I don't blame her because I was having a hard time concentrating on the road when it was mile after mile of the same scenery, nothing but the Southern Nevada desert.
We are about as far south as you can go in the state of Nevada here in Laughlin. Just 6-miles further south down the road from here is the California border and we can easily see the backyards of the homes across the Colorado River in Bullhead City, Arizona from our campsite.
After our week here in Laughlin, NV we'll be moving into a new state (our 46th) on Monday.
We started our day with a big breakfast at the Perkins Restaurant inside of Bullhead City, AZ this morning. It's a 45-minute drive to arrive at the beginning of our Arizona Route 66 Roadtrip.
ARIZONA'S ROUTE 66
While we're there I'll fill ROVER with gasoline because it's $1.75 cheaper in Arizona than it is here in Nevada. I don't even want to think of what we'll be paying for gas next week in California! Ooops, guess you know where we're going next.
Our first sightseeing stop today is just a few miles north of our campsite outside the town of Laughlin, NV. It's called the "Laughlin Labyrinths" which is a collection of five labyrinths you an walk your way through. Walking a labyrinth is supposed to have documented benefits connected to reduced blood pressure, chronic pain alleviation and insomnia relief. I just felt a little dizzy!
Next we scouted out an Army Corp of Engineers campground just north of town on the Arizona side of the Colorado River, just in case we ever find ourselves in this area again.
Lunchtime! On our way to the second sightseeing stop we searched out a Culver's Restaurant to eat lunch. They have better than average burgers and we both love their frozen custard flavor offerings.
The second sightseeing location was kind of a bust. We found the spot, but needed a drone or some other way to gain elevation to get a good viewing perspective. It is a pair of large geoglyphs known as the "Fort Mojave Twins".
For those of you that don't know, I sure didn't, a geoglyph is "a human-made rearrangement of the natural landscape to create a geometric or effigy form. They are found the world over and are difficult to date, but many are several thousands of years old. They are often very large and can only be visually appreciated from high above."
Since we didn't come prepared with my drone to photograph this location I'll share a photo from the Atlas Obscura website where I found this sightseeing opportunity.
No, that photo on the left wasn't taken last year, it was taken this afternoon!
Apparently we just so happened to be in the "right place at the right time" for a change. Back during the summer this year Circle K Stores nationwide ran a "4-hour special" and priced their gasoline "40¢ below" their normal pricing.
Well today (exclusively in Bullhead City, AZ) the four Circle K Store locations got together and decided to repeat this as an unadvertisied "Special Offer" to reward their local customers.
After the disappointment of not getting a good look at the Mojave Twins geoglyph I got on my phone and brought up the Gas Buddy app like I usually do when it's time to fillup. Imagine my surprise when I saw a price of $2.99 when all others in the area were $3.19 and above.
I've told you stories before about being led on "wild goose chases" when it comes to Gas Buddy's reported prices. Some unscrupulous station owners will post false prices to lure in customers before someone actually reports the corrected price back to Gas Buddy. I know I've fallen for this "bait and switch" scheme more than once.
Today we were only 1½-miles from the Circle K station so I decided to take a chance.
When we arrived and saw the sign advertising the price, along with a line of a half dozen cars in the street, I knew we had found the best price in town. My only regret is that I was only able to pump 23½ gallons into our 36 gallon tank before it was full.
Between May 1st this year, when we started our trip towards Alaska, and the end of November we have spent a whopping $7508.85 on gasoline! That averages out to $1072.69 a month, way over the bugeted amount of $300 we strive for each month. NOTE: Our November gas expense was only $331.80
There are of course several factors that play into these kind of expenses. First and foremost is the fact that we drove to Alaska and spent 3-months seeing as much of the state as possible.
Next is the fact that the state of affairs around the world have gas at some all-time high prices.
If you substitute Canada for Hawaii at the top of the list on the left, and remove Pennsylvania, you'll notice that we have been traveling exclusively in these "TOP 10 STATES" when it comes to gas prices in the United States.
It was like the "Perfect Storm" of reasons why we shouldn't have gone to Alaska this year, but we did it anyway and are so glad we did. It does mean all next year we'll be avoiding the far western United States and their higher gas prices.
Instead we'll be traveling fewer miles in the center of the country and trying to get back on budget.
Gasoline and camping expenses are the two things we have the most control over.
Gasoline we can control by not moving long distances between stops and staying longer once we reach our next destination.
Camping we control by avoiding higher priced private parks with all the amenities like swimming pools, on-site restaurants and sewer hookups. We also tend to stay in less expensive state parks and are constantly looking for federal parks where we always pay half price, thanks to our Lifetime Senior Pass that was purchased during our first month on the road (when I turned 62).
Another way to save on camping in State Parks is to look online for programs where you can purchase an Annual Pass and then receive discounts on camping. Such is the case here in Nevada where we purchased a $250 Annual All Access Pass before we even arrived.
The Nevada Annual All Access Pass gains you entrance into all Nevada State Parks (a $10-$15 a day value) and also gets you free primitive camping ($20-$25 a day for no hookups), so even on the low end that's $30 a day. If you divide $250 by $30 you soon see that after just 9 nights of camping you're already coming out ahead. If you don't want to camp without hookups you simply pay a $10 a day upcharge for utilites when they're available, whether it's just electric, water and electric or even full hookups (water/electric/sewer) like we have here at Big Bend of the Colorado State Park.
If you've been keeping count we've spent a total of 29-days in Nevada State Parks and had utilities at every one of them. That brought our average entrance fee and camping expense down to just $8.62 a night, plus $10 for the utilities. Now that's a bargain we couldn't pass up!
P.S. - We'll be doing the same thing in New Mexico next year and purchasing their Annual Camping Pass, more on that later.
I guess food costs would be the third item on the list. We can control that one by simply not "eating out" as often and being a little more selective when it comes to our grocery shopping.
Next year we plan to visit our 47th new state (WY) and our 48th (MT), that only leaves Michigan and Hawaii unvisited.
While we won't be covering a lot of distance next year, we do plan to visit 15 of the National Parks in this region.
We'll also explore several notable National Monuments like Devil's Tower and Mount Rushmore.
There could also be as many as 9 new cave tours and we'll definitely be camping at higher elevations than we have so far along this journey.
So stick around and we'll share our ride with you!
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