Road Trip!
Today we drove a loop from Lake Havasu to Laughlin, Nevada and back. We were gone about 7 hours, we took the scenic "route 66" on the way there through Oatman, AZ.

http://www.legendsofamerica.com/az-kingmantocalifornia.html

 This was an amazing drive and just beautiful.  I am so lucky to be able to just sit and enjoy!  The road was very narrow and windy and it was a long way down.  I would not want to be in a big truck or RV on this highway.

 On the way we passed many desert washes.  They are also called "xeroriparian habitats" to indicate their relationship with rivers.  Washes, like rivers, are linear, chronically disturbed habitats that concentrate water and nutrients from a large area.  They are corridors for plants and animals.  Washes, unlike rivers, only have surface water for brief periods, often just a few hours in a year.  Many have warnings, if there is water on them do not cross.  It is amazing to see how the water has worn grooves in the sand and these washes.



Oatman, is a former mining town, it has a very small population but a very interesting main street where you can usually see burros wandering the street.  We could definitely see and smell that they had been there but were not lucky enough to see one close up.

 The buildings are all lined up for about 2 blocks, old wooden structures like you would see in a  very old town.  There is burro poop everywhere! In the parks they discourage feeding of burros but it seems they encourage it here as they sell "burro food" in every little store.

 They sell all kinds of gifty touristy items and some really nice pottery and metal sculptures.  I really like this little magnet and if I had a metal surface in my RV I would have bought it.

This is called desert rose.  Formed in arid areas, desert roses are crystal-like in nature and have a rosette shape. They can look like flowers that have turned to stone. They can also appear like breakfast cereal flakes bound together haphazardly. Since the outsides of the stone have bonded with sand, they take on the color of the sand.

Read more: About Desert Roses | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_4577488_desert-roses.html#ixzz2DlEgN0ps

Can you see the burros near the bottom of the picture?  There were about 7 or 8 of them.
http://oatmangoldroad.org/burros.htm










We drove on to Laughlin and had some lunch and walked a little ways along the Colorado river. There are a lot of casino's all along the river as well.

I bet there were 100 koi in the pond by one of the casinos.  As soon as they saw anyone come near the rail they all came over with mouths open.  One even jumped up out of the water.  It was pretty funny to watch.  There were also tons of sea gulls which people were feeding, they were not shy at all and were climbing all over the people.  I like birds - but no way do I want a gull landing on me!

You can see the Colorado river in the front of the picture.
This is one place we actually saw green, real grass as there is actually a water source.  We also drove by a huge sheep farm.  Strangely enough it had tons of new born sheep. Seemed really strange to see babies this time of year.  Have to put that on my google list.

This was an amazing day!

We are staying at the Havasu RV Resort.  It is such a beautiful resort!

A lot of the spots at this resort are actually individually owned.  Basically you buy the lot and then pay a monthly fee.  They have strict controls on what you put on the lots and what not which keeps this place looking really nice.  A lot of people have casitas  - which is kind of like a fancy garage that can have washer and dryer as well as kitchen sink and cupboard space and even a bathroom. Then they have an outdoor cook area with seating and heaters.  Super nice!

our spot has a palm tree  LOL - it also has lots of nice sunshine when I sit on my lawn chair on the cement pad.
Today I sat there until I got hot , then I walked about a block to one of the 2 outdoor pools.  Had the whole pool all to myself  - it was the cleanest pool I have ever been in.  Looking forward to that again tomorrow!






We went to IHOP for breakfast. I have never been there and it was really great - I tried the carrot cake pancakes mmmm.
After that we went for a walk along the London Bridge.

 You know the old nursery rhyme - London Bridges falling down?   Well this is it!  The original London bridge was built in London, England between 1176 and 1209. By the end of the 18th century it was replaced.  This bridge began sinking an inch every 8 years. It had not been designed for 20th century traffic so in 1967 they put it up for sale.






It was purchased by an entrepreneur and founder ofLake Havasu City .  Each block was meticulously numbered before the bridge was disassembled.  The blocks were shipped overseas through the Panama Canal to California and then trucked from Long Beach to Arizona where it was reconstructed in Lake Havasu City in 1971.

 This gate was also purchased and is part of this beautiful park.

 Don kept asking me to back up  hmmmmm

We also went shopping (well looking) -they have really nice shops here.  It was a great day! 

 These are oleanders, they are everywhere and bloom their little brains out.  They are also very poisonous.

Do not know what these are but they are beautiful, the whole vine is covered with these beautiful fuscia flowers.

Vegas Part 2

 Yermo to Vegas - very rocky and desert!   This is where I started to see the Joshua trees.

 These are just some random Vegas shots.  We have been there quite a few times so it doesn't seem new but we did get a different view this time as we had a car and didn't have to rely on cabs and buses.  We also didn't spend much time on the strip.

 I never get sick of seeing the flamingos at The Flamingo!

 or the pelicans either.  When we were there one of the ladies that looks after the birds was there and so we got to watch them getting fed and learn a bit about the birds.

 These are from Red Rock Canyon.  It was an absolutely beautiful day, about 75 degrees.  It was thanksgiving day there and the traffic was crazy and the park was packed.  I was here about the same time last year with my mom and it was really cold.  Strange weather.  We had above average all the time we were in Vegas.  So nice to get up in the morning and see a clear warm day. mmmmm

 This was such a cute display and it reminded me of my sister Jen. This was in the Bellagio

 It was such a nice day we actually watched the water show twice.

 this is a giant decoration in the Fashion Mall.  She must have been 30 feet long.  Everything was decorated for Christmas.  We stayed at Sam's town and they had a huge indoor park all decorated for Christmas.  They had a water, laser and light show with snow spewing out over the display as well.  They had a gorgeous waterfall with animated (very realistic) animals, such as a bear, wolf, beaver, cougar.

 This is the Venetian decorated for Christmas - really nice.  It seems really odd to us to see any Christmas stuff at all.  Kind of confuses you, as you know its the end of November but it doesn't feel like the end of November.  Our minds still think it is September.   I guess when we get back to Prince Albert in December we will get a huge reminder.

These next pictures are from the top of the parking garage at Sams where we stayed for the week.  It was really nice to see these mountains in the distance.  I walked up about 10 flights of stairs to get these pictures only to find that I had my camera case but not the camera.  These from the phone will have to do!

 OK - I know this is random - but seriously - can you  believe a huge package of chicken is only about 10.00????

At the pawn shop - apparently they were not interested in taking Don in as one of their antiques. Dang - and I was hoping to strike it rich! We had to clear out as they were filming a show the day we were there.

 

 This one just cracks me up

Fun to look at the yards in Vegas -hardly any grass and pretty easy care on this one I bet. It was also nice to talk to the "locals"  We did not know why the buffet line ups were so long - like a wait of 1 - 2 hours.  Apparently the casinos/hotels give the locals lots of incentives to the locals so they come to them.  The people that I talked to said they really like living in Vegas.  They basically stay away from the strip and busy touristy malls.  Living is pretty inexpensive and they say it is very caring and community minded.  One funny guy that I talked to asked me where I was from, when I replied Saskatchewan he said, "I thought so, cuz y'all tock fanny"  I laughed and told him I was just thinking the same about him.  Apparently I have some kind of accent??  It was fun, but I was ready to leave Vegas.