Cocopah Casino

We woke up this morning to another rainy day. Not so great but better than the three or so inches of snow that has fallen in Vegas recently. We got on the road pretty early and stopped in Quartzsite at the Love's to fuel up, $ 1.87/gal of diesel, and also top up our fresh water tank. That done we headed towards Yuma. It rained pretty heavy all the way down here.

We are parked at the Cocopah Casino and will probably stay here for a couple of days before moving on. We have been joined her by Bill and Margaret our friends from Dease Lake. Also ran into Faye and Glen, a couple we met from Calgary, last winter in Laughlin. It is kind of neat the way that after you do this roaming around for a while you realize that the same folks are traveling a like circuit so you get to see them time and time again. Brenda tried her luck with the slot machines here but I guess she left it in Vegas.

There is a Marine airbase in Yuma and their planes seemed to be constantly in the air and doing touch and go landings just down the road from us. I guess it is the "sound of freedom" but I am hoping they take the night off.

We had happy hour with the above mentioned folks and then it was time for a little TV before we called it a night.

Plomosa Road

This is our spot along Plomosa Road.

Today we are camped at the Plomosa Road 14 day area north of Quartzsite. It is a nice spot along Highway 95 north of town. Not our usual Quartzsite haunt but this one has the added bonus of cell and air card coverage, at least for our Trac Phone and Sprint Air Card. We have a great spot along side of a wash that is filled with trees to break the wind that was here last night when we arrived. We are a little close to Hwy 95 and in the daytime there is a little traffic noise, but that route is pretty quiet at night so no problem there.

I managed to get my walk in this morning, I love walking in the desert, and you don't really have to have a destination in mind, just go where the mood takes you for an hour or so of physical and mental exercise. No fences out there to hold you back.

We have nothing planned today or maybe it's better said as we plan to do nothing, just in case folks think we are too lazy even to do some planning. It is nice to have a day where there is nothing on the agenda except catching up with some reading and giving Brenda time to make some of my favourite "Butternut Squash" soup. "Mmm hmm good."

We picked up a little propane incandescent heater while in Vegas and had an opportunity to use that last night. It is a lot more efficient and certainly quieter than the furnaces in the rig. My only concern with these "Mr. Heater" things is the necessity to have a window open to supply then with fresh air. Throughout my childhood I had it drummed into me about having a heater in the rig. So be assured the window is open and the heater is turned off before bed, even though these new ones apparently have a low oxygen sensor that shuts them off, hopefully, before the occupants shut off. That would require putting a lot of trust in some engineers though so we won't be testing the theory.

If anything interesting happens later in the day I'll update this but we have the internet and inverter in now so I'll post this as is.

Here is a shot of the sunset tonight

Back in the Desert Again

Well we are back in the desert again. It is nice to see the bright lights but nicer to leave them in the rearview mirror. We have a great site and a lot of space here, you don't get that in the Parks in the cities. We are north of Quartzsite about 3 miles and have nestled in behind some trees so even though it is a little windy we are not feeling it.



We had our rig into Las Vegas RV to complete some work we started last week and it was done early so we headed south. They were talking about 4 inches of snow around Vegas so we thought that was our cue to beat it. Sure enough as we headed south past Searchlight we had some snow falling. Although it stuck to the windshield the road stayed clear and we managed to get through without the tire chains. LOL Kinda like one of those July flurries back home.




Yesterday we met Wayne and Vel and went to lunch at the Riviera Casino and ate in a restaurant called Kady's Coffeeshop. It was really just a coffee shop with coffee shop prices but the food was great. I had the pork chops, and Wayne and Vel had the T-Bone steaks, all excellent and Brenda had the hamburger and it was homemade and great. Nice to find a reasonably priced place with good food there as there are a lot of the other kind.



After lunch we filled the propane tank with some very expensive propane and left the KOA behind and spent the night at the Camping World. Couldn't get off the street to far but it looked OK when we got there. Little did we know there was a gravel haul that would be going by all night. Oh well that won't happen tonight. Camping World is a great place to meet people though, they usually have a customer lounge and most the folks waiting around in there are RVers and have a lot of interesting stories. Today we met a couple of Kiwi's named Clive and Gilly who are on the continent for the next 3 or 4 years to see it all. They have a new outfit and were getting a little warranty work done before heading out looking for the next interesting place. They should be in Canada next summer so maybe we'll cross their trails again.



The rodeo was great and it was nice seeing friends and even some family but it is good to be back in the sticks. Here is a shot of our new License Plate. Till next time

Well That's All Folks

The rodeo is over. It was a great show and well worth the time and money. Well my time comes fairly cheap right now but it was worth the money anyway. It was the 50th Anniversary of the National Finals so that is a milestone.

Pretty high tech show that opens with a laser light display. Tough to catch it in all its glory in a photograph but here is the best I could do.

