Cotton Pickin'

So we've posted photos of cotton bales along the roads before but today we saw more of the process.

I made a wrong turn but look what we found... a cotton field being harvested.

This is one of the cotton compactors that form the bales. The box is lowered to the ground before they start.

A belt inside the hopper moves the cotton to the edge where it drops into one of the compactors. The blue rail on tops of the red box is the actual compacting parts. It moves up and down plus pushes the cotton to the rear of the box.

Up close of the picker.

Here you can see the compactor in a different position. The hopper is being dumped in front of it.

The hopper operator sure dumped a lot of cotton on the ground. You can just make out the guy beside the compactor throwing some back into the box.

October Happenings

We had a Halloween party at the park but had poor attendance due to so many other things happening. Anyway here's some of the spooks out that night.

I planned to be a full bunch of grapes instead of a half of a bunch but this is all the coverage I got with 38 balloons. There were enough balloons there to make it hard to sit or do much of anything.

We put an entry into a Relay for Life fundraiser called "Dress your Banana Split". Creative people, huh? Do you understand the Addressed Banana? Addressed - a dressed. LOL We just thought we would take some bananas for kicks and all we used was a marker for our "costume". Yeap, the Siamese Twins were our contribution. Maybe next year we'll have triples.

Winter Destination

We got to Sunscape RV Resort by Casa Grande, AZ on October 1st. We were getting all set up and this is what I spot. Yep, a nail in the tire. Nolan was taking it off the next day so he could take it into town and he notices the tire across the way looks low. He pulls out the tire pressure gauge and it reads 30 psi. As usual we had checked them the morning of the 1st before we hit the road. The one with the nail in it was at 102 psi so we aired it up to 110 psi like it is supposed to be. All the rest were fine. Nolan took the one with the nail into town and they said it couldn't be patched or plugged so he bought a new one. Only $375! Yep these tires are expensive.
Once we got the second tire off, we found a nail in it. This one the shop was able to patch. During five years of living in our RV full-time, these are the only nails we've gotten in our tires.

Last spring we stayed on this RV site for two weeks and liked it so we rented it for six months this winter season. I didn't get the Activities Director job here until fall but it worked into our plans. As you can see, the site is on a corner.

Nolan got on top of the trailer and took some photos. We're in a lot that backs up to the outside so there's no one behind us. This is looking south.
This is just to the left of the previous photo. People walk their dogs around the outside of the fence.

This is the view to the west... in front of the trailer.
This is the front gate. Most residents have a card they swipe to open the gate but as an employee, I received a clicker. So much easier.

...As you drive past the Welcome Center, you can see the west side of the Clubhouse. Didn't take a photo of the front side so you'll just have to imagine it. LOL The saquaro cactus is a replacement. The much older, armed one that was there was toppled by wind last spring.

This is the east side of the clubhouse where a small separate building housed the post office.
Next to the Clubhouse is the Community Center. This is where events that need a sound system are held.
The pool sits behind the Clubhouse and beside the Community Center.

View of the pool from the road. Still seeing the back side of the clubhouse.

Inside the Clubhouse is seating for meals and card games. The kitchen is in the clubhouse and meals are served from it three times a week during the season.

One side room has a fireplace.

My office is also located in the Clubhouse. This photo is from my first day at work and I am in training. The air conditioning isn't working so it's probaby 80° or more in there. The a/c was repaired on 10/8/09.

This building is the Activities Center. Most card playing is done here. It also holds a library, a billards room, a weight room, a laundry room and a conference room.

Hoover Dam

...We crossed the Hoover Dam and hoped to get a good parking spot so we would walk back across it but parking for such a large rig was hard to come by and when we did find a spot, it was on quite an angle. So we just took some photos from where were were.

There's a clock for Nevada on one side and a clock for Arizona on the other side.

We were in parking lot #14 at the top of the hill.

Las Vegas, NV

..Due to the size of our vehicles, we didn't fit in the cheaper parks by Las Vegas so we had to stay at the Las Vegas KOA at Circus Circus. Even then we either didn't fit on their regular sized sites or their regular sites didn't have 50 amp electric. Since it was 100° when we rolled into town, we wanted the 50 amps so we could run both air conditioners.
Their sites are obscenely expensive but at least we had water pressure again.
The RV park we stayed at by Bryce Canyon National Park had this kind of water pressure. Showers were almost an ordeal when trying to get the shampoo out of the hair and the soap off of the skin.
After getting set up and waiting for the temperature to drop a couple degrees, we walked out to the Strip, bought some bus tickets and went out in search of free stuff. This photo was taken from the front top seat of the Deuce, a double decker bus that operates exclusively on the Strip.

