When coming to Las Vegas, most people arrive with a certain set of expectations and images in mind… Glittery Casinos… the Las Vegas Strip… Fremont Street… Pawn Stars. but there is another side to Las Vegas – the places outside… that most never see. With this post, I would like to visit a couple of those locations… one of them that happens to be out in the desert… and the other that happens to be… up above the desert.
Arizona’s Lower Gila River Valley is well known for its early American Indian settlements and Historical Trails. Indeed, the visible evidence of these Settlements & Trails are found all up & down the Valley. So, when Alice and I first heard of a large Petroglyph site at a location in the Valley named Sears Point… not far from the Painted Rock Petroglyph site… we did some research at the local Wellton, AZ, Pioneer Museum… and a few days later with our good friends Al & Barbie Rupiper, headed out to find it.
Los Algodones, Mexico… Situated on the Mexican.. Californian, and Arizonian (Yuma) borders… Legendary among Snowbirds for its high quality, low cost dental services and Pharmaceuticals… And consequently, a Winter destination for tens of thousands of Canadian & American retirees. This Travel Post comes from a recent day trip that Alice and I took to Los Algodones, along with our good friends from Michigan, Bruce & Sue Burt.
Jim & Alice LaPeer… Black Hills, South Dakota
Hello, Folks. It is January 2016, and Alice and I just arrived in Yuma, Arizona. We enjoyed a nice Christmas last month with family back in Texas, Ohio, and Michigan, but now…its good to be back on the road again. We’ve re-connected with good friends from previous year’s travels, and are enjoying Arizona’s sunshine & warm weather. This will be our 4th year of RV’ing. In response to requests from friends back home in Michigan (and elsewhere) we’ve updated last year’s post about ‘Observations on Motorhoming‘. Here it is – Enjoy!
South Dakota… a beautiful State that has played a major role in our country’s history… and also in it’s Defense. Treeless Prairie Lands dominate South Dakota, especially it’s land west of the Missouri River. This Blog Post, modest and mostly pictures, shows what that land looks like. The pictures come from a recent road trip that my good friend Mo Jones and I took… driving back country roads to visit a 50 year old Cold War Relic… An Air Force ICBM Minuteman II missile site… Delta 9.
In 1874… Gold was discovered in the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory. That year Col. George Armstrong Custer had led a large scientific Expedition to the Black Hills looking for a suitable location to establish a new Fort…and to investigate earlier ‘rumors of Gold’. Indeed, the famous Catholic Missionary, Father Pierre Jean De Smet, had written earlier about seeing gold possessed by Lakota Sioux Indians during his 1840’s Western travels. This 1874 gold find proved unfortunate, however, because even though the 1868 Treaty of Laramie had ‘forever’ granted the Black Hills to the Lakota Band of Indians… the discovery of gold caused a rush of thousands of gold prospectors into the Black Hills that was in clear violation of the Treaty. This created a crises that ultimately brought about the Black Hills War of 1876 – 77, taking the lives of Colonel Custer and five Companies of his 7th Cavalry at the famous 1876 ‘Battle of the Little Bighorn‘.
This post is about one of the lingering after effects from the influx of thousands of prospectors – Ghost Towns. These rapidly built gold mining ‘boom towns‘…lived briefly & lived brilliantly, but most ultimately had to close down when the gold played out… becoming just ghost towns.
It is August 2, 2015… and the 75th Annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally has just gotten underway… Wow! This is Day 1, of the week long event. We attended with our good friends Greg & Suzy Joy, experienced Bikers in their own right. For comfort & convenience, we drove with them from Hart Ranch to Sturgis for the day in their car… on roads that were definitely owned by the 1.2 Million Bikers estimated in attendance. The day was sunny & beautiful… so perhaps its best to let the pictures speak for themselves as to what we saw.
Alice and I are back in the Black Hills of South Dakota again this Summer. As always, we are finding there is much to see and do here… so, when we heard from a good friend in Keystone about the local annual Fairburn Agate Days, we were off to check it out… and in so doing, ended up visiting the home of South Dakota’s Official Gemstone… the Fairburn Agate. This short post, mostly pictures, shows the pleasant afternoon that we enjoyed at Fairburn.
Our visit to the famous Painted Rock Petroglyph Site started out just as the Title picture in the post shows – an afternoon out with our good friends Al & Barbie Rupiper, traveling deep in the Arizona desert, viewing some old & interesting Indian Petroglyphs. Soon after we arrived however, we could see that this was far more than just a bunch of old painted rocks – this ancient petroglyph site also happens to be situated along a little known, but historically significant, old ‘Road’ to California… with the ancient etched images seeming to stand in quiet Testament to the people that traveled this road over the centuries.
Jim & Alice LaPeer
Hello, Folks. It is March 2015, and Alice and I have been in Arizona for a few weeks now… We’ve reconnected with good friends from previous year’s travels, and enjoyed the sunshine & warm weather… We drove our ‘toad‘ on a ‘road’ trip to the California coast (San Clemente) with our daughter & granddaughter who flew out for an early surprise visit… and generally eased back into the Motorhome way of living. This is our 3rd year of RV’ing, so we are not newbies… However, we are still learning.
This post is in response to friends back in Michigan to share our updated lessons from last year’s “Observation’s on Motorhoming“, where we discuss the Nuts & Bolts of living & traveling the American West in a Motorhome.
