Kingman, AZ November 2011 - present

Our "almost" trip to a park on Big Wash Road in Chloride, AZ

The Mural's just outside Chloride, AZ

At Hoover Dam. The O'Callaghan, Tillman Memorial Bridge in the background.

The view on our drive from Kingman to Oatman, AZ on Route 66.

Kirk in front of the Hualapai Mountain Lodge after the 18 inch snow storm.

I started my new assignment the week of Thanksgiving. It's a great job....if only this job were closer to the Phoenix area. On Thanksgiving Day, Kirk and I drove over to Laughlin, NV (about 1/2 hour) and ate the buffett at the Riverside. Kirk said this is where his dad always liked to go when he and Mavis (Kirk's mom) would winter in Yuma, AZ. It was a decent meal with seats overlooking the Colorado River. We also gambled our $20 and even brought home a little change. Kingman is an interesting place. It is surrounded by mountains (Hualapai, Black, Cerbat, and more). Historical Route 66 runs through Kingman. We have driven up to the Hualapai Mountains just about 10 miles from Kingman, where there is a State Park, hiking trails, and a lodge/restaurant. The mountains had 18 inches of snow one weekend, while Kingman itself stayed snow free. It was beautiful. Kirk and I like to explore the area on my days off. We drove to Oatman one weekend. The drive to Oatman is worth the whole trip, but only during the day...I would never drive it at night. Oatman is a small mining town of about 250 people. There are burro's that roam the streets. They have the right of way! We were fortunate to be there for their Christmas parade. We ate at the Oatman Hotel, famous for the honeymoon place of Clark Gable and Carole Lombard (they married in Kingman). I had my first buffalo burger, which was great by the way. On another weekend, we drove over to Chloride which is also an old mining town. There was not much going on, but we did enjoy talking to the guy at the tourist slash general store slash souvenir shop. He told us about places to go in the area .......only if you have 4-wheel drive. We drove on dirt, rocky, uneven roads to the Murals which were painted by some guy (can't recall his name right now) who camped there while he painted the rocks. They are pretty awesome! Then we took Big Wash road (also a dirt road) to a park in the mountains. We never did make it to the park and here is why......the road runs along side of the mountains, it's big enough for one vehicle.....we were doing pretty good until we were at about 7000 feet and we came to a turn. Well, at the turn and up the mountain road as far as we could see was nothing but snow. The road was not even visible, although we could see the drop off to nowhere. I decided, with no arguement from Kirk that we were going to turn around. Fortunately, we were at a curve which widened the road a bit. I got out of the truck, got Kirk and the truck turned around, and we headed back down the mountain. That was our excitement for the day. Kirk and I have also driven to Vegas, Hoover Damn, and Lake Havasu. Although, we want to be closer to the Phoenix area, there is a reason we are in Kingman, and we will enjoy it while we can.