Westward Ho--Spring 2010--Day 28

A trip to the RV hospital and up in the hills to feed the burros. We really had not done much since our trip to Chloride last Friday. It was a relaxing weekend with our only real excitement was the Easter Buffet Brunch over at the Tropicana Hotel/Casino. On Monday we contacted a local RV repair service we had been referred to for some repairs on the coach. They are located in Fort Mohave just south of Bullhead City on the Arizona side of the river. I made arrangements to take the coach in at 7:00am this morning. The repairs were estimated to take about 10 hours so we had to find something we could do that included taking Buddy Joe with us.

Although we had been to the town of Oatman before we decided it would be fun to go back. After a stop for breakfast in a diner by the RV repair facility we headed off. Oatman is on the original U.S. Route 66 about 13 miles east of Fort Mohave. From Oatman the old road winds up and over a mountain to Kingman. We arrived in Oatman around 8:30am and almost everything was still closed. With that we decided to go on over to Kingman. This is a 25 mile drive over a two lane, mountain road with many switchbacks and no guard rails.

Though this is one of many trips out west over the years we had never stopped in Kingman for anything more than stopping at the Flying J for fuel. It has always been interesting that one of the main roads through town is Andy Divine Drive. Kingman was Andy Divine’s hometown and the town’s favorite son. We stopped at what had originally been a power generation plant but are now home to the tourist information center and a really nice Route 66 museum. The museum had a rather large section devoted to the plight of the migrate workers that made their way to California during the Great Depression looking for work. These people stories were told in John Steinbeck’s book “The Grapes of Wrath”. We did enjoy the museum but with Buddy waiting in the car we needed to move on.

After a stop at the Flying J for gas, since it is cheaper to buy fuel in Arizona than in Nevada or California we headed back to old Route 66 and the trek back over the mountain to Oatman. By the time we got back all the shops were open and the town was full of tourist. As a matter of fact just after we drove through and got parked they blocked off the street to stage an old western gunfight. We took Buddy with us as we made our way up the street but Joanne wound up carrying him most of the way because he did not like the crowds, the burros nor the gunfire. Oh yeah, the burros. Oatman’s claim to fame is not just being an old mining town that has since become a tourist attraction, the wild burros roam freely up and down the street allowing the tourist to pet them and feed them carrots. There are plenty of signs warning that these are wild animals and sometimes will bite or kick but many of the shops sell bags of carrots to the tourist. They do caution everyone to not feed the baby burros because their systems are not fully developed and they will choke on the carrots. They have even placed a “no carrots” sticker on the forehead of the babies.

By having Buddy with us we were unable to go into any of the shops or eating establishments. Finally, around noon, we took him back to the car. That gave us a chance to do a little shopping and then stop in at the Oatman Hotel for lunch. They were very crowded and we had to come back twice before we were able to get a table. Like the place we ate lunch in Tortilla Flats, down in the Phoenix area, they have allowed guests to sign dollar bills and staple them to the walls, poback to Buddy and headed back to Fort Mohave. The pleasant surprise was that the coach work was completed so we were able to return to the RV Park st, beams and anywhere else they can find to put them. This place was pretty much completely wallpapered with dollar bills. After lunch we got in Laughlin by around 3:30 this afternoon. Overall this was a good day. Got needed repairs on the coach done plus had a great day of sightseeing.