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Sunday 7 July 2013
Thursday 11 April 2013
"Inching" our way home
After leaving Casa Grande, we spent a week in Lake Havasu City, 4 nights at the Refuge Motorcoach and Golf Resort and 3 nights at Havasu RV Resort. Both parks were very nice. Played 5 rounds of golf at Refuge and Emerald Canyon in Parker, AZ.
Lake Havasu (named after the Mojave word for blue water) located in the Mojave desert, was created with the construction of the Parker Dam on the Colorado River on the California and Arizona border between 1934 and 1938. In 1963 Robert McCulloch (who invented the chain saw) purchased 3,500 acres and founded Lake Havasu City. To draw tourists and spur the growth of the city, in 1968 McCulloch purchased the London Bridge for $2.46 Million and moved the bridge to Lake Havasu. An additional $7 million was spent to dismantle, move and reconstruct the bridge. Rumor has it that he thought he was buying the much more famous Tower Bridge in London. Although Lake Havasu City did not require a bridge, McCulloch dredged a channel converting a peninsula into an island thus now requiring the bridge to access the island. Lake Havasu is a playground for boating and offroading enthusiasts. It is also a huge draw for "spring breakers".
Following Lake Havasu, we travelled only 70 miles to Laughlin, Nevada, as very high head winds made for difficult driving and reduced the fuel economy considerably! While there we did a river cruise up to Davis dam and enjoyed stolling the Riverwalk. Our next leg was 100 miles to Las Vegas on Wednesday and will stay here 2 or 3 nights before travelling to southern Utah and Bryce Canyon area for 3 or 4 days. At this rate we will not be home until summer:) That's IF 'summer' ever arrives back home!
We have had a fabulous trip and have enjoyed keeping this blog and hearing from family and friends.
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| Emerald Canyon Golf Course |
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| Refuge Motorcoach and Golf Resort |
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| A tough lie |
Lake Havasu (named after the Mojave word for blue water) located in the Mojave desert, was created with the construction of the Parker Dam on the Colorado River on the California and Arizona border between 1934 and 1938. In 1963 Robert McCulloch (who invented the chain saw) purchased 3,500 acres and founded Lake Havasu City. To draw tourists and spur the growth of the city, in 1968 McCulloch purchased the London Bridge for $2.46 Million and moved the bridge to Lake Havasu. An additional $7 million was spent to dismantle, move and reconstruct the bridge. Rumor has it that he thought he was buying the much more famous Tower Bridge in London. Although Lake Havasu City did not require a bridge, McCulloch dredged a channel converting a peninsula into an island thus now requiring the bridge to access the island. Lake Havasu is a playground for boating and offroading enthusiasts. It is also a huge draw for "spring breakers".
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| London Bridge |
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| London Bridge - Lake Havasu City |
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| Spring Breakers - Lake Havasu City |
Following Lake Havasu, we travelled only 70 miles to Laughlin, Nevada, as very high head winds made for difficult driving and reduced the fuel economy considerably! While there we did a river cruise up to Davis dam and enjoyed stolling the Riverwalk. Our next leg was 100 miles to Las Vegas on Wednesday and will stay here 2 or 3 nights before travelling to southern Utah and Bryce Canyon area for 3 or 4 days. At this rate we will not be home until summer:) That's IF 'summer' ever arrives back home!
We have had a fabulous trip and have enjoyed keeping this blog and hearing from family and friends.
Friday 29 March 2013
Golf week extraordinaire!
We knew we would get lots of golf in with our equally as crazy golf fanatic friends, but we even exceeded our high expectations with Ken and Linda!!!
36+36+36+18+18+27
over 6 day visit = 171 holes of golf and a fabulous week. We played 5 of the
local CG courses and also near Tucson and Florence areas. Some were more
challenging than others (a couple of island greens along the way and the
"Quarry").
So rather than writing any more, the pictures tell it all. Thanks to Ken for all the photography; didn't want you missing your job! Thanks again for the memories!!
Monday 18 March 2013
Adios San Diego…¡hola El Centro
Since our last blog we enjoyed 4 days at the South Carlsbad
State Park atop the cliffs overlooking the ocean. The first days provided
magnificent vistas and sunsets. The remaining 2 days were totally fogged in day
and night! But we could go less than a
mile inland and then we had sunshine and hot temperatures.
One of the foggy days we took a day trip to Temecula. The temperature change was from 15 to 38 degrees, less than an hour inland and north east of Carlsbad. Temecula is a very friendly, quaint town in wine country.
It was time to say good bye to the San Diego area and head for ‘home’ at Casa Grande. We decided to spend one night at an RV park near El Centro, which then turned into 3 nights when we learned the Navy Air Blue Angels were doing their first and possibly their last show of 2013 right in their home training base of El Centro. We hit the airfield at 0830 with our lawn chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, and water, and parked ourselves for over 8 hours as temperatures hit 38 degrees. But it was worth it; a spectacular air show!! The still pictures cannot do it justice.
The RV Park, Rio Bend, was surprisingly nice, as the El Centro area is quite depressed (but they have a Costco and IN N OUT burger!). The 9 hole golf course was fun and challenging; the pool area was very nice and a welcome place in the heat. Once again we met several Albertans who claim the park is 60% Canadian snowbirds.
Long walks along the beaches once or twice a day were
beautiful. Surfers were on the waves continuously, even in the fog. Several
times there were baby seals ashore, some of which became stranded and then the
SD Sea World trucks would come along and pick them up. They would take them in
for the night to inspect and feed them and if healthy then would bring them
back the next day.
We had a couple of rounds of golf with the most memorable
one at The Crossings of Carlsbad; a gorgeous course with elevation changes and
drops into the canyon. No Torrey Pines this time; unfortunately we missed an
opportunity to golf there with one of Ron’s former colleagues, as our paths
(and cell phone messages) missed each other, until we were on the road. We’ll take on the challenge of that course next
year!
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| Crossings at Carlsbad Golf Course |
One of the foggy days we took a day trip to Temecula. The temperature change was from 15 to 38 degrees, less than an hour inland and north east of Carlsbad. Temecula is a very friendly, quaint town in wine country.
It was time to say good bye to the San Diego area and head for ‘home’ at Casa Grande. We decided to spend one night at an RV park near El Centro, which then turned into 3 nights when we learned the Navy Air Blue Angels were doing their first and possibly their last show of 2013 right in their home training base of El Centro. We hit the airfield at 0830 with our lawn chairs, umbrellas, sunscreen, and water, and parked ourselves for over 8 hours as temperatures hit 38 degrees. But it was worth it; a spectacular air show!! The still pictures cannot do it justice.
The RV Park, Rio Bend, was surprisingly nice, as the El Centro area is quite depressed (but they have a Costco and IN N OUT burger!). The 9 hole golf course was fun and challenging; the pool area was very nice and a welcome place in the heat. Once again we met several Albertans who claim the park is 60% Canadian snowbirds.
We now plan to spend 2 weeks at the house in CG; we are very
happy to have friends Ken and Linda arriving for a week of that time. Then we’ll
make a slow trek northward during the first 3 weeks of April. No intentions of
returning home until that white stuff disappears, which it sounds like there is
still plenty of!
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