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1 to 15 February 2019 16 to 29 February 2019

Friday February 1, 2019

Another busy day ahead of us.
This time, we are going to see some Petroglyphs at Grapevine Canyon. After we got off the main road, we drove for about 2 miles on a dirt road to get to the canyon.

What it is all about.

We walk about 1/4 of a mile to get to the petroglyph. We walked in a wash (dry river bottom) to get to the canyon.

The petroglyphs are on either side of the canyon entrance. They date between 1100 and 1900 AD.

Many boulders are polished to a smooth finish by the water and sand going over them during heavy rains.

We continued walking up the canyon. Michele stopped after a while and decided to wait for me. I had to walk under the big bolder.

What do you see when you get to the top of a canyon? You see another canyon!

I walked about half a kilometer after I had left Michele. The view I got from up there. The canyon with all the petroglyphs and further down, the Colorado River Valley.

My pretty Michele waiting patiently for me.

We sure saw many petroglyphs today.

We saw this cute little gecko.

Does it not resemble a frog?

With our visit to Grapevine Canyon over, we head back to Bullhead City to fill up the car. As you can see, you either go down or go up and it is very steep. You even have a few run away ramp for trucks going downhill.

With the car now full of fuel, we head to the Davis Dam.
The Davis Dam is on the Colorado River between Nevada and Arizona. The power plant is on the Arizona side.

Really, the most beautiful steel bridge?

The Dam created Lake Mohave.

Davis Dam and Lake Mohave.

This power plant generates between 1 and 2 terawatt-hour of electricity per year.

We are on the Arizona side of the Dam and to get to the Nevada side, we have to go back in town to cross the river. Vehicles are no longer allowed to drive over the Dam.

As we approach the Dam, you can see how steep it is.

In less than 3 km we went from 898 feet to 529 feet.

Davis Dam and the power plant as seen from the Nevada side.

Even if we could not visit the inside of the power plant, we enjoyed the visit.

At the intersection of Highway 168 and 95, they have this little spill way with people doing some water sport.

A good day. Michele did hurt her back a little while in the canyon. She will rest over the next few days.

Saturday February 2, 2019

It was a weird day weather wise. Rain, the sun, rain again, the sun again, windy all day.
We did go into town for some groceries shopping.

The rain came down hard after supper. It rained most of the evening.

Sunday February 3, 2019

We went back to the casino to lose another $5.

The Oak Ridge Boys will be in concert at the casino this week.

Michele is relaxing before the Super Bowl.

Michele watched the Super Bowl while I was only looking every now and then.

The Patriots won again.

Another easy day.

Monday February 4, 2019

We will be leaving Wednesday morning. Today I filled the fresh-water reservoir because we will be spending two or three nights in the desert near Lake Havasu City.

I also check the tire pressure on the MH and the car. All was good.

I am going to visit the classic car collection in the casino.

This home-made class "C" MH is really nice.

The collection is broken in two locations. One is at ground level near the entrance to the casino and the other in on the third level of the casino. They have a few other items on display other the classic cars, like this outboard motor.

I do not ever remember seeing or heard about this car before.

Being a casino, you got to have some old slot machines on display. The value varied between $1,000 and $10,000.

Emilio Scotto drove around the world on this Honda Gold Wing 1100 Interstate. You can read his story below.

This is the official site of Emilio Scotto.

Now on a different scale.

A Harley Davidson M50.

The 1937 Cord was ahead of its time with its retractable headlights.

Looks pretty dirty to me!

It is very rare you see a tow truck restored.

Any classic car collection has to have a least one Corvette.

This is the only Corvette we could afford.

So many nice cars, like this 1957 Plymouth Fury on the right. Big cars like I like them.

The view from the third floor. All the RVs you see are parking for a few days to a few months. They have no hook-ups, but it is free.

Across the street is the casino RV Park. We are at the red arrow.

Another view of the car collection. Don Laughlin only own a few of the cars on display. All the other cars are from private owners. They are on loan to the casino. It is a win-win arrangement for both parties. The casino has more cars on display and the owner of the cars have free storage out of the elements.

