Sunday Drive turns into Southwest Tour

Hello everyone. It's Labor Day. Hope you all are doing something fun. Well, yesterday we had quite a day. Sara and I had a Yahtzee marathon. We played around 30 games!! And for the first time in months, I am back on top. WooWoo!!! Then, we decided to finally head toward Oatman. It is a little town about 30 miles from here where wild burros roam the streets. It is called the Ghost Town that refuses to die. It is on historic Route 66. However, the last 10-12 miles there is called 'Bloody 66' because of how many people have died on it. Now we know why. Semis are not allowed to travel on it. The road is completely narrow, curvy, and there are NO guard rails protecting you from the plunge to death awaiting you. Needless to say it took a while to get there because we had to drive about 10 miles an hour. The scenery, though, was amazing, as usual. Oatman was fun. We had lunch, pet the burros, played tourists, and got our Christmas tree ornaments. Then we were off. Did we head for home? Nope. We kept on Historic 66. We ended up at Golden Shores. Nothing there. So, we got on the freeway (that's what we call it out here) and headed toward Parker by way of Lake Havasu City. Mom and Dad, we are going there. It is beautiful! Amazing dark, black mountains right in the water. Great looking golf courses, dad. I can't say as we actually made it into the town of Parker. You see, there is a casino right outside of town and we had to use the restroom REAL bad and didn't think we could make it any farther. We just HAD to stop and use the facilities. No alterior motives. It was simply beyond our control. But, since we were there, we figured, what the hell, right? When in Rome. It was fun. So, we left there about 7p.m. We had been gone since around noon and we knew our girls were starving and probably needed to pee themselves. It was about 1 1/2 hours home. We head out and man is it WINDY. The lightning is fierce but hypnotic to watch. It just streaks across the sky in every dirction all at once. You could tell one hell of a storm was up there. We never actually went through it, thank goodness. After passing numerous boaters pulled over on the side of the road due to the wind, we finally reached Lake Havasu. We drive through town and on up 12 miles. This is where we get back on the freeway to head east to Kingman. Now it's about 40 minutes to home. However, I-40 east is closed and evidently had been for some time because the truck stop there was PACKED to the gills. So, Sara and I head to investigate. It wasn't good. Yucca is a town about halfway between Lake Havasu and Kingman. There had been a horrible wreck there during the storm. It was at least a 10 car pile up, including a semi, and deaths had already been reported. The east bound lanes had been closed for 2 hours already and probably wouldn't be open for another 4 or so. How awful! And, if we hadn't gone to Parker, we could have possibly been driving through there right about then. Crazy, huh? So, the only other way to get home without waiting around for the road to open was to go back around to Bullhead City/Laughlin. This meant another 2 hours before we get home!!!!!!! Poor dogs!! So, 10:20p.m., we open the garage door and Gretta starts barking. They pottied forever in the yard when we got out there. It was quite the day. Oh, and we had a new friend on the patio when we got home. We have a Black Widow living on the back of our house. And Bill wouldn't kill it!!!!!!!! Love and Miss You all!!!!
~The Arizona Clan