I would never claim to be a "natural" at this sport!!

Ade took a number of these "Where is Tom" pictures!!

...only in my dreams!!!!

...to Huntington

West of Palm Springs there were well over 1,000 of these windmills.  I guess when you cannot count on water, wind is the next best thing.

Oct 24

Huntington Beach!

It is amazing to get within 60 miles of Los Angles and realize that from that point on you are in solid suburbia until you reach the ocean!  The traffic and the subdivisions are amazing.  Thank goodness we had the GPS to navigate us through the constant number of on-off ramps that lead to other freeways.

We arrived at Huntington a little after dark and had supper at Oceanside by the pier (where Chay and I spent many a day attempting to learn to surf!).  It was great to be back.  The moon was shining and we headed to our usual spot to park for the night.

The next day we headed to our same spot as last year.  For $15 we got a triple wide parking spot right on the beach—plenty of room to spread out with chairs, surf board, scooter and bike!!

...our usual spot on the beach at Huntington

The weather here has been wonderful with day time highs ranging from 70 to 80 degrees.  We love either sitting on the lawn chairs by Rita or going down on the sandy beach and watching the surfers do their thing.   Every day I make another effort at this most frustrating of sports, but progess is slow and limited, but I am now pretty good at surfing—belly down on the board!!!!!!!

Lake Havasu Area

Typical Desert mountains

...lots of Joshaua trees

Oct 22 Friday

We made a small detour to Cottonwood Cove, just below the Hoover Dam.  Unlike lake Meade (over 130 ft low in water level), this body was only about15 ft below normal, and it was a popular boating destination for people from Vegas.  On the way into the little beach side town we saw a huge desert turtle in the middle of the road.  It measured well over a foot long.  I stopped to persuade it to get moving off the middle of the road.  This took a few minutes and wouldn’t you believe it, I had to flag over a speeding motorist to prevent him from running over the turtle.  The only thanks I got was a fist in the air from the jerk!

Ade at Cottonwood Cove on the Colorado River, just below Hoover Dam

A pit stop on the way to LA was made at Lake Havasu—the home of London Bridge.  We have been here several times and always like staying at the State Park, on the beach, right in the middle of town (only 2 miles from London Bridge).  It is a beautiful location and we were luck to get a spot almost right on the lake.  However, Hunting is the power boat capital of USA.  Never have we seen so many large, powerful and noisy speed boats.  They are huge, often well over 30 ft long.

Even though the temperatures were in the mid 70’s in the day, I guess we were late in the year and the number of boats on the lake made it almost bearable and at night you would only hear the boats occasionally.  For a city that is only a little over 30 years old, Havasu has grown remarkably fast, with all the amenities, but with summer time temperatures in the 110 degree range, and also the countless big boats, I don’t think it would be our choice for a retirement haven—even though it has been a high choice for thousands of Americans.  With its very nice location and climate, it is the center of many very large events; for example, last year we saw the largest gathering of float model airplanes in America, and this year we went spent 3 hours at a huge antique car show (called Relics and Roots).  The show was so large that in that time we still did not see all the cars there.

I had to get this picture for Al Carter.  This Invicta with Al's reverberator was truly a party on wheels in the "old days".

Other than it’s Longdon Bridge, the other claim to fame for the town is Havasu Falls.  It is a magical oasis of cascading water just east of town—however in the past two years it has been so dry that the falls have all but disappeared.

On the third day, we headed west to L.A.

Bye Bye Zion

The Attentive Student getting help from DAD.

 

A great little campsite right on the Virgin River, only 8 miles from Zion Park.  The price is right.  It is free!!  I do not know who looks after it, but the place was spotless! Also, it had firepits and lots of room for privacy!!  It is definitely in our plans if the Zion park spot is ever full.

At the Casino we stayed in Mesquite, this was the grand total of my winnings!!

Oct 18 to 21

After 8 days in Zion, the weather started to turn cloudy and rain/storm clouds were on the horizon, so we decided to head a little bit south to Mesquite to ride out the storm.  In Mesquite we changed pace and booked into a casino-hotel for 4 nights.

