January 25th, 2025
I ended up staying in Boise for a little longer than expected. My dog Danny has had a few issues that he has been dealing with pretty much his whole life. He is allergic to pretty much everything, and whether related or not, his eyes itch him terribly at times. There have been several times over the years where I have come home and found that he has been rubbing them for hours, causing them to be swollen, red and sometimes even bloody. I have been to countless vets of various specializations, none of them have been able to diagnose and fix the problem. We stayed a few extra weeks to get another round of tests done and I am optimistic that we may get somewhere with it this time. In the meantime I will be trying a new food (again) and monitoring him closely. We’ll see what happens.
Christmas and New Years with the family were wonderful. I spent Christmas with my Mom, Dad, Sister, Brother in law, and (my favorite!) niece Alice. We always have a get together on Christmas Eve where we invite family and friends over and share in fellowship while enjoying a nice dinner and open up our Christmas Eve present, which is always pajamas. I have come to appreciate these getogethers so much more in the last few years as God has healed my heart piece by piece. In years past, I would spend the evening drinking too much and blabbing selfish nonsense. Nowadays I find myself actually engaging with them and enjoying their company. I want to know more about them, more about their lives. I want to know them, and it comes from a place of love that seems like it has been absent for so long. For a long time, the shame of what I was doing to myself made me isolate from others for fear of being exposed. I am so thankful to be free of that fear, and I pray other drinkers out there can find that freedom as well. God gives it freely… you don’t even have to ask for it. It is done.
It was a nice long break from the road. A warm bed in the guest room of my parent’s house and lots of delicious home cooked food. I met with friends at our favorite restaurants to catch up, attended church a few times with my Aunt and Uncle, and spent some quality time grinding some backgammon with my Dad. As nice of a time as I was having, though, the road was calling.
It gets cold in Boise… really cold. I understood the concept of “snowbirding” when I was younger, but I don’t think I could have anticipated I would be doing such a thing in my 40’s. But here I am, planning a trip to Arizona where the temperature is an unbelievable 71 degrees right now.
I wasn’t sure where to go first, I just knew I wanted to go south and get to some nicer weather and let God show me around. I got The Pull to reach out to my friend Keith, who I met last year on my very first stop on my very first outing at Balanced Rock Park. Back then, he had suggested going to Glamis for the winter, which is an area in eastern Arizona near Yuma where tons of Rvers go to escape the winter. I decided to give him a call and see what he was doing. He was happy to hear from me and actually had a great idea for us to try to meet up near Oatman, AZ on historic Route 66.
I had never heard of Oatman before. He told me it was an old mining town that had been preserved and turned into a tourist attraction. All the building were original and had functioning businesses inside of them, burrows roamed the streets freely eating any scraps they could find, and there is even a shootout in the center of town at high noon. This sounded like a blast, so I told him I hit the road and keep him posted on my progress down that way.
The drive began with a lot of deja vu. This is literally the exact same drive I just did on my way to Lake Mead and the Valley of Fire. I stayed over at the same parking lot in Wells, drove the same bumpy highway down past Ely, but instead of staying at Lake Pahranagat, I decided to utilize my Harvest Hosts app and found a Gold Course to stay at in Las Vegas. I wanted to get south as quickly as possible, I had had enough of the cold.
Unfortunately, my timing was not very good. I made the turn onto I93 into Vegas right around 4:00 and had the privilege of experiencing rush hour traffic in Las Vegas first hand. It was quite the sight to see. It goes from total gridlock to mad-dash every-man-for-himself over and over. People drive halfway up the off ramp just to peel off and dive back into to traffic at the last second to gain a few extra car lengths. The best way I could describe it is basically a festival of “me first”. I wasn’t even angry or stressed. I was just in awe of what I was experiencing. I knew I was in no hurry, and that God was protecting me. I knew I was a guest in these people’s world. They live this every day, I don’t. I might as well observe it and take it in.
It was only about 15 miles to the Revere Golf Course in Henderson where I was staying, but it required me to go the full gauntlet through Vegas to get there. I think it took about an hour an a half, and by the end of it I was more than thankful that I didn’t have to live that every single day… thank you Lord.
The Golf Course was very nice, and sat in a very nice neighborhood. I pulled into the parking lot and headed up to the front desk to let them know I was here. The fellow behind the counter just basically said welcome, park however you want in the back, the restaurant is over there if you get hungry, have a nice stay. And that was it. The space was nothing fancy, no power or water of course, kind of like staying is a Walmart parking lot only Much nicer and quieter.
