Getting It Fixed in Phoenix

 

I had to head down to Phoenix as I had an appointment at D&R's Family RV. My solar install was not working as efficiently as it should be. My friend Jon and I had spent many hours trying to figure out what was the issue but in the end, we decided we needed a solar professional to diagnose the issue. It took Ron about five minutes to figure out the issue. It turns out that I had an inverter installed that was not the correct inverter. Ron ordered one, but seeing as how it was the weekend, it would not be delivered until the following week. So I spent four nights in the RV lot, behind chain link fencing with that circular barb wire all along the top of the fence. They gave me a key so I could come and go. When the new inverter came in, it took them about an hour and a half to do the install and I was on my way. The solar is now working like a charm.

Since I had the whole weekend to myself in Phoenix, I did hit a few museums. In fact, one of the museums ranks right up there with being one of the best museums I have ever been in. This is the Museum of Musical Instruments (MIM). It was fascinating in how they presented the instruments. The galleries were laid out geographical by country within continent. So you would go into the Africa gallery and then there would be a section for each country within Africa displaying the instruments that were indigenous to that country. Each of these instruments were labeled as to what they were but what made this so great was that in each of these sections there was a TV screen that played videos of these instruments being played. You are wearing headphones so whenever you approached the TV screen, the video would start playing. Photo challenged alert: My brother is very musical and I thought it would be great to take my own videos of these videos playing on the TV screens and text him with them so he could be as wowed as I was. I took a zillion videos and sent them off forgetting that all the sound was coming through my headphones. So he got a zillion videos of people playing instruments that he could not hear. Wonderful.

The Harmonica Section (which I had to pay homage to)

A closeup of the harmonicas

This gives new meaning to the words 'Piano Accordion'.  The accordions were right next to the bagpipes which some folks think are rather irritating.  What is MIM trying to say here, anyway?

There was also a special exhibition called Congo Masks and Music where they added the masks and outfits into the mix.

The Phoenix Art Museum had some nice exhibits also. I particularly liked the Throne Miniatures. I've always been enthralled with miniature rooms. People create these rooms or even whole houses and the attention to detail is amazing. They weave tiny little rugs, they paint tiny little pictures to hang on the walls of their rooms. Inconceivable the amount of time and patience that must go into this past time.

This exhibit would take an item from the museum's collection and pair it with Fashion.

One of the exhibits was the Firefly room. You walk into a tiny dark little area and you are surrounded by thousands of tiny little lights that change colors. It does give you an almost magical feeling. It is all, of course, done with mirrors. They hung the lights from the ceiling on strings and then added mirrors all the way around the lights. It is sort of like being in a fun house, but since this is the Phoenix Art Museum, it is way more classy.

I have spent almost four months out in the desert in Arizona and New Mexico.  I'm a Minnesota girl deep down and I'm longing for some real trees and green grass.  While I have seen some wonderful sights, I am tired of desert dust that infiltrates everything, no matter how much you try to keep on top of it.  I decided that I need to take care of my inner needs.  I was going to head up to Oregan and Washington state, but it is still too cold to head up there.  So I've decided to head east.  Not too sure where in the east yet, but just as long as it is sort of green and warm - that is where I am going.  

The Magic In The Mountains

 

I went to Vegas, Baby!!!! No, I didn't go to the Strip. I didn't see any shows. I went to the Fremont Street Experience. The Experience is a six block long pedestrian mall in downtown Las Vegas, but it is so much more. The street is lined with casinos, there are many different types of street performers and little kiosks where you can buy trinkets or get your picture taken with perhaps the Chippendales. The coolest thing though is that they have put a arched roof over the whole six blocks. This roof is actually a giant video screen with absolutely luscious graphics. You can stand at one end of the street and there will be a dragon flying over head on the screen. You can watch it fly all the way down the whole six blocks to the other end. Check out some of the videos on YouTube of the roof.

I had heard about the Seven Magic Mountains which are located about 10 miles south of Vegas. To quote their website “Seven Magic Mountains punctuates the Mojave with a poetic burst of form and color”. It was originally produced by the Nevada Museum of Art and opened in 2016. It was only supposed to be on view for two years but it has turned out to be rather popular. The installation is now scheduled to be on view through the end of 2021. I bet that they will keep it there longer though. The artist is Ugo Rondinone.

This was my favorite.  Don't know why.  Don't care why.  I just specially liked it.

I know it looks sort of silly but I actually thought it was rather cool, actually almost spiritual – these colorful pyramids out in the middle of the brown, brown desert.