I finally decided to go see the Oak Ridge Boys tonight. Michele is not a fan of the group. She stayed home.
A different view of Casino Drive.

It was an OK show. The theater was not very good for this type of shows, The way the seating arrangement is, if a person the same height as you sits in front of you, you have a hard time seeing the stage!

It was still a good day.

Tuesday February 5, 2019

A boring day, rain and wind all day. It was OK, tomorrow the weather will be better for traveling.

A relaxing day.

Wednesday February 6, 2019

The sun is shinning, but it is cold (for Arizona).
Michele backed up the MH from the site and drove it a little further so we could hook-up the car.

Goodbye Laughlin! Our two weeks here were good, but it is time to move on. The RV Park was OK, but we were happy to leave.

Surprisingly, gasoline is cheaper here than Yuma or Phœnix and by more that 40 ¢ per gallon. We fuel up the MH at $2.069 per gallon U.S. or about 75 ¢ CDN after you take into account the exchange rate.

I believe this is the first time we saw a trailer like this one.

Once again, we must go through California before coming back in Arizona.

Their definition of a rough road would be like a good road for us in Canada.

Oh the sceneries!

Arriving in Lake Havasu City. The Lake Havasu is a reservoir behind a dam.
Lake Havasu City and the lac Havasu attract more that 750,000 visitors per year.

We are not staying at and RV Park. We will boondock in the desert.
The place we found is about 6 km south of the city. It is an old quarry.

After we had got settled in, we went to the information center is Lake Havasu City.
Lake Havasu is not just a popular destination because of the lake, but also because of the London Bridge. Next to the bridge is the "English Village". The information center is located in the village as well as many souvenir shops, restaurants and place to rent any type of water craft. Michele is in the gate at the entrance of the English Village. This gate was part of the Witley Court In Worcester, England.

The Lions Fontaine.

The London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, Arizona. It was built in the 1830s and formerly spanned the River Thames in London, England. It was dismantled in 1967 and relocated to Arizona. The Arizona Bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, which was purchased by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London. McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America to construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City, a planned community he established in 1964 on the shore of Lake Havasu. The bridge was completed in 1971 (along with a canal), and links an island in the Colorado River with the main part of Lake Havasu City.

You can see where marks where left from the bullet fired from German airplanes during the second World War.

The bridge and us.

An English Village would not be English without a British phone boot!

Time to go on the bridge. People still place pad locks on bridges!

We walked and drove on the London Bridge.

The English Village on the left of the bridge.

The city founders.

And back down in the village.

Lake Havasu City has a population on about 53,000 people. This is the place to be if you like boating and off-roading. It is a good retirement place.

Thursday February 7, 2019

It was pretty cold last night, 0° C and only +6° C in the MH. Why so cold in the MH? Simply because we have no electricity and to run the propane furnace you need power. That power can come from the batteries, but they would only last half the night anyway. You can not let your generator run all night, not pleasant for you neighbors. We were not cold at all. We had lots of blankets with us.

I got spoiled this morning, an egg with two yokes.

The views around our site.

I can tell you it is not easy to find a RV Park in February either in Yuma or Phœnix. After two hours of calling every RV Parks, we found a place for a month at Friendly Acres. We were at that RV Park in mid-November.

We are back at the English Village after lunch.

There are a few of those boundary markers around the village.

Some of the photos from the information center. They explained the steps taken to get the bridge here.
The London Bridge in London.

The founder of the city, Mr. McCulloch and the city planner, Mr. Wood.
By the way, Mr. McCulloch is the owner of the McCulloch chainsaw.

How do you dismantle a bridge so you can rebuild it later?
By numbering each piece of the bridge as they are removed.

The only bridge that crossed an ocean.

Once the pieces were in Lake Havasu City, they built a bridge and used the pieces from the original bridge to "clad" the outside of the bridge.

The London Bridge in Lake Havasu City.

After we got back home, I went for a walk to the top of the hill.

A good day.

