Death Valley National Park - April 2011

 A fellow visitor was kind enough to take our photo at the entrance to Death Valley National Park. 

Zabriskie Point.  Surrounded by a maze of wildly eroded and vibrantly colored badlands, this spectacular view is one of parks most famous.  This viewpoint is a short walk uphill from the parking area.

Polished marble walls and odd mosaic patterns of breccia make Mosaic Canyon a favorite hike.

This is a popular 2 mile, one-way hike.  The twisting lower canyon is so narrow hikers must walk through it single file.  

Move over Superman!  Here's Kathy holding up a huge rock.  All our hard work at the gym has paid off. She is also available to move furniture. 

Dante's View. The most breath taking viewpoint in the park, this mountain-top overlook is more than 5000 feet above the inferno of Death Valley.  The white area in the photo is Badwater Basin a surreal landscape of vast salt flats.

In this close up photo, if you did not know the white area was Badwater Basin, one might think its clouds.

Dave entering Golden Canyon.  We are hiking the Gower Gulch Loop, a 4-mile round trip.  The trail follows colorful badlands, canyon narrows, and old borax mines.

Here's Kathy standing below Red Cathedral located 1/4 mile up the canyon,

I think Kathy is telling me to go this way.  We are at marker #10 identifying the trail to Gower Gulch, a 2.3 mile hike down the gulch to finish the loop.

Here's our last challenge to get out of the Gulch.  Looks simple, but it's the top of a 25-foot dry falls.    Lucky for us there was an alternate route around the falls,  a narrow path that leads back to the parking area.

Lowest point in North America. 

Here's Kathy standing in the middle of the basin.  The Basin is 5-miles wide and you can walk the entire distance, not recommended since temperatures can exceed 130 degrees fahrenheit in July.   

They say a picture is worth a thousand words.  Dave is holding our Garmin Etrex GPS.  You can see that the elevation is showing -282 feet. 

Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort - March/April 2011

Welcome to Las Vegas Motorcoach Resort where swimming pools, tennis courts, nine-hole putting greens and a luxurious clubhouse come standard.  It does not hurt to have 5 hot tubs either! We arrived here on March 30th and we're parked on lot #389 owned by Rick, a friend of Bob Ulin who is our host.

We met Bob and Sandy two years ago during our visit to Admiral Baker Golf Course and RV Facility in San Diego.  Bob and Sandy live in Anchorage Alaska.  We stopped by for a short visit to see them during our Alaska trip during the summer of 2009. 

This is an exceptional lot with great landscaping and a beautiful outside kitchen and lounge area. It really looks good with our motor home parked in it. 

The outside kitchen is nicely equipped with a grill, 2-burner stove top, ice maker and 2 refrigerators.  The palapa in the rear also includes a fire place to keep you warm and toasty during those chilly Vegas nights.

Here's a photo of Bob & Sandy's lot around the corner.

Here's Bob in his vintage golf cart replica of a 1932 Ford pick up. I am making a custom cover out of Sunbrella for storage when they head back to Alaska for the summer months. We are planning to depart the resort on April 19th. 

In addition to the custom golf cart cover, I created custom wheel covers for Bob.  He said he was tired of bending to install his old ones.  The new ones easily attach via snaps to the outside of the RV.  I included a slot on the bottom of the covers to accommodate some metal stock from Home Depot to keep the covers from blustering during windy conditions.

Here's a picture of a cover I made for his 2-burner stove top.  It will help keep debris out of the burner tray. I can't think of anything else that I need to make a cover for so I guess it might be time to hit the road again!