Saturday, March 4, 2017

Cloudy Day for the Most Part, A Short Hike, Neighbours Out, Neighbours In, Lake Havasu City visit

Saturday, Mar. 4th is a day for sleeping in, obviously. I woke up at 7:15 and crept out of bed to find the sky mostly full of clouds. The sun didn’t make an appearance until 8:05, which isn’t far off the norm, but it doesn’t look like it will last long.

The sun peeked around but it looks like an evening shot!
Today we wanted to go back into the city before noon and pick up a few ingredients for my chicken soup. The weather forecast calls for 20-30% chance of showers with a high temp of 75F. We watched our neighbor, from Montana, in the re-invented school bus put his large tv antennae down and pull out before 10. Nice guy, wish we’d got to know him better.


So, after reading blog posts and having our morning coffee and a nibble we headed into town. It isn’t supposed to rain today although there is a 20% chance but let’s get this shopping done.
Lots of old cars on the streets of Lake Havasu City, 1946 Ford
No, he isn't passing us, we are stopped at a light.
 We also needed to visit Dollar General to purchase another addition to our Verizon wifi. It is times like this when we can justify spending what we do for the internet. We don’t have cell service to speak of so email is very important, worth a lot to us. On the way out of the blm area we stopped and chatted with Dave, the temporary camp host, and got some direction where we could dump garbage free in the city.


First stop was Dollar General on the most southern end of Lake Havasu, actually almost completely out of city bounds. From there we found McCullough Rd., thinking this was the street Dave referred to by direction only, not by name and followed it. It took us down a hard packed gravel road to a closed Rodeo event and also a RC flying club which perked Bill’s interest. He had seen this online or was it his keen nose that found it?


Not all flying stories end up positive
No garbage dumpster there but we stopped in at the club anyway to see the planes and Bill chatted with a couple of the flyers. There was a man sitting on a table with his 1 year old cockapoo, Annie. As usual, our snobby pooch didn’t want much to do with her, especially up on the tabletop.


She was adorable but what amazed me the most was how she was keen to watch the planes on the ground and in the air. Priceless! He has been training her to sit and watch them without barking and without chasing them down. She is like Clemson and walks with her nose to the ground, hunter instinct, and tends to chase rabbits and birds.

We left there and found a really nice large dog park with different areas for large and small dogs and lo and behold an open dumpster bin! Good enough for us although we’re sure this isn’t the spot he meant. From there we drove back towards downtown and turned right into a lovely rich section of town. Oh my!
something good dreams are made of

got a car, a truck and an rv?

And even a Thunderbird in pretty baby blue

I got a sore neck twisting and turning in this suburb 

Not only do many of the homes have 2 car/truck garages, many also have 3 car/truck/rv garages! And each and every one is breathtaking. As others have told us about Lake Havasu, if you want to get from one street to the next “you can’t get there from here”. Look at it on a city map, on the eastern side of I-95 it is a maze.

Last stop was Walmart on the most northerly part of city limits, with Pet Smart, J.C. Penny, Dillard’s and many other mall type stores. In the back section of this mall there were many empty store fronts so either a new mall or bad location for business. By this time, 1:00 we were tired of running around and hungry for lunch so headed back home.

The clouds were still in control of the sky but at least they weren't heavy thick ones and the sun’s warmth burst through and we did make it to 75F. I sat outside for a while and watched the 4-wheelers and rv’ers while reading. 

People come and go in here as often as we change our underwear! Oh, not a good reference, we are boondockers and not always close to a laundromat. Ha ha.
Jill and Thayer's mode of lifestyle
After some reading a new neighbor, Jill, stopped in from her walk and we chatted for a good half hour. Very nice to meet new people. She is a teacher on a chosen leave from Seattle, WA and travelling in this little van conversion with her husband for 6 months. Once she’d left, going around the Grand Canyon between our rv's, I decided to take today’s hike.

I like her name for these crevices

I saw some rugged dips off the roadside on my walk
It was a nice walk down the buggy trail as I knew I couldn’t get lost that way. When I got back my book drew me in until the wind became strong enough to send me inside. By the way, my soup turned out great! I added carrots, celery and onions today along with about ¾ cup of pearl barley. I’m not into noodle soups and prefer this alternative to George’s recipe. Yummy!

Bill barbecued our sweet sausage to have in buns and I steamed some asparagus inside for me. I prefer to have my sausage on the plate with a veggie instead of all of that bread. I know exactly where the bread goes!

supper is almost ready
 It was a great day but not much to show for a sunset tonight. Oh well, tomorrow is another day. We cleaned up after dinner and will settle in with our books for the night. My book Divine Justice by David Baldacci is sooooo good, I can’t wait to get back at it.


