On Thursday, October 20, we left Mesquite and headed for Las Vegas.  Traveling through Las Vegas on the Interstate was worse than traveling through Salt Lake City...and we went through Las Vegas early in the morning!  One thing we noticed:  The drivers in Salt Lake City were much more polite than those in Las Vegas.

Before heading out to Las Vegas Bay Campground in Lake Mead NRA, we stopped in Henderson to shop at Petco (where we bought food and picked up a spare harness for Blaze), Costco, and get fuel for both the truck and car. 

The next day, we were up before the sun, drove into Henderson for breakfast, and then headed south on US-95.  We were originally going to go via US-93 and spend the night at Burro Creek Campground, but being so close to home, we decided to go down US-95, take the bridge across the Colorado River into Parker, and then head east on AZ-72 until we got to the road that goes south to the RV park where we spend the winter.  We were back at the fifth wheel early and spent the rest of the day unloading the camper.

The fifth wheel was none the worse for wear having spent the summer in the heat of Arizona, except...sometime during the day, the hot water faucet blew in the kitchen.  Earl quickly turned off the water, and called a mobile RV repair guy who wouldn't be able to come out until the next day.  Fortunately, I'd already had a chance to take a shower before this happened...Earl had to take a shower in the camper!  

The next day, the guy came out, but he could not repair the faucet (cheap plastic parts...you'd think that for the money we spent for this fifth wheel, the manufacturer would have used high-quality fixtures with brass parts) so he'd have to order a new one; in the meantime, he installed a shut-off on the kitchen line so that we could at least use the bathroom.  Since a new faucet had to be installed, I told the guy to get one that had a pull-out faucet with a spray function, which is what I got...and, instead of hot water and cold water handles, it has a single lever handle.  Really nice! 

While he was out installing the new kitchen faucet, we mentioned that the electric side of the water heater hadn't been working for a couple of years now...since October 2009 when we were staying at Klamath Falls, Oregon Passport America RV Park.  He tested it, and found that it needed a new control board.  After nearly two weeks, the board came in, and this morning he came out to install it.  We can now use the electric to heat our water...yea!

We've decided to put the camper up for sale.  Trying to travel in such a small space with two dogs, particularly one very active Basenji, and having to move their cages twice a day, which included making the dinette into a bed at night and then doing the reverse in the morning, is getting really old.  When we got the camper, we had Maxx.  He was an older dog, didn't need to be in a crate, and slept on a pad underneath the dinette table.  If we just had Gracie, she wouldn't be a problem, either, since she doesn't need a crate and could sleep in bed with us or on a pad underneath the table.  But Blaze is an entirely different story!  Even though he'd be OK with not being in a crate, he'd want to sleep with us...and in a queen size bed, there's just not enough room for two dogs. ;-)

Toward that end, we emptied out the camper and cleaned it.  I took lots of pictures, both of the inside and outside, and created a blog to sell it, http://2009eaglecap950camper.blogspot.com/ .  I then listed it on Craigslist, and advertised it on the Escapees Discussion forum, a couple of camper forums, the IRV2 Classifieds, and posted to the Boomer Bulletin Board (BBB, a Yahoo Group).  We got an inquiring within a couple of days from a Boomer who'd seen my post on the BBB.  After some back and forth emails, they made an offer, which we accepted.  They've made a non-refundable deposit and will pick up the camper in January when they are here for the annual Boomer get together in Quartzsite.

We will go back to pulling the fifth wheel.  It'll give us more room, both for us and the dogs.  The only downside will be that we'll have to pay for storage when we're in Spokane since we won't be able to park the fifth wheel beside the house like we did with the camper.  One thing we're going to do before leaving here in the spring is to have a Winegard Trav'ler for Dish Network installed on the fifth wheel in place of the dome that is currently there.  Last year, we had Satellite Advantage in Quartzsite come out and place a dish on a tripod beside the rig, but we don't want to fool with a portable unit and the headaches it entails, both in setting it up and in trying to get all three satellites tuned in. 

After going through 4 or 5 halters for Blaze, which he ends up chewing in half (and he also chewed the strap that holds him down while traveling), we've finally given up on securing him in the backseat with a seat belt and bought a travel crate to put him in!  For the money we've spent on halters, we could have bought the crate a long time ago!  It came yesterday, so we took the dogs for a ride to try it out.  I thought perhaps Blaze would whine when put in the crate, but he just laid down and slept.  Now we'll just use the halter for walks and take it off when he's put in the travel crate.