I am writing this from our current “home” in Oceanside ,California. We are staying at a great San Diego County park, only 6 miles from our niece, Kelly’s house. We had a great family reunion with Kelly and a few other relatives who flew in for the week, but I’ll save that for the next update.
Before daylight savings went into effect we were doing a lot of “time zone traveling”.
In January and February we crossed the time zone several times traveling between California, Arizona and Nevada. Tom & I got a little confused about what time it was, but the dogs always knew exactly when it was 5 o’clock and time for their dinner! They have us well trained!
Our first stop was Lake Havasu, AZ., a forty-five mile long lake created in 1938 when they built the Parker Dam on the Colorado River. We spent two weeks there at Cattail Cove State Park, a beautiful park situated right along the Colorado River. Tom worked on his new plane and found a great Flying Club nearby. His new plane has floats so eventually he can fly it off the water! He got some excellent advice from some of the more advanced guys and hopes to have it in the air soon!
I enjoyed relaxing, reading and walking with the dogs on the trails along the river. Tom’s new knee is doing great and he even made it on a 3 mile hike with us. Some of the trails take you up onto cliffs overlooking the river. The water below is crystal clear and has that aqua blue color that would make you think you are in the Caribbean.
Lake Havasu City has an interesting history - Until 1963, it did not exist. That was the year a businessman named Robert McCulloch (as in MuCulloch Chain Saws) came to the area and had an idea. He saw Lake Havasu, surrounded by nothing but desert and thought: “People would probably love to live here when they retire!” I guess he had more imagination than Tom & I. He bought 26 square miles of the desert at $73.47 per acre, started his own airline and began to fly prospective buyers to the area. A few years later in 1968 when he heard that the London Bridge was “falling down” and was for sale, he decided to buy it! Actually it wasn’t falling down, it was sinking due to increased traffic. Mc Culloch thought that it would make a great addition to his new town and paid $2.46 million to get it. He had it moved and it was reconstructed brick by brick on dry land using huge mounds of sand to support the arches. When it was completed, they dredged out a one mile channel and created the island section of Lake Havasu City. By 1975, the population grew to 15,500. Today it is over 70,000 but it is no longer just a “retirement community” as the average age is only 35!
At this point in our travels we had a nice surprise! My sister from northern California was going to be traveling south to visit some friends. We traveled back to Indio, CA to meet her and her husband, enjoyed a couple of dinners together and spent one day exploring Joshua Tree National Park. The Joshua Trees got their name from Mormon pioneers who thought they looked like Joshua from the Bible reaching out his arms to God. Although this is not one of the most exciting National Parks it does have several cactus gardens, the Joshua Trees and some interesting rock formations. We were a little early for the flowering cactus blossoms but we had a great picnic lunch while watching some adventurous rock climbers.
Our next stop was Hemet CA to visit some new friends, Bill & Vi, who we met at the Balloon Fest in Albuquerque last October. Hemet was one of the areas we wanted to explore and Bill said he was a member of the Elks and that he might be able to help Tom become a member. In our travels we have met quite a few Elks who are also full-time RV travelers. They told us it is a great way to meet people when we get to a new area and many of the Lodges have free or low cost RV parking! Bill took Tom to the Elks Hall and he submitted his application.
After Hemet we had a few unscheduled days before we were due to arrive in Las Vegas for the Rocky Mountain Monaco Rally so we spent 3 days in Laughlin Nevada, kind of a mini Las Vegas. Not much there but the 5 or 6 casinos along the Colorado River which is the Nevada/Arizona boundary. From there we made a day trip traveling down historic Route 66 to Oatman, AZ, an old mining town which is now a tourist stop for over 500,000 visitors a year. The mines around Oatman produced 36 million dollars of gold in the 1930s’, a lot of gold for those times! Later is was chosen by filmmakers for movies such as How The West Was Won”and Edge of Eternity. The main attraction today is the pack of friendly burrows (descendants from the Gold Rush days) that now roam the streets. Local vendors sell carrots and other “burrow food” and once you start feeding them they follow you down the road.
We checked out a few of the local stores and enjoyed a nice lunch at a real cowboy restaurant. Tom ordered chili and a tuna melt but after eating the chili decided to take the sandwich home for dinner. Unfortunately on our way back to the car, he was “mugged” by the burros! Two of them approached him from the front and when he reached out to pat their heads a third burro came from behind and snatched his leftover box right out of his hand! Then the 3 of them helped themselves to his tuna melt! I suspect they have done this before as they seemed to have the timing down perfectly!
Next stop was Pahrump, NV, another town that we wanted to check out, but have decided that once was enough. We stayed at a very scenic RV park and had a site right on the lake (man made). The main advantage of Pahrump is that it is only 20 miles to the entrance to Death Valley National Park. We spent one day visiting the park, and although we saw only a small part of the 3 million acres, we were pleasantly surprised and found it to be very interesting. One of the highlights of the park is the Badwater Area, which is 282 feet below sea level, the lowest point in the Western Hemisphere. We also stopped to see the site of the old Harmony Borax Works where the 20 Mule Teams pulled gigantic borax wagons with a payload of 20 tons!
From there we traveled to Las Vegas to join the Rocky Mountain Monaco FMCA Group for their Rally. We had met one of their members when we were at the Indio Rally and they invited us to join them. We made some great new friends and had so much fun we decided to join their Chapter. During our stay we did some of the usual Las Vegas sightseeing. We drove up and down “The Strip” and went to see the light show on Freemont Street. This is a 3 or 4 block area where the sidewalk is covered by a huge canopy and they have a spectacular light show every evening.
We also took a day trip to see Hoover Dam and walk across the new 2,000 foot long bridge that is 840 feet above the Colorado River. The bridge is now called the Mike O'Callaghan – Pat Tillman Memorial Bridge and is the first, the highest and the longest arched concrete bridge in the Western Hemisphere. Of course Tom had to stop and spit into the river. I pretended that I didn’t know him!
We took the Hoover Dam tour which included an elevator ride to the bottom of the dam to see the generating room. Here in this 600 foot long and 4 story tall room we saw the18 generators which kick out 4 billion kilowatt hours a year, enough to serve 1.3 million people. These generators weigh in excess of 500 tons each and the water pipe that supplies water to them is 30 feet in diameter!
Our last side trip was to Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, a beautiful park with lots hiking trails. We took a short hike and saw some daring rock climbers and a few big horn sheep.
Our next stop was the Lake Mead National Recreation area. We stayed at a great campground right on the shores of the lake for only $5.00 per night! Lake Mead, formed by the Hoover Dam, is the largest reservoir in the United States and extends 112 miles behind the dam. No more sightseeing, just 3 relaxing days and a little golf!
We made another 3 day stop in Desert Hot Springs, CA. Here the RV Park was right next to the windmill farm with over 3,000 windmills. It made for some windy weather! Now we have finally arrived in the San Diego area! As Tom likes to say, “We left Massachusetts on July 15th to head to the West coast, and it took us 258 days to get there!
The Joy is in the Journey!
See you down the road!
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