Lake Mead RV Resort
The Lake Mead RV Resort is one of the campgrounds of the Lake Mead National Recreation Area (https://www.nps.gov/lake/index.htm), on Boulder Beach. Walt and his family had stayed at the Boulder Beach campground, adjacent to the RV Resort, back in 1966. This was in July, and it was so hot that they didn’t set up a tent, but just slept on a ground cloth. They spent most of their evening swimming in the Lake to keep cool. Walt recognized the Boulder Beach campground, but instead of the lake being just down the hill from the campground, it was almost a mile away, due to the low lake level.
We spent the morning of Wednesday, October 20th, taking out wet ground cloths and other items and spread them out to dry. We then drove into Las Vegas to cruise the Strip. Martha took lots of pictures and enjoyed seeing all the sights. We went to Wal-Mart in Henderson to stock up on groceries and returned to the motorhome. Unfortunately, Walt forgot his wallet and did not have his Senior Lifetime Pass to re-enter the Recreation Area gate. He explained the dilemma to the gate attendant. She looked skeptical and asked us what animal was shown on the card. Oops! We couldn’t remember. Even being more skeptical, she eventually agreed to a “one time” exception and let us enter. We enjoyed sitting by the rig and looking over the lake. We could see planes coming from the east to land in Las Vegas. We had a nice fire and learned a lesson. Walt used a butane lighter to light the fire and left it on the grill next to the fire. When the lighter got hot enough it exploded and plastic pieces were scattered all over the place. Fortunately, except for the lighter, there was no damage done.
We spent Thursday, October 21st, doing laundry, walking around the campground and relaxing. The laundry payment was thru a cell phone app called WASH Connect. One transfers money from a credit card to the app and then uses the Bluetooth connectivity to start the washers and dryers. You must put a minimum of $10 on the app, and if you go below that amount the app takes another $10 from your credit card. Neat idea, but now Walt is stuck with $11.50 in the app, waiting to find this app at another laundromat.
We drove across Hoover Dam to Kingman, Arizona, on Friday, October 22nd. This is a mountainous drive through bare rock and dark colored peaks. At Kingman, we turned onto I-40 east, almost all the way to Flagstaff. At Ash Fork, AZ, we turned south onto AZ 89 through Prescott, then AZ 169 to I-17 and Camp Verde, AZ. Camp Verde is at the east end of the Verde Valley, south of Sedona and north of Phoenix. At about 3000 feet elevation, the valley is a high desert with the Verde River running through it. We arrived at Zane Grey RV Park (https://www.zanegreyrv.com/). This is a nice park, about 10 miles east of Camp Verde on highway 260, the road to Payson, the Mogollon Rim (an escarpment defining the southwestern edge of the Colorado Plateau, who’s central and most spectacular portions are characterized by high cliffs of limestone and sandstone) and the White Mountains. Situated along West Clear Creek, the Zane Grey RV Park is in a grove of outstanding cottonwood and sycamore trees. It has level sites of crush orange colored gravel and was a very pleasant place to stay.