Spring in Havasu (05-18-16)

Yes, I am aware, as I post this, that we are halfway through summer already.  But in order to write about summer, I first have to write about spring.  So here we are.



Spring in Havasu was full of projects and fun. We thought we’d be lonely for the month of May, with everyone scattered to various summer destinations, but that was not the case!



Personally I wanted to be here in May because I remembered from last year that it was perfect swimming weather.  We can finally leave the cover off the pool all the time!  We still heated it to 87* though.

We heard from our friends Dave and Nancy that they wanted to come stay with us for a few weeks so Dave could remodel the kitchen in their rig. We are always happy to have them around! So much fun!

Dave found plenty of time to help Paul with some of his projects too, which was an added bonus for us.

Nancy and I got into the habit of walking in the morning, and swimming in the afternoon. Walking is so much more fun when you have someone with you!

One of our major projects was to work on the landscaping.  We planted Oleander all along the outside of the fence, hoping it will give us some privacy, once the plants grow a little.  Of course, we had to set up irrigation for them, which involved digging several trenches across the yard.

Most of what we planted should survive the desert, but still, I will be really curious to see what it looks like by the fall.

We had one project pop up that we weren’t expecting.  The landing gear on the trailer started leaking hydraulic fluid.  After talking with the manufacturer, sharing pictures and info, they agreed to replace the legs at no charge to us- Paul just had to install them himself.  It required some propping up of the trailer, and a deep hole in the ground in order to remove the legs, but he got it all done!

I did mention that fun was on the menu, so we attempted to use the jet boat, but it wasn’t long before the only power we had was from the oar we had on board.

Luckily a good Samaritan soon came along and gave us a tow to the dock.

Not to worry- Paul wasn’t going to accept being stuck on land so we headed to the nearest Kawasaki dealer and bought a 3 person jet ski.  We didn’t get the turbo model so its only 160 hp and goes about  70 mph.

 

Our daughter Jess heard the word Jet ski, and promptly made plans to come for the weekend with one of her girlfriends. After a quick lesson, Paul sent the two of them on their way.  A little while later we saw our jet ski doing circles and tricks, and were amazed!  We hadn’t realized that Jess’s friend Jamee grew up with Jet skis, and she was the one at the helm.

Once off the lake, there was still plenty of time for us all to hang out in the pool.

Somewhere in the middle of all this I got a call from my cousin Linda, who lives in Phoenix.  She and a group of friends (who we have met) were looking to come up to Havasu for a weekend of boating.  Luckily they have their own boats, so they packed them up and came to the house for Memorial Day weekend.

So, spring was fun, we had lots of company and plenty to do.

Scenes From Utah Hikes (04-26-16)

After leaving Vegas, we headed to Utah to do some hiking.  Utah is probably my favorite state for hiking, although our first venture out didn’t work out so well.

This trail had  a warning to anyone who is afraid of heights, but I am fond of saying I am not afraid of heights, I am afraid of falling.  This Canal Trail took us along the edges of a canyon above the Virgin River. Unfortunately, the trail (you can see it below Paul, along the CLIFF) was too close to the edge for me, and I had to turn around.

Still, the views were nice.

Just to prove my point, here is me, smiling at the top of a mountain, with a gorgeous view, but no fear of falling. This was the Red Mountain Traverse Trail- about 8 miles long, with varying views along the way.

Paul posed for the same picture.

I love hiking on rock, and this trail offered plenty opportunity for that.














Another view from the same hike.  This was one of my favorite hikes.  The valley we are overlooking is in Snow Canyon State Park, in Utah, near Zion National Park.

We have spent a fair amount of time hiking in Utah, so this trip we were kind of staying away from the places we had been before, and trying something new.







Another day, another hike- this one in Red Cliffs  National Conservation Area.

The weather was all over the place while we were in Utah.  80s one day, followed by 62 degrees the next.  Add differing elevations to that and you never knew what you were gonna get.


I really wanted to check out Kolob Canyon- it’s a more remote part of Zion National Park, and has some great hiking trails.  It also had snow. Fresh snow.

