Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: “Camping” in Las Vegas

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I make my last on-the-grid stop count.

I spent my second night on the road at the Sam’s Town KOA Kampground in Las Vegas. This has become a bit of a tradition for me. Since this is usually the last night I have an opportunity to plug in, get water, and dump my tanks before spending two more more weeks camped out in the desert with friends, I always opt for a full hookup campsite. This particular campground is convenient and usually — but not on this trip — cheap. This time, they hit me up for a very long drive-thru campsite that was a lot bigger than I needed, claiming shorter sites weren’t available. That turned out to be bullshit so I’ll probably look for a different destination on future trips south. $60 is a bit rich for an overnight stop.

I should say up front that I hate KOA-style “camping.” It’s not camping at all. It’s parking with a connection to water, electricity, cable television, and a sewer hookup. The sites are so close together I don’t know why they even bother with the narrow island of dirt and trees between sites that face each other. People who claim to be “camping” at a KOA are deluding themselves.

KOA
Here’s my rig parked between two others at the KOA. My space was over 70 feet long; all I needed was about 40.

But my site was about what I expected and it met my needs. I arrived long before sunset and got a chance to glimpse the sky’s changing colors through the field of RVs around me.

Sunset
As you can see in this photo, the weather cleared that afternoon and evening in Las Vegas. It was nice to see blue sky for the first time since my departure from home.

After taking Penny for a walk — her first since departing Glenns Ferry that morning — I hooked up power, sewer, and water and went in for the night. My nose had begun running earlier in the day and it was becoming apparent that I’d caught a cold. Although I did toy with the idea of going into Sam’s to look at their Holiday light show and maybe get some dinner, I recalled how sick I’d gotten after the last meal I had in their steakhouse. I decided to stay in for the night and was dead asleep before 8 AM.

In the morning, I felt rested but no better. I made and ate breakfast, walked Penny, took a hot shower in the otherwise empty shower building, put on clean clothes, and took my time about packing up. By 8:30 AM, with waste tanks empty and fresh water tank filled, I was ready to hit the road again for the last day of my drive.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: A Foggy Drive

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Can’t enjoy the scenery when you can’t see it.

Although it was an outstandingly beautiful morning in Twin Falls, ID, 15 minutes south on US 93 put me in thick fog. Visibility, at times, dropped to far less than 1/4 mile as the road rose and then fell through the fog layers.

Fog
There wasn’t much to see because of the thick fog and I had to keep focused on what was in front of me anyway. Photo includes a meat and cheese snack on the dashboard, which I bought in Starbucks to eat along the way.

Miraculously, I was able to stick to the speed limit — 70 mph — for most of my drive. The road is painfully straight in most places and there was very little other traffic.

The fog came and went pretty much all day long, finally lifting as I descended on the final stretch of US 93 before it intersects with I-15. By that time, I’d driven through rain and snow and had been stuck behind a semi with broken brake lights (and apparently broken cruise control) for about 100 miles. I was a very happy camper when I finally got around him.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: Day 2 Start in the Dark

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I get a very early start on day 2 of my trip.

After just one fuel stop (in Baker City, OR), I arrived at my overnight destination just before sunset: Three Islands State Park Campground. I chose the campground for its convenient location just a few miles off the Interstate and the fact that it had electrical hookup. That enabled me to run my portable electric heater all night, which is a heck of a lot quieter than my camper’s forced hot air propane heater. I was also able to turn on my electric blanket, ensuring that I’d be comfy and warm all night.

I slept like the dead, but because I went to sleep so early, I also woke up early. Early enough to hit the road by around 6 AM. I took a picture after starting the engine.

Dark Departure
There were only two campers in the campground Tuesday night. I got the only pull-through site.

The weather report said there was freezing fog in the area, but it was perfectly clear and dry for the start of my drive.

Although Id made coffee before hitting the road, I stopped about an hour later in Twin Falls, ID for breakfast. It was still dark when I went into Starbucks — I admit that I love their breakfast sandwiches– but getting light as I left. I stopped at a local Walmart for milk and dog food and diesel exhaust fluid. The sun was just coming up as I refueled at the Walmart gas station — 20¢/gallon cheaper than everyone else in the area — and poured that exhaust fluid in.

Snowbirding 2020 Postcards: Hitting the Road

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I hit the road in my new and improved winter travel rig.

I hit the road today at around 7:15 AM — just a few minutes after my intended departure time. I took this shot of my new and improved winter travel rig before leaving:

My Winter Rig
You’re looking at a 2012 Ford F350 SuperDuty Diesel with 4WD carrying a fully-equipped 2007 Lance slide-in truck camper, and towing a 12-foot 2011 Continental cargo trailer. In straight driving, I can neither see nor feel the trailer behind me.

The weather on departure was as it appears in the photo: foggy and cold with snow on the ground. The 2 miles of gravel road to get to pavement was slick in spots but I took it slow in 4WD all the way.

Sadly, I got about 2-1/2 miles from home when I realized I’d forgotten my winter jacket. My excellent neighbors, the Ts, very kindly agreed to fetch it for me to save me a round trip down that slippery road. (If my house-sitter had arrived before my departure, I’m sure he would have brought it.)

After stopping for breakfast along the way, I was southbound shortly after 8:30 AM with my first destination nearly 500 miles away in Idaho.

Helicopter Flight: Nick Over the Rocks, Part 4

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A video from the FlyingMAir YouTube channel.

COME FLY WITH ME as I take Central Washington University geology professor and star of “Nick on the Rocks” Nick Zentner on a helicopter tour of the Columbia River Valley downriver from Wenatchee, WA. This is the second part of our second flight together and we start not far from the mouth of Lower Moses Coulee and continue down the Columbia River past Spanish Castle, Crescent Bar, West Bar, and Babcock Bench. The nosecam footage is amazing and Nick points out many geological features along the way. This is part 4 of a multi-part series.

Places mentioned in this video:

About Me and the Helicopter

  • I have been flying since 1998. My nearly 4,000 hours of flight time (as of 2019) is in Robinson R44, Robinson R22, and Bell 206L (Long Ranger) helicopters.
  • My helicopter is a 2005 Robinson R44 Raven II — the same one that appears in the photo at the beginning of the video. You can learn more about them here: https://robinsonheli.com/r44-specifications/ I own this helicopter. It is the third helicopter I’ve owned since 2000.
  • My helicopter has ADS-B Out and is picked up by radar facilities. You can see my track for recent flights on Flightradar24: https://www.flightradar24.com/data/aircraft/n7534D This is a great site for tracking any almost any flight, including the airlines.

About Nick Zentner

About the Video

I try to drop cockpit POV videos every Sunday morning and “extras” with more info about owning and operating a helicopter midweek. (Some channel members and patrons get early access to some of these videos.) I also host occasional livestreams with Q&A chats. Subscribe so you don’t miss anything new! And tell your friends. The more subscribers I have, the more motivated I am to keep producing videos like this one.

Any Amazon links on my channel are affiliate links (https://amzn.to/32PLHTD). If you click one of them and buy something, Amazon sends me a few pennies. Enough pennies make a dollar. Enough dollars buy new equipment. It doesn’t cost you anything so I hope you’ll shop with one of those links. Thanks.

Flying a helicopter is expensive and I’m not rich. Want to support the FlyingMAir channel and help me keep producing videos like this one? Here are four suggestions: