Weekend Getaway to Needles

Most people don't think of Needles, CA as a place to visit in the middle of the summer, but that is where I ended up this past weekend. A friend of mine was going there with some friends and didn't want to drive, so I said I'd be happy to drive my Mustang. We didn't leave SD until 4PM on a Friday, so we hit traffic everywhere and it took six hours to get there.

We were staying at a house that belonged to John Lee, the man who died in a plane crash last month in Needles. John Lee's girlfriend had some stuff to take care of in town and she invited people out. The first place we went to once arriving was a bar called Red Dog, which John Lee recently bought and was in the middle of renovating. Needles isn't a big town, and there aren't many bars, or any non-abandoned building, around. The Red Dog bar is not like bars I'm used to. They allow smoking inside, the beer is very cheap, and people are there to drink lots of it. I referred to the clientele as "fat, stupid people", which I know is not very nice, but I couldn't believe just how stupidly drunk people were getting. When we went back on Saturday night it was even worse, with fights almost breaking out and one drunk man started yelling at drunk woman accusing her of spilling his drink.

The house was located on the banks of the Colorado River. John Lee had a boat and it was docked below the house. Some people got up early Saturday morning and went water skiing. I hung out at the house during this time and went on the boat later with everyone. The boat had room for about 15 people and with only 9 of us there was plenty of room. We started by speeding down the river to get to the "sandbar", which was a sandbar in the middle of the river where everyone anchors their boat and walks around drinking and who knows what else. It was quite interesting. This was actually my first time doing anything like this, so it was all new to me. After about an hour we headed back to the boat and hung out a little longer. Then it was off to Topack, a bar/restaurant located just off the river, where you dock your boat and walk up a ramp to get to.
We had lunch and drank some beer, including the Topock Swordfish Amber (which I called the Toprock by mistake). We where sitting in the bar area and noticed a TV above the bar with photos being displayed. We soon realized that the photos were being taken of people in the bar when we saw pictures of us! There was a man walking around with a digital camera taking photos and then downloading them to a computer to display on the screen. It was actually very amusing to see peoples reaction when they saw themselves, especially when they were caught in a "compromising situation". As the sun was setting, we headed back to the house to relax before hitting the town again.

On Sunday we woke up early, once again, and ate breakfast at the "usual" place, Jedro's Wagon Wheel. Lisa, who was John Lee's girlfriend, knew the owner and we were treated like royalty, with at least 5 people serving us and making sure we had enough coffee and food. I ate the chicken fried steak for some reason.

After the meal, we made one more river run on the boat before most people had to head home. I wish I had been out to Needles before John Lee's accident. People say he made sure everyone had fun. He bought everyone's drinks at his bar and let everyone stay at his home, which had beds for at least 16 people.

Steve and I left around 4PM and ended up taking a short cut home. Traffic was really bad on the I40, so we took back roads down to the I10, only making one wrong turn in 29 Palms. It still took almost six hours to get home, where I slept like a rock after spending the weekend in a 110+ degrees desert.

I almost forgot to say what a fun, relaxing weekend it was and I hope I have a chance to go back there again.