Road Trip (part 2)

...After returning to Chloride we decided that we still had time to drive on up to the Hoover (aka Boulder) Dam about 50-60 miles NW of Chloride. It took us much longer time to get there than we originally thought as traffic across the Dam was bumper to bumper...stop and go... beginning about two to three miles from the dam. However it was a nice day and we didn't mind; we just munched on dry roasted peanuts and inched along with the other tourists.
On reaching the dam we drove on across to the Nevada side; set our clocks back one hour to Nevada time and then turned around and drove back across to the Arizona side and set our clocks ahead to Arizona time. ;-)
There are several parking areas for dam visitors on the Arizona side so we then pulled into the closest one to the dam and crossed the dam once more...this time on foot. The only thing that I didn't like was having to set my watch two more times again. If I had to do over I just don't think I'd bother...come to think of it I don't think Teddy did it at all; it was just me.
At any rate I snapped this picture of the dam on all its glory. It is actually six photos cleverly stitched togather into a long panaroma. (click on the picture for a full size version) If you look closely you can see the high water line on both the dam and on the rock face across Lake Mead. I didn't actually measure it myself but was told that the lake level is about 100 feet below that line.
On the way back to Havasu City along I-40 we pulled off onto the shoulder and took a pict. of this strange "golfball" home which we had spotted on the way up that morning.

Road Trip (part 1)

A couple of weeks ago Teddy & I took a "day trip" to visit the old mining town of Chloride, AZ. John Antonetti, a friend and fellow snowbird here in the park, had visited there reciently with his Jeep and told us about the Chloride Murals and we wanted to see for ourselves.

At the far edge of the town a dirt road leads out into the desert toward the mountainous regions to the east. at first the road is not too bad...



...but it soon degenerates to the point that it would be an insult to real roads to call it a road.




Undaunted, we drop the truck into 4W drive and push on. Since we were only able to travel at about 5 mph, Teddy decided to walk following the truck.


We decided to pass up the opportunity to acquire this piece of prime Arizona real estate. (click on pict(s) for full size image)





And, sure enough, encouraged by ocassional lettering painted on large rocks we finally arrived at the area of the mural paintings



Here and there, scattered all around were huge boulders and various smaller rocks painted with whimsical bright colored designs. Why someone would lug paint and equipment out here to paint rocks is anybody's guess but there are strange things in Arizona which may be related to the summer heat. ;-)





















At any rate, even though the "road" continued on, this is as far as we were willing to go as the trail ahead looked too foreboding.

...To be continued...

Nite Lites

Teddy bought two of these solar powered LED flowers at Wal-Mart and set them out by our trailer.


This is what they look like at night.

The Parker Dam

While on a day trip, a couple of weeks ago, Teddy & I visited the Parker Dam.The Parker Dam is what creates Lake Havasu.




The road across the dam is quite narrow and commercial trucks, RVs etc. are prohibited from crossing it. They have barriers set up on the approach and our PU barely fit between them. I don't think a dually could make it without scraping. We didn't know this before but the Parker Dam is the world's deepest dam, with most of its 320 feet height extending 235 feet below the riverbed.

Here you can see four of the five spillways that control the lake level.








Looking upstream at the beginning of Lake Havasu.





Downstream the Colorado River continues on carrying water to the big aquducts that feed Southern California to the West and Phoenix to the East.


Adjacent to the Dam is the Power station which houses four turbine driven generators producing 30,000 KiloVolt Amps each.

This big yellow crane travels on tracks to control these lift gates that feed the turbines.


Notice how the crane dwarfs our truck parked next to it.

New Satellite Dish

On Monday February 25, we pulled the Cardinal up to Camping World in Henderson, Nevada to have a new Winegard® TRAV’LER™ Slimline Ka/Ku Multi-Satellite dish installed on the roof. We have always had our DirecTV satellite service since we began full-timing but had to use a portable dish because we are also HD. There were rooftop units available but none were able to receive multi-satellites at once which is necessary for HD.
This is our old three satellite dish set up here in Arizona. It was always a hassle to set up and aim and then take down and store whenever we traveled. When traveling we never set it up if we were just stopping for a short time as it wasn't worth the effort.

But now I just hit a button and it rises from it's stowed position and automatically finds and locks onto up to five satellites at once. So now we will have satellite service even when stopping overnight at a Wal-Mart parking lot.

It has been rock steady and working well. Teddy and I are "Happy Campers".

