CROWDED HOUSE

We headed over the Blue Mtns today intending to stay in the campground at Wildhorse Casino near Pendleton, OR.  However, the campground was closed for major renovations and since we didn't feel like driving further and looking for another spot for the night, we decided to park in the RV dry parking lot.  In hindsight, not a good move as it is super crowded and RVs are still arriving.
Somewhere along our route today, we passed Jacquie and Jim headed the other way in their car on their way to Quartzsite to retrieve their motor home as they had taken a different one home to make a project out of.

Yesterday morning at Wells with the sun shining on the Ruby Mtns

In the casino parking lot this afternoon.  The red Dodge diesel had an issue with the transmission and wouldn't move on its own.  That guy worked his butt off getting it on the trailer using a come-a-long.

When it was on, it looked like the trailer was overloaded

Adjoining the casino is farm land all around

There is a truck plaza at the lower end of the property with lots of trucks parked for supper or the night

Nice row of trees bordering the property

Did I say it was crowded here?

WELLS, NV TODAY

We are in Mountain Shadows RV Park in Wells, NV tonight.  Interestingly, we put on exactly the same distance as yesterday, 500 kms (300 miles) precisely.  Those should be our two longest driving days.  Tomorrow will probably not be much over 200 miles to Mountain Home, ID then about 263 to Pendleton, OR.  The last two days should both be under 200 miles.  We aren't big mileage people as you can see.

I spotted this Hedgehog Cactus blooming while out geocaching the other day.  There was just one plant in the whole area that had blooms.

There were lots of Ocotillo blooming

That's us cradled in the Mesquite tree

I wandered out in the desert for sunset every eveing

Just after crossing the Colorado River from Parker into California, a fleet of California Highway Patrol cars came along clearing the way for this super wide load.  I suspect this was a part for the hydro installation at the Parker Dam. 

I was intrigued last night in Alamo by this tree that has such a large diameter but isn't very tall

I wondered if this was the result of some fighter jets playing.  Taken at 6:12 pm.

At 6:30, this was still visible, strange!

A couple of pictures looking east up above Alamo, NV

Once again the trees in Alamo were host to many Turkey Vultures

Being that Alamo is close to the ET Highway, I wasn't surprised to see this pickup up the street from our campground.

78 miles to Wells, NV

Big sky country on Nevada 93 all day

Wells is just beyond the far snowy peaks which are about 50 miles away

ON THE MOVE - NORTHBOUND

We left Caliente in Florence Saturday morning.   There was a traffic jam on I-10 near the Brenda turnoff caused by somebody in a pickup going the wrong way on the freeway (in a 75 mph zone) at 11 am that morning so we were detoured up Vicksburg Rd.  The person in the pickup survived but killed three people in a car that he (or she) hit.  I remembered this nice quiet spot close to where the detour took us so that's where we spent the first night.
We moved over to Plomosa Rd, a few miles north of Quartzsite, Sunday and spent three nights there.  I did a bit of geocaching in the area and chased the sunset every evening.  Other than having a neighbour a quarter mile away one night, the rest of the time, we had more space.
We were on the move before eight this morning and crossed into California at Parker then turned north at Vidal Junction on the way to Needles, CA.  We took I-70 a few miles west then went up via Searchlight to Las Vegas.  We are in Alamo, NV tonight and plan on Wells, NV tomorrow.  These will be our two longest travel days.

Looking toward the bottom of Box Canyon

The first few Saguaro blooms we found

My friend Richard and I parked our RZRs and walked up this narrow side shoot off Box Canyon

Last photo from the side canyon.  I thought this rock looked like a huge lizard.

The first night out from Florence,we spent here near Vicksburg on BLM land.  We are the second dot in on the right so you can see it was quite peaceful.

Ocotillo bloom

Remnants of an old Mesquite tree

I wandered out looking for sunset photos

Last season's fruit on this tiny cactus tucked into the rocks 

Looking to the Plomosa Mtns

The same tree as above but the opposite direction

This small prickly pear cactus bloom was just coming open at dusk