Our plans for hiking being thwarted gave us time to drive 10 miles down a dirt “road” to Toquerville Falls. This is a popular swimming destination, but not until the spring run off slows down!

Nearby Snow Canyon State Park was on my list of places that I wanted to hike, but we ran out of time. We were staying at an Elks Lodge, and thought we’d be able to extend our stay but they had a special meeting going on and we had to leave. 







It was really cool to realize that we were only 4 hours from home, so we can come back whenever we want!




Speaking of home, on the way there, a tire on the truck developed a bubble, and Paul had to put on the spare.  Luckily we caught it before it was a catastrophic failure.
We were planning on replacing all 6 tires before we left Havasu for the summer, so we bumped it up on the priority list, and they have already all been replaced.  We even got the damaged one replaced for free- we love Discount Tire!



We have been home for about a week now, busy buying things (more on that later), planting things and all the usual stuff.

Vegas, Baby! (04-22-16)

For Paul and I, Vegas falls into the “been there, done that” category. And yet, we just spent over a week there. However-  we only went into the city itself once- and it wasn’t to gamble or see a show!




Our primary purpose in coming to Vegas was to attend the Scottish Highland Games.  Paul and I both have a fair amount of Scottish in us, and we enjoy these Celtic Festivals.

We were joined by Mike and Julie, and Randy and Liz, who had all just left our house the day before.  We also met up with Dave and Jan, friends of Mike and Julie.

Paul and Mike both look great in a Kilt, and seem to enjoy getting into the spirit of things by wearing the traditional garb (the man in the middle is the leader of one off the Celtic bands).

Highland Way was one of several bands that performed on the main stage.  There was live music all day long.

There was plenty to see and do, with competitions taking place all day long.

The Athletics, such as the Caber Toss, are always fun to watch, and other competitions included  Drum Major, individual piping, drumming…

….and pipe bands.

Food and beverage were also plentiful, and several of our group attended a whisky tasting.



Over Yonder, away from the music, was an area of tents where you could buy all things Celtic, and check out the Clan tents.  Neither the Johnston or Campbell clans were represented, so I affiliated myself with the Clan Inebriated. Easy to join- just look them up on Facebook!











Closing Ceremonies featured Scotland The Brave:

The only time we ventured into the city was to check out the Carroll Shelby Museum.

 Anyone who is interested in cars should check this out.  We had a guided tour that lasted an hour and a half, and I never got bored!

This is Shelby #1- the first car Carroll Shelby ever modified.  He was offered $26 million for it, and turned it down.

The Shelby 1000- Yup, that’s 1000 horsepower!

The Super Snake- topping out at over 200 mph.  And even though Carroll Shelby died a few years ago, you can still have one of these built for you

The tour was full of anecdotes about Carroll Shelby- his racing life, the cars he built and his relationships with auto manufacturers . 

Our adventuring mostly consisted of hiking.  Maybe surprisingly, there is a lot of hiking available in the Las Vegas area. 



We first headed to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area.
















The Calico Hills area is one of my favorites.  The rock colors and formations are just really cool, and fun to hike on.











We also hiked to Madre Spring on a different day, but we called that hike “exercise”.  Not much to see of interest, but at least we were out and about.

On one of the hotter days we headed up to nearby Mt. Charleston, which sits at a higher elevation. The trail we chose was to Mary Jane Falls.  It was almost 5 miles long, and over 1500 ft of elevation gain.

We call this type of hike a “twofer”.  The scenery along the way was great, and there was a cave. and a waterfall at the end of the trail. 




Julie and I sat by the waterfall while Mike and Paul wandered over to the cave. The arrow points to the guys.












Of course you can’t hike all day every day, so we had plenty of time to hang out.

The RV park where we stayed happened to be a shooting range, and all the guys took advantage of that to do some target shooting. 

After dinner it was time to get out the firewood and the musical instruments.




Life is good.









Soon enough, it was Wheels Up, as we all scattered for our summer destinations.  Our next stop is Utah, where we’ll do some hiking.

Playing Catch Up (04-14-16)

Apparently “some” inquiring minds would like to know what we’ve been up to since my last post, which was, egad, over a month ago. 

After leaving Tucson, we headed to El Paso, by way of Chiricahua National Monument, where we spent some time hiking.

