Wednesday, March 1, 2017

Free Camping, Sunshine, London Bridge, Found some Cacti

Wednesday, Mar. 1st we woke up at a new place. It is gorgeous up here on the hill overlooking the highway to Lake Havasu. We’re glad that we parked on the most southern point of this blm area as we get the sun first when it comes up over the mountain to our east. For us early risers, it means our solar panels don’t get hit until around 8 am.

When we are boondocking, we try to manage strictly on solar for as long as possible and that means waiting for the sun before we turn on our Keurig for morning coffee. Today we were up and at ‘em by 7 so we didn’t have too long to wait.
Beautiful Lake Havasu City ahead of us
Reading blog posts and because it is a new month, Bill set to work paying bills and moving money from our Canadian pensions to our U.S. account. It is hard to believe that in a month we will be close to entering Canada.

It is unfortunate that while our home province of Ontario is experiencing some fantastic winter weather this year, they are also undergoing some drastic infectious bugs in many retirement and nursing homes. Mom is in Rockwood in Durham and has not been allowed visitors for over a month even though she is one of the lucky ones and has not been sick.
ThuMar 2
A mix of sun and clouds
28°F
 16
 19°
 30%
 -
 <0.5 in
 22 mph NW
 4
FriMar 3
A few flurries
25°F
 14
 18°
 40%
 -
 <0.5 in
 19 mph NW
 5
SatMar 4
Mainly sunny
32°F
 27
 18°
 20%
 -
 -
 9 mph N
 8
SunMar 5
Chance of a shower
45°F
 39
 37°
 40%
 trace
 -
 12 mph S
 5
MonMar 6
Cloudy with showers
50°F
 45
 41°
 40%
 0.1-0.25 in
 -
 12 mph S
 1
TueMar 7
Chance of a shower
52°F
 45
 27°
 40%
 trace
 <0.5 in
 31 mph W
 3
WedMar 8
Mainly sunny
36°F






















London, Ontario's 7 day forecast

Bill’s Dad in Stratford is also in a retirement complex and they have had an influenza bug as well for about a month. This means cancelling a lot of their daily programs. They might need a really good cold snap to kill all those bugs but you hate to wish that on them. Plus, we want April to be ready and starting to welcome spring by the time we all return!

After a bowl of oatmeal for breakfast we cleaned up and drove into Lake Havasu City. There was something special to see there. The view driving back south into the city is so pretty but I tried to refrain from taking tons of pictures…this time. We turned off I-95 onto London Bridge Road which was nice and much less busy even though it didn’t take us across the London Bridge itself. Misleading for sure.



We found a place to park behind the London Bridge Mall and I first saw this neat brewery silo and had to take a picture. It is a real ritzy type of tourist place and we weren’t interested in the shops anyway. We walked down to the walkway along the Bridgewater Channel and got lost in the story of how and why the bridge was moved here.
Harley Davidson shop for Gerry, my brother-in-law
The attraction here is that the London Bridge was actually moved in pieces from London, England.  Each piece was numbered as it was disassembled.


Wikipedia: 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.

If you are interested there is more to read here.here

This picture was taken after the bridge was moved in 1970 before they opened the channel.


We took the pictures we wanted and drove through the city until we came across this shop with classic cars, as well as rv’s and fork lifts for sale. It was worth going back to take a look. Not only did Bill enjoy these, but I found three that I wouldn’t mind driving out of there in.
California Roadster

Dune buggy with Alberta plates

Love this '55 Ford pick up



Bill would love this one

Bill needed to top up the diesel in the truck and we needed to visit a bank and a grocery store. After visiting Food City for a few things we went into Big!Lots, a store I’d never heard of let alone been in. It was one of those ‘everything’ stores but Bill had spotted a cute little 0.9L deep fryer. It was perfect for us.


When we returned the temperature had risen from 55F to 67F and the sun was just as hot as ever. We grabbed a bit to eat and I sat outside for a while when Bill and Clemson went for a snooze. I was intrigued enough to walk a short distance out in front of our Suite and found some cactus plants on the hill. I don’t know the names of them yet but hope to find out by researching them on Google.

When I got back I joined the boys and dozed for a good hour. This fresh air tires us out. Bill noticed that the speaker for the tv had come loose and was preventing us from lowering the television into the cabinet. Our tv can be hidden away in the cabinet behind the fireplace when we aren’t watching it. We love it as it frees up a window on the back side of our unit.

It freaks me out how close he is to the embankment

An old school bus turned into a camper bus

It didn’t take long for us to remove the tv so he could tighten the screw, reinstall the tv and voila! We aren’t really surprised when things like this happen especially when we consider how much bouncing around we do on our travels.
looks like this one is in flower mode

Cholla


This has been a great day and tonight’s supper will be what was originally planned for last night. Leftover chicken with lettuce and mayo on a Kaiser. I splurged and bought some Chelsea buns today from the sale rack so it will either be one of those or Tillamook ice cream for a later dessert. Bill has a choice of cream cheese, cherry or pineapple filling.
At a  storage building for boats, we saw this sweet little Chevy II SS

My first car was a baby blue 1966 just like this, Paid $400
and my Dad taught me to drive in it

We watched our show The Hunted at 6 o’clock, they are down to 3 couples left and only a few days. Excitement builds! It has been a great day with a little adventure and some lazing about too. The sun is dropping in the western sky so I hope to include yet another Arizona desert sunset picture for you.

Good evening everyone!


I hope your day has been a great one too. Thank you for reading along. I love to read your comments if you care to take the time.

12 comments:

  1. What is Tillamook ice cream? Are the choices of cherry, pineapple...... the flavors of this ice cream? MB

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Tillamook is the brand of ice cream here. It is right up there with Chapmans back home. All kinds of flavours. The cherry, pineapple I mentioned are the fillings for the chelsea buns I bought Bill. LOL he is so spoiled.

      Delete
  2. Glad you are Enjoying Lake Havasu. You can drive across the Bridge out onto the Island. That is where they hold the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival in January. Might be a good time to return next year.
    Be Safe and Enjoy!

    It's about time.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, we drove across the Bridge today. It is so pretty in the city.

      Delete
  3. Glad your are enjoying the area , did you see the old English village and the visitor centre, very informative .
    Have fun there, we sure did. Could be much going on in the are to see as well.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We missed the visitor centre, were trying instead to find cheapest diesel and grocery stores. We'll get back in to check it out. Thanks George.

      Delete
  4. Looks like you are staying where we did. Apparently there is a flock of 18 mountain goats or sheep there, and we heard some burros one morning but didn't see any. And Chapmans Ice cream is the best. That is what we serve at our Ice Cream Shop in Manitoba.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We haven't seen or heard anything yet. It is very pretty up here. Do you eat the Tillamook down here? First ingredient is cream so it is the best we've found here.

      Delete
  5. We hope both your parents continue to stay healthy and do not catch what is going around. I am sure it is a worry for you both.
    Lake Havasu City is a pretty place, enjoy your time there.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thank you, we got an email yesterday that Mom's building has ended their restrictions/quarantine. Yay! My 3 sisters can visit now. She was getting depressed with no visitors.

      Delete
  6. Do you have GPS coordinates for the road into the BLM land? We will be heading up to Lake Havasu again and would like to stay there.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Never seen the London bridge till now. Thanks, Patsy. Those temperatures in Ontario look pretty cold to me, but I guess it has been worse. Enjoy your stay.

    ReplyDelete