27 April ‘07
Friday
I think we did a good job of visiting the Grand Canyon. Although we were at the South Rim for 3 days, we were on the go. Now it’s time to journey on. We only drove down to Kingman for our next stop. The weather has really started to heat up. Yesterday it hit 92 and today it is supposed to have been about the same. We thought we wanted to go back into the campground in Bullhead City which we visited last November. When Louise made her call for reservations, she was told that the whole area was full, because 70,000 “Laughlin Runners” were coming into town. Well as we were traveling toward Kingman we were amazed at how many motorcycles were on the highway. As we were checking in at our campsite, Louise asked “is Oatman was close by”. “It is, but with the Laughlin Motorcycle Run going on this weekend, it may not be the best time to go”. Now we know about “The Run”… Hell could there possibly be 70,000 motorcycles in Laughlin? We decided to take on Oakman with or without the motorcycles. The thing we had heard about Oatman was that there were quite a few western movies made there, and Oatman had some how adopted a few donkeys. These donkeys have the rule of the town… Well, we’ve got to see this… Oatman is located on old Highway 66, and let me tell you, it is narrow, absolutely no shoulders (by for worse than those in Mexico), and full of very tight turns and twists. All this while climbing steep hills that have tons of gold mines on both sides of the road. Some of these mines are still in operation and others are just holes in the ground. One of the mines had posted signs that said “Private property, keep off” over the next 12 miles… now that’s a mine. As we pulled over the hill and into Oatman we found this little “Old Western Town” of Oatman, and lining both sides of the street were motorcycles. About 3 to 4 hundred of them and most were Harleys. We had to park beside the road about ¼ miles up the road and walk in. At first we saw nothing but crowds of bikers up and down the street. Every once in a while, someone would fire up their bike and drive out of town, turn, and then drive back. We had no sooner made it half way through town and we saw our first donkey calmly walking right down the middle of the road while motorcycles were going bye on each side. You know what a Harley sounds like, well those donkeys just didn’t seem to care. Oatman was just as advertised… Quaint little western town that is high in the mountains with tons of gold mines within a short distance, and home to wild donkeys that love to come into town for carrots, kettle corn, or just about anything edible.
Friday
I think we did a good job of visiting the Grand Canyon. Although we were at the South Rim for 3 days, we were on the go. Now it’s time to journey on. We only drove down to Kingman for our next stop. The weather has really started to heat up. Yesterday it hit 92 and today it is supposed to have been about the same. We thought we wanted to go back into the campground in Bullhead City which we visited last November. When Louise made her call for reservations, she was told that the whole area was full, because 70,000 “Laughlin Runners” were coming into town. Well as we were traveling toward Kingman we were amazed at how many motorcycles were on the highway. As we were checking in at our campsite, Louise asked “is Oatman was close by”. “It is, but with the Laughlin Motorcycle Run going on this weekend, it may not be the best time to go”. Now we know about “The Run”… Hell could there possibly be 70,000 motorcycles in Laughlin? We decided to take on Oakman with or without the motorcycles. The thing we had heard about Oatman was that there were quite a few western movies made there, and Oatman had some how adopted a few donkeys. These donkeys have the rule of the town… Well, we’ve got to see this… Oatman is located on old Highway 66, and let me tell you, it is narrow, absolutely no shoulders (by for worse than those in Mexico), and full of very tight turns and twists. All this while climbing steep hills that have tons of gold mines on both sides of the road. Some of these mines are still in operation and others are just holes in the ground. One of the mines had posted signs that said “Private property, keep off” over the next 12 miles… now that’s a mine. As we pulled over the hill and into Oatman we found this little “Old Western Town” of Oatman, and lining both sides of the street were motorcycles. About 3 to 4 hundred of them and most were Harleys. We had to park beside the road about ¼ miles up the road and walk in. At first we saw nothing but crowds of bikers up and down the street. Every once in a while, someone would fire up their bike and drive out of town, turn, and then drive back. We had no sooner made it half way through town and we saw our first donkey calmly walking right down the middle of the road while motorcycles were going bye on each side. You know what a Harley sounds like, well those donkeys just didn’t seem to care. Oatman was just as advertised… Quaint little western town that is high in the mountains with tons of gold mines within a short distance, and home to wild donkeys that love to come into town for carrots, kettle corn, or just about anything edible.