{"id":1012,"date":"2007-12-10T23:45:59","date_gmt":"2007-12-11T05:45:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1012"},"modified":"2007-12-10T23:45:59","modified_gmt":"2007-12-11T05:45:59","slug":"needles-ca","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/?p=1012","title":{"rendered":"Needles, CA"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"las-vegas-christmas-cactus-family.jpg\" <\/a><\/p>\n

Our visit with Brian and Leigh has been one of the most successful courtesy parking episodes ever. \u00a0 We set a record for driveway parking: six nights. \u00a0 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.<\/p>\n

Today we finally hitched up and pulled out, with the general intent of cruising Route 93 south toward Needles. \u00a0 But first we headed up to North Las Vegas to get a wash at the Blue Beacon Truck Wash. \u00a0 The trailer has been desperately dirty for weeks, to the point that I hate to even walk near it. \u00a0 A light-brown film covers every surface, and streaks of brownish goo drip down the side when there’s condensation. \u00a0 This always seems to happen to us when we drive through the Los Angeles area.<\/p>\n

This time we totally struck out on the truck wash. \u00a0 There was a line of 10 big rigs ahead of us at the wash, which meant a wait time of over an hour. \u00a0 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. \u00a0 We didn’t exactly shine.<\/p>\n

OK, when you hear of Needles, California, what do you think of? \u00a0 Be honest. \u00a0 Do you think of Spike, Snoopy’s brother who lived out in the desert near Needles? \u00a0 Do you think of that line in the song “Never Been To Spain” by Three Dog Night?<\/p>\n

Well I never been to England
\nBut I kinda like the Beatles
\nWell, I headed for Las Vegas
\nOnly made it out to Needles<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

It’s one of those towns that has a vague identity for easterners, even though we’ve all heard of it. \u00a0 Historic Route 66 runs through town but there’s not a lot of impact from that. \u00a0 Needles isn’t close to much (except the gambling town of Laughlin, NV, on the other side of the Colorado River). \u00a0 It’s just a quiet spot along the Colorado River, a place to go waterskiing in the desert.<\/p>\n

One thing is for sure, you don’t think of low gas prices here. As an outpost, it has exceptionally expensive fuel. \u00a0 Regular unleaded in town runs $3.85 for the cash-only place and $3.89-4.09 everywhere else. \u00a0 We bought ten gallons and will fill up completely in Palm Springs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Our visit with Brian and Leigh has been one of the most successful courtesy parking episodes ever. \u00a0 We set a record for driveway parking: six nights. \u00a0 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1012"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1012\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1012"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1012"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tour.airstreamlife.com\/wordpress\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1012"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}