Amargosa Valley and Longstreet RV

By the words and pictures of my blog, it may look like Cal and I are always running around from here to there and seeing everything there is to see. That’s not exactly true. There are stretches of time where we are just living life, same as everyone.

It’s not often that I write about one single RV stay, but that will be what this post is about. And the question is, what makes a perfect place to park our RV?

When we started out RV’ing, the answer was simple. A state park or Corps of Engineers park, out in nature, with full hookups, or at least with water and electricity is a must. Then, a nice level spot with lots of shade, and preferably not in close sight of our neighbors. Places to walk are also important. These sorts of places weren’t hard to find where we lived in Missouri. But we’ve only been in Missouri once in the past three years of full time RVing.

The RV park for Death Valley was full before I could even blink. Of course there weren’t any state parks nearby, and not even many commercial parks to choose from within spitting distance of the park. That led me to “Longstreet Hotel Casino and RV Resort”. This was a novel idea. The pictures looked good, reviews okay. I’ve long ago learned to take the “Resort” part of an RV park with a grain of salt. We would be in Death Valley for a good part of the time, anyway.

The building only has two stories, and the RV “resort” was around back. The gentleman at the desk assigned us a site and said we could move if we didn’t like it. That is a rare offer.

The casino is out in the middle of nowhere, and this was the view out our window. For our first two days, there were RV’s in these sites with ATV’s parked next to each. If I had my druthers, we would have moved, preferring instead to have been in the first row facing the mountains. Cal was happy with the site, though, so we stayed. It was interesting watching the ATV’ers head out for jaunts into the desert; after two days, they were gone. No one ever moved into these sites again, leaving us with a perfect view.

We thought maybe the green space might have been a golf course at one time, and the pond a part of it.

On our first evening we took a long walk down a narrow gravel road leading straight into the desert and alongside the mountain. There is no cacti here, just sagebrush and scrub.

We put a rest day in between each of our visits to the park. Those days had long miles in them, both for the truck and on our feet. At home, we caught up on chores, all the stuff one normally does in life. Here, Cal is attending to something on the roof. All we had here was a gravel spot in a parking lot. It was nice that the park was always less than half full.

Someone was in that site next to us only one or two nights. On the other side, there was another 5th wheel with a gentleman who left for work early every morning and went inside his RV when he came home.

Cal was really impressed with his ATV.

On our “off days”, when I needed to stretch my legs, I could walk out to California. And then, back again to Nevada.

The wildflowers were just starting to come out. How can they grow in the harsh desert terrain?

The inside of the casino is typical of many casinos. Longstreet has a gaming floor, an area with couches, a restaurant, a convenience store, and a bar. With the exception of the store, everything is in one big room. A country band played on the weekends. I thought I’d be tempted to eat in the restaurant more than we did but we only had one lunch there. It was a rare treat to just walk over from the RV.

Walking around the building, there were many things to see. I could admire the old conveyances out front.

There is a petting zoo, with animals that mostly didn’t want to be petted. The zoo also includes a bull, a goat and a sheep.

The back rooms to the hotel had patios and balconies which looked out onto another pond. This one is nicely landscaped and there are sculptures and many interesting artifacts set out to look at. This pair of geese would fly from one pond to the other daily, honking along the way for good measure.

I’m not sure what this is, but I liked that it said “Denver”.

When the sun started to set, we would put our lawn chairs out on the (not) golf course, and watch the mountains turn red. We would puzzle over why the owner thought he needed the enormous cow out front, and where it may have come from. And, of course, we could ponder the meaning of life and let ourselves be swallowed up into the silence.

So, back to what makes a perfect RV spot?

The road has shown us that there is no one simple answer. The spot that we are initially disappointed in may reveal its secrets to us later. It could be the friendly folks at the park or some fun events that they held, a great trail to walk on, an interesting neighbor to hang out with, or a resident cat. We don’t tend to use a lot of the amenities that parks like to advertise.

A concrete pad here might have been nice, but gravel is the way of the desert. No, Longstreet wasn’t perfect. Only a select few sites have ever won that title for us. Longstreet did, however, score points with both of us for 1) the view into the desert, 2) lots of delightful places for me to walk and get my steps in, 3) a slight quirkiness with all the various little things to see, and 4) being quiet and peaceful.

In the end, we can’t ask for too much more.

When we passed our first night in San Diego, I was very excited to put a California sticker on my map. And then, in Boulder City, I could add the one for Nevada. It had been almost two years since we’d been able to add new stickers. You can see that we have covered the Southwest. Which state will be next? Even we, the Twosna Travelers, don’t have the answer to that question at present.

Next time – It’s Vegas, baby!