MARCH 20, 2014. RIDGEVIEW RESORT
Casino Row at Laughlin, Nevada, from across the River at Ridgeview RV Park. Not a bad view every night!
Florence’s birthday has come and gone. As I do annually, I threatened a celebration catered by Bobby Flay and including the US Marine Corps Marching Band. As she says annually “Don’t even think about it!” So we had a River-side celebration at the Bluewater Grill overlooking the River. Stan provided the entertainment. In addition to being a talented musician, his stand-up comedy routine is also pretty good! We can count on him to keep us in stitches almost every time! I got Florence a pretty neat birthday present: A dash-mounted video camera. I think it will be fun to video record parts of our trip driving through National Parks and when off-roading in the Jeep, for example. Or what about putting the camera on the bow of a kayak, a mountain bike, a horse or a jet ski? Get the picture? (No pun intended.) I’ll post some of these videos here on my blog once we take ’em.
Ahh…to be back in Laughlin again right near Casino Row on the Colorado River. We’ve spent many a happy vacation here with the kids back “in the day!” Yea, we’ve paid for our fun by making generous donations to the Casinos, but that was OK in the past when we could better afford to do so. We’ve never been here in our motor-home, however.
For right now, the plan is to have fun in Laughlin. We’re staying at the Ridgeview Resort in Bullhead City. It’s located directly across the River from Don Laughlin’s Riverside Hotel and Casino. There’s a water taxi that will pick us up on “our side” of the River, take us across and to the dock of our favorite Casino. I remember in the past buying an all day pass for the water taxi and just cruisin’ the Strip all evening long. Stan and Therese are “parked” right next door to us. We’ll be here a week and then part ways. They’ll head to Oregon and we’ll go to Lake Mead, Zion, Bryce Canyon and The Arches.
If you stand on precisely the right spot, you can be in California, Arizona and Nevada all at once.
I took everyone for a tour of the Lake today. It couldn’t have been a better day “at the beach.” Boating would have been ideal, so we’re planning to rent a small pontoon boat in the morning and cruise the Lake. It would have been a great day for fishing, hiking or shooting pictures. We even came upon some more wild burros. I’d never seen them here in the past. I got really close to the one in the picture below. He didn’t even have a concern. He glanced my way to see if I had any carrots and when he realized that I didn’t, he went right back to nibbling the grass.
I didn’t know ’til today that there were wild burros at Lake Mohave as well as at Parker. They weren’t here years ago when we were such frequent visitors.
Lake Mohave is a reservoir formed by Davis Dam on the Colorado River, which defines the border between Nevada and Arizona.
Lake Mohave. Telephone Cove, South Side.
Telephone Cove again. A perfect spot to get away from it all, read a book or just collect your thoughts.
In the casino at Harrah’s in Laughlin. I think it’s the nicest place on the River.
The Pioneer Hotel and Gambling Hall. It’s only two stories, unlike the other high-rise spots on the strip. Inside there’s an authentic Old West theme. All the employees are dressed to the hilt in cowboy gear. Lots of fun.
