What kind of dessert do you eat in the desert?

A prickly pear gelato of course!

 On our way to Mesa, Arizona
 The day before we left Lake Havasu we took a quick boat ride across the lake to the California side.

 Wouldn't this be a great place to park your RV?

 Lake Havasu is home to more lighthouses than any other city in America. These 1/3 scale replicas are actual functioning navigational aids, built to the specifications of famous East and West Coast lighthouses. There are currently 19 that dot the shores of the Lake, with several other planned.

 There really wasn't much on the California side except a resort and native reserve but it was very pretty and the boat trip took less than an hour round trip.

On the way to Mesa we saw a lot of desert!

About 45 miles east of Phoenix we saw the Palo Verde Nuclear plant in the distance.

 
  We also saw some huge cotton fields and they were harvesting it - was really interesting to see a loader dump a huge batch of fluffy cotton in a truck.  Would have been even cooler to take a picture of it instead of turning my camera off - ugh!

As we headed east we also got into some more interesting desert plants including huge cactus's.

 We will be staying here for at least a month and spent the day today doing a whole lot of nothing!  I did take a few pictures of the park we are staying in - which is the same one Don's mom and her husband used to stay in when they were here.

 I am sure my sister Tami will know what these flowers are!  They are everywhere and so pretty, there are 4 or 5 colors on each cluster of blooms.

We did go out and get a few groceries - look what I got for 90 cents -

I get some pretty good deals on produce and it tastes so amazing and lasts a good 4 or 5 days longer than what I am used to.

Lake Havasu, New Friends, Awesome couple of Days

Can you believe we were so busy having fun I didn't even get around to doing my blog for the past 3 days? Our time in Lake Havasu flew by so fast, it sure doesn't seem like we were here a whole week.
When we were shopping the first day we got here we met up with people who live about 4 blocks away from us in Saskatoon.  They were kind enough to let us join in on their weekend and it was amazing!  They introduced us to another couple who live in Lake Havasu. 

This is Franz and Judy and their  pontoon boat which is fully equipped for fun!  They are lucky enough to live here!  They do tend to travel to cooler spots in the summer as it is 100 plus degrees at night some times.  They even sleep on it when it is super hot in the summer.  They were wonderful navigators, tour guides and cooks (most amazing blue cheese burgers ever!)

We all played dominoes while we sat and enjoyed the warm afternoon.  We even had Hawkins cheezies imported from Canada - can you believe they don't have them in the US? Every year they have a Christmas parade on the lake.  The boats were all decorated with lights and blow up figures.

On the way back to the boat launch Franz was good enough to give us a bit of a tour of the lake.  You could barely see hundreds of coots floating on the lake and scooting out of the way as we disturbed their sleep.  The moon was just coming up over the mountains and it was such a great night.

 Sunday morning we went to the flea market.  I did not see any fleas but there wasn't much else I didn't see.

We then took a ride south east of Lake Havasu to see "the desert bar."   

En route we saw, I am guessing, 500, motorcycles doing the Santa toy run.  There were some really fancy bikes and a lot of women were driving.

 The scenery was, as usual, breathtaking.

The company, also fantastic!  We are all in Arizona and across the Colorado river is California.














We drove off the highway about 6 miles down a VERY rustic road into the middle of the desert to go to this bar. A lot of people drive in on the jeeps or ATV's.  The bar is only open weekends and is all outdoor.  It is in the Buckskin Mountains in Parker, Arizona, on land that was an old mining camp.  They used to mine copper and then take it to the smelter and get gold.

 This is a saguaro cactus.  There are a lot of old rusted cars, trucks and tools amid the rocks and desert plants. 

 How cool is this!  There were lots of little cut outs in the mountains.

 A view of the bar area from up higher
















 There was also a live band - they were really excellent and played music we all enjoyed! 

 This is Don and I at the little church they have there - I mean it WAS Sunday!

This is Bev and Don - they are from Saskatoon.  Bev bought these amazing beer battered fries.  They were sooooo good!  Fortunately, when you beer batter the fries none of the calories can get in.

 This is the ladies room.  It is basically cut into a huge rock and the doors are heavy metal.  The whole place basically uses solar power.

 Love this tap

This is the best view you are ever going to get in a washroom - basically a hole cut in the rock.

The ride back down the windy, bumpy road was a little livelier and Franz managed to navigate the truck very well and get us back to the highway safe and sound.  You really would not want to take a car on this road.  He drove to the California side of the Colorado river and guess what we saw . . .

We counted them along the highway and there were 17. We stopped at another resort and ate a bunch of popcorn (free refills) and then were on our way back to Lake Havasu.  We had a great supper at a local Italian restaurant and finished up the night with a nice bon fire in Judy and Franz's beautiful back yard which over looks the lake.   I am truly disappointed I could not even eat a roasted marshmallow  as I was so full from the supper.  Sure could eat one now tho . . .

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.