Hiking among the hoodoos at this park is quite a blast…..

…and offers some spectacular views as well.

We spent two weeks with Paul’s mom, taking care of some yard work and just general stuff that she wanted help with.  We also both had our dental check up since our favorite dentist is in El Paso.  How exciting!



In early April we went home to Havasu, stopping in Tucson to visit one more time and see our friends’ new house. 

We no sooner arrived home when we got a message inquiring if we were home.  Our friends Mike and Julie were looking for a place to celebrate Mike’s birthday:

So, along with friends Liz and Randy, they came to hang out with us for a few days.  The weather wasn’t very pool friendly, but we still had a great time.


As usual, the kitchen was well used and we cooked several meals together.

Of course, there is always something going on in Havasu and this weekend was no exception. 

The boat show was about more than just boats- also on display were side by side ATVs- do I see one in our future??

  

There were also Jet ski races on the lake, which were actually fun to watch.

Come Monday, they all took off again, but there was no need for long good-byes. They were headed to nearby Vegas, and we followed them the next day.


More on Vegas later…..

Tucson (03-14-16)

After finishing our doctor appointments in Phoenix, we moved on to Tucson, for More doctor appointments.  But at least here we got to visit with friends, too. 

And what’s better than visiting with friends? Visiting with friends that have their own grapefruit tree!  Yummy!!! Thanks to Tom and Dianne I have all the grapefruit I can eat!





Although we only had a few days, we did manage to cram a lot in.

I have always wanted to do the scenic drive up nearby Mt. Lemmon, and when the weather forecast called for temps in the high 80s, we packed Mike and Julie into the truck and headed for the hills. (Thanks for the pic, Mike)

As we climbed to higher elevations (Mt. Lemmon stands at 5000 ft higher than Tucson) the weather got cooler and cooler, and the highest elevations had snow on the ground! 

There were lots of viewpoints where you could get out and admire the view, go for a hike…..














…or get your exercise by pushing some rocks around.

     Gee, can you tell which way the wind comes from??

We started getting hungry for lunch so we bypassed some of the turn outs and bee lined for the restaurants at the top of the mountain, in a small town appropriately named Summerhaven. 
There are only a few restaurants, so we chose the Cookie Cabin (no surprise there!) and had a reasonably good lunch before heading back down the hill into the warmth of Tucson.







Our other major outing was to the Marriott Starr Pass Resort.  It sits high on the mountain pass and has a nice view of the sunset.




We first came to this restaurant last year with Mike and Julie, and came away with a new favorite toast.  Most of our friends have heard it from us-  “Arriba, Abajo, Al Centro, Al Dentro” (Up…Down….Out…In ….)

Every day at 5:30,  after telling the story of Pancho Villa, a toast is made, using a complimentary shot of tequila served by the restaurant. The full story is quoted below, from the restaurant’s Facebook page.

This year we were joined by our friends Tom and DIanne, who are in Tucson, waiting to close on a new house!

After a short time enjoying the company of our friends, we continued our trek towards El Paso to see Paul’s mom.

The Legend of Arriba Abajo:

“the legend of Arriba, Abajo  goes back to a traditional Mexican custom where a prospective groom that wants to marry his beloved asks for her hand in marriage through her father.  Now, Pancho Villa, the great Mexican revolutionary, wanted to marry his dearest Juanita, and in ritual custom he asked for her hand in marriage through her father.  Her father, knowing whom Pancho Villa was, refused the offer, but…he offered a very interesting contest.  He said… if you can drink more tequila than me…than you can marry my daughter.  Pancho Villa scratched his head at that request, but he loved Juanita, accepted the offer, they sat down at the table and the tequila was brought out.  They started doing shots, but after a while Pancho Villa noticed that the father was doing one shot for every two of Pancho Villas.  Pancho Villa takes his shot glass, slams it on the table and says from now on we drink together.  He toasts Arriba, Abajo, Al Centro, Al Dentro.  A couple more shots are taken, a little bit more of the bottle goes by, and the father ends up face down, passed out on the table, and that’s how Pancho Villa won the hand of his dearest Juanita.”