First Weekend of 2016

Continuing our fun in the desert, Saturday we follow our friends' two Razors out to the Weeping Woman in the Chuckawalla Mountains, south of I-10. The Jeep handles the sand and rocks of the well worn trail, keeping up with the smaller vehicles. It is SO much fun!

Weeping Woman 

Interesting rocks surround us

Boys and toys

Following the Razors on the dirt trail

Me, Bill, Coy, Patty, Tommy, Shirlene, Jimmy and Maggie

Love this gal!

Maggie and Jimmy

Shirlene and Tommy

Back at the house, we hang out with the pups and visit while dinner cooks. When the sun goes down we leave the fire to the guys while the women hang out inside and solve all the problems of the world.....

We  love it here

Tessa explains to Molly who's daddy that is

Hours of this with high-speed runs in between

Coy and Patty

Sunday morning I wake up in time for a beautiful sunrise over the lake out our door.

It's been a perfect holiday with friends, and it's time to head east again. We can't wait until the others are no longer returning to work on Mondays! At least we'll get to see them all in Laughlin this Spring. Instead of getting back on I-10, we turn north on Hwy 177 toward Parker, AZ.

I traveled in a school bus on this road for my four years of high school. 50 miles each way between Iron Mountain Pumping Station and Eagle Mountain every day! The road has changed a little in 40+ years - all but one of the small businesses and farms are gone, and there's now a Desert Lily Preserve - but the vistas are the same, and the road is still narrow.

Lots of vehicles returning from the Colorado River, this route still gets a lot of use. With people passing in blind sections and very soft sand on both sides I am definitely focused on the road in front of me. We'll come back this way while we're here so I can enjoy the memories. We pull off at Big River around 1 PM, after just an 80 mile drive. 

The combination of sad older homes off the highway and the million dollar properties along the river is extreme. The roads are rough, there are no businesses. Big River is a "development" south of Parker, AZ, but nothing commercial remains - just homes and a river-front park.

And the Rio del Sol RV Haven is not at all what I am expecting. 90% permanents, this is really a trailer park. Vehicles line the rows making driving through the park very tight. But not as tight as the actual sites. We are packed in with our neighbor's picnic table under our slide. And the residents all come to look at us like we're from another planet. It's weird.

We're not on the water, but just several yards from it. There's lots of people, but they're all very nice. We're booked here for 12 nights, but we're not going to stay more than a couple days. We have no internet or cell coverage at all :-(  I start checking for another place in the area.