most Chipotle’s get it correct and it was too late to do anything about it. Do you have any recommendation’s to eat in town? We would love to hear it! Perhaps in downtown where we drove and it had that small town vibe.

Gilroy, California

Gilroy is only a 20 min. drive from Morgan Hill and there is so much to do there. Shopping is not something I enjoy doing unless it is outlets. The Gilroy Premium Outlets are one of my favorites because you can spend the day there with over 145 stores and several restaurants to have lunch at in the middle of the shopping day. Check out all they have to offer here https://www.premiumoutlets.com/outlet/gilroy .

Gilroy Gardens Family Theme Park is in the area and a great time if you have younger kids. We visited many years ago. Someday we might need to recreate this photo – with the grandkids!!

We went because we heard about these really cool trees and landscaping and learned it was a theme park for children.

Our kids had fun especially our youngest and we all learned a lot as well. Be sure to check the website for more information https://www.gilroygardens.org/

So if your ever in the area, Coyote Valley RV resort is a great place to stay if you want to visit Gilroy, Ca. Subscribe to stay updated as we travel down the 101 along the Ca. coast.

From Laughlin, NV to Gila Bend, AZ.

by msminnie72, posted in Arizona

Hello, we are the Scherf’s, we travel around the country (the western United States so far) in our Keystone Cougar 2100 RK to see and learn about our great country. Check out our story of how we got here https://thescherfswanderingwheels.com/the-beginning/. We would love for you to join us on our travels. Who doesn’t love a good road trip? With 237 miles and 2 visits come with us as we journey through some of Arizona.

Parker, Arizona

Upon leaving Laughlin Nevada, we traveled south on 95 with no destination in mind. We crossed the boarder into the small town of Parker, Arizona which sits on the Colorado River. We drove through the small town with a population of roughly 3,400. Before entering the town we drove under these really cool railroad bridges.

If you like the heat, this is a great place to visit in the summer time. With the average highs between 100-110 it seems to be a great place to go boating on the river. Next time we would like to stop and learn about the history of the city and the historical properties. I would love to hear if it’s worth the stop.

Bouse, Arizona

After leaving Parker, we found ourselves on Arizona state route 72. We stopped for a break in an even smaller town called Bouse which rhymes with house. It was founded in 1908 as a mining camp. There wasn’t much to see but we did stop at a large rest stop that allowed us to open our slide to go inside and have lunch. During the weekends, this is where the town’s farmers market takes place. There’s also a lot of neat old mining and farming equipment to see.

Gila Bend

This is our second time in Gila Bend. Both times we’ve stayed at Sonoran Desert RV Park https://www.sonorandesertrvpark.com/. This is truly a snowbird location (a person who migrates from the colder northern parts of North America to warmer southern locales, typically during the winter.) Each time we have stayed for 2 nights and have really enjoyed the sunsets which are spectacular.

While we were here in Oct. it was still pretty hot, and we were given a heads-up to keep an eye out for rattlesnakes! The staff takes these things very seriously, and we were told these creatures slither around at night looking for the perfect winter hibernation spot. We didn’t stay outside to much for fear of finding a slithering friend. Although the office told us to call if we did see one because they have two snake wranglers on site. Now that’s an “amenity” we’ve never had before at an RV park!

Sites are quite big and deep for a back in. You have a lot of space from your neighbors as well.

Our dog Jessie loved the dog park both times we were here, although in October the grassy area was closed due to poisonous toads in the grass.

This is the clubhouse where they have planned activities during the winter months. There is a library and puzzle table too. Large rolling doors take you to an outdoor patio just off the kitchen. You will also find a very nice and reasonably priced laundry facilities at the end of the clubhouse.

If you are into Pickleball, this park has you covered there too. That’s next on our hitlist to learn how to play, and given that our kids gave us a set for Christmas, we have extra motivation to learn the game.

A few other neat amenities at the park are a car wash station, a pet wash station, and a nice little putting green, along with a heated pool.

If you want to get out of the RV park I suggest you visit https://www.visitgilabend.org/

For $65 a night this place has a lot to offer and we will definitely be back when we are heading to Phoenix Arizona. Word to the wise, do your grocery shopping before you get here. Gila Bend doesn’t really have any grocery stores to speak of.

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Laughlin Nevada

by msminnie72, posted in Laughlin, Nevada

So my husband and I wanted to get out of town. Due to the weather, we thought it best to head east from California without a plan. In Barstow we really had to decide which direction to head. We had never been to Laughlin and now seemed to be as good as time as any. I’ve always heard that Laughlin is little Vegas. We stayed at KOA Laughlin Nevada. https://koa.com/campgrounds/laughlin/ It is right across the street from Avi Casino and Resort. With our KOA membership we stayed here for $35 a night which we think it is a steal! This is one of those places that you can stay and enjoy what the resort has to offer, such as Vegas-style casino with slot machines ,table games and a sports book. If you’re into dining, the resort has many restaurants to choose from. In the summer months you can lay by the pool or private beach, bring your boat and launch it at the resort. If golf is your thing, the resort has an 18 hole course as well. There is even a place for kids at Kids Quest which is a drop off event for children 6 weeks to 12 years old for an additional fee. The KOA is a 2022 presidents award winner. There is also shuttle service to the casino and resort.

The driveway into the campground with over 200 sites. Each site has 30/50 amps and they all have full hook ups. They also have 10 handicap sites.

Some sites have a view of the golf course. All sites are on gravel/sand.

For those with fur babies, they have 2 small pens here for your dog to do their business. There is a bench outside to sit and watch your dog do their thing.

In the cooler months, this would be a nice place to have a group gathering. There are horseshoe pits here as well as a place for the kids to play.

What to do in the area?

When I was here this past summer passing through town, my daughter and I were on a road trip. We heard of a town with donkeys in the road. Have you heard about this town? It’s called Oatman Az and it’s true that the donkeys are in the road! And even up in town. We decided to have lunch there and walk around. I don’t advise going in the summer months as we did. It was a sufferable 118 outside. They do have a daily old west shootout but due to the heat, we didn’t get to see one.

Oatman AZ

The food wasn’t the best but who goes there for the food?
Thousands of bills on the walls. God forbid there is ever a fire.

Our waitress was a wealth of information on the town and what to see along Route 66. Upstairs a small museum dedicated to Clark Gable and Carole Lombard can be found. The two big screen stars spent an enchanted honeymoon here in 1939.

My husband Andrew and I did the 20 min. drive into downtown Laughlin to check it out.  The city is 90 miles south of Las Vegas, has some mega casinos, but not all the crowds. We are not much for gambling and our dog Jessie was with us so we stayed in the truck and cruised the town.

Laughlin NV

We only spent 2 days here and were kept inside due to wind and smoke. For the 3rd largest gambling city in the US, we would definitely come back. If you’re in the area and have limited time my choice is make the drive out to Oatman for the win! You won’t be disappointed!