It's been that long? Wow!

I know that it's been a long time since I put ...fingers to my computer (as opposed to pen to paper), and I've meant to put my thoughts and our travels on the computer, but I just never quite got to it.  I'll try to fix that now.

We left Desert Hot Springs and went to Lake Havasu Colorado River Adventures (CRA) on February 1 to stay there for 14 days.

This is where we originally bought into membership camping a few years ago.  We've used our CRA membership resorts, along with membership resorts in the Thousand Trails system, in our travels with us paying a yearly fee and then camping in those resorts for free.  I like free.  The Lake Havasu resort had a pool and a hot tub that we used just about everyday.  We spent several days playing Pickleball in the city of Lake Havasu after finding out where it was played.  The folks there really enjoy their Pickleball, and you may enjoy this link to a youtube.com video telling about the beginning of Pickleball if you don't know it.

Half way through our time in Lake Havasu, Katie's sister, Karen, and her husband, Bill, came from Lakewood, Ca., to join us for a couple of days.  It was good seeing them, as it is always.  In the picture below, Katie's on the left, Bill is in the center, and Karen is on the right.  Just so you know, Bill is able to stand up straight, he doesn't always lean to his left, ok?

  

We went down to London Bridge to check out the sights and sounds of the village there.  Part of the sounds was this cornet player under the bridge where there was excellent acoustics.  The trumpeter played older songs, and did it quite well.

Another sound to hear was the owner of a hat shop who bringing in just about anyone who could hear his voice to sell them ...what else, hats!  Because I was looking for a hat that I could shade my eyes with and kinda mold it to whatever else needed to be covered for whatever reason, I got one.  Here's a picture of Katie and I with me wearing my new hat.  Ain't I dashing?  Ok, use your imagination, ok?  Oh yeah, that's the London Bridge behind us, that was bought and brought over here by Robert McCulloch as in McCulloch chain saws, in 1971, you can read about it here.

We went back to the moho and spent a couple of hours visiting with Bill and Karen having a good time.  It was sad to see them go home the next day, but we were very grateful that we were able to see them as we don't see them as often as we used to.

On February 15th, we went to Las Vegas Thousand Trails for two weeks.  Now, Lake Havasu CRA and LV Thousand Trails were similar in that they both were gravel with a little grass in designated spaces.  But LV 1K trails is smaller so the space for each rv is smaller.  With no disrespect, I'd say that it's like a gravel parking lot with rv hookups, which isn't unique among a lot of rv resorts.  Lake Havasu was larger, and the rv spots had a little more segregation in that they weren't all on the same level, with a little more room.  Las Vegas 1K Trails also has more noise as the planes from McCarran Airport would take off each night passing over that area of town, and the noise from emergency vehicles going up and down Boulder Hwy was enough to keep me from sleeping as soundly if we hadn't been there.  We rarely heard sounds like airliners or emergency vehicles in Lake Havasu. 

The first week, we spent time seeing friends and just kinda taking it easy.  The second week was a week long learning time for Katie at the yearly Creative Painting convention held at the Tropicana Hotel.  She took a lot of classes in the various aspects of painting or drawing, as well as being excited about what she really loves to do.  It was a hard week for her as a couple of the days she had classes were from 8 AM until 9 or 10 PM, kinda for me also as I missed her.  But I was able to spend time singing with the choir of Grace Presbyterian Church for their rehearsal, as well as taking part in worship on Sunday morning.  It felt so good to sing again, I'm very thankful for that talent.  Overall, we had a good time in Las Vegas, and it was good to see and do all the things we did there.  The moho is even more full of her paintings as she painted another painting in each class she took.  I do wish that we could've seen friends that we'd been looking forward to seeing, but weren't able to as things just didn't work out.  But that gives us a good reason to come back.

Thinking about all the wet paintings that Katie's brought home, it got me to thinking how artists carry and protect their wet paintings.  So I came up with an idea for a carrier for wet canvases that I think that other artists could use.  It didn't quite come out as well as I'd hoped, but it's merely a rough draft right now.  Hopefully, down the road, all the rough edges will be smoothed out, and it'll look a whole bunch better than it does right now.  Stay tuned for the exciting showing!

We left for Ridgeview RV Resort after Katie's last class on Sunday, the 1st of March.  It was supposed to be after 5 PM, but it worked out that it was closer to 7 PM, which meant traveling in the dark.  I don't mind driving in the dark, but if we're moving from one resort to the next resort, I prefer to do it when it's light out rather than dark.  Something about being able to see as much as possible while moving our home, ya know?  Having called the resort earlier in the day, I knew what site was going to be ours by the time we got there, but it was late and dark, and the rain wasn't making it fun to set up.  So we found our spot, pulled in, hooked up electricity, extended the slides, moved stuff off the bed so we could sleep, and went to bed.  Leveling, hooking up water and sewer, and connecting the Dish Tailgater were put off until the next day.

