A descriptive look at traveling and full-timing with our second RV, a fifth wheel toyhauler.
Laura and Sasha started this adventure in April of 2005
for a two week vacation in a truck camper.
December 2011: Lake Mead National Recreation Area
This is a new page. I have taken the information from Facebook to make the page. Ultimately I will have pictures in here, will have to resize some of them. Not only that, we moved to Grand Canyon and we are getting used to a new place, and I also had to work on more programs, so there was less time spent on the website. But that will be changing!
So anyway, here is what was happening in December:
December 1st: While we did not do too much during the day, we needed to go grocery shopping and get diesel as we were almost out and on fumes. So we went to Costco and Walmart, but decided not to go to Sunflower until the next evening. We also got our diesel, so much nicer to get it when you are unhooked from the rig. I went into the store, got pre-approved for $400 and we filled the tanks. We actually went to more than $400, but Sasha used his card to fill up the rest. We got 107 gallons of diesel.
But since we waited so long to get to the Costco and Walmart, we did not have time enough to go to Sunflower, but that is OK, as we plan to do it while we are in town, to see the First Friday of Las Vegas.
December 2nd: First Friday of Las Vegas - I totally like going to these First Fridays. I had experienced them when I lived in Oregon and then in Virginia, especially Leesburg, VA. They had around 10 to 12 galleries and people came out, checked out the art and drank and ate their goodies that they would have to "lure" people to their gallery. So now, when I think of a First Friday, that is what I have come to expect, food and wine while looking at the art.
Well, we both were sorely disappointed. No food unless you pay for it, and no booze (again unless you pay $3-5 for it!) Crazed! So we got some garlic truffle fries and decided to head to Sam's Club to get some cheesy balls (Lisa Collins, my boss at Grand Canyon) got me hooked on those cheesy balls - and I can not get them at Costco. So we got to Sam's, got them as well as got something more to eat. I had a salad and Sasha got a slice of pizza.
We then went to Sunflower Market and picked up great looking fruits and veggies, plus some nice sausages and beef. We had hoped to get the ingredients for Pho, but it is not looking so good. We might just have to do stew instead.
We then headed home, because we were going to work a longer day tomorrow, being in a parade and all.
December 3rd: So today is the day of the parade, and before we head out for that, we were doing a few other public events. While we did not go roving that afternoon we work working on information for when we go out at the overlooks. I was gathering more information about the water levels and about the dam. Of the parade at least we have some pictures...
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So Explore the Night Sky with Dark Sky Ranger Laura Jevtich! Can anyone guess those constellations? |
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Can you see the green laser pointer? | |
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As you can see, there are other constellations on this side. What do you think they are? |  |
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We also had our starry dog Canis Major on the float and a Park Ranger truck nicely decked out pulling the float. |  |
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I like this one as the lights all look like little L. And Orion has a skirt on. I would suggest clicking on the picture to see it larger. |
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So we were walking around Boulder City, actually we had just finished and we were overwhelmed by the house. When I was choosing this picture, I thought it was one of the boats but alas, it is a house. Their electric bill must be huge! |
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So after the parade, we went down to Boulder Marina, in the park, to check out the boats. This is on the way to the dock. | |
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So here are some of the boats. Nicely decorated. It was cold down there on the water. I think people were keeping warm with hot chocolate in the restaurant. But we decide it was better for us to go back and get the stew that Sasha had made. Very tasty stew. |  |
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A little bit of a theme here? |  |
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Not sure what this guys theme was, maybe how much his boat is worth? Add a couple of zeros after those 100 dollar bills? Or that he spends hundreds every time he gases up? Not sure. | |
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Dash away Dash away Dash away home. |
December 4th: We worked on this day - going to Willow Beach and Lakeview Overlooks. What that means is that we set up a little table and we have stuffed creatures on it, including a tortoise, a tarantula, a tarantula hawk (insect!) plus lots of brochures and a light pollution picture. And then we just talk to folks. It is a great way to do informal visitor contacts.
December 5th: Karyn and Leo came to visit, so we had a couple of pictures with them:
December 6th: Went to the library after doing the laundry to post these pictures and to be on higher speed internet. But I have to finish and upload before they stop the high speed internet.
December 7th: We walked down to the river and back. We were going to go to Arizona Hot Springs with some other volunteers here in the park, but they wanted to head back after figuring it would be longer than a five mile hike. Understandable, especially when it took us a while to do longer hikes. We have become familar with the terrain and the hiking here, which makes it quite nice.
