Our visit with Brian and Leigh has been one of the most successful courtesy parking episodes ever. We set a record for driveway parking: six nights. Normally we’re gone in a day or two, but this time we had nowhere in particular to go and lots of reason to stay.
Today we finally hitched up and pulled out, with the general intent of cruising Route 93 south toward Needles. But first we headed up to North Las Vegas to get a wash at the Blue Beacon Truck Wash. The trailer has been desperately dirty for weeks, to the point that I hate to even walk near it. A light-brown film covers every surface, and streaks of brownish goo drip down the side when there’s condensation. This always seems to happen to us when we drive through the Los Angeles area.
This time we totally struck out on the truck wash. There was a line of 10 big rigs ahead of us at the wash, which meant a wait time of over an hour. We backed out into the street (Eleanor jumped out of the truck to help me back up without crashing into traffic) and headed south in the fast-waning sun. We didn’t exactly shine.
OK, when you hear of Needles, California, what do you think of? Be honest. Do you think of Spike, Snoopy’s brother who lived out in the desert near Needles? Do you think of that line in the song “Never Been To Spain” by Three Dog Night?
Well I never been to England
But I kinda like the Beatles
Well, I headed for Las Vegas
Only made it out to Needles
It’s one of those towns that has a vague identity for easterners, even though we’ve all heard of it. Historic Route 66 runs through town but there’s not a lot of impact from that. Needles isn’t close to much (except the gambling town of Laughlin, NV, on the other side of the Colorado River). It’s just a quiet spot along the Colorado River, a place to go waterskiing in the desert.
One thing is for sure, you don’t think of low gas prices here. As an outpost, it has exceptionally expensive fuel. Regular unleaded in town runs $3.85 for the cash-only place and $3.89-4.09 everywhere else. We bought ten gallons and will fill up completely in Palm Springs.
