Oatman, AZ & Laughlin, NV

Yesterday, Sunday, Larry G., Mary, Teddy & I took a day trip to Oatman, AZ and Laughlin, NV. Oatman is a historic western ghost town and mining camp located on old Route 66. During the day wild burros wander into town from the surrounding hills and feed on carrots and other goodies handed out by tourists. Periodically a wild west gunfight is reenacted on the main street in front of the old hotel.



From Oatman
we drove over to Laughlin, NV to the Colorado Belle Casino for dinner.
Laughlin is a mini Las Vegas with several large gambling casinos located SE of Vegas across the Colorado River from Bullhead City, AZ. Here's Teddy gambling away our retirement savings. We are now pennyless and will have to move in with Mike & Toni for the rest of our lives.

Saturday 2/25

This afternoon, Teddy's cousin, Larry Gilbert and his friend Mary from Mesa, AZ came to visit us for the weekend.

Another Day in Paradise

We went to the regular Saaturday morning breakfast in the clubhouse this morning. Scrambled eggs, sausages, biscuits & gravy, pancakes, waffles, juice & coffee.
See if you can spot Teddy. (click on picture to enlarge)

Our 42nd Wedding Anniversary

It doesn’t seem possible but today (February 22) I have been married to the love of my life for 42 years. As in the old song refrain, “the years go by as quickly as a wink.”Here we are on February 22, 1964...
...and here we are now.

Martini Monday

Martinis last evening at 5:30...We assume that Dick, Jen, Greg, Tom, Carol & Wes back Appleton and Kevin in Naperville are doing their part to uphold the tradition.

This is a map showing our travels so far since we began fulltiming last spring (2005). Click on the map for a larger version.
As you can see, we haven't let any grass grow beneath our feet.
From time to time I will be updating the map.

After the regular Saturday morning breakfast the park held a rummage sale for the residents. I ended up buying a 30 amp autotransformer for $70.00. Now we won't have to worry about the low voltage that we sometimes run into in the parks that we visit. 30 amp autotransformers are over $300 in the Campers World catalogue.

Last week when we arrived here, Teddy Hung a hummingbird feeder outside a window and today we were rewarded by a visit from an Anna's Hummingbird. Being from the midwest this is the first hummer that I have ever seen that was not a Ruby Throat.
Before I could get to my camera he/she was gone. I'm going to keep a close watch and try to get a pict.

I've been going to a morning coffee/BS session that the guys in the park hold every morning from 7 - 8 am.
Then the rest of the day today I started working on income tax. I had been using a home office in previous years and that makes it a bit complicated this year figuring out the cost basis of the house.

Valentines Day

Today was Valentine's day. Lucky for me, I asked Teddy to be my Valentine and she agreed.
This evening the park hosted a valentines day potluck dinner/dance. It was a lot of fun with skits put on by some of the park RVers followed by live music & dancing.

Eastern California

Today we took a day trip and drove a loop up to Needles, CA, then down US 95 to Parker, AZ and back to Lake Havasu City. It was very scenic with the desert and mountain views.

This morning we went to a breakfast in the clubhouse that the park residents host every Saturday. The RV residents take turns volunteer hosting and a free will donation covers the cost. Scrambled eggs, sausage, biscuits & gravy, pancakes, coffee and OJ are offered. It was great. Then I set up the dish so that it cannot blow over again with a mast through the umbrella hole in our site's picnic table. Played with the Garmin and am going to really like it. Also read some more Connelly and watched the Olympics this evening.
A real good day.

FedEx Blues

Had a bad day yesterday (Friday) as FedEx lost a package that was supposed to be delivered by 4pm. I was upset last night but at 9am this morning a driver showed up with it. Said that it had gotten mixed up with another delivery and left there. Oh well...at least I now have it. It was a new Garmin 7200 Street Pilot. Our Magellan 700 went TU. I sent it in for repair but really wanted the Garmin anyway as Garmin has announced that they will be supporting Mac OSX. Soooo...now I suppose we'll have two GPS units.
Then on top of everything else I had temporarly set up our Directv Dish and the wind blew it over while we were watching TV. I said, "to heck with it." and went to bed.

Picts. of Havasu Falls RV Resort

Havasu Falls RV Resort

We decided to spend more time here in Lake Havasu City as we like the city and it is convient for taking day trips to other attractions such as Las Vegas, Hoover Dam, Oatman, etc. So yesterday we pulled up stakes at the state park and moved here to the Havasu Falls RV Resort for a month's stay. It is a nice RV park with all the ammenities; full hookup, concrete pull-thru pads, laundry, wi-fi, cable TV, swimming pool, clubhouse, exercise room, and planned activities etc. All included for $435/month + electric.
Will take some picts. today and post tonight.

Sent the Magellan to a repair facility in Fort Worth, TX. Might be time to upgrade to a Garman 7200. Depends in what happens.
I am currently at the library writing this; Teddy is wandering around in the stacks. Finished another Michael Connelly novel last night, really like his writing style and suprise endings where all the good guys turn out to be bad guys and all of the bad guys turn out to be good guys.
Another sunny day in Lake Havasu, it seldom rains here. All of the yards in front of houses are of crushed gravel. Yard decorations seem to run to cacti, dried cattle skulls, and driftwood. It's a lot different than Wisconsin, folks, however McDonalds and Wal-Marts are unfailingly the same everywhere.

Having trouble with our Magellan GPS. It doesn’t seem to be able to get sattelite lock. Called tech support and everything that they suggested didn’t work so they want me to send it in. It’s under warranty but still a bummer. Should have bought a Garman. We went to the library this afternoon and did our email.

It doesn't rain here very often but evidently from looking at this culvert, when it does rain you better not get caught in a wash like this.
Very windy today…didn’t go anywhere…stayed home and saved money.
Watched the Steelers win the Superbowl.

Set-up the DSS dish so that we can watch the Super Bowl tomorrow.

We definitely aren’t going to Mexico. We plan on staying here in Lake Havasu for a while and then explore the southwest.
Took a picture of this Roadrunner that showed up next to the trailer. I think that he was looking for a handout. There are also Gambel's Quail and rabbits running around. Hope to get some picts of the quail but they are very quick and quite shy.
Rod & Sharon came over tonight and introduced us to a rummy type game played with tiles. Had a good time.

I called our insurance company (GMAC) and found that we aren’t covered in Mexico for anything. Neither are we covered for Teddy’s medical.
Found out that the Lake Havasu Library has free Wi-Fi, so went on line to investigate insurance costs to travel in Mexico. Bad news is that it is quite expensive. Additionally we found that we have to have a veterinarian certificate for the cats dated within 10 days of travel. We are having second thoughts about traveling down the Baja. 2000 miles of diesel fuel on top of the insurance costs adds up to an amount that will pay for a lot of travel right here in the southwest with none of the hassle. Bummer!!
We went out for dinner tonight at a China Buffet near the London Bridge. A strange juxtaposition of cultures, having dinner in Lake Havasu, Arizona, at a Chinese restaurant in the shadow of the London Bridge.