Day 10: Prescott to Las Vegas via Hoover Dam.

Prescott has been a great little detour for us. We got a great camping spot with a solid wifi connection so we got a bunch of work done. We got full hook ups so we can take long showers, run the heat pump and charge up our batteries. We are mostly glad that we missed all that bad weather we were suppose to have gotten in Flagstaff.

As much as we enjoyed our stay here, it is time to pull up our stakes and move on.

The weather around Prescott today is just awesome. Puffy clouds all over the blue sky with no wind at all. It was so nice we decided to stick around just a little bit longer and get a quick bite to eat.

On our way out, we looked for a restaurant to stop to eat. We were craving Mexican food and lucky for us, we found Arturo’s Mexican Restaurant right down the road.

We didn’t know it while we were inside feasting away but we later found out that one of our blog readers from the area recognized our Airstream as they drove by. Since we are always behind as usual with updating the blog, while we were spending our time in Prescott, this blog still has us hanging out in Europe. Missy and her husband drove by and saw our Airstream on the side of the road and kindly sent us this Email:

I was traveling to Prescott AZ yesterday and saw your rig in Chino Valley Az. I was somewhat concerned since I thought you were still in Croatia. I wanted to touch base in case you did not know your rig was MIA. If it was you guys in the rig…. was the Mexican food any good?

We told Missy that she should have stopped by to say hello and that no one has stolen our trailer. We would have happily shared our table with a fellow Airstreamer. Our modest little niche blog has just a handful of readers and the chance that one of them would drive by and recognize our trailer while we are on the road is probably a one in a million. It felt great to know what people are looking out for us.

After our lunch we headed back up towards I-40 and on our way to Las Vegas. We have been to Las Vegas probably close to 100 times in our lives but have never once brought Mali Mish there. It never made sense to do it because hotels are so cheap that the extra gas money makes it not worth while.

The 252 miles from Prescott to Las Vegas takes through a part of Arizona and Nevada that we have never been through. It also happens to take us right across the Colorado River and over the world famous Hoover Dam.

We have never been to the Hoover Dam and didn’t really know what to expect.

I have always thought that the highway goes right across the dam but apparently not so. In fact, the security was pretty tight at the entrance that we had to stop and show the security personnel the inside of the Airstream as well as the cargo box.

There were a lot of tourists visiting dam and parking the van with the Airstream wasn’t easy.

When we did find places to park along the road, every parking spot wanted to charge us an arm and a leg just to get out and cruise for a minute.

We drove around and probably saw all we needed to see of the dam and snapped some photos of this engineering marvel from the car.

By now, we have spent a good 4 hours on the road and the girls are getting antsy and hungry. Time to wrap up this leg of our trip and head for a Las Vegas buffet.

With the strip in view, our collective stomachs started to growl in unison.

We stopped at our favorite Vegas casino, the Silverton. Ava is a big fan of their shrimp.

And their Halloween-themed aquarium in the lobby.

Being it was too late to check into a campsite, we needed to find a spot to boondock. Surprisingly, most casinos do not allow overnight parking here in Vegas. As opposed to various Indian casinos around the country who graciously embrace RV travelers in their parking lots for a nights stay in exchange for some business, Las Vegas appears to have a policy against us.

If there is a will, there is a way. We are going to sleep in a parking lot tonight whether Vegas likes it or not.

over and out,
dan