Death Valley Continued

After descending back down to the valley floor, we continued our tour of the Westside Road. Our next stop was the grave site of Jim Dayton and Shorty Harris.



We also stopped at the Bennett's Long camp site where in 1849 the group almost died from the elements before they found a way to proceed west. They gave this valley the name of "Death Valley".



We completed the tour of the Westside Road and headed back to our camp in Furnace Creek. We stopped along the way at Bad Watter, which is the lowest spot in the U.S. (-284 feet).

The next day we headed to the ghost town of Rhyolite. I caught this picture of a ghost trying to get on a bicycle



Look what taking a picture of that ghost did to my camera!




There are just a few crumbing buildings left in Rhyolite, once a town of over nine thousand people back in 1909.





After Rhyolite we traveled through Titus Canyon and on to Scotty's Castle and took the Hourse Tour. We did not have time to take any of the other tours before they closed for the day.

We had a very enjoyable 4-day stay in Death Valley and we are planning to return next March.

Death Valley 2011

After attending a Bluegrass Festival at Lake Havasu City and spending two weeks in Laughlin, NV, I met up with daughter Shonda and her husband Jim at the Furnace Creek Campground in Death Valley National Park in the third week of March. After setting up Camp, we walked over to the Tent Area and met up with our friends Kitsy & Ray and Bill & Connie. We have been coming out to Death Valley and camping together in March almost every year for the past 18 years. Our fearless leader, Keith Knoche was with us in spirit only because he passed away in 2009 and was missed. We had pleasant weather, except for some windy conditions, all four days that we were there.

Jim and Shonda arriving with their trailer.







Tee-shirt decorating time.

One of the days we took our 4 X 4 vehicles and toured the Westside Road area. We took a side "road" up into a canyon about 3 miles to an old abandon mining camp. It was slow going and by the time we had finished looking around we ate lunch and headed back down to the valley floor.












MORE on our adventures in Death Valley to follow SOON!

Quartzsite, Arizona

I camped out on this 3-mile stretch of BLM land below (along with several hundred other RVers) that is about 5 miles north of the town of Quartzsite. This year, I had the opportunity for some aerial photos. I had a wonderful time with two groups of friends. Here are a few of the photos.



This takes a bit of preparation before take off, but it is sure a lot of fun once you are in the air.



Hang on. Here we GO!

NEWS

I have been busy doing things over the past weeks, but have not been able to post. I am currently in Laughlin, NV and will be leaving for Death Valley in a couple of days. I hope to be able to post more information about my activities when I reach Las Vegas in about 10 days or so.

See you then,

Bob

FMCA Rally in Indio

Another year has rolled around and so had another Rally in Indio. I parked with the Golden Spike Chapter and we had a good time together. They parked us so close that we had very little space for out club meetings, but we did just fine (thanks to two of the coaches pulling their slides in).







Believe it or not, there is a RV hidden inside this covered wagon.



We even had a snake oil salesman.



Bringing up the rear of the parade a chapter that brought a full-size stage coach with matching horses.






Our chapter was in charge of the Ice Cream Social



The Cream Team


We handed out over 5,000 ice cream bars at the rally.





We even had a Dixie land band to play some "ice cream eating music" for us.





It was a very good rally.

Almost A White Christmas

Just after the first of 2011, we had some funny white stuff fall from the sky here in Apple Valley. Jim was predicting a "white Christmas" but he missed it by a week or so. Anyway, it made for some interesting pictures of where I spent the month of December.

Christmas In Apple Valley

One evening with the temperature in the low 40s, I decided to take a tour around Apple Valley to see what kind of decorations people were displaying on their homes. I found quite a few really nice displays and I thought I would share some of them with you.

Mollie's, one of the restaurants here in town, had a very beautiful display for their patrons to look at as they drove into their parking lot.





Across the street from Mollie's I found the Desert Feed Store.



We may not have a "White Christmas", but it looks like we may have a wet one.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE