Bullhead City, Arizona – Spring Version

We find ourselves back in Bullhead City following a two-week stint in Ehrenberg.  It rained last night and this morning there was a dense fog which obliterated the view of the high-rise casinos across the river in Laughlin, Nevada.  As the sun came up over the hills just east of the campground, it began to light the buildings near their tops with their lower parts still wrapped in fog; they appeared to be floating in mid-air, an appearance which slowly devolved until they were fully lit by the sun and looked much the way they always do.  It was much like watching the opening scenes of some space-age movie without the background music.

Our stay in Ehrenberg turned out not to be what we had expected.  We had hoped to catch up on some chores plus see the local sights we’d skipped on our first visit.  That was not to be and we spent the entire two weeks “coping” – that’s the term we use for dealing with the myriad problems which crop up when you live in an RV full time.  Imagine what would happen to your house if it were subjected to a fair to middling earthquake every few days; things would shake loose, break, fail.  And that’s pretty much what happens to a motor home. 

Our first big issue was dealing with a microwave/convection oven which had failed completely and was apparently not reparable, at least not by anybody within shouting distance of Ehrenberg.   A not-quite-exact replacement was ordered from a furniture and appliance store in Blythe but when it arrived the two installers couldn’t figure out how to remove the old one much less install the new one.  This exercise in futility took most of two weeks and we’ve had to make do with slow cookers and electric skillets in the meantime.

As we were about to enter into the final weekend, the water heater sprang a leak and was soon spritzing hot water all over the place.  Fortunately we were home at the time and were able to get the water turned off before any damage was done.  We spent the day sitting around waiting for a mobile RV tech to show up but by 4:00 we’d given up hope and located a handyman nearby who dealt with the problem in pretty short order. 

When we first arrived back in Ehrenberg, Galen and Betty Jo were already set up and had a nice pot roast dinner ready for us.  Our stays overlapped by about a week and so we were able to enjoy some neighborly time together, although not do any of the sight-seeing we’d had in mind.  On another day we made a mad dash up to Parker to join fellow Full-Timers, Jim and Pat, for a three-hour lunch at the Crossroads Cafe.  It had been exactly one year since we’d last seen them and so there was a lot of catching up to do.

The Crossroads Cafe is my idea of a really good diner – they serve breakfast all day long (except for pancakes and French toast) so I was able to tuck into one of my all-time favorites, steak and eggs with rye toast.  The daily special taco salads looked good, too, but I try never to pass up the breakfast option.

It ended up that the only sightseeing we were able to do was a quick stroll through the Ehrenberg Pioneer Cemetery which is directly across the street from the RV park.  It’s more an impression of a cemetery than an actual one; most of the graves (piles of baseball-sized stones) are unmarked and there’s just one large memorial to all of the early settlers who may or may not be buried there.  The prickly pear cacti were in bloom which lent a bit of color to the landscape but, being spring and quite warm, I was very suspicious of what might be lurking under those piles of rocks or coiled at the base of the cactus plants.

 

We are hopeful that our stay in Bullhead City will see all of the maintenance issues resolved and that we can look forward to our northward trek with a bit more optimism.