Oatman

Today 5 of us (Dan & Pat Martenson from Escanaba,MI and Jan Morse from Bakersfield, CA and ourselves) went on a roadtrip to Oatman, AZ. Oatman, located on old Route 66, is/was an old fronter mining town turned into a tourist trap. One of the attractions are the "wild" burros that come into the town daily and beg for carrots from the tourists.

Here are Teddy and Jan in one of the souvenor shops.









The shops all sell bunches of carrots to feed the burros with.
Here Jan gives away her last carrot.












Pat appears to have lost her way.













This is the hotel where Carole Lombard and Clark Gable are purported to have stayed on their wedding night.



From Oatman we drove over to the AVI Casino in Laughlin, NV for dinner before returning to Lake Havasu.

Clocks & Stanford Fleming

Over one hundred years ago Sir Stanford Fleming proposed a system of imaginary lines that would divide the world into standardized time zones. It was adopted by most of the countries of the world and with some minor tinkering is essentially the system that we use today. The minor tinkering is what we were faced with last night when most of the nation, with some exceptions (Arizona being one), moved their clocks ahead exactly one hour. As fulltime RV travelers the different time zones across the nation often cause us some confusion as to what time it is where "so and so" lives. For instance it is now three hours ahead of us where Teddy's mom lives whereas yesterday it was just two hours.So in order to make life easier I purchased three inexpensive wall clocks from the local Ace Hardware and set them to the three areas that we are the most interested in. Now all it takes is a quick glance at the wall to decide if it's time to call Mom.

Wisconsin Mixer

Yesterday we attended the annual "Wisconsin Mixer" get togather for Wisconsin Snowbirds down here in Lake Havasu. It was held at the local Eagles Club. There were between 300 and 400 folks there. Hard to believe that there are that many Wisconsinites down here. Makes me wonder, "Who's minding the store". Had a big lunch and raffles with donated gifts from local merchants.

Home again, Home again, Jiggity Jig.

Our four day weekend at the Fountain of Youth SPA has woefully come to an end.
After one more trip to the pools we hooked up and left for Lake Havasu at about noon.

Dan & Pat had followed us on the way down so I told Dan to take the lead and we followed them on the way back. ;-)

We arrived back here at Havasu Falls around 5 pm, just in time to go over to the clubhouse for Monday night "Pegs & Jokers".

Dates

Spent the morning bathing in the mineral pools.

Then in the afternoon we drove about 30 miles north of here to Thermal, CA to visit the Oasis Date Gardens where we were able to sample all of the many different varieties of dates and were treated with a free "Date Shake".
Then performing perfectly in our tourist roll we dutifully bought several pounds of dates from the gift shop. In Traverse City, Michigan they call the tourists "Fudgies" because they buy fudge at the local fudge shops so I suppose that we are "Dateies" here because we bought dates.









The date palms are very tall...















...with the dates growing in clusters near the top.





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Lounging in the mineral spas

This morning went to the Rec hall for the park’s Saturday breakfast. $4.00 ea. for coffee, orange juice, pancakes, eggs fried or scrambled, and ham.


















Spent the rest of the day mostly lounging around the pool/spa area going in and out of the various hot mineral spas and napping.

I tried to be very careful to not spend too much time in one of the "Fountain of Youth" pools as I didn't want my age to regress to less than 62 for fear of losing my Social Security benefits.

Later in the afternoon Teddy took some long walks exploring the area.
After dinner we joined Pat & Dan at their trailer and played Whist.

Mud Pots

This morning Dan, Pat, Teddy & I explored the park and it is in truth, a small town with over 2000 winter residents. There is a small store, a health center, beauty shop, massage room, laundry, tennis, bocce & horseshoe courts, a café, library and game rooms. It is a very large park with 800 full hook-up sites and 200 dry campsites. We are told that there are over 2000 winter residents dwindling to about 200 in the summer. This is also a geothermal area and there are two artesian mineral water steam rooms, two whirlpool tubs, a hot mineral water spa, three therapeutic mineral water jet pools and two large swimming pools.
After spending some time in the spas we had lunch and spent the afternoon touring the area in our truck. We drove about 10 miles to the south end of the Sea to observe some of the bird life.




At this point my GPS was reading minus 240 feet.









... we continued on to an area where there are these geothermal mud pots.


From there we drove through “Slab City” an area where many people dry camp on an old abandoned military post.


Tomorrow morning there is a breakfast in the “Rec Hall”.

