After another quiet night at the Kingman Elks lodge, we woke up early on Wednesday. Donna finished writing an article that was due. Then we rode the Spyder up Stockton Hill Road. After a mile or so, Stockton Hill Road becomes Hualapai Mountain Road. The road goes uphill as you head east, rapidly climbing to 5,000 feet above sea level at the Hualapai Mountain Park ranger station. The peaks in the park reach elevations greater than 8,400 feet. Hualapai (pronounced wah-lah-pie) is the name of an Indian tribe. It means “People of the Pines.”

We rode to the resort – it’s a small hotel, restaurant and store popular with ATVers.

We went into the restaurant for lunch.

It’s a typical rustic setting with tables mostly set for parties of four. There’s also a bar and patio. It was larger inside than it looked from the entry. Donna had half a grilled turkey and cheese sandwich and a bowl of minestrone soup. I had the chili burger which was real man food. It was a ground beef patty covered with chili, smothered with cheese. The chili had chunks of beef and beans – lots of protein.

We took a look around but didn’t hike anywhere. There are a number of hiking trails in the park, but after a big lunch we weren’t up for it. The views coming down Hualapai Mountain Road were spectacular. On the way home, we reconnoitered the Super Walmart parking lot. We thought about stopping there on our way out of town to pick up groceries. However, the entry/exit was narrow and I decided it was too risky to try to get in there with the coach and trailer. The truck entrance led to a loading dock – not a place for us to park. We went back to the Elks Lodge and I loaded the Spyder in the trailer.

Later we popped in to the Elks Lodge for a cold one at happy hour, then returned to the coach to prepare dinner. Donna made yet another version of lemon-butter chicken – this one with chicken breasts instead of thighs.

She served it over leftover herbed brown rice and roasted zucchini and tomatoes. Yummy!

It rained overnight. On Thursday morning, we had a few sprinkles as I prepared to move. Donna went for a short run and did some exercises, then we finished packing up. We pulled out of the Kingman Elks Lodge a few minutes after 10am.

I expected rain on the way out of town. Heading up US93, I figured we would put the rain behind us after thirty miles or so. This turned out to be the case – and the forecast called for 0% chance of rain in Las Vegas.

Google maps and our GPS showed a route to the Thousand Trails Las Vegas RV Resort that took us up US93 until it becomes I-515. Then we would exit onto Boulder Highway and backtrack south, make a U-turn and enter the park. This may be the fastest route, but I wasn’t too keen to try it. The exit from I-515 onto Boulder Highway south requires a sharp right turn of about 135 degrees. Also, making a U-turn isn’t advisable with our overall length.

I modified the route to exit I-515 at Tropicana so I could make an easy 90-degree turn to the right. Then I turned left on Nellis taking me north. Nellis intersects Boulder Highway, which is a diagonal road compared to the north/south – east/west grid of the other major roads in the area. It was a gentle left turn of about 45 degrees onto Boulder Highway.

With our overall length of nearly 65 feet now, it pays to take a few minutes to study a map and plan for alternate routes. We could easily find ourselves in a bad situation otherwise. We pulled in to the RV park just after noon. The girl at the security station told me the biggest site they had available was 55 feet long and 24 feet wide. I said it sounded big enough for me to drop the trailer and park the motorhome next to it.

Once we were in the park, I could see we had our work cut out for us. The roads in the park are narrow, the sites are tightly packed together and I have my doubts about the 24-foot site width. We found site 34 and Donna and I talked over our plan for getting the trailer in it. With the narrow road, I was limited on how much maneuvering I could do without hitting anything with the coach.

Donna stayed in the site at the rear of the trailer and directed me with her handheld Cobra CB radio. I was having problems at the front of the coach. There were a couple of vehicles on the opposite side of the road. As I backed the trailer in, I had to swing the front of the coach to the right, toward the vehicles. As I got close to the vehicles, they disappeared from sight as they are much lower than the front of the coach. A neighbor came over and started directing me from the front. With Donna at the back and another set of eyes at the front, I worked my way into the site. It took a few attempts to get the trailer positioned where I wanted it.

We finally dropped the trailer, then I had to maneuver the coach into the site right next to the trailer. It took more than 35 minutes of jockeying back and forth to get the trailer and coach into the site. It’s tight. Our door clears the trailer with only a few inches to spare.

I got the Spyder out and made a quick beer run. I had a few raindrops on the way. I hurried back to coach as I could see heavy, dark clouds looming. At the park entrance, a car was stopped at the entrance barrier. The guy in the car stuck his head out the window and asked me if I knew the entry code. I said I knew the code, but I didn’t know him. He got out of his car and started yelling at me and cussing me out for not letting him in. A few big rain drops started falling. I punched in the code and told him to move his car. He kept yelling at me. Now it was really starting to rain. He finally got the message and got in his car and pulled through, letting me get into the park.

I got to our site and covered the Spyder just as the clouds really opened up and started pouring rain. So much for the 0% chance of rain in Las Vegas.

Donna made sweet and spicy salmon in the convection oven – last time I cooked it on the grill. It came out great. She served it with spinach sauteed with garlic oil and leftover Israeli couscous.

We had more rain into the night. We sat up and watched another recorded episode of The Americans that now brings us up to date with the live series. We expect a sunny day today with the temperature in the high 70s. Rain is forecast to return tomorrow, then we should have nice weather for the rest of our week in Las Vegas.

 

*Just so you know, if you follow one of my links to Amazon and decide to make a purchase, you pay the same price as usual and  I’ll earn a few pennies for the referral. It’ll go into the beer fund. Thanks!