Barrel racer Lindsay Sears clinched her first world title after Round 8, so the only question remaining in that event was how much the Canadian would win and how high she would set the season earnings record bar. Sears, of Nanton, Alberta, finished the season as the sport''s first $300,000 barrel racer, earning $323,570 in 2008 while claiming the gold buckle. Her horse, Martha, was named AQHA Barrel Racing Horse of the Year, and Sears has been more than complimentary when talking about the talented horse."I''m very honored and very proud to be Canadian today, and it means a lot to get the first barrel racing world championship that we get to take home to Canada," said Sears, who finished third in the Wrangler NFR average. "It''s been such a surreal year this year. It''s unbelievable. I''m so thankful that I have such an awesome horse. Martha''s really the world champion. She deserves it, and I''m so proud of her."Sears won five of the 10 rounds in Las Vegas, including four in a row from Rounds 6-9, to pocket $139,002 at the Wrangler NFR. I stole the first part of this paragraph from the PRCA website and the report on the results for tonite. They said it better than I could. I think a lot of Canadians are pretty proud to have her bring home the World Championship buckle.

This is a shot of her making the turn on the first barrel tonight. Not her best run but, the best shot I got.

Earlier today we had some visitors, Wayne and Vel, from Caroline, Alberta, and Randy and Sue, from North Pole, Alaska. After a visit we went into the Circus Circus for lunch, the salad bar was great and the desert table was certainly well attended. As for the rest it wasn't particularly good but it filled the empty spot.


As for whats next, we are still figuring it out but it probably includes heading to more southern latitudes for some warmer weather.

Canadian World Champion

Not much to report but I thought I better make an appearance so those who read regularly don't think we have been taken out to shallow graves in the desert for non-payment of our gambling debts. Those who know me know that is unlikely in my case, and for the record Brenda has been exacting a toll from the casinos. Not enough to buy a new motorhome but enough for spending money!!

Oh yah Mick, we saw your baby brother, Mike, and he is doing fine. We have also met Derek and Shawna, friends of our from Alliance, and some of their friends also, for a good visit yesterday.

Thursday night Lindsay Sears mathematically eliminated everyone else from the World Championship race. She has been smoking 'em the last three nights. All runs below 13.6, which is pretty quick. And she did it again on Friday night. That means she has won the go arounds in 5 out of 9 nights so far. Not to get greedy but one more would be nice. Whoever thought you could make $300K a year chasing cans. You go girl!!

As for the weather it has been pretty nice all week. In the 60's for you folks back home dealing with the -20's. That said we are looking forward to heading back south to the desert and some warmer weather down Yuma way.

NFR - Performance 7

The other day when I went for my morning stroll I went down the strip to the Wynn. It is a beautiful hotel and the maintenance crew was hard at work keeping the pools sparkling. One of the fellows told me that they were the only property on the strip that had not laid off any workers in the downturn. The MGM Mirage group which owns the Circus Circus property where we are staying had plans to demolish most of the existing infrastructure and build a new casino and hotels and condo's but I am betting that all those plans are on hold until there is a turnaround in the economic situation. So it's tough, even in the gambling business.

Here is a shot of the Grand Entry, with all the cowboys and cowgirls lined up at the start of the rodeo.

Traffic is certainly an issue heading over to the Thomas & Mack, but we just caught the shuttle bus here at the Circus Circus and it dropped us at the front door and picked us up after the rodeo and brought us back, no problem.

That red splotch, pardon me, proud banner with the red maple leaf, on the far side is the Canadian flag being brought in by Lindsay Sears for the Grand Entry.

It was a pretty good night for the Canadian competitors also. Curtis Cassidy won the Steer Wrestling and Lindsay Sears a Canadian cowgirl cleaned up at the barrel racing later in the evening. It looks like she is on her way to her first World Championship as she is about $64,000 ahead of her nearest competitor. Another cowboy who is married to a Canadian and makes his home down the road from us for at least half the year, Jeff Chapman, won the Tie Down Roping. The rest of our Canadian folks certainly made it competitive also. Tonight is Canada night at the Rodeo so we're hoping for another great showing. Love to see those Canucks take those good Yankee dollars back north with them!!

Today we are having lunch with some friends from Canada, Wayne and Val. He comes down to the rodeo every year and found the tickets for us this year. His usual haunts are in Inuvik in the Northwest Territories so even though it is in the 60's here it is a whole lot warmer than Inuvik at -30C.

Cut and Colour

Not much happening today, although Brenda did head over to J.C. Penney's for a new cut and colour. Apparently her stylist was a deaf lady named Wendy, and from the result she knew her stuff. The cut and style is great. This is the second time she has trusted the folks at J.C. Penney to do her hair and has been pleased with the results both times.

We then headed over to Cowboy Christmas, a gathering of western vendors, at the Las Vegas Convention Centre. Almost the same kind of group that is also at Mandalay Bay. Really the only difference is this bunch charges $10.00 to park while the Cowboy Marketplace at Mandalay Bay lets you park free. Still we managed to acquire a couple of shirts and a coat and it would be totally unlike me not to have a souvenir buckle from the Rodeo.

After that mad shopping spree we came back to the coach and I chilled here while Brenda headed in to the Casino to replenish our funds.

We are off to the Rodeo at 5:00 so there will be no pictures today, sorry Mick, maybe tomorrow. Tonight is the "Tough Enough to Wear Pink" night at the rodeo. Nearly all the contestants and most of the fans will be wearing pink tonight. This to help raise awareness and funds for Breast Cancer research. So if you're out there tonight, either at the rodeo, or at home watching on TV, get out your best pink shirt and let everyone know that you are "Tough Enough to Wear Pink".

I'll head off to the archives and try to find a pink picture for the post tonight. Something from East Lake Fish Camp in Kissimmee, Florida.