Our RV Adventures

Our regular blog readers will remember back in January I talked about the coming revolution in 3D printing, and especially its effect on gun laws.

You can check out that blog here.

http://ourrvadventures.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/and-so-it-begins/

Well, Cody Wilson of Defcad, has now revealed his latest 3D weapon. It’s an almost-completely plastic single-shot .380 pistol.

Although it kind of looks like it’s made from Legos, it does work. The only metal parts are a common nail used as the firing pin, and a block of metal built into the handle so that the pistol meets the Untraceable Plastic Gun laws.

Called “The Liberator”, the 3D printing files were downloaded over 100,000 times in the first two days, with the largest number of downloads to addresses in Spain, followed by the US, Brazil, Germany and the UK.

Then a couple of days ago Cody Wilson was ordered by the Department of State?? to take down the files because they might violate international treaties restricting illegal weapons trafficking.

Huh? Weapons, what weapons? These are 1’s and 0’s in a computer file.

And of course there are files all over the Internet on how to build everything from  pistols, to machine guns, and even bazookas.

But a single-shot Lego gun is a problem. Right!

And on the Horse, Meet Barn Door front, it’s really hard to imagine how the State Department thinks that they have put a stop to anything. Besides the 100,000 original downloads, the files are now available from over 600 download sites around the world, places not under the State Department’s control.

One of the largest, Pirate Bay, reports over 2.5 million downloads since the State Department tried to clamp down on them. Way to go, State Department.

To quote Princess Leia:

"The more you tighten your grip, the more [files] will slip through your fingers."

Or, What goes on the Internet, stays on the Internet.

For more info about the many new advances possible with 3D printers, from building replacement ears to repairing spinal discs, or giving prospective parents a 3D image of their unborn child, check it out here.

http://www.3dprinter.net/

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Our son-in-law Lowell sent over the latest photos of their new house. You know when they plant the tree it’s getting close.

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Really nice looking cabinets.

I still don’t think they’ve got a move-in date, but soon.

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There’s an organization online that’s taking applications for a One-Way Trip to Mars to set up a colony. They planned on leaving in 2022, and in two weeks they’ve had over 80,000 applicants. I told Jan that I would consider doing that just for the adventure. She said,

“Have a nice trip.”

Guess she’s not as adventurous as I thought.

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About 2:30 Jan and I headed down to check out the Hoover Dam Bridge Walkway. We’d originally planned to do this yesterday on our way back from Oatman, AZ, but decided to put it off until today.

To get there you have to turn off the new bridge road and continue on like you’re going directly to the Dam, but there is an earlier turn-off that leads you to the parking area for the walkway.

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Looking up from the parking lot you can see the walkway entrance.

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To get to the top you have your choice of a back and forth ramp, or a more-direct stairway.

But either way it’s not a hard climb.

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The walkway runs almost all the way to the other side, but not quite.

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I was surprised that Jan was able to get almost all the way out here. Although from the expression on her face I don’ think she’s too happy about it. But probably happier than Nick would be.

I was also pleasantly surprised to see how open the railing was, especially since as of July 2012 there have been 4 suicides from the bridge.

But the view from up here is just fantastic.

But if they really wanted to make it a great attraction, they’d put a zip line from up here down to the dam. Now that would be a TRIP!

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II had thought that they had stopped all traffic over the dam after the bridge was opened, but apparently not. I guess they just stopped truck and RV traffic.

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Another thing checked off on my bucket list.

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Coming back to Las Vegas, we decided to have one more meal at Lindo Michoacan before we leave here on Wednesday. Delicious as always.

Heading toward home, we stopped off at a CVS and then Boulder Station Casino to register our Boarding Passes for today’s drawings. Then it was home at about 6pm

Another nice day here in Las Vegas.

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Jan had been complaining that she can’t see the computer keyboard at night because there’s not much light here at the computer. So I found this on Amazon and it works great. It plugs into any USB port and the flexible neck lets you angle it as you need.

USB LED Flexible Keyboard light

And even better, it’s only $6.50 on Amazon Prime. Check it out.

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Laura Robinson, Jan’s niece-in-law, posted this photo of her daughter Annisten. Is she a cutie, or what?

Must be getting close to 6 months old now.

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Tomorrow we plan on doing Fremont Street, their Zip Line, and then eat dinner at the Heart Attack Grill located.

Assuming I’m still alive tomorrow, I’ll tell you all about it.

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Thought for the Day:

Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats. — Howard Aiken

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Jan and I headed out a little after 8 for our daytrip down to Oatman, AZ, about 120 miles away. But our first stop was at Jack in the Box for a couple of Supreme Croissants to go with the coffee we brought from home.

Heading down US93 the first thing we encountered was a line of vintage cars caravanning down to Kingman.