While I was here I looked down and found a woman's billfold.  I picked it up, it had her driver's licence and some credit cards in it.  She was from Florida.  I couldn't leave it there for some nefarious soul to find it.  I wandered around looking for somebody that looked like the person on her license.  No luck.  So, I called the police department's non-emergency number.  Since it was Sunday, the only station that was open was downtown Las Vegas.  That was lucky because I was going to be passing by that way.  I hope that the wallet finds it way to the owner.  How she must have been fretting over losing her Costco card plus all the other pieces of her life.

The campground I stayed at was the Clark County Shooting Park. It was just north of Vegas, in fact I could see the Vegas lights out my window at night.  The park was fairly cheap, very clean and during the day would have people shooting trap.  They would stand in the middle here and call Pull.  The pigeons would come from the left, from the right and also straight ahead.  I finally talked to an employee and he said that it is all done electronically.  Person says Pull, the computer hears it and sends a clay pigeon into the air.  He said that back in the day, this was all done manully.  These shooters spend a lot of money on their gear and expect perfection.  If you were working and fired too soon or too late, there was hell to pay.  He said he would never ever never do that job again.  He likes it much better now that technology has caught up.  

Valley Of Fire

 

One of the main reasons to come as far north as the Las Vegas area was to go to the Valley of Fire State Park. Valley of Fire was Nevada's very first state park. The park got his name because the red sandstone formations look like they are on fire when the sun's rays hit them.

Fun fact: Several movies have been made here, one of them was 'Star Trek Generations', filmed in 1994, which was the scene of James T. Kirk's death. Another movie is 'Viva Las Vegas' with Elvis Presley. Kirk and Presley, I guess you don't get any better creds than that.

Valley of Fire lived up to it's reputation. The rock formations were beautiful and the hiking was fun.

This was the view from my campsite about five miles away from Valley of Fire. 
I think it was my most favorite camping spot on this trip so far.

The first hike was called the White Dome Hike.  It was a loop hike so we didn't have to climb back up this way.  It was a lot of downhill in the beginning.

Going down

And down

And we have a slot!!

Just because we can't have enough Miko

And more Miko.  She is actually looking at the camera - how unusual.

The Fire Wave Hike was a fairly easy hike, relatively flat.  The rocks really gave the impression of a flowing river.

This couple was rather irritating. 
I sat down waiting for them to finish taking all of their selfies from every possible angle. 
 I think I sat there for about 15 minutes and I finally gave up and moved on.

Although I did manage to get this Lion King moment!!!

If you drop down behind this pretty rock and meander down a ways there is what they called The Pink Canyon.  It was another slot and the rocks really were pink.

Miko photobombing

 

Owl Canyon Slot

 

Miko needed to be out walking so we decided that we should do a hike. We picked the Owl Canyon hike because it was about the right distance for us AND it had a slot canyon in it. Slot Canyons are narrow, long, and deep channels with towering rock walls. I don't know but I think there is something special about slot canyons. They are just plain cool. I have nothing else to say so I will just post the pictures.

Someplace down there is a trail

Oh! There it is! 
We proceeded straight ahead and then for some reason instead of keeping the course,
we ended up on top of that mesa.  The trail continued on to the left of the mesa

It's starting to get narrow

And narrower

And we have a slot going on

It was a very satisfying hike.

Nevada - Here I Come!!!

 

I always thought Nevada was rather a boring dull state. Of course I am basing that on only spending maybe two days in the state a while ago and both times that was in major cities. I am going to venture that perhaps that opinion was a wee bit premature. The drive up to Lake Mead and the Hoover dam had some of the most beautiful mountains and landscape that I have seen since I've been 'out west'. It is too bad that I was driving and didn't get to take any pictures. You will just have to trust me that it is drop dead gorgeous.

I camped on the shores of Lake Mead. Or actually it would have been the shores of Lake Mead but because of the drought, the water level has dropped down 144 ft from it's full level. It was sort of sad, some of the marinas were high and dry, many of the lakeside businesses had gone belly up. When the reservoir is full, it is the largest reservoir in the United States by volume.

Beautiful Lake Mead

Boulder City had a few attractions. Evidently there is another alien site such as Area 51 in Roswell, NM. In Boulder City there is Area 52, a little known place of mystery.

If I had room, I would have taken these guys home

As I hike and drive through the mountains, I am always scanning the hillsides looking for a glimpse of bighorn sheep. There are bighorn sheep signs everywhere, but the sheep never seem to be standing by those signs where I would have a chance to see them. Imagine my surprise when I found out that the sheep like to congregate most every day in one of Boulder City's city parks. They come down out of the mountains and like to graze on the golf course like grass supplied by the city. The day I was there, there were over 20 head.  

