May 18 – 24, 2015.
As I write these words, we have been on the road for 21 days and have driven 3 790 miles! Everyday is a new adventure, we enjoy every minute of it.
We still can’t believe this is our life.
We can’t wait to get our camper, hopefully it will be completed by the end of June, so in the mean time we tent camp in National Parks or find affordable and comfortable accommodations as we travel to Grass Valley, California home of the XPCamper.
We have found great hotels such has a wonderful lodge in Sedona for only $75 a night.
Also Motel 6 for their renovated and clean rooms, which offers laundry services, complimentary coffee and Wi-Fi and can be booked for as low as $43 a night. A great old fashioned find. That’s all we need after a few days of camping.
Sedona, AZ
After the Overland Expo, we left Flagstaff, Arizona and headed for Sedona. One of the most scenic towns I have even been to. Everywhere you look, is like a postcard.
Sedona was made famous in the 40’s when it was discovered by the Hollywood film industry and became the backdrop for cowboy movies like The Gunfighters, Billy the Kid, and Tall in the Saddle with John Wayne.
Grand Canyon National Park
After Sedona, our next destination was the Grand Canyon National Park.
Since we had no reservations we were very happy to get a camp site in the Park at Desert View on the South Rim.
Joe’s National Park Senior Pass purchased for $10 granted us complimentary acces to the Park and we paid only $6 per night for the campsite.
Our intentions were to spend four nights, however by the second day the weather became increasingly rainy and cold but we still enjoyed our stay tremendously.
Seeing the Grand Canyon live for the first time is literaly a breath taking experience. You have to step back and reflect on the vast beauty of it all.
Las Vegas “Sin City”
We wanted to spend four days exploring the Grand Canyon but unseasonably cold weather shortened our camping by one night.
We headed for Las Vegas, Nevada in search of warmer weather. even though it was memorial day weekend and we knew hotels would be booked.
We had to settled for a roach motel on the strip for $185.
Vegas lived up to its expectations of a 24 hour party town and adult playground. We walked Freemont Street and the Strip and had a great time. We enjoyed a few $18 cosmos at the trendy STACK restaurant of The Mirage Hotel. One night was just enough for us.
Hoover Dam and Lake Mead
The next day we headed to Death Valley National Park and made a small detour to see the Hoover Dam and Lake Mead located about 30 minutes from Las Vegas in Boulder City, NV on the border between Nevada and Arizona.