When I did get up the next day, there was a drizzle coming down softly enough that we couldn't hear it hit the roof inside the moho, but when I stepped outside to walk the doggies I knew very well what was going on.  It's rained off and on all day for the most part.  Even had a good thunder storm.  Around 4 PM, it cleared off some and the ground semi dried out.  Here is what it looks like here.  The mountains in the background in the top photo are in Nevada.

We're gonna be here for another day and a half, and then head to Phoenix for another three days, before we go to the Escapee Escapade in Tucson.  Lookin' forward to that.

Be blessed and good.

Two Catalinas

We took our three day cruise to Catalina, California (the first Catalina) and Ensenada, Baja California, Mexico on January 18th thru the 22nd.  While the cruise was, indeed, a cruise, and it was better by far than any cruise I took while in the Navy, I can't say that it met our expectations as far as what we thought it would be like.  Katie wanted to know if she'd be able to take a cruise at all because she's prone to motion sickness, and she found out that with the help of Bonine and ginger tablets, she was able to ..."stomach" the rocking motions.  So with that bridge crossed, we'll set about figuring out if we're gonna take a cruise get to Alaska in the future.  Way in the future.

The ship we went on was Carnival's Imagination, an 855' long ship with a crew of 920, capable of carrying up to 2,634 passengers, with 14 decks.  A big ship!  Service aboard the ship was very good, with every crew member we met having a smile for us and wanting to do what they could to make our cruise as comfortable as possible.  And for the most part, they did a great job. 

We just didn't feel like it was the right scene for us though, kinda like we didn't quite fit in.  And our dinner food wasn't to our liking either, with the exception of our last night on board.  It looked nice though, so the appearance was good.  And the serving staff was great, and would've done anything to help us out, even bring us other food.  But we just couldn't see eating more that we weren't sure we'd like either.

We took excursions at each of the ports we visited (Catalina Island & Ensenada, Mexico) with the tour of Catalina being more exciting than Ensenada, two days later.  It was in a 50's Flxible bus so it was a little nostalgic, and the tour driver told us about the history of the company that made it.  As most of the island is mountainous, very shortly after we boarded the bus, it was taking us climbing up the steep hills on a narrow road that was built for stage coaches back when the Banning family owned the island.  The bus driver told us about them and how they fit into the history of the island and Los Angeles, along with the next owner of the island, the gum magnate William Wrigley, Jr., and now the current one, the Catalina Conservancy.  I didn't think that the tour would actually take more than an hour, but it filled up more than three hours easily as we meandered on the back roads of the island, taking us to the west side of the island, through the new winery that's being built by Jeff Rusack (he married Allison Wrigley, grand daughter of William Wrigley, Jr.), and finally to the Airport in the Sky. The tour ended with the bus going back down the road that we went up, which is lined with Eucalyptus trees on the cliff side.  The road winds around the hills with lots of sharp curves so the bus couldn't go very fast at all.  But you can see what that narrow, stage coach road looks like here,

and also in this video that was taken by someone going down the hill to Avalon on a bicycle.  We didn't go nearly as fast as this cyclist did.

On the day we went to Ensenada, we got off the ship twice.  The first time was just to go walk around the city to see what we could see.

There was a Catholic Church that we went to see because it was something we could see from the ship, that I didn't get a good picture of before I left the ship and this picture is of it when we're a couple of blocks away. 

By looking on the internet, I found out that it is the Our Lady of  Guadalupe Catholic Church.  Big on the outside, and pretty big on the inside as well.

After that, we just wandered around a little looking for the touristy shopping district after that, and on the way, we were in the mood for soft serve ice cream.  And being as we found the local, friendly, soft serve ice creamery, we stopped in to get some.  Yep, McDonalds.  Not as good as DQ, but it works still the same.

Ironically enough, they didn't want to take our $20 bill although they had the exchange rate posted on the wall, and the person in front of us used US dollars to pay for his fare.  Oh, well!  Can't say that I really needed the extra calories right then anyway.

We went back to the ship and enjoyed one of the hot tubs while the majority of the other passengers were off the ship, then headed out for the afternoon excursion, which was going to the blow hole, called La Bufadora by the locals.  The tour guide on the bus was very knowledgeable of the area and told us lots of facts, such as: fuel for cars and trucks is controlled by the government so shopping for the best price doesn't really mean anything; the area of Ensenada is three times the size of Mexico City, yet has a population of less than 1/2 a million while Mexico City's population is over 8 million; much of the vegetables that are eaten by the US are grown in Ensenada.  There were other facts that she told to everyone, but I just don't remember them all!  (Darn the bad luck!)