The ubiquitous 1957 Chevy

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Here’s one you don’t see very often. A 1963 Studebaker Gran Turismo Hawk. A friend’s parents had one.asdfdsf

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Another unusual one. A Studebaker truck

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A 1950 Chevrolet

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Ford ??. At least I think it’s a Ford. Nick might know.

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Another Ford

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And another Ford.

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Getting into Kingman, we made a potty stop at Nick’s favorite TA truck stop before heading about 4 miles west on I-40 and exiting onto what is the longest surviving section of Route 66.

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It starts out pretty straight and smooth, but them quickly starts climbing up into the mountains.

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Jan got excited when she saw this sign

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But we still had a way to go to get to Oatman.

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A curvy, twisty way.

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This sharp hairpin turn had the only railing we saw along the way. And based on the small cross memorial at the edge, the railing is probably a good idea.

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That is one twisty road.

A couple of miles outside of Oatman we came past the Gold Road Mine. This is a shot from up above.

Gold Road was actually once a town. The area built up in the very early 1900’s after gold was discovered in the surrounding hills Gold production peaked in 1906 and then tailed off as the vein played out.

But the town held on until 1942 when the miners moved on to other areas to mine more strategic metals for the war effort. Then a few years later the town was razed to save on taxes.

Then in 1992 a new company bought the mine and started up production again. But then in 1998 the gold price collapsed and mining was shut down once again.

For several years the mine company offered very popular gold mine tours, before starting up production again in 2007 and shutting down the tours.

With the high price of gold right now, the mine is very busy and very profitable. We counted about 30 cars in the parking lot and the place was surrounded by a tall chain-link fence topped by razor wire. Not taking any chances, I guess.

One thing I found interesting is that the mining company is making a lot of easy money just reprocessing the leftover tailings from the original mining effort. They don’t even have to dig it out of the ground

Modern extraction methods are so much more efficient now that they are getting more gold out of the old tailings than was gotten out originally.

Right past the mine area we saw where this car had gone off the road above and crashing into the rocks below.

Don’t know if it was driven, or pushed.

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Finally driving into beautiful downtown Oatman, we parked at the far end and walked back into town. And quickly saw our first indication that burros were near.

The town is only a few blocks long, but jam-packed with small stores and shops.

And lot’s and lot’s of burros. Lot’s of burros.

They’re everywhere. Which certainly made Jan happy.

Jan brought a bag of baby carrots to feed the burros, but a store clerk said they were trying to discourage the feeding of carrots because they have a lot of sugar, and too many are bad for the burros. Of course this may have just been a reason to sell us $1 bags of alfalfa pellets to feed them instead.

A little later while Jan was feeding some females, a big male came up behind her and tried to grab the bag containing the carrots. So for a little bit, you had this tug-of-war with the two of them fighting over the bag. Which promptly tore and spilled carrots and alfalfa pellets out on the ground.

Then it was a scramble to get it all picked up before it all got eaten.

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Sometimes you just need a little shade.

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Even the stores get into the fun.

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About noon we decided to have lunch at the Olive Oatman restaurant. We got was a very good meal, simple but good.

Jan had grilled chicken sandwich, and I had a very good cheeseburger.

But the dessert we shared was the real kicker. An order of Peach Fry Bread with Ice Cream.

Fry Bread is really, really good. Trust me.

After lunch Jan was back to feeding the burros.

But maybe she should have paid a little more attention to these signs posted all over town.

She was feeding two burros, when another one came up, and apparently impatient and not wanting to wait his turn, tried to take a chunk out of Jan’s hand. Didn’t break the skin, but she said it did smart.

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Walking back to our truck I saw this sign on the rear window of a parked truck.

So these are Mormon’s who don’t like dogs?

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Near the parking lot we saw this baby burro taking a nap, just pooped, I guess.

It reminded me of this photo of Landon dressed in his giraffe costume and too pooped to Trick-or-Treat any more.

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Oatman was named after Olive Oatman, an Illinois girl who was kidnapped by Indians in 1851 and lived with them until she was released in 1855, near present day Oatman.

Another interesting fact is that Clark Gable and Carol Lombard honeymooned here in March 1939 after getting married in Kingman, AZ. In fact you can stay in the Gable/Lombard honeymoon suite at the Oatman Hotel to this day.

We headed home about 1:30, taking a different route and heading west on over to hook up with US95 south of Bullhead City and Laughlin, and then on north back to Las Vegas.

Getting back about 4pm we first stopped off at Boulder Station Casino to swipe our Boarding Pass cards for the weekend drawings, and to get Starbuck’s Cinnamon Dolce Lattes before we finally headed home.

We decided not to do the Hoover Dam Bridge Walkway today and will try to catch it another day.

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Thought for the Day:

We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. — Aesop

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