Fountain of Youth SPA

This morning we hooked up the Cardinal for a 4 day weekend at The Fountain of Youth SPA on the eastern shore of Southern California’s Salton Sea about 10 miles north of Niland, CA. I found it while surfing the net looking at RV parks, it looked inviting and to cinch the deal there was a web coupon for a free fourth night with a three day paid stay. Our friends, Dan & Pat Martenson from Escanaba, MI are accompanying us with their trailer.The road through the Orocopia Mountains NE of Mecca, CA twisted and turned through this awesome canyon called "The Box Canyon". As we approached Mecca the altimeter reading on our GPS began to drop and by the time we reached Mecca it was reading over 200 feet below sea level.Turning south at Mecca on hwy 111 we were now traversing an agricultural area of dates, artichokes and grapes Teddy snapped this picture of a vineyard through the truck window.We soon caught sight of the Salton Sea for the first time and although we had read that it was the largest lake in California, we were still surprised at it’s vastness. According to a brochure that we picked up, it has a surface area of about 360 square miles. The Sea is a major stop on the Pacific Flyway and supports one of the most diverse bird populations in the United States. More than 350 species frequent the Sea and up to four million birds may be found on the Sea at any one time. It also supports a productive sport fishery.
We finally arrived here at The Fountain of Youth SPA around 4:30 pm PDT and are now settled in for a four day stay. We will leave Monday for our return to Lake Havasu City. Till then we’ve got some exploring to do.

Exploring The Desert

John Antonetti, one of our friends here in the park, tows a Jeep here behind his MH from his home in Racine, WI. He uses it to go exploring in the desert and surrounding mountain foothills. This morning he took Teddy and I on a four-hour trip into the hills overlooking Lake Havasu City. Here you can see Lake Havasu in the background from one of our many stops in the high desert. We started at an elevation of about 550 feet in Lake Havasu to over 2500 feet in just a few miles. The track you see in the photo is the one that we had just traversed in the Jeep.
Here are Teddy and I by one of the giant saguaro cacti that abound in the area. Some are 20 to 30 feet high. It is said that it takes over 50 years to grow one of the arms that grow from the main cactus body. The holes that you see, particularly in the far one, are made by Cactus Wrens who hollow out nests in them. (CLICK ON THE PICTURE FOR A LARGER VIEW)
It is amazing the amount of flora that is growing out there in the desert. From afar the hills look barren but when you get up close there are many different kinds of cacti and bushes. We had a rain recently and there were many small flowers and grasses pushing their way up through the rocky soil.







John also took us to an old abandoned mine and while John and I stayed with the Jeep...








...Teddy, of course had to explore the mine.

Thanks John, we had a real good time.

Visitors from Appleton

Yesterday afternoon we were just sitting around doing nothing, as we are often wont to do and there came a knock on the door. Suprise, suprise it was Bob and Barb Heim, old neighbors from the Appleton Christine Street neighborhood. They had been in California visiting their daughter, Lynn and had opted to drive to Lake Havasu and suprise us. It was great to catch up on all the neighborhood gossup. We went out to dinner last night and met them again at the i-hop for breakfast this morning before they continued on to Scottsdale to visit some of Barbs kinfolk.Bob & Barb at the I-Hop

Bazaar

Yesterday in addition to our regular Saturday morning Clubhouse Breakfast we held a bake sale and craft bazaar with donated items such as aprons, jewlery, etc. and/or baked goods. Profits to go to our party fund. Teddy made a Pound Cake (.45kg Cake Canadian) and some banana nut muffins. Teddy also worked serving eggs & sausage and I was a waffle maker. Lots of fun

43 Years

Today, February 22, 2007, we haver been married long enough for the earth to circle the sun 43 times. Here we are on that blissful February day in our full battle dress uniforms...









...and here we are today,43 years later. As you can see, the years have been kinder to Teddy than to I.











We have talked it over and have decided to try for fourty-four.

Palm Canyon

There is a unique canyon area south of Quartzsite on the Kofa National Wildlife Refuge called the Palm Canyon. Perhaps the only native palm trees in Arizona are tucked away there in narrow, rugged canyons. Yesterday (Tue. 2/13) along with two other couples, Bill & Donna Cutbirth from Idaho and Dan & Pat Martenson from Michigan, we went on an all day motor trip to explore the area.
A dirt road off of US 95 about 18 miles south of Quartzsite leads to Palm Canyon. We followed it east for about 9 miles toward a large, block mountain. The road was passable, but a bit rough. At the parking lot a half-mile foot trail leads to the canyon. I didn’t think that I could handle the trail so I stayed with the truck while the others hiked to the canyon. The trail was well marked but rough most of the way due to large rocks and has some steep sections. It’s took about an hour’s walk to make the round trip.
According to a brochure found there, the palms are probably descendants of palms that grew in this region during the last periods of North American glaciation. Some botanists theorize that the trees gradually spread into these canyons and other protected niches as the climate warmed to desert conditions. Other researchers have suggested that the trees may have been spread from other palm groves by birds or coyotes carrying seeds in their digestive tracts.
Since palm trees do not produce annual growth rings like shade trees, it is very difficult to say how old the trees might be. In Palm Canyon, the palm trees are able to survive in the narrow side canyons where direct sunlight is limited but some moisture is available. The probability of these trees surviving very long is directly dependent on the microclimate in that protected canyon.
The most prominent trail leads to a small sign on a slightly elevated area near the middle of the canyon. By looking upward in the narrow, north trending side canyon, you will see the palms clearly. For a short time at midday, the trees are well-lighted for photos. The rest of the time the trees are shaded.