....I really wondered how many gardeners are employed in this town after seeing the lavish gardens and landscaping at these casinos.

..We took the Deuce all the way to the end of the Strip to see the Welcome to Las Vegas sign. Erected in 1959, it was designed by a local resident.

Then we started walking back north on the Strip. Our first objective was to see the registration lobby aquarium at the Mandalay Bay. The walkway to the front of the casino led us by this waterfall,

and these elephants.

..The aquarium was easy to find but hard to take a photo of because of the windows behind it.

Notice the railed tram on the overhead tracks. It ran between the Mandalay Bay, the Luxor and the Excalibur.

..The Sphinx's body is the covered entry way into the Luxor. It's so hard to get a good photo of the neat stuff because of the cramped area it is all stuff into. We went inside the Luxor thinking we could see the slanted elevators but they are enclosed. We never did get back to it at night to see the World's Largest Light Beam that shines from its apex at night.

Some of the interesting architecture at the Excalibur. We were too early to see the dragons that appeared in the moats after dusk.

The New York, New York casino and hotel is supposed to resemble the New York City skyline.

Right down to a small scale replica of the Statue of Liberty.

...I think this is supposed to be a replica of the Brooklyn Bridge.
Two of my favorite guys! Well really only the red one because I'm not a peanut M&M fan.
There was an elevator inside the Coca-Cola bottle.

..Now that's a big bike!

The Eiffel Tower replica at the Paris Casino actually straddles the casino floor. Since the time was approaching for some of the nightly free events, we didn't go into it until the next day so those photos are later in this post.

Next stop was the Dancing fountains at the Bellagio. It was getting dark so most of the photos didn't come out but this one gives you some idea of how the fountains sprayed.

..You can just make out the higher shots of water. I bet they went up 50 foot! We also stopped to see the volcano at the Mirage and the pirate show at Treasure Island but our camera didn't like the dark and we didn't get any good shots.

.. The one show in Vegas that Nolan and I would really like to see. Just a couple nights before we got there, we saw a special on CMT that showed portions of his show.

..The Deuce's visual display of the route was wildly inacurate and I wasn't listening well enough to the announcements so we missed our stop at Circus Circus. We had to walk four or five blocks back to it. That wouldn't have been a big deal but we had already put on a few miles seeing the sites so our feet were hurting and we were hot. This is the Circus Circus portico. I'm surprised this photo came out so good. It was still 90° when we got back to the trailer.

..The next day we got up early to beat the heat. But that made us too early for some of the daytime free stuff. Oh well. Someday when we are rich (ha,ha,ha) we'll go back to see some of the shows. This is just another view from the front top of the Deuce.

This is the Conservatory at the Bellagio. At 14,000 sf atrium under a 55' ceiling, the displays change on a seasonal basis. This one was for Halloween and Thanksgiving all rolled into one. Lots of mums. The trees on the right had water falling from their upper leaves onto their lower leaves in a waterfall effect.

This is another water feature where water pours from the top, falls into the next cupped leave before overflowing to the next leaf. Very neat.
...Too bad this is so dark. This stump had an interesting face.

We really wanted a photo of the talking tree but the photos came out either too dark or washed out like this.

...We saw quite a few motor cops and a few bike cops. I had never seen motorcycles like this used by the police but they probably don't go off the Strip and out on the freeway.

Fountain in front of the Paris Casino.

Notice the details around the top of the building.

..We went inside the Paris Casino this time to see the hallways done up like the streets of Paris. All the shops looked like buildings and the ceiling was painted like the sky.

Nolan took this shot and I don't remember seeing this. I think it was by the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops.

This sculpture was definitely on the front of the Caesar's Palace Forum Shops.

There were lots of these portable billboards on the Strip. I really don't think the trucks hauled anything. They were pointed in the front and got wider toward the back.

This is what the Deuce buses looked like. They were all painted differently with advertisements for shows.

....I have several photos here of the Venetian's waterway and gondolas. You could buy a ride on a gondola but they weren't operating when we were there.

Look at the interesting driveway to the Venetian.

Must take some work to get these bushes to look like this.

...We went inside the Venetian to check out the painted ceiling. Very interesting murals but it was too dark inside for our camera.

Exotic cars for rent. I bet those were pricy.

Nolan found another show he would like to see. I say those bronze buns have been rubbed a lot!

Not really a Las Vegas thing but as we were leaving town, one of the enclosure doors came open on the highway. I think I must have noticed it shortly after it opened and, luckily, it wasn't damaged and no one was struck by it. There was a large area in the "V" area at an exit, so we stopped there to shut the door. From now on, those doors will be double checked before we hit the road.