“Best Seat in the House”(08-10-15)

Last weekend we didn’t feel like driving as far as Flagstaff, so to escape the heat, we took the camper to nearby Hualapai Mountain Park, where it is 30 degrees cooler than Havasu.
It sure did feel good to be able to sit outside, and even have a campfire.









  This county park has a “parking lot” style campground for bigger rigs, and dispersed type campsites for smaller ones.  We snagged what we considered to be the best campsite in the park.  And others seemed to agree with us.  Why do I say that?  We had lots of visitors.










Our first visitor was this guy.  He meandered through our campsite.  Dozer wanted to chase him so I had to throw the cat in the camper, and the snake was wandering off before I could find my camera, so I snapped this with my phone.


Yessiree, This here snake is an Arizona Black Rattler. My first sighting of a rattlesnake after 6 years on the road!!

Several times during our stay we were visited by “tourists” who obviously agreed we had the best view around, and it didn’t seem to bother them that they had to walk around the back of our camper to get to it.  Oh well.  At that point you can either get mad, or understand they just wanted to take a picture.

Sunset didn’t stop the steady stream of visitors. A gray fox wandered through our campsite twice- Dozer also wanted to chase him, but I held him tight.

While we were sitting by the fire I heard a noise that scared the you know what out of me because it was coming from just a few feet away, but it was so dark I couldn’t see that it was just this guy, coming to see if we had any  leftovers.

With cooler temperatures, hiking was on the agenda.  Our first trip was up the side of a mountain to the radio towers on top.  It was about 4 miles, and a pretty good work out.

Once we reached the top, we could look across and see our camper, nestled on the side of the mountain.

















  

The following day we still had energy so we hiked another trail, about 5 miles, with 1300 feet of elevation gain, which is quite a work out for me, at this elevation.

There are only about 12 miles of trails in this park, but at least the weather was awesome, and there was a decent view once in a while!

After our hike, we relaxed for a bit, not in a rush to start the hour and a half trek back into the heat.

As a side note, you know its never a good sign when the hood of a vehicle is up.  As a general rule, we expect issues with the Jeep- we’ve already had to replace the spark plugs- but the truck tows our home, and needs to be dependable.  Unfortunately, on this day, it was the truck that wouldn’t start.

After spending a little time diagnosing, Paul said one of the batteries was bad (the truck is over 4 years old so…….)  We learned early on in our boating lives that batteries are one of the most critically important parts of a well functioning boat, and our philosophy has been to replace batteries the minute there is an issue.  So yep, the truck is now sporting two new batteries.

House Update

 

The HVAC guys are  now done (for now), as are the plumbers. 

This mish mash of wood and pipe will be our walk in shower in the master bedroom.

When the outside of the house is finished, this post will also have a shower.  The plumber was surprised that I wanted both cold AND hot running water ( the water in Havasu in the summer is TOO hot without even using ANY hot).

Paul and I have had our own work to do, and have focused our energies on picking out the many light fixtures we will need.  We’ll use the Large Pendant light in the foyer, the 5 light chandelier over the dining table, and 3 of the small pendant lights over the island.










The house will have 6  ceiling fans- 4 inside, and two out on the back patio.  Choosing them was trickier than you’d think.  They come in all kinds of sizes, with all different features, and there aren’t many that are rated for outdoor use.














The “fun” fixtures have all been chosen- we still need to decide which security lights we want in the yard. This will be above the bathroom vanities.


Luckily Paul and I are both a fan of brushed nickel, and not so much a fan of oil rubbed bronze.

Escaping The Heat (06-05-15)

What’s the difference between 470 and 7500? If you answered 7030, obviously you would be correct.  But in my particular example, the more important difference between those two numbers is about 25-35* F.  At 470 feet above sea level, Havasu temperatures are in the 80s and 90s.  At 7500 feet above sea level, the temperatures would be in the 60s and 70s.







I was perusing the literature and brochures that Paul and I had picked up about Havasu and surrounding areas, when something caught my eye.

Hualapai Mountain Park

This park is less than an hour and a half drive from Havasu, but it sits at an elevation of 7500 feet. Lake Havasu City is at 470 feet, so instead of the 98* in that it is in Havasu, the temperature was only 73* at the park.

We made a day trip out there and hiked one of several trails- we ended up hiking about 6 miles with 1400 feet of elevation gain.  Hiking at such a high elevation knocks the wind out of you pretty fast when you haven’t acclimated to it. We elected not to overdo.

We were pretty happy with that outing, even though the trail was nothing spectacular.










You might wonder where all my pictures are.  I mean, two measly pictures is not much.  Well, I’ll tell you. I took my good camera on that trip because I didn’t think we’d be doing a long hike. So that’s where my pictures are.  Still in the camera.

Here’s what happened.  Although the weather hasn’t been nearly as hot as it will be in a month or thereabouts, boredom and frustration are setting in.  We have not heard from the city about our house plans, so there is nothing we can do to move the project forward.  Rather than sitting and twiddling our thumbs, we loaded up the camper and left (and I left my good camera behind).

House Update

Nothing to see here.  There is nothing happening on the house at this point.  Apparently, the city is experiencing a mini housing boom so it’s taking a long time to get house plans approved.
We have been shopping around though…..

a potential back splash…

Or, maybe this…

Originally we were thinking a granite in the brown tones, in order to be neutral, but realistically, we will be decorating in a lighter, Caribbean-ish theme, so we have (pretty much) decided to go with our favorite granite- the Blue Pearl.



We already have one end table that features this granite- its one that Paul made a few years ago. We are hoping we can find a slab that leans more towards the gray tones, and less towards the blue.