As I approached my RV after checking in I noticed a bit of a puddle forming under the right side of the engine. I knew right away what it was… coolant. Uhg, how embarrassing. This beautiful golf course gave me a nice place to park on their freshly paved parking lot and here I was dripping engine fluids onto it… not to mention the fact that a coolant leak is kind of a big problem for me as well. I grabbed some towels and cleaned everything up and went to investigate. As I pawed through the engine with the sunlight fading it appeared to me to be a leaking heater core. It breathed a small sigh a relief. A heater core leak cannot really develop into anything more than a nuisance drip and I wouldn’t be needing my heater again for at least a month or two. So I cleaned everything up, topped up to coolant and went to bed.
I wasn’t far from the area Keith and I were planning to camp… but I also wasn’t necessarily in a mad dash to get there. My camping apps showed plenty of interesting looking camping on the way, and one spot next to Mohave Lake looked especially promising. Id did involve about 10 miles of “questionable” dirt road navigation according to the reviews, but I have come to find my RV pretty capable in most of these situations. I decided to give it a go and made my way towards Bullhead City.
I found the dirt road, about 10 miles west of Bullhead and pulled in. After a deep breath and a prayer I pressed onward down the road. For about 2 miles, the road was just fine, it wasn’t until I came across a man working a backhoe fixing a section of it that I began to have my doubts. He was filling some pretty large dips in the road with gravel and gave me a little wave and smile as I soldiered on passed him. This was about the time I learned about a keyword or look for in dispersed camp site reviews: Washout. If you see the word washout, you probably don’t want to take your RV down that road.
As I pressed on I found numerous spots where the man had recently filled in the holes. The gravel was loose and I found my jaw clenched like a vice as I stumbled over the newly “fixed” spots. Determined or stubborn, I pressed on. I dipped down a steep grade that was made mostly of gravel and another quarter mile ahead found myself staring at an impossible obstacle. The road here pitched… not just curved like a turn, but actually had a slant to it of about 45 degrees. I stopped and got out the examine it. It was a hard left that wrapped around a hill and was pitched at that angle the whole way. There was no way I could make that turn. My RV would literally tip over if I tried. I had to turn back, no spot next to the water was worth this risk.
So I walked around looking for a spot to turn around. Nothing ahead of me, nothing behind me. The road cliffed off on one side and walled up on the other. I was in a bit of a pickle. There was only one thing I could do, back up. The last turn around spot had been at the top of the hill right before that big gravel drip. I was going to have to back up the whole way, about a quarter of a mile… and back up the gravel hill in reverse.
I had no choice, so I got to it. I have a backup camera, which was somewhat helpful, but this situation called for the good old fashioned stick your body our of the window method. I slowly made my way back the way I had come. Visions of getting stuck in the gravel at Lake Mead haunted me as I slowly covered ground in reverse. As I approached the hill I abandoned all fear and just stepped on it. The V10 motor roared and my RV clawed its way up the hill nearly effortlessly. Before I knew it I was up and had reversed into an area where I could right my position and make my way out of here. I breathed a massive sigh of relief mixed with a little thank you prayer to God and made my way back to the highway. Enough of this goofing around. I decided to head to historic Route 66 and claim Keith and I a campsite.
On the surface, there is not much to say about the camping on historic Route 66. It is all BLM land and you are pretty much free to camp wherever you want. There are several areas that are more suited to it, to be sure. Areas where people have developed the land over time into designated campsites. My apps pin many of them in the area so once I peeled off Highway 68 onto Route 66 I just kind of kept my eyes open.
Most of the spots were right off the road but there were a few that had roads leading a little deeper into the desert where more comfortable sites could be found. I decided after my ordeal at Lake Mohave that my luck had probably been pressed far enough for the day and decided to settle for something more simple. I found a nice big empty area near the road at the entrance to one of the more popular camping locations. I knew there were plenty more sites further up the dirt road, but I decided I would scout them later with Danny and take what I could get for tonight. Historic Route 66 is not highly traveled, so despite being close to the road, it was a nice quiet spot. We were safe and sound for the night. I let Keith know we had reached the camping area and he said he’d be on his way soon.
The spot I was in may not have been the most glamorous or the most private, but I’ll say this: the sky here was unreal.
The next day Danny and I went for a walk up the dirt road into the deeper camp sites. I could see several areas where campers were set up out there, but couldn’t make sense of how they got there. The dirt road back into there was totally dug out in several spots, there is not way any of them could have made it down that way without bottoming out. There must be another way back in there, and we were going to find it.
