November 15 to 22, 2010 - Mesa and Kingman, Arizona

We left Usery Mountain on November 15th after saying goodbye to our friends and moved 12 miles to Val Vista Village in Mesa.  We had last stayed here in November 2008 and ended up in the same campsite.

The last time we parked further back and maybe that would have been a good idea since our front was way in the air.

The next day we drove to Phoenix to meet Ian and Margaret for lunch and to get the new computer.  We had a very nice visit and meal at Maizie's Cafe.

Bill found that some rodent had chewed two wires in the motorhome and worked on identifying the damage.  Nothing critical and he has a plan to fix one of those wires before we dry camp but needs to investigate the other more.

Bill spent much of the week transfering everything to the new computer plus we did some shopping.

Our last day in town it rained as you can see from these two photos.

In the afternoon Bill went to Gold Canyon to help a fellow Hughes.net internet satellite user isolate a problem.  With our satellite arm, everything worked which means the guy needs to get a replacement.

During our time in Mesa we ate out twice on our own.  Once at Chicago's #1 Gyros in Apache Junction, which was good but not as good as Chicago Gyros in Phoenix and the second meal was at the Mimi's Cafe in Mesa, which was also good.

On the 22nd we left Mesa and headed north towards Las Vegas, Nevada.  We made our way to Wickenburg where we took US93, which is called the Joshua Tree Forest Parkway.  Joshua Trees are Mojave Desert plants and this is where the Mojave and Sonora Deserts meet. 

These photos do not do justice to how many Joshua Trees can be seen on this highway and the bug splatters on the windshield do not help.

Joshua Trees and Saguaro together.

Now THAT is a satellite dish!

Our original destination was Wikieup, the half way point between Mesa and Las Vegas, but it was early when we arrived so we headed further to Blake Ranch RV Park, 12 miles east of Kingman, AZ on I-40.  It was cold here, in the 40s and forecast to be 29 at night.

The arrow is pointing to a semi-truck on I-40.

It should be an easy drive to Las Vegas in the morning over the new Hoover Dam bridge.

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