The blowhole, La Bufadora, is a marine geyser, one of four such geysers in the world.  When we first got to the viewing platform, there wasn't much going on.  I mean we could hear it blowing, but there wasn't any water being shot up in the air.  Kinda like we could hear something BIG breathing.  Then it started getting more active, with more and more mist shooting up.  The tour guide said that once every seven "breaths" water would shoot up.  I didn't count, but I think that she was correct as water did shoot up about that often for the amount of time we were there.  If ya follow this link for La Bufadora, you can see bunches of pictures, which are probably better than what I took, which looks like below, or you can watch a youtube video here to see what it's like from the water.

I didn't enjoy the walk from the bus to the viewing platform and back as we were constantly badgered and harangued by the vendors along the way to buy their stuff.  Not that the stuff wasn't good, or that they wouldn't have made a good deal for us.  I just prefer to be left alone unless I'm needing help picking out what I want when I go shopping.  And I wasn't shopping then.  But it was like a swap meet - flea market kinda place, but with more aggressive vendors.  Then again, maybe I'm just getting old and don't wanna be bothered like that, ya think?

There was a big cat in one of the eateries along the way, and I snapped a picture before the owner told me not to.  But I'm glad that he had a leash on still the same.  Ya can't see it as it hidden behind the cat.

I didn't think to ask what it was, anyone know?  I'm thinking a Jaguar.  Seemed friendly enough, didn't pounce on me when I was about four feet in front of him getting ready to take my second picture. 

Shortly after arriving back at the ship just before 4 PM, it pulled out, bound for Long Beach, Ca.  Now one of the TV channels that the ship provided was different aspects of the ship, like a live view from the bridge of where we were going, what was happening on the Lido deck, a map of where we were, and other assorted pieces of information, with one of them being the speed of the ship.  Prior to that night, I watched it because there just wasn't much on that I wanted to watch.  And the speed that the ship would usually go at was about 6.2 knots, which equals about 7.13 mph.  You know, just a nice lazy pace as there was plenty of time to get to where the ship was going to next.  Well, as we had more than a few miles or so to go that night (Google Maps says 193 miles), I guess the boys and girls on the bridge found the gas pedal and really stepped on it.  We were doing as high as 13 knots (almost 15 mph!!!!) at times during the night so we'd be able to get to Long Beach at 6:20 the next morning, which was Thursday.  Not exactly break neck speed, but it was moving much faster than it had previously.  

We were able to depart the ship unannounced shortly after they put the gangway up to the third deck, sometime around 8:30 or so.  Katie's sister, Karen, picked us up a few minutes later.  There were many things to do that day, so we sped through getting the dogs from their kennel, having breakfast with Karen and her husband, Bill, driving to the moho and getting food to eat in the moho, and driving to the second Catalina, Catalina Spa & RV Resort in Desert Hot Springs, Ca.  After very little time, we found a spot near the edge of the resort so we could leave the resort easily to walk the dogs without leashes, and then just collapsed as we were both quite tired.  Katie from all the things that we'd been doing, and me from all the excitement of the ship going twice as fast as it had previously.  

Didn't even look for the hot tub until the next day, so ya know how tired we really were.  Now that we've been here six days, we're finding the resort to be very nice.  The pools are wonderful, the hot tub is very hot, and the folks here seem to be nice as well.  I might add that the pools and hot tubs have water supplied by a their mineral hot springs well at 130 degrees, and it eventually gets to the hot tubs where it is changed several times a day, and to the pool where the water is changed several times a week.  The water doesn't stink like water from other hot springs might, which adds to the enjoyment of being in it.  So far, there've been LOTS of adults in the adult pool about 100' away from us every night since we've been here.  I think that we'll be very happy staying here until Sunday.  If you click on the link above, you'll be able to see pictures of it, and if ya click the right buttons, even see a slide show of what it's like. I recommend this resort if you're wanting a good place to stay in this neck of the woods... er, desert I mean.

We'd seen Pickleball played when we were in Wilderness Lakes in Menifee, Ca., some time ago, and I told Katie that I'd taken a Pickleball class when I was living in Portland, Oregon.  She was intrigued enough at what we saw that she bought a set of paddles and balls for it a couple of Christmas' ago, and we hadn't thought much about getting them used last year because we were so busy with work, and so far this year because we just hadn't gotten around to it.  However, a couple of nights ago, we met a woman in the pool who plays it daily at the courts here, and invited us to play.  I went last night and had a blast, and Katie went with me to the morning session and had fun as well.  I'm thinking we'll be doing it again since it's as much fun as it is.  Our biggest problem so far is that we keep thinking that the paddle and ball will have the same characteristics that racquetball stuff has: the paddle is shorter, and the ball isn't nearly as lively.  But I'm thinking that we'll get used to it if we play it often enough.

Ok, that's about it for now.  We'll be staying here until Sunday when we travel to Lake Havasu in Arizona.  Be blessed.