Out of Pahrump

It is so strange to me for us to be driving through Las Vegas and not stopping.  One of our favorite things to do is to catch dinner and a show, but having just spent 2 days just 60 miles north in Pahrump, it was hard to justify stopping for the night. It’s bad enough that it takes us over a week to get from Fremont to New Mexico!

After leaving Pahrump, we were both looking forward to seeing St. George.  With their beautiful red bluffs, it’s very picturesque. 

The beautiful red bluffs north of the city of St. George.

You can plainly see the Temple in the middle of town.

My research tells me that St George was founded by the Mormon’s on a cotton mission in 1861.  Fearing that the civil war would impact the cotton supply, the church leaders sent 300 families to the area to promote the attempt to grow cotton.  While they did manage to grow cotton, they were not competitive and the effort was eventually abandoned.  The area is known as Utah’s Dixie.

1877 saw the completion of the St. George Utah Temple; the church’s third temple and its longest continually operating temple.  Brigham Young had his winter home here.

Leaving St George, we definitely took the road less traveled, across highways 59 to 389 and 89 Alt. across the north side of Grand Canyon. It was fun to cross the Colorado River where the Grand Canyon begins.  I was kicking myself for not having my camera ‘at the ready’.  If you go to Google maps and type in Marble Canyon, AZ, drag the little man to the bridge and see it in satellite mode, you’ll get a rough idea of how dramatic it is.  Someone has actually posted pictures here that are well worth a look.

From St. George, through Marble Canyon, and on into Navajo Country, and then across Arizona to Silver City, New Mexico, was a very pleasant drive of 574 miles that took us 2 ½ days.  This is what we love about our RV lifestyle: We can move at our own pace and enjoy every minute of it.

Along the Vermilion Highway (and this isn't even the best of it).
Don't you just love 'photo-stitch'.

We spent 2 nights in Silver City but were a little disappointed that the town is a bit run down and doesn’t seem to be doing all it can to promote its history.  There’s a lot of info about Billy the Kid spending part of his childhood here and if you’re interested in him, this website has a lot of info: http://www.aboutbillythekid.com/index.html . There seem to be many historical sites here, but, in many cases, whatever buildings were attached to them appear to be gone.  Even his mother’s grave was moved in 1882 from its original location out to the ‘new’ cemetery. (She died about a year after moving here from ‘consumption’… another word for tuberculosis.)  Silver City is the home of Western New Mexico University, but doesn’t seem to have the vibrancy of a college town.  I’m sure there are people who ‘love it here’ and I don’t mean to offend any of them… but this is how we judge the places we visit… “Would we like living here?”  Of course that is a purely subjective opinion: ours.  That’s the only one we have.  You don’t have to agree with us and we’re okay with that.

We made it into Las Cruces this afternoon and are excited to be here.  We’ve settled into an RV park until Sunday, when we’ll move in to the Mesilla Valley Habitat for Humanity RV Park.  We’ve been told that there are 12 rigs coming in this Sunday and have already been invited to a potluck Sunday evening for a ‘meet and greet’.  I believe that this affiliate will be building 9 houses this year and we've been told that they now have two started and the trusses went up on the second house last week.

Myth: Habitat for Humanity was founded by former U.S. President Jimmy Carter.

Fact: Habitat was started in 1976 in Americus, Ga., by the late Millard Fuller and his wife Linda. President Carter and his wife Rosalynn (whose home is eight miles from Americus, in Plains, Ga.), have been longtime Habitat supporters and volunteers who help bring national attention to the organization's house-building work. Each year, they lead the Jimmy Carter Work Project to help build houses and raise awareness of the need for affordable housing.

If you’d like to read more about the HFH affiliate for this area, please check out these links:

 http://lascruceshabitat.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Web.Newsletter-2010.pubOct1.pdf   http://lascruceshabitat.org/

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Just some amazing cloud formations along the Vermilion Highway.

A NEW ADVENTURE

We’re off on a new adventure and this seemed like a good one to brush off the keyboard and blog about.

In fall 2007, after we purchased this new coach, we attended an FMCA rally where I sat in on a seminar for the RV Care-a-Vanners, an RV group affiliated with Habitat for Humanity. The information I received made me want to participate with this worthy organization and when I shared the info with Les, he was also intrigued. We’ve talked about doing a build for some time and have finally committed to one. So, we’re off to Las Cruces, New Mexico, where we will work for 2 weeks to help build safe, decent, and affordable housing. I will try to share with you what we learn along the way.

Myth: Habitat for Humanity gives houses away to poor people.

Fact: Habitat for Humanity offers homeownership opportunities to families who are unable to obtain conventional house financing. Generally, this includes those whose income is 30 to 50 percent of the area's median income. In most cases, prospective Habitat homeowner families make a $500 down payment. Additionally, they contribute 300 to 500 hours of "sweat equity" on the construction of their home or someone else's home. Because Habitat houses are built using donations of land, material and labor, mortgage payments are kept affordable.

Our Journey Begins:

We left home on Wednesday morning and headed east across Highway 88, through Jackson and across the Sierra’s. We had some beautiful fall color along the way and the leaf peepers were out in force; parked alongside the road with cameras in hand. We stopped our first night at Topaz Lake on the border of California and Nevada. It felt great to be back in the RV and on the road.

Thursday was a trip down memory lane as we drove south on 395 and spent a couple of hours in Bishop, where we had spent many summer days with our good hang-gliding buddies. Of course, we had to stop at Schat’s bakery for a sandwich and a decadent pastry and a stop at the local store to pick up High Sierra Chileno peppers, that you can really only find here.

We traveled on south to Death Valley and a night at Stovepipe Wells. We took some time on Friday to explore some of the highlights of Death Valley. Borax mining was major industry here and the remains of the Harmony Borax Works are interesting to explore. They really did use 20 mule teams to haul the borax across Wingate Pass to Mojave; traveling about 2 miles an hour, it required about 30 days to complete the round trip. The mule teams pulled loads weighing up to 36 tons, including 1200 gallons of water. The entire unit, with mules was over 100 feet long.

The area known as Badwater Basin is 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in North America. Two to four thousand years ago is was the site of a 30-foot lake that evaporated and left a one-to-five foot layer of salt in its wake.

Currently, we’re in a beautiful RV park in Pahrump, Nevada, with a terrible name: Terrible’s Lakeside Casino and RV Resort. Les has gone off to ride his dirt bike and I’m enjoying a down day.

I want to dedicate this trips blog to my friend, Ann Mall, who lost her battle with cancer on the Tuesday evening before we left. She was a passionate world traveler, a gracious hostess, an active volunteer, a fierce competitor, an enthusiastic grandmother and in the end, a valiant warrior. Those of us who knew and loved her, will miss her greatly.