December 8th: We decided to do different things today, so Sasha went on a bike ride to Bitter Springs and I went around to do the bulletin boards and put up signage of what is going on at Lake Mead.
December 9th: Tomorrow night I will be doing the second full moon hike (it is really short but oh so cool!) but today I was working on some administration letters. I had several people ask me for recommendation letters, so I worked on those, then I was also asked for a recommendation for a proposal, so I worked on that as well. Sasha, wanting to get a hike in, went out around dusk and got some great pictures:
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He took these near our rig. He walked down to the Boulder Bay ramp and got some great shots of the moon as it was coming over the mountains. Also, where the map is on the next page (click on the Info button and then click on the Map button) is prettty exact! But the "Southern Nevada Water System" is completely wrong! |
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Another shot with different lighting |  |
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I just love how the moon is reflecting in the lake. And this is with a pretty simple camera too! |
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Also, I wrote on Facebook because I am not a birder per se, and others are better at it than me.
OK birders, I saw what I think was a hummingbird, it was black everywhere except for its throat, which was ruby or red. I tried looking it up in my bird book, but did not find it. Very small, moving fast, but pretty distinct. Anyone? And the responses:
Laura Garrett Where are you?
Laura Capuano Jevtich Lake Mead NRA - Las Vegas, NV area. That is why I think what I saw was so unusual. The bird I am thinking about is on the east coast, but here I am in the desert!
Alicia Namoi McGraw i think ruby throat...checking
Melissa Sue Henneman My guess is not a Rubythroat that far West but my guess is either Calliope (most likely!) , or a Black-chinned. (Little too south for Broadtailed.) They all can look very dark, because their plumage colors are created by the light reflecting off their feathers. Thus wrong angle = no color. Try this for ID: whatbird.com Calliope Hummingbird -
Calliope Hummingbird: Very small hummingbird, metallic green upperparts and flanks, white underparts. Throat feathers are long, purple-red, appearing as streaks on a white background, whiskers when fluffed out, or dark, inverted V when folded. Direct and hovering flight with very rapid wing beats.
Laura Capuano Jevtich But that is the big problem, there was not any white at all. I suppose it could have been a different kind of bird, but I do not think so. But it was in the morning, good sunlight and right near our cottonwood tree.
Brian Gatlin maybe an Anna's. most others should be long gone for the year.
Laura Capuano Jevtich You would think so, but we have folks out here that have a hummingbird feeder and so the hummingbirds are still around. Even though it is cool out there, it still has not gone to freezing level yet.
Then later on that day: We on the west coast will be able to see it better than those on the east coast, but if you want to watch it via video, go to lunar eclipse (last of the year) to see it.
December 10th: The day of my Full Moon Hike is full of clouds! OH NO, please please please make the clouds go away before my talk and walk!
But first: Just came back from a Bowl of Fire hike. 3.5 miles, mostly over land, no real trails there. Beautiful Bowl! Unfortunately, it is starting to cloud over, for our Moonlight Hike tonight. Clouds will cover all the cool stars :( But there is hope, I see blue skies in parts. My luck, the clouds will go away right after the program is over. :)
Thankfully the clouds did go away and we were able to see some stars as well. But it was a cold night.
Then hiked another 3 miles for the full moon hike. You could say we are enjoying our hiking out here. All of the people on this hike were also volunteers from the volunteer area where we are staying. No locals or other folks. Sigh, oh well, that is the way it goes. Actually, it cleared up a bit, we were able to see Orion plus other stars, Jupiter and a gorgeous full moon.
I also read a bunch of articles and so have them here as well. You might notice that I have not been putting up too many books, have not been reading books much, except for astronomy ones, which I will put up, but no fun ones. Don't know why, except that we have been not reading books lately.
So some of the articles: Business Insider, Penn Jillette (of Penn & Teller), and then a picture from a friend of ours living in Desert View of Grand Canyon. This picture was taken on December 12: Fortunately, she took this inside of her house, but this is the only size I got, it can not be enlarged. So yes, we get bobcat in the Grand Canyon, and as you can see, it is not a small cat. And from the owner of the picture: Maddie Tighe: A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD...Ok so the image sucks but if you look closely you will see a bobcat with a rabbit in his mouth. The bobcat walked down my street with the rabbit in its mouth and then jumped the snow bank across the street and slunk behind the aparments!!! WOW!!!