RC Airplanes

One of the guys here in the park (Jerry Brown from Bronson, Michigan) is a RC airplane hobbyist. The local RC club have built a mini airport complete with paved runways etc. They can be out there flying almost any day when there isn’t too much wind. The other day they had an air show and I went out to watch them fly. The planes are built to various scale ratios to the real plane that they are patterned after. Jerry’s is scaled to 35% and has an 8 1/2 foot wingspan and has a 10 hp motor.
Jerry's Plane

It is not a hobby for the faint of heart as they can cost up to $40,000 so a crash can be quite costly. In addition to the prop driven models there were some jet engine models. Jerry said that this jet was probably worth about $10,000. It uses regular “JP4” fuel, develops about 35 lbs of thrust and can go up to 200 mph.

The guy with the jets was from out of town and must have deep pockets indeed, as this is the trailer that he hauls his planes around with. He was an excellent flyer and put on quite a show.




The flyers can do amazing acrobatics with them.




Because you have no reference of distance against the sky, you could easily mistake them for real planes; especially the jets which were almost impossible to photograph as they go so fast.

There were some of these less expensive battery powered "electrics". The strange thing about them is that they make no sound and seem to just float in the air.

44 Years

Today, February 22, 2008 we have been married for 44 years. Looking ahead then it seemed as though we had a long life ahead to do and see everything. Now 44 years later we look back and wonder where the time went. We still have so much to do and see.

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

On the way back to Lake Havasu we stopped overnight at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument. It is a beautiful park and we definitely want to revisit when we have more time to spend.
The Organ Pipe Cactus has several shoots that grow from the center like fingers.











There were also hundreds of the magnficent Saguaro Cacti, the symbol of the Desert Southwest.












Many birds like the ubiquitous House Finch



And a new bird on my life list, the Gila Woodpecker. They bore nesting holes in the saguaros.


Teddy took this photo of a Desert Poppy which were in bloom because of the recent rains.








If you should ever get a chance to visit southern Arizona, a visit to the Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument should be high on your "bucket list".

Mexico '08

As I said in my last post we left Lake Havasu on Monday the 4th for Puerto Penasko, Sonora, Mexico.
We stopped for Monday night in Gila Bend, AZ at the Elks Club parking lot and entered Mexico at Lukeville, AZ on Tuesday morning. The border crossing was uneventful. Before crossing Jim Babcock, of our group, walked over to the border and told them that we were coming in with a group of nine vehicles. They then just waved us through without even stopping. We then headed south on Mexico Hwy. 8 and a couple of hours later we arrived in Puerto Penasco. Some of the folks in our party had been there before and knew the way to the resort so we followed them down this tree lined boulevard...




















...to the RV park entrance.





We were located all together in the second and third rows from the north end of the park right next to a big high rise condo complex, shown here.
Note the rows of RVs to the right of the condo. (click on pict for a larger image)
There was a nice restaurant and patio on the ground floor. Here Teddy poses with a pirate while we enjoyed a meal there.
There were nine RVs and we rented a tenth site in the middle of our group and used it as a gathering point to set up camp chairs, grills etc. Here we are at one of our community breakfasts. We usually ate cookout breakfasts there of omelets, bacon, sausage, potatoes, pancakes contributed by various members of our group and a couple of nights we had steak fries.


The beach was quite broad and Mexican vendors were continually walking the beach selling their wares. They were polite though and didn't pester you when you said, "no" to their offers. Here is Teddy making a "Sand Angel" on the beach. We all walked the beach daily but Teddy was the champion beach walker hiking three to four miles up or down the beach daily.

Vendors would come into the park daily with fresh shrimp so we regularly pigged out on shrimp. I also picked up a new talent as I now know how to peel and devein shrimp.
Several shrimp boats were always in view about a half mile off shore...



...and these hang gliders were flying up and down the beach daily giving rides.




We ate well, here we are having dinner at an area restaurant which was high on a bluff overlooking the city. photo by Ed BristowAfter dinner the girls went out on the patio for this pict.
L to R: Donna Vig, Gail Bristow, Niki O'Hara, Gail Martinook, Eileen Weber, Carol Dingman, & Carol Babcock with Teddy Page kneeling in front. photo by Ed Bristow


Of course we also made several shopping trips downtown to bargain for and buy things that we most probably didn't need at all.



The street was lined with shops selling all sorts of Mexican trinkets, souvenirs and jewlery.




I went crazy and bought this Green Bay Packer poncho. Here I am telling this fellow what a great quarterback Brett Farve is but he didn't seem interested.




One of our great finds was this primitive bakery shop called The Hole In The Wall Bakery which sold delicious pastries, needless to say we made several trips there during our weeks stay.











However, Teddy and my coup de grâce was this stained glass window made in the right size to replace the door window in our Cardinal. It is particularly beautiful at night with the light from the trailer shining through it.










But, alas, our time in Mexico finally ran out. Our last night there we all went to dinner at the Puesta Del Sol restaurant (part of the Playa Bonita Resort)
photo by Ed Bristow







One last dance with Teddy.
photo by Ed Bristow