London Bridge

Today we went to see the London Bridge in Lake Havasu City, AZ and it was really neat. A gentleman by the name of Mculloch bought the bridge when London put it up for bids. He had it taken apart brick by brick and moved it to Lake Havasu City and rebuilt it in 1971.

If you travel into California they will not let you bring in any fruit from another state. We knew this and tried to avoid California but after driving about 20 miles on a very ill repaired road on the Mohave Reservation, John did not want to travel on another Indian Reservation. So, we drove in and out of the edge of California. We did see them doing fruit inspections on people going the other way but there was none on our side of the road. I think that is because we were going back into AZ where the inspections were done so we did not lose any of our fruit.

We also saw many RV's boondocking. This is when you stay on vacant land without paying. In AZ this is done in a large way, with 50 or more big RV's in any one location. We are now in Quartzsite, AZ at a less than exciting RV park where we were told to only walk two dogs at a time because you can only have two dogs on any one site.

We do have a good Internet connection at the present park and Mary and I were both able to accomplish the feat of getting our library books downloaded to her Kindle and my ipod.

Last but not least, we found a hardware store that had a juicer and John was able to get another key for the Motor home to replace the one Mary lost. I found a store that had the hat I wanted so we are all shopped out for the moment. We are just resting in the 75 degree temp and drinking fresh squeezed lemonade.

Barbara Carl's beautiful home in Sun City West. Well it is not really on an angle like this. I think I held the camera on a slant.

Barb and I enjoy a taste of John's mango margarita.

 Judy, Mary, Barb, Herb and John at the Mexican Restaurant.

We couldn't believe how big the margarita was...and how much it cost!

 

Tower Point RV Park

We stayed three nights at this park in Mesa. We had a dinner date with Mary's friend on Sunday and there was nothing we would rather do than swim, sit in the sun and talk to nice people. It was nice to relax and it gave John a break from driving.

The park had two pools. One was cooler and it was a lap pool. The other was warm, just the way old people like it. Not at all refreshing, just comfortable. Then it also had two hot tubs. One was outside and one was in a shelter area, incase it was cool out or you did not like the sun. It had a computer room, woodworking shop, library, sewing and craft room, pottery and painting area, workout room, ballroom and sunday services with a great choir.

The sites were really small and we had a hard time getting in.

The first night in the park they had a free dinner and dance including beer, wine and soda. Great music and great food. The next day we had a $5.00 no tip fish fry, which included the beverages. We also had an opportunity for a cheap meal the next day but we had food we needed to eat.

We got out our bikes and road to Walmart looking for a juicer, without success but we did get to ride the bikes the three blocks to the store. I am also looking for a straw hat like the one Catherine Heigl wore in "Life as we knew it". We are on a shopping mission. When we left the park we tried 3 other stores without success. However, we will keep trying. PS we did find a broom for $1.00.

The park also had a restriction on where the dogs could poo and pee. So we had to run them and drag them to the dog walk along the canel before we could let them go. By the second day, they got the hang of it and did their duty as soon as they got to the dog walk.

The people were very friendly and because the office was not open on the weekend, they told us not to pay for the last day. The biggest downfall was that there were a lot of palm trees for John to park between. However, there were helpers to get him parked and his is so skilled it was a cake walk.

The wifi did not work on our site so Mary sat in the libray with her computer. A lady came in and was working on her computer for a long time before saying that she was unable to connect to her HiFi. This alerted Mary to the fact that the lady really did not know what she was doing and so Mary asked if she could help and the end result was that the "HiFi" switch was turned off.

Hoover Dam

The turbines in the power plant

Inside of a hydroelectric generator. They had it out for reconditioning.

John in the workmans inspection tunnel

Tour tunnels

The view hanging my camera out the vent and pointing it up

This is a picture of the new interstate that opened last year. The interstate no longer goes over the dam and you cannot see the dam from the interstate. The road over the dam has been closed since 911.

Lake Mead

We went to see Hoover Dam today. It was awsome. Well worth the $30.00 we had to pay for the tours. We actually were down in the vented area in the middle of the dam wall and I could stick my camera out the vent and take a picture of the dam. There were many tunnels in the dam and pipes that were used to cool the concrete so that it would cure faster. They estimate that it will take a thousand years to totally cure all the concrete in the dam. The dam was built to last 2000 years. John asked if they had a plan for what they were going to do after the 2000th year. The guide did not have an answer and did not seem interested in the question.

We also saw two movies and went on a tour of the power plant. I have some pictures of the tunnels we went through and the power plant and the outside of the dam. I will include pictures of Lake Mead the lake that was created by the dam and is the largest man made lake in America.