December 11th: We both were doing research (me for my programs and Sasha for more hikes) today, and then we went to a great party. Again only one picture is available and I had to get it off of Facebook. But this party was fabulous as we got to meet several great people from a Motorcycling Forum that Sasha belongs to, M2W. Anyway, one of the folks there is totally into the night sky and said that he could help me out with the Lake Mead Telescope. I had been having problems getting it aligned and he said that something might have bumped the lenses inside, so he said he could help me out!!!
So anyway, here is the one picture that we got, really good of Sasha (haha!) and our new friend, Nick (with the bottle!) and Mike, a guy we met last year who went on one of my full moon hikes!
Some of the comments from Facebook:
Michael It was great seeing ya Sasha. I'm glad you and Laura were able to make to it.
Maddie Tighe You look like Russian Cosmonauts preparing for a lunar landing!
Chris Peterson looks like you're having way too much fun!!!!!!!!
Sasha Jevtich Well it was fun, but we stuck to sodas and beer.....that bottle was just for show....
Chris Peterson Oh come on......A good Bourbon is nothingt o apologize for...
Bo Jevtich Nice! but "what happens in Vegas stays in vegas" not? ;-)
December 12th: So we did not do much the next day, except read more articles and just generally goof off.
Meteor Crater - this is near (relatively speaking) when we are at the Grand Canyon.
December 13th: Worked on Administration, especially my programs (I will be teaching a class in Astronomy to the staff here at Lake Mead, so I am totally getting in the zone to stuff as much info into my brain and then have some of it come out in the training. Should be interesting.
December 14th: We went grocery shopping and in and out around the town today.
December 15th: Hiking Majestic Canyon. WOW - a 6.1 mile hike today that we went from our rig to a beautiful canyon and then back along the river mountain trail (walking and bicycle trail) near our rig. Here are some pictures from that hike:
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Majestic Canyon, You would never know it was there. Which is probably just as well. In that area, there are peregrine falcons that nest, so while we are taking a group out at the end of December, we would suggest not going there in January through March so that the birds aren't disturbed. |
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This is at the end of the hike, we can not go any further as there is a rope, and I am definitely not going to go up that. But hey, to each his own way... |  |
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You can see how the rope is tyed down, and the rock would be slippery when wet, and the area was quite green at this time. Bighorn sheep are sure to be around, but from all the talking we were doing, they probably scattered. |
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Good, long hike over no real trails except when we got to the River Mountain trail. That was OK, as it was a beautiful hike.
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December 16th: We had a great potluck lunch with the folks at Lake Mead; everyone in Visitor Services (Interpretation) got together and had a chili cook-off and a cookie bake off. Very pleasant, and I got to meet some higher-ups at Lake Mead as well. Looks like I might have signed myself up for something else, a webpage for the night sky at Lake Mead. We will see if that comes true.
Then, that evening our friend came over and helped us align the telescope. Now we can check out the stars and they are actually where they are supposed to be!
December 17th: Took another hike this time to White Owl (what we thought was White Owl, but we were wrong.) But we had an enjoyable hike, once we got down the hill. And of course, we did not take pictures together of this hike, but that is OK, as Sasha took pictures when he went alone two days later.
A five mile hike today after a 4.6 mile hike on Thursday. And no pictures. But the views for today's hike was quite good, and the birders I know would be awed.
December 18th:
December 19th: Sasha did the true White Owl trail, while I worked on the program for work. He took some great pictures:
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Obviously, this is not the canyon, but this is the way to get underneath and through to the other side. Pretty cool tunnel. |
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This one goes under the River Mountain Hiking Trail | |
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Excellent Shot of Sasha - he went as far as he was able without having to really scramble over rocks. I love the Shadows. |
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December 20th:
December 21st:
December 22nd:
December 23rd:
December 24th: Happy Christmas Eve!
December 25th: Merry Christmas!
December 26th:
December 27th: Working on the website, and then will work on my training course for the staff over at the Water Safety building. I seem to be able to focus better when I am there than here at the rig. Maybe it is the music or other reasons but I can not get as much work done.
December 28th:
December 29th:
December 30th:
December 31th: Maybe going out to look at the stars? Nope, as it clouded over, we instead just had a nice evening together, watched a couple of shows and enjoyed the evening.
Check out The New Year, lots happening - we just don't know what it will be yet! But we do know we are going to be here at Lake Mead for another three months, so that is good, right? Ugg, I am going to have to change all of the footers to say 2012. The website has been up for seven years next month.