NEEDLES

It's surprising what you'll find in places you don't expect to find much of anything.  We're parked in Needles California (which just so happens to be the oldest City in San Bernardino County founded in 1883) along the Colorado River and the scenery is spectacular.  Wide open blue skys and big puffy white clouds are abundant this time of year.  The weather which is normally hotter then hades and will melt your tires and the rubber off the bottom of your flip flops in the Summer, is mild and in the mid to upper 70's during the Spring.

Today we took a drive to Grapevine Canyon to visit the Indian petroglyph site.  We drove down a 2 mile road, parked and hiked in about 1/4 mile to see them.  They were amazing, carved out on sheer cliffs and so abundant the it look almost like graffiti - minus the spray paint of course LOL.

From Grapevine Canyon we drove into Arizona across the Colorado River to visit Oatman, an old authentic western ghost town and mining camp where donkeys roam the streets freely looking for food handouts and cowboys re-enact gunfights in the middle of the street.  It's a tourist trap with souvenir stores such as Jackass Junction, Fast Fanny's Place, Naughty Nellie's and The Classy Ass, but the folks in Oatman try to keep the town and its buildings as authentic as possible.  Oatman also is located right on old Route 66 which some of you know we traveled from one end to the other in 2008 - that was fun.

So we learned something today, not every place is what it seems when your jamming on through and don't stop to check it out.

Cheers and Happy Trails.