There was a lot of security around the dam and we had to have the motor home checked before we drove over the dam. John had to open all the basement doors and a man came aboard, after we got the dogs crated, to check the inside of the motor home. Then we had to go through airport like security when we went on the tour.

After the dam we went to near by Hacienda Casino where we watched another movie about the dam and Mary and John bet there life saving, $1.00, on the slots and won nothing. We are spending the night in the Casino's parking lot. We have a lake view of Lake Mead.

John's Hair Cut

John went to a Mexican Barber and I think there was some communication problems. He told him to cut a little bit off and the barbar left a little bit on. He did get a massage with the hair cut all for ten dollars. Now he won't have to get it cut for a very long time. From a financial point it was a really good deal.

We are in the library at the current rv resort in Mesa. The library has super fast internet so we are going to upload some pictures that Mary and John took.

 We got to see a roadrunner at the Sabina Canyon.

 The hummingbird at the Arizona Sedona Wildlife Park likes Judy's jacket.

 The Harris Hawk flies from the trainer's glove over our heads.

 Mary wears her San Adalberta fleece to the San Xavier Mission church.

San Xavier Mission church half restored. I guess it is going to stay this way.

Superstition Mountain and Goldfield

When I was with Pussy Cat, we also went to Superstition Mountain Museum. This was a area that was the home to many of the of the old movies and western TV shows including the chapel that Elvis used in for the song about "Going to the Chapel, and we're going to get Married". Some of the shows were Gunfight at OK Corral, and Have Gun Will Travel and Death Valley Days. Stars like Elvis, John Wayne, Steve McQueen, Ronald Reagan, Kenny Rogers.

We also went to Goldfield, AZ which is a ghost town with a restaurant that people kept coming up to with their horses. They would ride up in the mountains and then come back there for food and drink. There were also homes not far away where people lived with there horses. It was understood that traveling the mountain by horse back was the safest way to travel. Many of the guys had spurs and cowboy hats on. Some were rather rotund and reminded me of Denny Crain in Boston Legal.

John and Mary dropped Judy off at her friend, Pussy Cat (Carol) in Mesa, AZ. I guess it was her girl scout camp name. Anyway they had a good time shopping, picking oranges, grapefruit and lemons. We loaded up the basement of the motor home with citrus and are looking forward to eating grapefruit every morning. Judy even had a chance to use the chain saw to trim some branches off the orange trees. John and Mary went to Surprise, AZ to a fancy dancy resort called Sunflower RV Resort. They had woodworking shops, sewing shops, pools, hot tubs, writers' clubs and everything you could want to do. Unfortunately we didn't stay long enough to use many of the amenities. We headed over to my high school friend, Barbara's house in Sun City West. She was very welcoming and made lunch and dinner for us. She wanted us to stay in her house, but we wanted to sleep in the motor home.
In the morning we left for Mesa to pick up Judy. Now we are in another RV resort in Mesa. We arrived in time for a Happy Hour that was being given by the park owners. They were trying to get people to buy park models here. The food and drinks were free and we enjoyed a band playing old time rock and roll music. We even danced as there was a big group of people on the dance floor. Sites are pretty close together here and there are a lot of rules and regulations. John wants to stay another day though.

Sabino Canyon

road runner

Today we hiked in the Sabino Canyon Recreation Area which is part of the Coronado National Forest. We took a tram up to the top and then started to walk down. When we came down we took another trail that took us back up a smaller hill and then back down again. We probably hiked about 5+ miles. All was good.

Mary has been looking for a live Road Runner since we got south and today she saw one so that is why you have the picture on the blog.

The weather was in the 70's but it got cloudy when we were hiking. We did spend some time in Allen's backyard by the pool.

We were amazed at the mountains and saguera cactus. We tried to take pictures but they just didn't do it justice. You have to come here and see it for yourself if you have not been here yet. It take 60 to 80 years before they can start to grow an arm. They are fascinating.

Arizona- Sonora Desert Museum

We went to the Arizona-Sonora Dessert Museum today. Allen was driving. Mary tried to drink some of her water and well she had to change her clothes when we got home.

We did a lot of walking in the desert. We watched the Raptures fly and learned about them and their ways. We listened to the tour guide talk about all the cactus and animals that live in the dessert. A very interesting tour of a very interesting place.

They had hummingbirds there and one of the hummingbirds took a fancy to my jacket. Mary tried to take a picture of me with the hummingbird, but her camera battery died. If she got the picture she will add it to the blog.