Vegas Baby!

We were headed towards Texas when we connected with Justin and Tara (The Organic Sister). They were going on the road and wanted to run their RV on veggie oil. So, we did a U-Turn and headed north towards Las Vegas to install a veggie oil system in their RV.

We've been to Las Vegas several times for business, but we knew the Strip and that was it. We were looking forward to exploring the "real" Vegas a bit more...but we were a little unsure as to what might be lurking out there! Surpirsingly, we found Vegas to be rather delightful.

I'm going to post about our time in Vegas in many different topical blogs instead of one giant blog. There is just too much to tell you! We've been here for over 3 weeks, so we've had plenty of time to explore and meet different people.

Our first task was finding a suitable place to live while we were there. We researched for hours...and found many options, but none that we were really looking forward to. Most of the parks were at least $30 a night, and not kid friendly. Our most appealing option was Circus Circus KOA, which is directly adjacent to the casino. It would have been fine, but spendy! Close to $40/night.

At the last minute, Matt was searching and found a campground that was not really advertised and he made a quick phone call. He found out that they only charged $16/night and that it was 1 block from downtown Vegas and just 8 minutes from Justin and Tara's house! Sold. For that price, we really didn't care that it was just a parking lot...and from the satellite looked totally not kid-friendly. So when we arrived, we were excited to find a spot open that had trees above, a nice rocky area for Bella to play in, and even friendly neighbors!

The campground is called Main Street RV Campground (ph 702-388-2602) and it's the campground for the Main Street Casino and The California Casino. There are people that stay for months on end, and others who are just passing through. It's mostly big rigs with a few smaller Class C's and pop-ups around the perimeter. There were even several custom Prevosts (one pulling a Hummer) that from what we could tell probably cost in the million dollar range. There was an interesting mix of people to chat with...that's for sure!

Even though there was a lot of foot traffic around the outside of the park, we always felt very safe. Security patrolled every hour or so. We loved the location. We could walk to downtown within a few minutes. Not that we liked hanging out down there, but we like being close to the action! :) There was a Thai restaurant down there that had the largest portions we've ever seen. And there was a Starbucks at The Golden Nugget. The exit to the interstate was super convenient, just a block away. Plus, we could see the mountains and the casino lights from our windows!

After staying there 3 weeks, it really started to feel like home. Although the RV park wasn't fancy, we are firm believers in optimism and "looking on the bright side". We can overlook a lot of things if there is good electric, good water pressure, and good people!

Photos from Las Vegas here.
Photos are available for comment on Flickr.

Campin' Out

Whenever we get a new RV, something always goes wrong on our inaugural trip. It never fails. This time around, we were traveling over to Iowa City for a photo session. While we were there, the motor for the slide went out.

After a bit of research, we found out that the company who manufactures the hydrolics for the slide is located just north of Iowa City. Thank you God! Of all the places it could have been in the entire country, it was located just a few miles down the road. Crazy.

We pulled into HWH and spent the night in their back parking lot. It was a busy place...there was a line up of RV's there waiting for repairs...with their BBQ's out, having a great time in the middle of nowhere. The next morning, we bought the motor (which Matt installed) and we were on our way. We’ve found that Matt is able to fix pretty much anything in the RV or in the engine, which is a huge blessing. He’s had a lot of experience in these last couple of years to learn the skills!

We headed back to Des Moines and spent a bit more time there camping out with our friends and family at Ledges State Park near Ames, IA. We had a beautiful campsite…large and wooded, our favorite kind. We laughed and explored...ate roasted veggies and quinoa...and marshmallows, of course! And then we were off to Colorado to visit more friends and family. After a week there, which included some unexpected snow and cold, we left for Bozeman to remodel the RV, sell all of our stuff, and hit the road! Yippeee!