Shooting Before Traveling

Yesterday morning we went to the pistol range at the Clark Country Shooting Complex.  This time we each had our own target--I wanted to see how I did without trying to figure out which shots John made and which ones I did.

I felt really good about the first 4 shots I tool with one of our 38 pistols.  Look at that--right in the center!

This target is also mine--with a different pistol.

This is one of the targets John used.  His pattern is much tighter than mine.

Until this year, I hadn't shot for over 40 years. I find I enjoy it. And I'm better at shooting than I ever was at golf.

Today we left Las Vegas and drove to Barstow, California. Here is some of the scenery we saw along the way.

These are some of the Joshua Trees we saw as we drove into California. They are such interesting shrubs/trees. Our son Doug was stationed at 29 Palms Marine Corps base near Joshua Tree. When we visited him there we saw our first of these plants.

We plan to make our way north through California, then Oregon and Washington. Beyond that, nothing is certain.

Touring the Las Vegas Strip

There are lots of reasons to go to the Las Vegas Strip--gambling, taking in the shows, big name restaurants.  We were interested in getting lots of pictures and eating at a burger and steak restaurant--Bobby Flay's Mesa Grill at Caesar's Palace. We have been watching the Food Network for years and Bobby Flay is a really top chef--he wins almost every contest he enters, as well as hosting his own shows.

We were seated right next to the open kitchen where we watched the chefs cook meat on a grill and the griddle then plate the meals.  We enjoyed watching them.

John ordered the pork tenderloin sandwich

and I asked for the chili con-queso burger--both served with southwestern fries.

We strolled through the Forum Shops, looking at expensive clothing, outrageous shoes and numerous jewelry stores.  We didn't buy a thing.

This little boy like these lighted benches.

A look down the main street toward El Mirage Casino.

The Venitian makes you think you really are in Venice with water and gondolas

I think this is a statue of Poseidon.   Any one have other ideas?



I loved watching these fountains.  The water moved to the accompanying music.

This was another fountain down the street.

These are next to the pirate ship at the Excalibur.

These unusual chairs were in the Forum Shops.

We enjoyed our lunch and the stoll down the Strip, but I doubt we will return. I have all the pictures I need and we can find Food Network chef restaurants elsewhere. We were first in Las Vegas about 49 years ago. My parents loved going there and took us along. It really isn't our cup of tea today.

Las Vegas Trip

Saturday we left Kingman and drove just 110 miles to Las Vegas where we are staying at the Clark County Shooting Complex.  The views along the way included, blue skies, puffy white clouds and sandy hills.

We passed Lake Mead and Hoover Dam.

After getting set in in our nice wide and almost level camp site, we viewed the safety video we received our yellow card that indicated we could use the ranges here.  This is a view of the nearby mountains from our site.

This is our nighttime view of the Las Vegas and skyline.

On Sunday, Mother's Day, we went to the pistol range and each shot 50 rounds.  I'm not a great shot but I do enjoy the activity.  John took this photo of me.

This cool, restored panel truck was parked in the range parking lot.

Our sons, Doug and Eric, called during the afternoon and we had good talks with them, as well as with our two Colorado grandchildren, Kylie and John. It was a good day.

The River

Four major rivers have their headwaters in our home state of Colorado: Rio Grande, Arkansas, Platte and Colorado. We have camped or hiked at the headwaters of both the Rio Grande and the Colorado, camped along the Arkansas in Arkansas where it is the route of major river barge traffic, walked along the Rio Grande in New Mexico and experienced it in Texas where it is the international border with Mexico.

We have rafted on the Colorado in Grand County near where we lived in the 1980s and in Glenwood Canyon.  We have seen the beautiful work it did in creating the Grand Canyon. The river supplies water to 7 states and Mexico and we know there is not always enough to go around. So we were surprised at how much water there was in the riverbed at Laughlin. This was our first glimpse of the waterway.

The water is amazingly clear.

Several of the casinos in Laughlin are on the waterfront and there is a Riverwalk giving people access to a view of the river and the casinos. One casino had murals depicting the history of the area and the Colorado River is prominent in many of them.

Here are a couple of views of the river showing a scenic cruise boat and the marina.

In other places, there is a lot of green along the trail.

The Riverwalk was a good place to get away from the traffic while getting some exercise.

Smokin' Competition

The BBQ competition in Laughlin was the second such event we have attended. The first was in Kansas City and it was huge with lots of well-known chefs, some we had seen on TV. The one in Nevada was not that big and we didn't recognize any of the chefs. We are familiar with the towns  several came from. Participants were mainly from California, Nevada and Arizona. The names of cooking teams are colorful.




The competition was held in one of the parking lots at the Laughlin Riverside Casino.

Jim and Gayle, did someone borrow your RV for the weekend?

This was the most interesting BBQ wagon.

When we walked among the contestants Friday evening, they were prepping their meat for smoking--cutting off fat and injecting with marinade.

Judging began at noon on Saturday. Before turn-in time styrofoam boxes were artistically filled with parsley and other greens then the portions are prepped and carefully displayed. Each contestant must submit chicken, pork shoulder and pork butt and beef brisket entries with at least 6 servings of each.

Entries are taken to the judging tent at the last minute so the meat will be hot. But being on time is important because late entries are not accepted.

When we attended the Kansas City cook-off we were disappointed we couldn't taste any of the entries. This time there was a people's choice competition. We each tasted several of the entries. We like most of them, not all. But I would hate to have to decide which was best. We didn't go down Saturday evening to find out who won.

A Great Outing

Our trailer remodel passed muster when we took it to Laughlin, NV, last weekend to attend a BBQ cookoff. We found the new recliners, storage and table meet our needs. We are really glad we had the work done.

There is lots to share about the trip but it has taken me a while to begin blogging. That is because not everything about the trip was great. We get our internet with a Verizon 4LTE Jetpack. We just upgraded the device and I hadn't taken the time to change the name and password on it. Not a good idea. Monday I checked how much data we had used in the first 4 days to the billing cycle. I was shocked to see 12G of data had been used! When I looked at how it was used, I saw it included streaming video and chatting. We don't do that. I called Verizon and all they could suggest is making sure I changed the security and the password. We have to eat the data!! You can bet I changed the jetpack settings. I also sprang for 10 extra gigs of data for the month.

The next day I wasn't able to sign in to that wifi signal on my computer. I could connect with John's iPad and our phones but not the laptop. A call to Geek Squad technicians didn't resolved it so I made an appointment to go into Best Buy on Tuesday. The fix was simple. Thank heavens I could go online later yesterday. So here I am, beginning to blog about our travel last Thursday and Friday.

Lesson of the day (or weekend), change the security on your wifi device as soon as you bring it home.

The scenery between Gold Canyon and Laughlin is beautiful and varied. First we had to deal with the traffic as we drove through Phoenix.

I didn't realize that Joshua Trees grew in Arizona. I thought they were only found in southeastern California. Wrong. There are a lot of them on the Joshua Tree Parkway between Congress, AZ, and Laughlin.

The desert and mountains along the way changed from one section to another but it was all beautiful.

(Barb, doesn't this look like a fist with a thumb up?)

There was a lot more that was interesting about this trip. But we knew right away we will be taking more short trips during our winter in Arizona. There is just so much to see.