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

Saturday, Mar. 4^th 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.

She’ll be Coming ‘Round the Mountain, They’ll be Climbing ‘Round the Mountain

Friday, Mar. 3^rd at BLM land north of Lake Havasu City we woke up to the promise of yet another beautiful day. There were a few low lying clouds in the east filtering out from behind the mountain. We rose at 7 and at 8 I was snapping these pictures and it reminded me of the song in my title.

Bill moved the portable panel out the 5’ into the sun, it wouldn’t be safe to leave it out there overnight in the dark. A passing vehicle after dusk wouldn’t see it. We read blog posts with our morning cuppa and decided what we’d do today.

I messed around with my Canon EOS 30D this morning, reading the manual that I had printed off the internet a while back. There are so many things I don’t know and others that I don’t understand. I’m interested in how to take evening/night shots so we’ll see if I find that information in the booklet.

The path is not too defined yet

We made breakfast, a bowl of oatmeal, and then we got dressed to take a hike. The mountain to the east of us (the one that blocks our 7 am sun) looks tempting but the closer we got to it, the mere steepness of it is formidable. Well, especially for newbies. Hmm. With walking sticks, cameras and water in hand we weren’t to be held back.

Bill poking through the trail
Up on the hill behind him is where we started, the rv from Oregon

It was about 10:15 when we set out and chatted with a fellow from Oregon who was parked right on the edge, facing south. He has a beautiful view and told us of 18 mountain sheep that he has watched come down the mountain. With the green grass covering even the highest peaks, he hasn’t seen them this year. They don’t need to come so far down to find a good meal.

We need to remember as we near mid-mountain that this is the desert

Bill and I left his site and went down the hill to follow a rocky trail. Because of overgrown Palo Verde trees along the trail, we found ourselves veering off quite a bit. It was a beautiful day to do this, not too hot at 61F yet with the sun on us to keep us warm.

Green desert with cacti

More buttercups and Shadow Lady taking the same picture as me!

I must admit, once you start, it is really hard to stop. We knew when to take a breather, snap some photos and grab a swig or two of the water I carried in my backpack. There was no rush and we travel well together, even on the hiking trails. Proven fact.

We met up with a fellow rv’er coming from the opposite direction and was surprised to find she was an Albertan. This makes the conversation even more interesting because plans of ‘going home’ find themselves in the discussion. We love meeting our U.S. neighbours too but they have a different agenda after 180 days on the road than we do.

This was the easy walking part and we had many choices of direction

Beaver tail cactus

It won't be long before these flowers bloom

It was noon when Bill and I found ourselves approaching home. It was a great walk. Bill admits, I think I’ve said this in the past, that he doesn’t enjoy a walk. He means the type of walk where you are doing it for exercise, hoofing it, I think he calls it.

Uncovering some green rock

He did enjoy this type of walk with me, where we were venturing off into uncharted territory (of the Richards’ kind) and seeing where it will take us.

Interesting rock down there

For some reason, this hike reminded us of  our friends, Kathy and Derrick
We think you guys would love this!

 Beautiful ocotillo but those leaves have a thorn in the middle

We don’t have a 4-wheeler so our 4-feeters are what we can count on to get us out and about. It was a great hike and we’ll go again in the opposite direction before we leave.

Approaching home base after almost 2 miles

and I was there too!

When we got back, we had some banana bread and I pulled the leftover chicken out of the fridge. I’m going to attempt to make George’s chicken noodle soup, check under George's recipes on his blog here. I usually don't have luck with soup, the flavor is never ‘just right’ but then I’ve never tried it starting with the bones. Today is the day!

As hot as it was, Clemson took some time for sunbathing

  With the soup broth made and in the fridge overnight, the rest of the day was outside reading and enjoying this gorgeous weather. Bill and I settle quite nicely into the routine and you’d think I would be more addicted to my books than he is, but no, no, no, you would be wrong. Try dragging him away!

Before we started dinner on the Weber we had someone pull in with a white pickup and a Bambi Airstream. The neighbor, Cindy, in the painted trailer in front of us has two dogs who immediately made themselves the greeters. The new arrivals, Shannon and Indy, struck up a conversation and before long there were 4 dogs and 5 adults out there talking.

Quite the 4-wheeler neighbourhood, lots of trails to explore

Alaska, California, Montana and Ontario were represented in our group. Indy and her master, Shannon, reminded me of Doug and Yuma of Miss Adventure Travels. Indy never left Shannon for any length of time before she returned to his side. So cute! I don’t have a good picture of her but in the background of one of my photos you can see her.

Clemson and new friends
Manchu and Dusty
You can see Indy in the background with his dad's Airstream

It was almost 6 when we split up and it was time to get the meat on. Bill had a pork chop and I had a chicken thigh with our salads. The sun set and it got dark very quickly. I took my tripod outside to get pictures of ‘night’ but no luck, I’m doing something wrong for sure.

With the evening ahead of us we decided to go through our pictures and read. Bill is almost finished another book so there is no disturbing him until he is done. Friday night is not a good night for television and we’re not into a movie tonight.

And the Hand Mountain says goodnight

I hope you have had a great day. We can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings since today was another good one with the temperature reaching 78F.

Thank you for reading. I love to read your comments in return.