Tripometer – 12036 mi
Gas Gauge – 908.875 gal
Location – Distant Drums RV Resort, Camp Verde, AZ
Lodging – $28
Cans of OFF – 4
No need for an alarm clock at the Distant Drums RV Park. There’s a small reginal airport located just over the hill and in a little valley near our campsite. Up until this morning the wind must have been blowing in the other direction. This morning at 8am sharp, a string of small engine planes took off right over our heads, climbing to altitude quickly as the end of the runway is aimed directly at the hill the RV Park is on. It’s been one of the more interesting aspects of our trip – What will we be camped next to this time?
We had plans to hang around camp today and talk about the rest of the trip to try and get some firm dates for our stay in New Orleans later next month. Kelly, being the football fan that she is, checked the football schedule and realized that Today’s Ravens game is at 11am our time. Travelling in the west makes it almost impossible to watch an East Coast football game. If a local bar is showing a game it is likely a nearby team on regular TV airways. To see the Ravens play you have to have the NFL network. Being right next to a casino we figured we could find the Ravens game on one of their big screens at their sports bar. We quickly packed up what we needed for the day, set up Ranger in the trailer with the AC running and the radio playing softly and took the shuttle bus from the RV park to the Casino, less than a half mile away.
Cliff Castle Casino is no mini Las Vegas but they did have a sports bar with $2.50 Budweisers for the game. About 50 feet from the sports bar entrance was a Johnny Rockets burger stand. We had everything we needed for a nice Sunday afternoon. The game was close, very close! So much so that it all came down to a tie if the Raven’s beloved kicker, Justin Tucker, could make the extra point. Justin has the title of the most accurate kicker in NFL history making over 90% of his field goal attempts. We both cackled at the look on his face when he realized he had missed this critical field goal. “Laces out!”
Several years ago we took a Sunday whilst in Las Vegas to sit and watch a football game while playing a video poker game at the casino. Neither of us are gamblers and almost never seek out gambling, but the thoughts of our last experience playing video poker together encouraged us to find a machine in the casino. We decided we would gamble with $40. If nothing came of the $40 we would tuck our tails and run back to the campsite. On our 38th attempt ($38) we struck “big,” winning $160 on 4 aces. Once we took pictures of the screen we immediately hit ‘Cash Out’ and ran to the cashier. There was no way that our luck was going to get any better than that. Here’s to free beer and food while watching the Sunday game!
Returning to camp we enjoyed the sunset overlooking the Camp Verde valley for the third night in a row. What a fantastic little RV Park we’ve found.