We probably weren’t supposed to be there, but we figured at least we were safe, off the main road and we’d try our luck – hoping we wouldn’t be asked to move! Being right the entrance of BLM land on Highway 95 and on an uneven surface, it was less than ideal, but do-able. With that spanner in the works, rather than try to load the broken MINI onto the tow dolly in the dark and find another place to park overnight, we decided to stay put. Bugger! I guess all of our off-road adventures with poor little MINI in Yuma and Quartzsite last week before caught up with us after all. First, the BLM land was full, second we couldn’t find the Canadians and third – worst of all – the MINI really was broken. Hmmm we definitely weren’t off to a good start to our BLM adventure in Lake Havasu City. After that, Juice just wouldn’t go at all, so he had to slowly drive back to the coach just using the starter and by rolling down the hill. Poor Marc – he is the best, most capable driver I know and in almost 30 years of driving has never been at-cause in an accident or even so much as damaged a vehicle – so the pain on his face was visible.Īs it turns out, with her low clearance Juice the MINI got stuck on a large rock that wasn’t easily visible when he was doing a three-point-turn and Marc had to get a couple of guys help him lift the car off the rock. This of course is “man-code” for “I inadvertently ran over a big, bloody rock but I’m too embarrassed to admit it”. “The MINI’s broken” he announced. “A rock jumped up and bit it.” Yet, I wasn’t too concerned – I figured he’d found the Canucks and was having a good ole chat.įinally, Marc returned – he was not happy. It looked pretty full, so Marc dropped the MINI off the tow dolly and decided to scope out the land and see if he could find a spot suitable to park the coach, while I stayed behind to continue my Skype call with Carolyn.Īs the sun went down, turning the bright blue sky into a brilliant orange then dark blue, I finished my call and wondered what on earth was taking Marc so long? It shouldn’t have taken him more than 10 minutes to scout the BLM land but he’d been gone half an hour at least. There was a dirt road leading into the BLM camping area that allowed vehicles and ATVs to come and go, but it wasn’t really optimal for us to take the coach in there. We managed to pull off the highway into the BLM entrance area while we considered our options. We arrived at the BLM site on the highway south of Lake Havasu only to discover it was already full of RVers, with the gate at the paved road closed, preventing anyone else from entering. Luckily, Marc remembered the highway mile markers (between 174 and 175) for the free BLM land where the Canadians said we should meet them – remember the friendly Canadians we met the night we dry camped at the Quechan Casino by the border of Mexico the previous Friday? Yes, yes, I know… ALL Canadians are friendly! The ones who invited us to Lake Havasu City for the Winter Blast fireworks display – those Canadians! Just another one of the reasons I love technology and having our own WIFI on the road – I can share scenes literally while driving with people on the other side of the world! Friday afternoons tend to be a great time for me catch up via Skype with friends and family in Australia, so I navigated a Skype call with my dear friend Carolyn in between ooohs and aaahs as as we admired the scenery. The drive along Highway 95 and took us through a gorgeous, rocky canyon south of Lake Havasu City. In fact, we even made a video about it – which in hindsight is pretty funny – so you can watch that or read the blog post – or both! There is noticeable difference in the content. No, it wasn’t the best way to end our first boondocking adventure, but we made the best out of a bad situation, as we always try to do. On Friday afternoon, we left Quartzsite for the final stretch of our boondocking adventure in Lake Havasu – which we now refer to as Lake Havoc-su, after the challenges and the breakdown we encountered there.
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