When we crested over the hill we saw the small town of Eherenberg sitting in a valley of green along side a beautiful clear river surrounded by the dry, rugged landscape of the Sonoran Desert. We were so happy to see green and water, the desert has started taking tis toll on the dogs. They were so excited to run in soft grass again and swim in cool water. The RV park we were at had sites that were right on the Colorado River. Its was such a nice retreat.
Across from the river was a small California town, Blythe. Blythe was a bit run down. It was a little rough around the edges so to say. We did have a nice chinese dinner in town one evening. It was pretty amazing that I did find five shoes in this tiny area within a couple of days being there.
We never ventured far from the RV park. It was a very nice park in which were staying for free as guests with the obligation to listen to their campground membership pitch to join Western Horizons. It was a nice deal and worth it for someone who does not have a Thousand Trails membership. The sales person was a hard seller, but we are professionals at “Vacation Ownership” presentations and got out without buying anything.
Note to self: Blogging is more fun with a margarita:)
The memorable part of this leg of the journey was the desert drive we took in the jeep. This road was recommended to us by one of our neighbors who spends months at a time in Ehrenberg and loves getting out into the desert. It was tough to get clear and precise directions from him though, he bobbed and weaved every time I tried to get exactly where to get on the road at talking about how cool it was and easy to get to…but WHERE IS IT?
Finally I halfway understood and halfway gave up on where to go. What I got was there was a dirt road by the Flying J to Cibola past the dump which leads to River Road to get back to Blythe. So we went to the flying J and looked for the tracks going to the dump. Nada. No tracks or dirt road. I asked the gas attendant where the road to Cibola was. She did not know. I remembered he said something about a dump, so I asked how to get to the dump. Again, she did not know. We were on our own. We headed down the only road we saw and it turned into a dirt road, that went by…wouldnt you know it, a dump! You were on the right road. It winded around and up and down and over dry creeks for quite a while. He never could tell us how far it was on this road until we met up with a fork in the road to go towards Cibola because “the desert is not a place to be measured in miles” he said.
Well everything started to blend in, and the miles kept going by and the sun kept setting and we were still heading away from Ehrenberg. I started to get nervous, we did have a full tank of gas but did not want to be out in the middle of the desert in total darkness. On top of that stress something started making a weird noise rattling under the Jeep after running over some bigger rocks and they hit the undercarriage pretty hard.
After another half hour or so we came the fork and headed to Cibola. It was still a dirt road, but in smooth shape. As we drove something in front of us was stirring up a heap of dust. We thought it was an ATV or something until we got closer and discovered it was a group of wild asses (a.k.a. donkeys :) They were so cool just raoming about under the desert night sky. The rest of the drive was uneventful, we no longer heard a strange noise under the Jeep and we now on the promised paved River Road.
Note: Do not have windows down on a dusty desert road.