Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024
Sunset, Kailua-Kona, The Big Island, Hawaii, March 11, 2024

Saturday, March 19, 2016

Leaving Las Vegas - Sunday/Monday, March 13 & 14, 2016

Sunday: Somewhere in the night, the time changed and we lost an hour after we did our laundry. Morning came way too soon. On the way to Kristin's house for more food and family time, we needed to stop at Lowe's for a bolt and nut to fix our 5th wheel stairs, which had lost a rivet, making the top step dangerous.

At Kristin's, family members kept arriving to keep pace with all the food that kept appearing on the counter: chips, dip, fruit, veggies, sandwiches, lasagne, cookies, green salads, and potato salad (leftovers from last night's party.) We went, we ate, but we couldn't conquer the mountain of food.

The party today allowed everyone to say their good-byes. We had to leave at 11:15 a.m. in time to return to the RV park, pack up, fix the step, and check out by noon. Here are photos of our site at The Oasis RV Resort just off the Las Vegas Strip at Windmill/Blue Diamond Rd. We had to position our 5th wheel so the big palm fronds wouldn't attack us when we opened the door and wouldn't be in the way of any slides. As it was, the palm fronds brushed our side window. At night, it made big scary shadows on the window blinds that the cats thought they had to conquer. In the middle of the night, our Siamese climbed behind our pull-down blinds. (He was between the blinds and the window so he could see what was causing the noise and shadows.)


View of Silverado Lodge Casino next to the RV park.
Packing them in!
Here's  our site from the back
We left The Oasis RV Resort at high noon. Destination today: Benson, Arizona. The traffic was AWFUL. There was smooth sailing from Las Vegas to Henderson, but just after Henderson, it was stop-and-go traffic all the way to the traffic light in Boulder City. Yikes! Note to self: DO NOT head toward Phoenix, Arizona on a Sunday afternoon. Everyone who went to Vegas for the weekend is heading home.

From Henderson, Nevada, to Kingman, Arizona, we had pretty smooth sailing. At the top of the hill leading down into Kingman, the line of vehicles came to a screeching halt. Again, we had stop-and-go traffic all the way to I-40. Once we got on I-40 to US 95 south toward Wickenburg, Arizona, it was again smooth sailing until we reached the first traffic light before Wickenburg. We then had heavy traffic through the traffic circles in Wickenburg, and then we were finally free from obstacles again.

Traffic through Phoenix on Sunday night was very light; however, once we got into the Tucson area, we had slow traffic for quite a while because of a traffic accident causing rubberneckers to stop and look. When all was said and done, we left Las Vegas at noon, and arrived at our campsite in Benson, Arizona at 10:40 p.m. That trip should normally take about 7-8 hours. We do have to take into account that we lost another hour because Arizona does not do Daylight Savings Time. Still, it was a long day no matter how you look at it.

At San Pedro Resort Community, we found a pull-through site on our first pass through the daily/weekly area of the park. They honored Passport America, so our PT site was $20.08 with tax. The park is south of the city, so when we got out of the truck and looked at the stars, it was awesome. We didn't unhitch because we planned to leave by 9 the next morning.

Monday: Bob got up early because he had work to do. I slept until 7:30 a.m. and we made it on the road by 9 a.m. Today's goal: Ft. Stockton, Texas. As we drove east on I-10, we had a tail wind most of the way so our speed was very good as was our gas mileage.

Every time we're on I-10 in New Mexico Bob and I are fascinated because we cross the Continental Divide, but it's not like other places we've crossed the Continental Divide in the Rockies (Yellowstone). No big mountain passes here; no, sir. It's like a high plain. The freeway goes up and up gradually, but towing our 5th wheel it's obvious that it's a long uphill.


On long driving days Bob and I take turns at the wheel of the truck. I love long stretches of freeway, but dread big city freeway driving. We try to stop every couple of hours to trade places and stretch. One of my favorite rest areas heading east on I-10 is just above Las Cruces, NM. The view of Las Cruces is so awesome from this rest area. And, since the last time we stopped there two years ago, they have added a great big roadrunner sculpture.

Roadrunner sculpture at Rest Area on I-10 east
near Las Cruces
View of Las Cruces from the Rest Area
Quite a breeze today
The Beast and Rigamarole at the Rest Area
Roadrunner close up
On the way to Ft. Stockton, I called two of the nicer RV parks for a one-night reservation. We've stayed at Hilltop RV Park a couple of times and loved it. Also tried to stay at Ft. Stockton RV Park. Both were completely full. I called Comanche Land RV Park (the one with big arrows sticking out of the ground...you know what I'm talking about if you've ever driven by there).

Comanche Land RV had RV sites available. The gentleman I spoke to on the phone asked if we needed 30 or 50 amp (told him 50). When he found out we'd be in late, he told us to take Site B4 as it's 50 amp. When we got there, guess what, there was already someone in B4. So I went to the office and saw site B3 (30 amp) was available. We took it since we were already at that site.

The RV park was just a gravel lot, nothing special. It's what we refer to as a man camp. I didn't take a photo of the park. By morning, Ft. Stockton was in the rear-view mirror.

Travel Bug out.




2 comments:

  1. Small world! The day you left Vegas and were stuck in traffic is the same day Brenda and I were arriving. We kept looking at the backup into Henderson as we drove the other way, thinking "Oh, those poor people!" And two of them were you! Glad you made it home safe.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That was a nasty day's drive: backed up Henderson to Boulder, backed up in Kingman, backed up in Wickenburg, and backed up by Tucson. At least we had an easy time through Phoenix at sunset.

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