Good morning campers!

I’m broadcasting to you today from the oh so plush, and by plush I mean craptastic, confines errrr expanses of the Circus Circus KOA here in lovely Las Vegas, NV.Yes, that’s right, we are back in Sin City for the month of June for the annual World Series of Poker. I normally make this pilgramage each year with a crew of friends (who will still be coming throughout the month) but since we can live anywhere we’ve posted up and made this home for the month. Wish me luck!

We’re committed to boondocking (no RV parks – no hookups) most everywhere we go and plan to continue that but Vegas in the Summer just doesn’t lend itself to that ideal. We needs the AC and the AC needs the juice so that pretty much means RV park (or running the generator 24/7 which didn’t seem terribly appealing). We found a really nice RV park a bit South of the strip and another one a bit North which were WAY nicer and cheaper than the one we ended up in but at the end of the day it was location location location that won out. So here we are.

We had a really nice and surprising detour coming here though and that’s what I really want to share.
Sedona was awesome, we’d had a blast, but the time had come to hit the road as we knew we wanted to be in Vegas by the end of May. We rarely have any set plans on being anywhere so it’s almost impossible to ever be in a rush. Knowing we had this time frame though we left plenty of time to meander leaving ourselves 4 days to make the 6 hour drive. This would prove to be a great decision in more ways than one.

The most important, surprising, and fun was that I’d remembered my dad mentioning – when I’d told him about our prior trip through AZ – that I actually had relatives in the teeny, tiny, dusty, off the main track, some might say Podunk, old mining town of Chloride. I knew we’d be passing back by there so as we were chugging westward on I-40 coming out of Flagstaff we decided to call and see if he had any contact info. Turns out that I had 3 cousins in that area. Who knew?!!! He only had a number for one of them, Vicki, who happened to live in the thriving mecca of Kingman AZ – the heart of good ol’ Route 66. Bree made the call and they invited us to swing by their place to say hi and even offered a place to park and stay if needed – also asking if we’d eaten as they’d have dinner ready when we got there. Um, did you say food long lost unknown cousin Vicki? She was speaking our language!

Little did we know but this would be the pre-cursor to what turned into a really fun, relaxing, and interesting 3 day layover. Life seems to kinda just flow when you don’t have an agenda. Vicki lives with her husband Neal and they just took us right in. They were the most gracious and hospitible hosts one could ever hope for. Neal cooked so many great meals and Vicki baked all sorts of amazing treats I felt like Bree might never want to leave.

It was actually Vicki’s 2 sisters (my other 2 cousins) that lived in and near Chloride so we took a day trip to see the town and visit with one of them. Sharron owns a sort of antique/art store out of her house at the end of one of the town’s dirt roads. I think only 1 or 2 roads in the town are paved. Sharron gave us the grand walking tour of her place and another across the road where she stores her wares and works on her projects. In a word, it was unbelievable. You’ve never seen so much random stuff in your life.

Evidently she drives out in the desert in her beater old jeep and/or truck and brings back what most would consider junk, which by definition it really is, but when she gets through with it, it’s transformed. She has all sorts of rocks, metal, wire, glass, springs, sticks, you name it. It’s really hard to describe (I’ll post some pictures). Anyways, she makes the most interesting art out of it all and sells it to the tourists (I’m assuming) that take the 4 mile turnoff from HWY 93 to see what the dusty little hamlet of Chloride has to offer. Here are some pics from our jaunt to Chloride. Sharron was quite a character and it was neat to have met her. I’ve met so few of my (evidently) huge family (my dad was 1 of 8 kids) that it was really cool to get a chance to spend some time with her in addition to hanging with Vicki and Neal.

The other reason it turned out being a great decision to leave ourselves ample time for the drive from Sedona to Vegas was the weather. Severe winds had been predicted for a few days of the drive and turns out they were right. Driving an RV in high winds basically sucks so we try to avoid it if possible. Turns out the entire time we stayed in Kingman the winds were a howlin’ so it was good to be off the road. They died down on a beautiful Memorial Day so we said our farewells to Vicki and Neal, pulled Dolly off the front “yard” (it was rocks), and made our way down Historic Route 66. We really enjoyed our time in Kingman with our newly found family and true to the song we definitely had some kicks!

Tally ho…

motoring,
Matt