(Click on picture above to enlarge)
Week 1 – Feb. 17th to Feb. 25th
We left Fox Island and headed south to Champoeg State Park, just south of Portland for our first night. This is a very historic and scenic campground on the Willamette River. There are over 5 miles of bike paths in the park so we decided to go bike riding and hunt down some caches that were close to the park. It was a very beautiful day and we would highly recommend this area for overnight camping. One of our goals was to take advantage of any opportunity to have a seafood buffet. The next day we headed south to Canyonville and the Seven Feathers Casino and RV Park. We arrived early enough to really enjoy ourselves and took a swim in the indoor pool and soak in the spa at the RV Park before heading over to the casino to enjoy their famous buffet. Yes, we stuffed ourselves full of king crab, shrimp, prime rib, and all of the trimmings that go along with a buffet. We both received our “players club” cards when we arrived at the casino. They gave us each $5 to play with and we both decided to go home early as Nancy won $40 and myself $15 – not a bad night for the two of us gambling on their money.
The next day we headed south of Eureka, CA to a little town called Fortuna, CA. We traveled by “Trees of Mystery” on HWY 101 where “Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox” still reside. I last visited this area when I was a very little boy with my family. Obviously these huge statues have had a few coats of paint since then, but look the same as I remembered them to be. Located just outside of Fortuna is the Bear River Casino, which is small and very nice. We again indulged ourselves in another seafood buffet, which had lobster, crab, shrimp, prime rib and all of the trimmings. We got our “players card” and were given $10 credit each this time. We did not break the bank, but Nancy again was the winner going home with $25 and myself with $10. What a good time with an abundance of good food and would recommend both of these casino stops for travelers.
We woke up early Saturday morning and headed to Indio, CA and spent the night at a place called French Camp which was very nice and quiet. Our next stop was in Barstow, CA where we prepared to spend our first real “boondocking” (dry camping) adventure on the desert in Mojave National Preserve. We woke up to light snow and howling winds. We headed to the preserve and an old historic town called Kelso where the train still rolls through every now and then. We toured the old train station and then head south to the Kelso Sand Dunes hoping to find a spot to dry camp. When we got to the sand dunes the wind was blowing very hard and it looked like rain. We had lunch and after discussing the weather and not wanting TREK to get sand blasted decided to head to Needles, CA. Here we stayed for two nights at the Avi Casino which is south of Laughlin, NV on the Colorado River. There is a KOA campground at the casino and we had so much fun here we decided to stay for two days. This casino is south of Laughlin, NV and located on the Mohave Indian Reservation all by itself on the river. As you can see from the pictures, there are many amenities and fun things to do. We were not as lucky with our rookie gambling skills, but lost only a small portion of our previous gambling winnings so we are still ahead.
CLICK HERE to watch the slideshow of pictures taken during this portion of our trip. You can change the viewing time by increasing the seconds once you launch the slideshow. You can also click on the pictures above to enlarge them.
No comments:
Post a Comment