A mighty fne speciman

The boys

Besides Lake Mead, the big draw here is the Hoover Dam, which is really an engineering marvel, constructed during the Great Depression. It was literally a life-saver for so many people, thousands of people came out west to work on the dam. There were the high visibility fun/dangerous jobs like the high-scalers whose job it was to scale down the walls of the canyons on ropes to remove the loose rock. There were the mundane jobs such as the muckers who cleaned out the mud from the tunnels. None were more important though than the men who swept out the outhouses and kept them supplied with paper. Boulder City understands that and has erected a station honoring the Toilet Paper Men of Hoover Dam.

All decked out in Xmas finery

On the second floor of the historic Boulder Dam Hotel, where everybody from Shirley Temple to Boris Karloff slept, is the Boulder City/Hoover Dam Museum. I highly recommend that you visit this museum before you go to the Dam itself because it really prepares you for what you are about to see.

Looking down the Colorado River

And upriver

Doesn't this just scream the 1930's?

Perhaps the Hand of God photobombed my picture?

A railway track was built for trains to bring supplies to the dam.  They had to blast their way through a few mountains.  Once the dam was built, they tore up the tracks and now it is "The Historic Railroad Trail".  It went through five tunnels.  It was a lovely hike.

London Bridge Is Not Falling Down

 I was feeling the need to see some me some water after spending a week in Quartzsite so it was onward to Lake Havasu City nestled fortunately on the shore of Lake Havasu. In the olden days, this was nothing but solid desert and then in 1958, Robert McCulloch came along and bought 3,353 acres transforming it into a mecca for off-roaders and boaters. Lake Havasu City did not even become a town until 1963.

McCulloch had big dreams for Lake Havasu City and decided that he should bring the London Bridge to Havasu. I mean it is the actual London Bridge, built in 1831. By 1968, the bridge was badly in need of repair and London decided to remove the bridge and build a new bridge. Along comes McCulloch who buys the bridge from the City of London for US$2.5 millon.

“The bridge was disassembled …. and the marked stones were shipped to Lake Havasu City and reassembled ...for another US$7 million. The construction took three years to complete.” Wikipedia

As you enter, you are greeted by a fountain guarded by lions dressed appropriately for the season

Here she is - THE LONDON BRIDGE

Love Locks on the bridge.
Couples represent their love by putting a lock on a bridge and it will stay there for all eternity. 
They then dramatically hurl the keys to the lock into the body of water under the bridge. 

Here is a poor soul who is making snow by the bridge.  Sort of a Sisyphus task, me thinks

I did not realize how much I was missing green until I saw this gorgeous plant

Supposedly this light poles on top of the bridge were made from Napoleon's cannons

Fun Fact: Lake Havasu City is home to more working lighthouses than any other city in the entire country. They were originally started for safety purposes. The Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club wanted to make the lake a safe place for night boating. They decided to pay homage to the famous lighthouses in the U.S. by making smaller replica lighthouses. All of the lighthouses on the west side of Lake Havasu are replicas of famous lighthouses on the west Coast, while the east side consists of East Coast replicas. On the island are the replicas of lighthouses from the Great Lakes. We visited several of the lighthouses but a definite stop had to be the Split Rock Lighthouse, the lighthouse near and dear to any Minnesotan's heart. The real Split Rock Lighthouse is located north of Duluth on Lake Superior.

A fellow Minnesotan enjoying a moment of solidarity with Split Rock

A must see while in the Parker, AZ area is the Nellie E Saloon aka The Desert Bar. You have to travel five miles down one of the worst roads I've ever been on, thru a winding narrow desert road, best suited actually for 4X4s, although I did see a few regular cars braving the journey. The place is only open Saturday and Sundays from high noon until 6:00 pm, October thru April. Part of the reason for the limited hours is that the whole establishment is powered solely by solar power. The roofs are massive solar panels. There was a band playing when I was there which I found rather amazing considering all the power a rock band must consume. I had my first Tri-Tip steak sandwich here, I think it might be one of the best sandwiches ever.

Nellie's started doing business in that little shack on the right hand side of the photo

The entrance

Everybody socially distancing

Tables were also behind the band.  Check out the solar panels

The women's bathroom was lovely.  Open air sinks, stalls carved into the rock. 
The stall doors were rusted out heavy steel.  Maybe I should say unique instead of lovely.

I camped at Lone Tree Dispersed Campground on BLM land. It was on top of a mesa, north of the city with million dollar views and zero cash outlay.

My view out my front door