I hope you have had a fantastic day too! Our day today was made even better when we called Bill's daughter, Charlotte on Facetime/Facebook and caught her home with our granddaughters, Chelsea and Olivia. Olivia has lost quite a few teeth but it only increased the beauty of that little smile as she posed with Mom.

Look at these beautiful happy smiles!


And lastly, a couple of pictures of our summer location, The Ridge, sent from my sister, Donna. Looks like we could get into the long driveway now!
Snow is currently gone from the entrance

Our shed and Bill's cargo trailer

Thank you for taking the time to read today. Please feel free to comment if you wish.

19 comments:

  1. Looking like great day checking out Lake Havasu. So many wonderful things to see.
    Glad your soup turned out well, The barley would work too, or rice. I personally don't care for barley. No Matter home made chicken soup is wonderful and good for you as well.

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    1. It was a great day even though the sun didn't appear much. My soup is yummy and I made sure not to put anything in it Bill doesn't like. :) I'm sure he'll still probably only have a bowl or two.

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  2. Looks like you had another great day.
    As George said you can use anything you want in your soup. Kathy uses anything that might go bad from the fridge but one it's cooked it's all good.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

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    1. Yes it was. Bill will only eat certain veggies and isn't a soup person so I have to be wise what to put in it. I seldom have veggies sitting too long in our fridge so I'm good there.

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  3. That area seems to be quite a transient spot for people just passing through. We noticed a lot of coming and going as well. I will not be bashful next time I see you and will invite myself to your house for soup. mmmmmm looked delicious. Stay safe.

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    1. Transient is definitely the word. We saw the camp host come around yesterday and write down license plates. I wonder how long this flowered trailer lady has been here? We assume she has moved out and back in. You are welcome to soup anytime I make it, which isn't often so hopefully more often than that!

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  4. Tom and I where on a road in Quartzsite a couple days ago, we had never been down, and we saw a flying club field. Thought of Bill and wondered if he knew it was there?
    Wish we were heading that way sooner and we could park in your neighborhood.
    Both Bill's daughter and your granddaughter have beautiful smiles.

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    1. Yes, Bill and I checked that flying field out too. Thank you for thinking of us! It would have been nice to cross paths here. We leave Tuesday morning. Just a note, we are not at Craggy Wash BLM, it is close to the airport and apparently not as nice. Keep driving to the markers I mentioned. You will like it here.

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  5. We are having a cold spell here in Ontario. It was down to -12 last night but we have had beautiful sunshine and blue skies along with the cold. It is supposed to climb to +10 by tomorrow and Tuesday which will clear away the last bout of snow that we got.

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    1. Up and down like crazy back home, no wonder so much sickness. Even with clouds we are getting 75F so no complaints here! Today is quite windy though so no hiking on Sunday.

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  6. Isn't FaceTime fun! And it's nice to see the snow is slowly melting away at home, we are also watching the weather at home in BC in preparation for our return north. I was wondering if you could send me GPS coordinates for the entrance to the BLM land at Havasu? We are heading that way next week and would like to stay there but are a little unsure of where to turn off the highway.

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    1. Not sure if I am writing them correctly but got them off of Lorne Green's February post (A Place Called Away- titled London Bridge is NOT falling down on my sidebar)
      34.62620,-114.3271 Lorne has a nice picture posted as well.

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    2. Turn off AFTER mile marker 194 but before m.m. 195, it is on a bend in the road with a short right hand turning lane.

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  7. Looks like another relaxing day for you two. Today, I need to get into Buckeye to their Walmart. Been over 10 days since I last shopped.

    Still looks a little cool back home. I would hate to have to shovel that driveway!

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    1. Get too many of those days and we get lazy! Oh no! You're doing good for not shopping in 10 days! Yes, it is up and down at home like a yo-yo. I hope it smartens up in a month and just stays warm!

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  8. Pat,
    My only question is (bet you never thought that you would hear me admit that) what does BLM stand for? Not being a blog type, I have figured out most of your abrevations, but I must say this one has me stumped!
    JIm

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    1. Bureau of Land Management manages huge tracts of land mainly in the Western United States. Usually free camping on much of it. This is a federal agency.

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    2. thanks Jeff for explaining that for my friend, Jim. You are allowed to camp on these lands free for 14 days.

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