Friday February 8, 2019

Another night at 0° C, oh well! Still not bad compare to -45° C in Saskatchewan.

We left our site at around 9.14 h. Traveling south, we pretty much follow the Colorado River, some times closer and other times a little further.

Some of the sceneries are just beautiful. I saw most of it, but I had to keep my eyes on the road too!

This is near Parker Dam.

Quartzsite. It seems like we were here not to long ago!

With all the rain we have been getting over the last month, the desert is turning green.

The entrance of the Yuma Proving Ground. The canons that could shoot nuclear bombs.

As we are getting closer and closer to Yuma, we see more agriculture. This a field of cauliflower after it has been harvested.

Back in Yuma.

After we got settled in, we did nothing for the rest of the day. We will be here for a month.

Saturday February 9, 2019

An easy day at home again.

We did go out for some groceries shopping, so Michele could make her very good vegetable soup.

The temperature was a little too cool to wash the MH. It sure needs it.

Sunday February 10, 2019

It is a little warmer today. I wash the MH. I started to wash in the morning before it gets to hot. I did not have time to finish the last 20 feet on the driver side because the sun was beating down on the paint. Way to hot to wash now.

But the most important part got done, the front of the MH so we could install the window covers for more privacies.

Our new home.

I also washed the car and the cement patio. With all that done, we got all the chairs out and the table with the BBQ.

What a week! Lots of fun for sure!
Where will we go after our time here in Yuma? Who knows!

Monday February 11, 2019

What did we do today?
Nothing!
I did not even finished washing the MH. The sun was too hot on the paint.
One of my lens from my glasses fell off today. I could not put it back on, it would pop right out again.
Tomorrow, we will be going to Los Algodones, Mexico to get it fixed.

Tuesday February 12, 2019

We are back in Los Algodones. I showed my glasses to the Eye Doctor. He tried to put the lens back on the frame, no success for him either. He has to send them back to the place where they made it. He told us to come back in an hour.

Michele uses this time to get and haircut for $8. She has been here before.

One of the side streets in Los Algodones. I really like it when a tree goes over the road like this one.

We still have time to kill, why not have a coffee and an apple fritter. We had the special coffee, with Kaluha.

I got my glasses back and all is good with them now.
Michele wants to buy a bottle of Kaluha before we go back in the U.S. You cannot buy alcohol before 11 am in Mexico. It is about quarter to 11. Michele noticed how many people were waiting to buy alcohol. She them tells me " All those people will be heading to the border after they buy the alcohol and the line-up to cross in the U.S. will be very long." We did not buy a bottle of Kaluha and headed straight to the border. Right at 11, we started to see hordes of people coming to the line-up to cross in the U.S. We only had to wait 1/2 an hour to get through custom. By that time, the line-up was 2 to 3 hours wait time. Michele had a very good idea not to buy the bottle of Kaluha.

We got back home before lunch. The sky is cloudy, it is a good time to finish washing the MH, but it did not happen because we have no water in the RV Park. When we got here last Friday, I decided to fill the freshwater tank just in case. We are using that water right now.
When we move in the RV Park, our neighbor invited us for a cocktail today. We were more than 20 attending.
This gave us a chance to meet our other neighbors.

Tuesday is Bingo night.

We did not win this time.

Wednesday February 13, 2019

Water came back on just before supper yesterday, but it is off again this morning. The water came back on for good just before lunch. The sky is cloudy, I finally finish washing the MH.

I spent most of the afternoon doing small chores on and around the MH. Michele went to the local Thrift Store that she likes. We also went to the hot tub before supper.

A good day. We had some light rain during the evening.

Thursday February 2019

A rainy day, all day!

Last January, we bought these pork spareribs for $0.99 a pound. You cannot go wrong at that price.
We will have enough for 2 meals.

The ribs cooked all afternoon in the slow cooker. I will finish them in the oven at broil for a few minutes before we eat them.

I forgot to take a photo of the final result. They were very good.

Friday February 15, 2019

The sun is back, but the wind sure has a bit to it!
Another easy day at home.

Until next time.

Life is good...