November 16-17, 2011 – Colorado River Adventure Members

November 16

We showed up this morning for our “sales” presentation and are you ready…we purchased a membership – are we nuts or what????

Anyway as some of you may know, we are currently on the list of three different Escapee Co-op Parks.  We had decided that we would only keep 2 of those lots when our name came up.   After discussing what this membership offers, we decided we would buy in and only do one Escapee lot.

So did we do the right thing…well only time will tell.

The nice thing about this is that they have parks all along the Colorado River – which will be “free” camping.  We hope to try out the park in Yuma over Thanksgiving so stay tuned.

This afternoon we worked on one of the window shades on our slide.  The string had broke and we were not sure what we wanted to do.  So last week, we purchased blinds to see how they might work ($2.87 at WalMart).  Well today we took the shade and the “wood stuff” down and put up the blind.  Not bad but we need a wider one.  Now we will just see how it works when we travel.   Hmmm, may replace a few more day/night shades..

November 17

When Andy and I spend money, we both have doubts on whether we did the right thing or not.   So this morning we talked to a few of our neighbors who are members.   From there we went to Parker to check out another park in the system – nice place – :-))).   And our last stop was back at the office to have more questions answered and make reservations at the park in Yuma.   Did we get all our questions answered – yes.  Only time will tell if we made the right move so stay tuned for our adventure.

Many years again, people came to this area to mine gold, silver, copper and other minerals.   They used burros to haul many of their goods as well as work animals at the mines.   When they left, they let the burros go and fend for themselves.   And, of course, they multiplied – :-))).   Today we saw two of those burros:

 

 

Aren’t they cute?

 

Since we have good WiFi in the park, I have been playing around on youtube.

I just need to share two videos with you:

The first (thanks Bruce):

AMAZING GRACE, SUNG IN THE COLISEUM IN ROME, JUST WAIT TILL YOU HEAR THE MIDDLE......the song was written for this instrument. (The Human Voice!)

THE CHANGE IN THEIRVOICES ARE AN AMAZING GRACE.

Click here: AMAZING GRACE Sung by 4 Men Beautifully!

http://www.clarrissegill.com/videoclips/amazing_grace.php

 

The second (thanks Tom):

The Beauty of Nature, Caught in Slow Motion..

This is an incredible little video.  Slow motion captures each of these wondrous creatures at their best.

http://www.youtube.com/v/xHkq1edcbk4?version=3%20%20%20%20

 

And I will leave you with one last picture – our little Bella sleeping:

Tomorrow we are heading to Quartzsite for a few days and then to Yuma so stay tuned!

November 15, 2011 – The London Bridge in Lake Havasu

Road trip day – YEA!!

So today we decided to go north and check out a few places. Lake Havasu:

 

Havasu Springs Resort:

The Steps..this is BLM land that allows free camping.  We hope to be here in February for the firework displays:

 

Lake Havasu from Cattail Cove State Park:

And our main stop of the day – The London Bridge – :-))

First some info from the internet:

“How did the world famous London Bridge come to make its unusual home in Arizona?  The tale of how the bridge came to Lake Havasu City began over 5,400 miles away in London, England.
The bridge’s storied past includes previous structures that spanned the same section of the Thames River before the current bridge was built. The old London Bridge of nursery-rhyme fame was built by Peter of Colechurch between 1176 and 1209, replacing an earlier timber bridge.  Due to uneven construction, the bridge required frequent repair. The bridge survived more than 600 years.
One of the more grisly periods of the bridge’s history was at the southern gateway between 1305 and 1660, when it was customary to display the severed heads of traitors, impaled on pikes and dipped in tar to preserve them against the elements.  The head of William Wallace was the first to appear on the gate. Other famous heads on pikes included those of Jack Cade in 1450, Sir Thomas More and Bishop John Fisher in 1535, and Thomas Cromwell in 1540.  A German visitor to London in 1598 counted over 30 heads on the bridge.  The practice was finally stopped in 1660, following the Restoration of King Charles II.

By the end of the 18th century, it was apparent that the old London Bridge needed to be replaced.  It was narrow and decrepit, and blocked river traffic.  Designed in 1799 by Scottish engineer John Rennie, the new London Bridge was completed in 1831.  As time passed, the new bridge began sinking at the rate of an inch (3 cm) every eight years. However, by 1924, the east side of the bridge was some three to four inches (102 mm) lower than the west side.  The bridge had not been designed to withstand 20th century automotive traffic.