The road headed east through the desert toward some giant hills which I later would learn had been heavily mined. All this area, these old roads, were all part of ancient mining operations. As we made our way back I took note of several good spots where people had set up to camp. Nice big pull through open areas that all had man made fire rings and appeared relatively flat. Surprisingly, only a few of the campers looked like “they had been there for a while”. The areas and campers were clean and well kept. I figure this must be more of a popular recreation area as opposed to full time squatting accommodations.
As we walked around I saw two problems. One, most of the spots were taken, and two, the ones that weren’t had quite a bit of cactus nearby. I didn’t know yet if I trusted Danny around cactus so we continued looking around. Just then, in the distance, I saw the road crest up a hill onto a gigantic flat top overlooking the valley… and no one on it. We ran up to the top to check it out. Now THIS is a spot. Plenty of room for two full size rigs, two fire pits, and a spectacular view. If I could a road to get up here, this spot would be perfect.
I spent a few minutes musing at my good fortune and taking some mental measurements and then called out to Danny so we could make our way back. But Danny did not come. I looked around for him and called out again, but he was not anywhere in sight. That’s not really like him. A slight panic washed over for just a moment before I saw him come slowly limping up out of the desert towards me. He had that look on his face… that “ Oh man, I screwed up” look. I ran to check on him and found his front paws completely covered in cactus splines, both of them.
I don’t know how he did it, but he had stepped both of his front paws fully into a cactus plant, or several cactus plants… who knows. There were hundreds of needles sticking out of his paws. I spent the next half hour on that plateau pulling them out one by one. Dogs are so funny, so innocent. When children skin their knee or stub there tow, they cry out in pain and agony… Danny just sat there with that big dumb smile on his face while I meticulously pulled the barbs out, one after another. There was so much cactus in him that we had to keep moving a few feet away every few minutes to get away from the removed chunks so he wouldn’t step in them again… it was a nightmare. And he just smiled the dumb smile panting away the whole time. The last needle was finally removed, he gave me a thank you lick, and we made out way back down the hill with no intention to return.
As we walked back I found the road that everyone had been using to get there about another quarter mile past the road we had taken in. It looped all the way back to Route 66 just up the road from where we camped. This road looked better, but not much, it would still be a rough ride to get all the way back in there. There were some perfect camp spots along the way that would be easy to get to, but they were all occupied by people who looked pretty settled in. Oh well, we have a few days before Keith gets here, we can look some more later.
We took the next day off to keep Danny off his feet… poor guy. It was a quiet day, the weather was mild and beautiful… we just opened up all the windows and enjoyed the breeze while I read and watched a few movies and Danny slept. It was very peaceful.
The next day I got up first thing in the morning to go for a run. It’s been a few days and I need some time in the fresh air a get some exercise and talk to God. Also, Keith was planning on showing up in two days so I figured this would be a great opportunity to scout up the road a mile or two for other spots. The road dipped down into the valley from where I was camped and as I followed it down I took note of a few sites here and there off the side of the road, but nothing to spectacular. It seemed most of the good camping to be had in the area was back where I had already explored and was all occupied. Slightly frustrated I made my way back up the hill. Keith and I could easily camp at the spot I was in, but it wasn’t really a proper camp ground. It just didn’t feel right to be camping so close to the road, where is the adventure in that?
I jogged my way back up the hill, my body starting to come alive again as I struggled my way up the grade determined not to stop for air. As I reached the top and the road leveled I felt a massive sense of achievement and thanked God for this road, this place, and this adventure so far. I mean, it really had been pretty cool so far, even though it had been mostly blunders. I had my friend coming soon and he would be bringing a fully supped up can am with, I was camping for free in beautiful weather, I have this wonderful and practically abandoned stretch of asphalt to run on to my heart’s desire… life is pretty good and there is so much to look forward to.
As the goodness washed over me and a reach the final ½ mile stretch of my run my eyes caught something and a realization rushed over me like a ton of bricks. There was a camper missing from the camping that had been there yesterday. A wave of excitement washed over me and I ran up the road, and suddenly there it was. No way. No way this could be true. The very best camp site in the whole area had been vacated. Easy access, two fire pits, room for at least three 40 foot RVs, and not a cactus in sight. Jackpot.
A gift from God. I didn’t hesitate for even a second. In full sprint I ran back to the RV, secured the slides, pulled anchor and claimed my prize.
This was it, the nod from my Father that I was waiting for. A sign from Him that I am on the right track. A beautifully wrapped present just for me.
Now the adventure could truly begin.
You will show me the path of life; In your presence is fullness of joy; At your right had are pleasures forevermore.
Palm 16:11
