Land Management

We are on BLM land just off US-93 between Phoenix and Kingman, Arizona (map). If you zoom the map out a bit, you will see we are just up the road from Nothing. Just a mile further down this side road is a developed BLM campground with water; the last time we were here, in 2007, that campground was $10 a night. This is a lovely, dark, and mostly quiet spot (you can hear the trucks in the distance on US-93), with a panoramic view that includes a steel arch bridge over Burro Creek. Louise also posted with a photo back in 2007.

Yesterday morning we packed up the scooters and availed ourselves of the dump station at the Scottsdale Elks Lodge (map), which I can now reveal was our home for the last week. The lodge charges $13 per night for one of their eight sites, but that includes 30-amp power, which came in handy, as the temperatures dropped below freezing while I was out of town. The lodge is also a mere six miles from Sky Harbor, which made it easy for Louise to shuttle me on the scooter each way.

We made an hour-long stop in Surprise where I picked up a new cell phone at the Sprint store there. It was right next to Lowe's, and we had a few items to return there as well. We've previously spent the night in this same spot. My new phone, a Samsung Epic 4G, is quite whizzy, but of course there is no signal here, so I could not really even test it last night. It has WiFi, though, so I was able to get it far enough on-line to sort out all the transfer issues with my 350+ contacts, and get my calendar synced up.

We are scheduled to arrive in Death Valley Thursday afternoon, so in a few minutes we will head back onto the road. I expect we will be somewhere northwest of Kingman tonight, and beyond Las Vegas tomorrow.