A Family Visit (02-27-15)

With an unceasing bombardment of snow, ice, and sub freezing temperatures in Boston, I guess it’s not a surprise that my brother Ray and his wife Dawn elected to fly out and visit us here in sunny Arizona.

The weather here wasn’t very cooperative either, but still, high 60s beats –10 any day, I guess.

 

After a day or so to unwind we started venturing out a bit. Shopping is always on the agenda so we visited the Shoppes at London Bridge.  We were highly entertained by the salesman in the hat shop, who insisted that we would buy the hat that he was demonstrating.  He said he didn’t know when we would buy, but eventually we would.  Well, he was right- my brother was sold on it and two days later he went back to buy it.






Soon enough we were all ready for a field trip.  We headed up historic Rte 66 to the old mining town of Oatman, Arizona. Oatman has been restored to feel like an old west town, right down to the wild burros roaming the streets. 

The wooden sidewalks were lined with restaurants, stores and the occasional musical cowboy.

Twice a day the streets erupt in gunfire as a (pretty cheesy) bank robbery takes place.  Afterwards, a donation hat is passed and the proceeds go to the Shriner’s, so that made it worth watching.















   

Lunch was at the Oatman Hotel.  The walls are lined with money, the food is just ok, and the live music was actually pretty good.

After lunch it was time to head down a gorgeous stretch of Rte 66 to the town of Kingman.

There are several small museums in Kingman.  The museum of Mohave history has an interesting display of Fulgurite.  Fulgurite is created when lightning, at a temperature above 3100*, strikes sand, fusing the grains of sand together.  The end result is a hollow glass tube.

The weather got better as the week went on so we looked for a way to spend some time on the water.  We still haven’t put the boat together, so we decided to take the ferry across the lake to the casino.

We weren't interested in gambling so we headed to the restaurant for a pretty decent lunch.  And what a view from the window!

It was definitely a gorgeous afternoon for a ride.  It costs $2 for a round trip ferry ride to the casino, and the ride is about 15 minutes each way. Just long enough to enjoy without getting bored.

Way too soon it was time to make the trek back up to Las Vegas to drop them off for their flight home.

Lake Havasu City (02-14-15)

Last year we came to Lake Havasu with some friends to see the fireworks show, and we had so much fun we decided to repeat it again this year-but this time we are staying a lot longer- we’ll be here for almost two months, enjoying the warm weather and the lake. 
Our first week was spent at the state park, which is on the lake.  We did a little hiking and decided not to put the boat in the water, since we are going to spend 6 weeks at a resort and we’ll be able to keep it the lake the whole time. Instead, we just bummed around and waited for our friends to show up.

One afternoon we heard a very loud droning noise and went outside to see a flyover of a bunch of small planes.  We have no idea why they were doing it, but there is always something going on in this town, it seems like.

Of course, Lake Havasu City is home to the famous London Bridge, and there are many restaurants along the shoreline with great views of the bridge and lake.

The best way to enjoy the lake is to be on it in a boat!  With temperatures in the mid 80s, we all decided that boating sounded awesome, so we rented two boats for the day.

It was a little chilly in the morning but that didn't keep the grins off our faces….

The lake is gorgeous and has lots of places for us to pull off and relax on shore.

There are plenty of canyons to explore too..

 

We were pretty glad we didn't rent a pontoon boat, as we were able to zip around to our heart’s content…

When it was time for lunch we beached the boats at one of the many picnic areas along the shoreline….

We took the opportunity to stretch our legs and show off our goofiness…

   

Julie and I “coincidentally” both wore the shirts we bought in Quartzsite…

       

and when the time was right- we showed them off to our fellow boaters. 

We did manage to get quite a laugh…

Eventually it warmed up and some of us even braved the cold water to go for a (very short) swim.

We finished the day with Quesadillas and margaritas back at the rigs and were so tuckered out that many of us barely showed our faces the next day.

We actually ended up eating most of our dinners as a group, which is a little unusual, but we were having such a good time it seemed really easy to combine forces and come up with a smorgasbord of food with a little something for everyone. We treated ourselves to one dinner out, at the Barley Brothers Brewery, and even with such a large party, we had the best service we've seen in a restaurant in a long time.  We all had good food and a great time.

Eventually we got to see the fireworks that we came here for……

 

 

They definitely had some new stuff this year, including some that were time delayed in such a way that it appeared that a circle was being drawn in the sky..

 

and many of them seemed to have one display within another.

We really enjoy this show but it can get a little frustrating.  Its not a well orchestrated “show” – there are many fits and starts and sometimes a 40 minute gap between the displays, but being parked on the grounds in our RVs makes it worthwhile.



Before we knew it, it was time to say goodbye as one by one we left on our journey to our next destination. 





Paul and I didn't have far to go- about 4 miles down the road to the state park.  We’ll spend one night here before moving to a resort for 6 weeks.


I am pretty excited because on Saturday, my brother Ray and his wife Dawn will arrive for a week.

 Come to think of it though, they may be even more excited than me….they live in Boston and have had 5 feet of snow dumped on them in the last few weeks. 




Add wind chills of 25 degrees below zero and I bet they will be pretty darn happy to get out of town for a while. 

“R” 02-03-15

What comes after Q?  R…..and R.   After a crazy two weeks playing with our friends, we were ready for some Rest and Relaxation. We spent almost a week in the small town of Blythe California, just over the border from Arizona.  I think it was 2 days before I even left the rig.  Between cleaning the piles of dust out of everything and sitting like zombies in front of the TV, there wasn’t much time for anything else-except laundry.  I did plenty of laundry.



We chose this RV park partly because they have cable, and we were guaranteed that we could watch the Super Bowl.  Well, as everyone knows by now, my beloved New England Patriots won the game and became Super Bowl champions once more.  What a great game!









The cable was about the only thing this RV Park (Riviera RV) has going for it.  The pool is unheated and the hot tub doesn't get warm until late afternoon.  Its right on the river but the water is sometimes so low, we wouldn't have been able to launch the dinghy. Not that we had the energy for that anyway. 


We did, one afternoon, drive the short 2 mile trek to where Julie, Mike, Dave and Nancy were staying, and swam in their heated pool all afternoon. No pictures though.



Once we regained some energy we headed out to find some hiking.  There aren't many trails around here, so we just walked out in the desert, near the Blythe Intaglios.

Intaglios are figures that are carved into the earth.  They are thought to be ancient, but since there is no way to date them, no one really knows how old they are.  These were discovered in the 1930s.

This one is 171 feet long, surrounded by a chain link fence and is better seen from the air:

Our other outing was to Cibola  National Wildlife Refuge. We started at the small museum, which is where we saw this guy.

Although there isn't too much hiking, there is a short driving loop designed for wildlife viewing.  We did see what we think is a Northern Harrier Hawk.

Along the road we kept seeing what looked like graves, complete with little crosses, but actually they are nests for burrowing owls.  We didn't see any owls though.

The guys spent quite a long time examining these ruins.  No doubt they were deciding how they would renovate it.

That was about the extent of our exertion in Blythe, and we have since moved on to Lake Havasu City. Actually, we will be here for almost two months- it might be a record for us!  We are spending the first week at the state park, which is right on the lake.