Las Vegas and Beyond!

We recently left the San Joaquin Valley in central California and continued our winter drive southward to our final winter destination, Yuma, Arizona.  Sadly we were unable to visit with our pals in Visalia while we were in the area, but that is now a great excuse for us to return to the Sierras!  Currently we are settled in the Paradise RV Resort in sunny Sun City, Arizona.  The weather is great here, mostly 70’s and sunny during the daytime and drops down to the mid 50’s at night.  We hear the coyotes many nights and saw one jogging through the neighborhood last week.  Don’t leave your pets out or their food! 

The first leg of this journey was a quick side trip to Las Vegas for some fun and business.  We saw a great windmill array going through the mountain pass east of Bakersfield, and a solar electric facility on the west side of Las Vegas that was very interesting.  We had about 150 lbs of things we wanted to pawn and had the idea of going into Rick Harrison’s Gold and Silver Pawn Shop.  We did that but could not make a deal with his shop.  We saw Rick sitting in his office and they all treated us with professional respect but could only offer $100.  We eventually found a shop that gave us $622.  Yay!  That paid for a cheeseburger and a two beers in Vegas!  Fun was had by all.

Tehachapi Pass Wind Farm is one of the first large-scale wind farms installed in the U.S.  Wind development in the Tehachapi Pass began in the early 1980s. The area hosts a multitude of wind farms, comprising one of California's largest wind resource areas. The pass is undergoing much repowering activity. The area has multiple generations of wind turbine technology installed, including both single and double blade turbines, as well as the more modern three blade horizontal axis design. The older generation turbines generate kilowatts, and the modern turbines installed generate up to 3 megawatts, depending on the specific turbine and manufacturer.

The Joshua Tree National Forest in the Mojave Desert.  I think the Josua Tree is an interesting cactus.  Becasue they resemble people standing out in the desert to me, I can feel the soul of these cacti.

More Mojave Desert West of Las Vegas

The Ivanpah Solar Electric Generating System is a solar thermal power plant in the California Mojave Desert, 64 km (40 miles) southwest of Las Vegas, with a gross capacity of 392 megawatts (MW). It deploys 173,500 heliostats, each with two mirrors, focusing solar energy on boilers located on three centralized solar power towers.

We stayed at the Duck Creek RV Resort, in Henderson, Nevada (Las Vegas); not much to talk about here, but it was a safe place to sit.  They were not set up well for the bigger 40 ft trailers.  We had to rent two lots that were end to end and pull halfway between them.  As a result we could not reach the water or sewer hook ups easily.  We only stayed 4 or 5 days so it wasn't a big deal.  The people at the park were nice and the location was convienient to all of Las Vegas.

Going into town exploring...

Hanging out at the Venetian Hotel
We headed up to the rooftop VooDoo Lounge atop the Rio Hotel and Casino for the view of the Las Vegase Strip at night!

View of the Las Vegas Strip from the VooDoo Lounge @Rio's 51st Floor.  Can you see the Luxor light beaming straight up at the right side of the picture?

After a few days of excitment it was time to depart and make Sun City West for Thanksgiving with Gari's mom, Shilo.  Below is a little scenery leaving Las Vegas... passing the Lake Meade and Hoover/Boulder Dam areas.

 Lots of hydroelectric lines in the area

 I see the last of the water way down there...

 
On to Congress, Arizona and another Escapes Park, North Ranch to be exact.  As we ride around we notice more permanent living options that we may consider inour future.  This park is one of those options, but we don't think it will be the one, certainly not anytime soon!  We really liked the people, park and area, but it seemed a bit too far away from enough civilization to be totally practical for us.  But it was a very attractive loctation to us.

The North Ranch Park had a fantastic cactus garden area established and maintained by the members.  We took several walks through that beautiful area called Saguaro Park.

 Gari investigating an unusual cactus.

The members named this huge Saguaro in the background.  They choose the name Methuselah.  This cactus is thought to have come to life around 1600 A.D.  So Steve spent a very little time in comparison with Methuselah.

 Gari is fascinated by the Buckhorn Cactus

 An even bigger Buckhorn!

 The Backdoor Saguaro

 and a parting shot with Methuselah...

Sequoia National Park

More big trees, we love them!  Here we saw the General Sherman and Grant Trees, reported as the largest trees on earth.  These trees are unreal big.  We liked the Sequoia National park better than the Mariposa Grove area in Yosemite because you can get closer to the trees in Sequoia.  It is more of a natural setting where you can walk through the forest and sometimes not even detect the trail and ceratinly no paths bordered by fences the entire way.  In Seqouia National you can touch the trees and even get inside some of them!

This is a fallen gian t that you can walk through the length of the trunk. This is a picture of Gari at the root end.

 That's Steve hanging out inside the trunk reflecting on the size of these amazing trees.

This is some mighty big lumber!  Actually the early settlers learned that they coud not use the Sequoia wood because it mostly shattered when it hit the ground as it was cut down.

 Looking up!

 Down Under in the Chimney Tree.

 Inside the Chimney Tree looking up and out...

A cross-section exhibit.  The surface was very smooth and flat.  Someone worked very long and hard to accomplish that!

Sequoia Cones, they are relatively small.  Some of the other fir and pine trees have huge cones.

 See the Fox "root sculpture" in this fallen root ball?

 This is a close up of the "Fox"

 Steve next to the "Fox" root

These trees are huge and amazing. Enough said see the evidence below!

 Gari below.

 So big

 Happy to be there

 Way up!

 Large fire scar.

Below is the Tharp Log.  This Tharp guy returned to this area every year and ran cattle up here while he lived in a tree.  I guess that's not so crazy... "we both live in a 40 ft RV, a 40ft RV, a 40 ft RV" (to the Beatles melody of We all live in a Yellow Submarine)   :-) 

 Front Door

 The interior of the Tharp Log

 Look there goes Tharp now.... no that's Steve

This is a viewing platform for the General Sherman Tree.  The Park Service laid in an outline of the trunk bottom so you can get a sense of the girth of this giant tree,  It is really hard to fully understand while you stand there.

 The Royal Hugeness!

 Bigger than big!

A large pair of trees at the parking area.

This is a tree tunnel that has near 8 ft height clearance.  I couldn't get Gari to drive her truck through it. It was too close for her comfort.

A couple giants bordering the narrow and winding road out.

A very special place on earth!