On the way to the palms the we also visited an area near Quartzsite where General George Patton trained desert troops during WWII. There are still signs spelled out with rocks visible from the air for pilots in training to view. It seems that they also trained female pilots there and the boys in desert training were anxious to ingratiate themselves with the lady pilots. This one had large letters spelling out "QUARTZSITE" with this arrow pointing the way.

We also stopped to view a 30-foot desert intaglio (or geoglyph) known as the Bouse Fisherman. Intaglios (in-tal-yos) are large human, animal and geometric figures on the desert floor also best viewed from the air. It's believed intaglios were made by ancestors of today's Native Americans living along the Colorado River. Perhaps the drawings are messages to their gods or ancestors, a common theme throughout human civilization. it's not known if these geoglyphs are two-hundred years old or ten thousand. Many have withstood the test of wind, rain and time, others having fallen recent victim to motorcycles, SUV's, quads and General George S. Patton's tank-training exercises.

At The Desert Bar

Saturday we went with friends, Dan & Pat Martenson from Escanaba, MI, to the "Desert Bar". You take this unmarked, unimproved road five miles into the desert to a bar that this guy built out in the foothills of the Buckskin Mountains. We had some trouble even finding it but as you can see apparently a lot of people do find it. The ever indefatigable Teddy, climbed up to the top of a nearby mountain craig to take this photo of the parking lot. It is only open on weekends; it is entirely run on solar power as there is no electricity out there.



I'm thinking, the guy is either a genius or an idiot but from the size of the crowd that was there it must be the former.





Seating was at a premium but we managed to snag four chairs; Pat, Teddy & Dan saved me one so that I could snap this pict.


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Valentine Party

On Friday night we had a Valentine Dinner followed by a basket auction to raise money for our activities fund. As you can see from the picts, it was also crazy costume dress-up night so I wore my kilt. For the auction we went around to various merchants here in Lake Havasu City (RV dealers, restaurants etc.) and got them to contribute donations; most of us residents also donated items which we made up into baskets. One of the snowbirds here, Gary Clark from BC, acted as the auctioneer. In the end we raised over $900 which we will use for dinners, entertainment evenings, etc.













I had written a little poem which I read at the Christmas dinner and I was again asked to write one for Valentines.

Valentine's Day at Havasu

Well.. once again we're gathered here,
full of love and holiday cheer.
This time it's in the name of love
to honor those we think the most of.

"Love?", you say, "What's the reason,
That love should occupy this season?”
Valentine's the reason why;
Not Gayle or Ray, but the Sainted guy.

Once more we get to drink and dine
on tasty treats and red red wine
Spread upon a big buffet
are salads, meats, and egg souffle

The desert table's piled high
with chocolate cakes and Babcock's pie,
cookies, puddings, candied sweets,
fluffed up jello, whipped cream treats.

The tables all are decorated
with things the ladies have created
balloons and little candy hearts
for the lovely ladies and their old farts

So sit right down and raise your glass
and drink a toast to your lad or lass
And one more thing, I must insist
Now, give your lover a big fat kiss.

Now they want one for St. Pat's day, apparently I have become "poet laureate" of the Havasu Falls RV Resort.

Waldies

A couple of weeks ago I bought this pair of Waldies for Teddy from their on-line store. Teddy already had a pair of knock-offs that she got last year at Wal-Mart and had been raving about how comfortable they were so I decided to get her a pair of the Waldie originals. You have a choice of 16 colors; I chose this color which they call mango, I call it orange.
Well, she liked them so much that I decided to get a pair for myself. This time in "blueberry". I'm gobsmacked...they are about the most comfortable shoes that I've ever worn. I can wear them in water, with or without socks, and I don't have to bend over to tie them. They're the only shoe that I'll ever need; I don't intend to ever walk in snow again (they might be a little cold for that) and if I have to wear a suit or tux, I'll just get a pair in black. I don't think that they put shoes on you in your casket but if they do...my Waldies will do just fine!

Maytag Mania

Most of the higher end motor homes and RVs are prepped for a washer & dryer usually available as an option and most fulltimers have them installed. There are about a dozen manufacturers that make laundry units for rvs. Because space and weight are primary considerations the units made for RVs are all 24" wide; some are stackables but most of them are combo washer/dryer, 110v all in one machines. When we began fulltiming in May of '05 Teddy was adamant in her desire to not have a built-in washer and when we upgraded to our Cardinal last July she reaffirmed that position. So I made nice shelves and turned the washer closet into a pantry. Well...About a month ago Teddy finally broke down and admitted that she wished that we had gotten a washer. So...I purchased a Maytag stackable (washer only, she still doesn't want a dryer) through Lowes, removed part of the pantry shelving, and installed it yesterday. As you can see, it is a snug fit but I was able to retain much of our pantry storage above it. It is washing it's first load right now, as I write this, and Teddy is a happy woman.
As Kathy Page on the phone told me last night, "a happy wife makes for a good life", and I can attest to that.
Hmmm...in 6 months she'll probably decide that she wants a dryer.