Travel recap: Laughlin trip

Seventeen Leisure Worlders joined 17 others from Janet Karter’s three-day getaway to Laughlin, Nevada on the Colorado River in mid-November.

All enjoyed the bus activities, the desert scenery and the casino playing machines, but the tour highlight was making the 191 curves on historic Route 66 to the old western mining town of Oatman, Arizona. Street burros greeted the group, nuzzled them for food and lazily wander through the main street where a cowboy shoot-out didn’t faze them. As the number one residents, the wild burros have the right of way. Oatman was a booming town in 1915 with the discovery of rich ore. The town attracted miners and prospectors and the town grew to 3,500 residents. The town’s main mine shut down in 1924, but other mining continued until 1944. To date, there are 70 families living in Oatman and they thrive on tourism.

—Joanna Matos