Must. Play. Disc Golf.
Pahrump to Las Vegas is a quick jaunt through the southern end of the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area and the ‘burbs’ of Enterprise and Spring Valley. We’re having disc golf withdrawals (we haven’t played since Lake Tahoe!) so our first stop was the Peccole Ranch Disc Golf Course. This is a neighborhood par 3-disc golf course that is beautifully landscaped with lots of grass and shade for Ninja and narrow, short, technical shots around trees, people, sprinklers and walking paths. It was a fun course and we only lost one disc in the backyard pool of one of the surrounding homes. Oops, sorry! We went back the next day and the owners had kindly tossed the disc back onto the course, so it’s safely tucked away in the disc bag! Thank you kind neighbor!
Afterwards, we had some great local BBQ and headed to the Las Vegas RV Resort to set up camp (or ‘glamp’ rather). They have multiple pet areas, showers, electric and water hookups, pool and an ice machine which we found very useful in the 90+ degree heat! We were escorted to our site by a nice fellow driving a golf cart – with over 350 sites we were thankful for the help! Once we got settled, we quickly decided ice cream was a priority and went in search of a local shop. It was found and ice cream was consumed.
Ah, we’re in Vegas Baby! The sun is setting, casting a glow over the city, the strip lights begin to pop and people flock to their favorite casino for drinks, shows and collaboration with lady luck. Not us! Nope, we’re enjoying the sunset at our RV site with our furry traveler, Ninja, and we couldn’t be more content. We’ve been here before, we’ve experienced the strip and while it seems strange not to partake. Ninja isn’t welcome on the strip and we’re convinced he wouldn’t enjoy it anyway.
Introducing Ninja
We haven’t properly introduced Ninja. He’s our 13-year-old Shih Tzu, Lhasa Apso mix and he’s more of a sloth than a Ninja! His favorite time of day is bedtime, closely followed by nap time, treat time and mealtime and we absolutely adore him. He’s stubborn, needy, playful and has FOMO (fear of missing out) so he wants to go everywhere we go. We’ve taken Ninja on trips before and he’s not thrilled with car rides so we weren’t sure how he would do in the van. We were sure, however, that our trip would look different with a short-legged, aging dog than if we were travelling on our own. And we are 100% ok with that. Dogs aren’t allowed on many of the trails in the National and State Parks – we would normally do more hiking but we find out where Ninja is allowed go and stick to that. We aren’t comfortable leaving him in the van for more than few minutes and often the weather is too hot for that anyway. For right now, we’re on a Ninja rated adventure and it’s been wonderful. Don’t let having a furry family member deter you from experiencing a dream – it might be different than you thought, but it will be worth it!
Ninja doesn’t sleep while the van is moving and he prefers to be in our laps rather than the perch we created for him between our seats. We drive a max of 4 hours in a day (which seriously cuts into his nap time), but we stop in between to let him drink, play and roll around in the grass. He really enjoys being outside, smelling all the smells and taking short walks to check out our new surroundings. We take him disc golfing with us, but after a few holes we carry him in between shots so he doesn’t get too tired.
Which is a perfect segue way into day two. Ninja did pretty well yesterday on the disc golf course in the heat, but he does get tired so we started the day at a pet store and purchased a dog stroller. Yep. We’ve just become those people. Ninja also got a new toy which he proudly carried from the checkout to the van. We headed out to Mountain Crest Park to play disc golf. We set up the stroller, put Ninja inside and all three of us felt ridiculous. But we played anyway – Ninja walked some of the course and rode in the stroller part of the time. We’re pretty sure Ninja hated it because he jumped out at the first opportunity. It was a little rough rolling it along the grass on the course…not sure how much we’ll use this in the future, but it was worth a shot!
We decided to take a drive with the air conditioner across town to the iconic Wildhorse Golf Club course in Henderson where the Professional Disc Golf Association held the Disc Golf Pro Tour Las Vegas Challenge in February of this year to kick off the tour season. It was awesome to see a portion of the course layout and get a different perspective of how long and technical the holes really are.
We headed back to the RV park to do laundry, drink ice water and chill in the shade. We soaked Ninja a couple of times to make sure he was staying cool. We were all glad when the sun started to set and the temperature cooled. The park had a Cinco de Mayo party with a potluck and live music so later in the evening we walked Ninja and listened to some great music and met a really friendly couple that were travelling with their two dogs. They didn’t much care for Las Vegas but were stuck there waiting on a part for their tow vehicle. They were originally travelling with another couple that had come over from Germany and rented an RV so they could travel together. They quickly found they were incompatible travelers and went their separate ways. The couple from Germany liked to be off the beaten path and boon dock but the couple we met wanted electric and water hook ups with air conditioning and all the comforts of home. We are all unique in our needs – regardless they were both enjoying travel their own way and loving it! It’s encouraging to meet people with a passion to travel that are out doing it! If you’re reading this and you have a dream, set a goal, make a plan and execute! Don’t forget to enjoy the getting there, it’s as much about the journey you take in the getting there as it is when you reach your goal.
Tomorrow we’re heading towards Zion National Park!
