Leaving Las Vegas

After finally fixing uncle Shoji's computer I departed Las Vegas on Wednesday, March 10th.  I stopped at the Hoover Dam and no matter how many times you see this it never ceases to amaze.  The new by-pass bridge is almost complete and has to be considered a wonder by itself.  It is supposed to open for traffic this fall.  I don't think that I have ever seen Lake Mead this low.  For a better view click or double click on the pictures.

I continued south on Arizona Hwy 93 toward Kingman.  Hwy 93 is being widened to accomodate the extra traffic that the new bridge will allow.  There is an awful lot of very desolate stretches along this route, but also some very beautiful views.

I made a quick stop at the Willow Beach Marina on the Colorado river.  Twenty years ago Sharon and I were camping at Lake Mohave and took our boat up the river to this spot.  It took us over an hour by boat from the campground.  We had lunch and were getting ready to return when Sharon got stung by a bee.  Most of you know that she was alleric to bees and she began to go into shock.  Luckily a ranger was on duty and called for the life flight helicopter which whisked her off to Las Vegas.  It took me almost eight hours to motor back to the campground, pack up and drive to Las vegas to retrieve her.  After this incident Sharon always carried an "epi" pen.

Storms in the mountains kept threatening, but I made it to Kingman, AZ with very little rain.

I pulled into Kingman around 4:30pm and went to my favorite campground (Wall-Mart) only to find that this is one of the few where overnight camping is not allowed because of a city ordinance.  Our grandson Jason later explained that many transients had set up almost permanent camps in the lot and they had to do something to get the eyesores out.  This ruined it for everyone.  Oh well, I simply checked into the local desert RV park.