In 1967, the Common Council of the City of London began to look for potential buyers for the London Bridge. Lake Havasu City founder and entrepreneur Robert P. McCulloch placed the winning bid of $2,460,000 on April 18, 1968. McCulloch came by this figure by doubling the estimated cost of dismantling the structure, which was $1.2 million, bringing the price to $2.4 million.  He then added on $60,000 -- a thousand dollars for each year of his age at the time he estimated the bridge would be reconstructed in Arizona.  (Contrary to popular belief, McCulloch was not under the impression that he was purchasing the Tower Bridge.)  Each block was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled.  The blocks were then shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and trucked from Long Beach to Arizona. Following reconstruction of the London Bridge, Lake Havasu City rededicated it in a ceremony on October 10, 1971. 
The London Bridge, Arizona tourism’s second-largest attraction after the Grand Canyon, attracts thousands of visitors each year.”

http://www.golakehavasu.com/about-us/about-havasu/london_bridge1.aspx

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Bridge_(Lake_Havasu_City)

So here we are – the start of the park and the English Village under the bridge:

 

 

As we were standing under the bridge and taking pictures, there was a vendor selling spaces for a boat ride thru the channel and to Copper Canyon.  So, yep, we hopped on the boat and off we went.  More views of the bridge:

Swallow nests on both sides:

Coming out of the channel to the Lake:

And these neat lighthouses:

The Lake Havasu Lighthouse Club has been building a series of lighthouses around the lake.  These lights are reduced-size replicas inspired by famous lighthouses of the U.S. and Canada. The lights are legitimate aids to navigation, with designs approved by the Coast Guard and locations approved by the state as part of a master plan for lighting the waterways of the lake. Eventually there will be more than 20 lighthouses, including several on the California side of the lake.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/862921/famous_lighthouses_of_lake_havasu.html?cat=23

http://www.unc.edu/~rowlett/lighthouse/az.htm

There were all kinds of modes of transportation on the lake:

 

This is the color of the water – WOW!:

More scenes along the way:

 

The hole in the “Wall”:

Going into Copper Canyon:

 

Silver tailings from the mine that was here.

 

 

The hole from the other side:

Coming back:

See those holes..they are bullet holes from WW2 – Interesting:

The big area in the center that is chipped off…that also happened in WW2 from a bomb!:

The other side of the channel:

From there we drove out to the island on the other side of the bridge – more lighthouses:

Lake Havasu City is beyond that light house – WOW!

We continued our road trip by driving thru more of Lake Havasu.  I thought that this city was more like a small town – turns out it is a big city – oh my…   On the boat, we found out the history of Lake Havasu – here is a link – very interesting:

http://havasumagazine.com/history_of_lake_havasu_city.htm

Back at the motorhome – what a sunset:

What a WONDERFUL day!

Enjoy today!

November 14, 2011 – Travel to CRA – Havasu Springs Resort

We left our little spot this AM and headed into Vegas.  I wanted to stop at a store for sun shade/patio screening for four of the RV windows – and was able to buy some of the remnants – Yea.  (That will be one of my projects when we get to Casa Grande.)

After leaving Las Vegas, we headed south to California:

 

Across the Colorado River:

Into Arizona:

To Lake Havasu City:

And south to Havasu Springs Resort:

 

Havasu Springs Resort is a Colorado River Adventures Membership Park.  So why are we here, you ask – :-)))?   Well, when we bought our Bounder last December, the RV Peddler gave us a year membership in Colorado River Adventures which included 20 free nights of camping.   We did not know about it until March when we were in Texas and heading home.   So CRA agreed to start the membership this month.  The one catch is that we need to go to a 90 minute presentation which will happen Wednesday.   I don’t usually like to go to this type of “sell” but what the heck!  So we will see what happens.

We will be here until Friday morning and then head further south to Quartzsite.

Enjoy today.

 

Miles Traveled:  222 Miles

Routes Traveled:

Nevada: Oakridge Road; Manse Road; NV160; I-15 N; Flamingo Road; Boulder Highway (for a stop) then Boulder Highway South; SR-95

California: SR-95; I-40 East;

Arizona: I-40 East; SR-95 South; Havasu Springs Road