Day 21 - Lake Mead RV Village

Since we had seen everything that we wanted to or could see due to limitations in Sadona. I decided just to move on to Lake Mead RV Village which is part of the National Parks & Recreation System. I called at 8 AM to make a reservation however the lady at the National Park said she had plenty of space available and to just come. I would have preferred to make sure we had a place to go. I informed everyone that we were leaving Munds Park. So DH called me out to look at the water hook-ups. The hose was attached to the the spigot but there was no knob to turn to disconnect the hose. DH said it was there when he hooked it up. The leaves were beginning to turn and even fall as it was quite blustery this morning. The ground was lightly covered with leaves. DH went and got Sn adjustable wrench to disconnect the hose. I moved the leaves with my foot but didn't see the knob. DH saw it and we were both surprised that it was so far away from the spigot. He placed it back on and we realized it didn't have a nut. When I went to get ice from the campground store, I mentioned the missing nut. Of course it didn't help, that I couldn't remember what spot we had. I told the clerk my name if she remembered it after she unlocked the ice cooler outside. Before we left, DH installed the new batteries in the tire monitoring system. He also decided to disconnect the battery on the MDX so it would start when reconnected instead of dead from whatever has been draining the battery.

Like I said before it was blustery with sustained 25 mph winds with 45 mph gusts. DH asked me if I wanted to drive and it occurred to me I needed to add some weather conditions to my list of rules for not driving the motorhome. He then asked his Mom in a joking manner if she wanted to drive. When we reached Flagstaff, AZ the wind died down. We saw lots of interesting terrain changes.

As we were driving on I-40, DH saw a sign for the historical Route 66, so we could see a town in the opposite way then we were traveling. DH turned the motorhome toward the town of Seligman, AZ which the famous Route 66 went through as it's main street and it was full of memorabilia from before Interstates. We also had lunch at a burger joint which was doing a booming business. DH and I both had cheeseburgers. Mine just had ketchup and his had the works. MIL got a hotdog. We also ordered onion rings. It was funny with all of the Coca Cola vintage signs around and they only had Pepsi products. I ordered a root beer even though it wasn't diet. It's the only soda I can drink that isn't diet.

From there the terrain was ever changing and we were constantly going down in elevation. Since we had used up most of our food that we had, especially proteins, I programmed the Google maps app on my phone to a Super Walmart in Kingsman, AZ to stock up. From there we passed all of these Historical Markers. Just for kicks I looked to see if I could find out what the marker was all about. I found www.hmdb.org which has this amazing search engine that allows the user to use their site in conjunction with Google Maps to send the user a photo of and what the marker states. It is so cool if the user has Internet. The two Historical Markers that we were interested in turned out to be about mining towns that were booming for 3-6 years, mining gold and silver, and are now ghost towns. One mining town was more built up then the other but we could still see that the side of the mountain had been mined in both cases.

We were at Hoover Dam back in 1998 and at that time the road went directly over the dam. However now, since 9/11/2001, the government has made this super highway and bridge south of the dam. Due to high cross winds over the gorge, high profile vehicles are directed to be in the center lanes in both directions. So as we went over the bridge I could see a small glimpse of the clock towers. The funny thing about those towers back in 1998, is I assumed that the clock for Arizona was broken. At that time I didn't know that Arizona didn't observe daylight savings time, and we were crossing into Mountain Time.

When we arrive at the National Lakeshore Recreation Area in Nevada, I said of course the Golden Park Pass was in the MDX. Since the battery was disconnected I could only use my key to unlock the driver door. And of course I had to do it on the side with the traffic. I grabbed the pass and gave it to DH who drove up to the booth and showed it to the guard. He had to show is drivers license too. In trying to put it back in his wallet it fell down behind his chair.

When we got to the campground, the office was closed. ARGH! I walked over and saw there were envelopes hanging on the door with different spots on them, a map, and directions. The campground is cool in that it is tiered so everyone has a view of Lake Mead.

Now as the sun went down, the mountains on the Arizona side of the lake glowed the orange gold that we had waited to see on the airport lookout in Sedona that never materialized.