Mesquite is an interesting town.  It is located on the Virgin river at an elevation of less than 2,000 ft.  This is over a 2,400 ft drop from Zion, so it is considerably warmer in the winter.  When we arrived, it was a very comfortable 85 degrees.  The town is relatively new and located on the Nevada side of the of the north corner of the Nevada/Arizona border (wow, try to figure that one out!!).  Besides the 4 casinos, it has a number of beautiful golf courses, 2 of which are designed by Arnold Palmer.  The courses ramble through miles of newly developed retirement homes, most of which are either on the course or a house or two from the course.  The courses are extremely high end, but reasonably priced compared to those in Kelowna.  An instant membership is $5,000, and the monthly fees are $350.  For that not only do you get the golfing, but a club house that is out of this world, with tennis, pools, volleyball, horseshoes, dining and dancing and a first class restaurant (all year round!).  With the price of a new home in the $150,000 to $170,000 range, many Canadians are buying in these subdivisions.  Since the courses each meander over 7,000 yards through the back desert area of Mesquite, that makes 9 miles of homes located right on the course.  None of the holes are side-by-side, so it is hard to believe that these enormous courses actually start and end at the same club-house.

Another amazing thing is the incredible contrast between the beautifully manicures green fairways and the adjacent red desert land where the houses are designed in shades of light red/orange to blend into the desert surroundings.

While we were in town, they were getting ready for the big event of the year in town.  Mesquite is the home of the Golf World Long-ball Championship.  It attracts 1,000’s of people to the town and is their chance to shine on the world stage as this is televised on TSN and gets major coverage in the golf world.

Adrienne and I quite like the town where palm trees are as common as evergreens at home.  The casinos are very friendly.  Our room had 2 queen size beds and was very nice (in fact it had a note on the door that said it could be rented for as much as $400!), and we paid only $25 per night and that included breakfast.  The restaurant\ food in the casinos was about ½ the price of what we pay at home, and the quality was very good and portions about 50% more than we get at home!  No wonder so many young families were eating at the casino restaurants.   Also there was good free live entertainment 6 nights a week.  Also, like Los Vegas, they never close!

We were very fortunate with the weather in Mesquite.  For the first 3 days, the storms were in the hills around us, and we had great sunshine, so the pool/hot-tub was very attractive. About ¾ through the third day, that clouds and wind hit us.  The clouds were laced with lightening strikes, but we missed the main brunt of the storm.  This storm was quite impressive in some locations where it dropped 2 inches of rain in an area that gets only 5 inches a year!  Los Vegas had extreme flooding in the streets and the weather channel was constantly beeping alerts to warn certain cities in the area.

We woke up Thursday morning, somewhat earlier than usual, headed to the casino for our morning breakfast, and then after loading the bikes we were on our way.

After spending an hour showing Ade what I had discovered in the real estate market—such as 2 bedroom houses on the Arnold Palmer golf course for $150,000!—we were on our way to Huntington Beach.

If you do not have to spend the summer there, Mesquite is a pretty nice spot.

Angle's Landing

A well deserved break after Angels Landing



 

Oct 11 to 17 (Mon – Sun)

We relaxed on Monday, and I buzzed around on the scooter.  Ade laid back and relaxed.

On Tues Dave and Meg and Finley arrived.  We planned to hike the narrows tomorrow

When you are at Zion, it is almos a mystic experience.  The colorful beauty and immenseness of the surrounding cliffs  remind a person just how small we are.  First the area was an inland sea (700 million years ago); then the pressures inside the earth forced the whole area up about 10,000 ft; then the Zion river carved canyons 2,000 ft deep into the relatively soft sandstone layers.  The colored stratification (ranging from white to yellow to orange to red!) of the canyon walls never cease to capture and hold your attention as interest turns to amazement.

The hike up the Narrows starts with a free shuttle ride from your campsite or the town, to the end of the canyon (a distance of 8 or 9 miles).  Then you start a riverside walk for a mile and then you are forced to enter the rather cool waters of the Virgin River.  As you walk a mile or so up the river, the walls get much higher (up to 1,800 ft) and the channel gets narrower.  It is a somewhat tight feeling in places, but from time to time, the sun’s rays are able to shine between the walls, and the feeling is almost euphoric.

On Thursday,Meg and Dave did the hikes of Emerald Pools and Weeping rock.  At Weeping rock, the water bubbles out of a sandstone cliff.  There is so much water dripping out of the rock, that hundreds of hanging plants adorn the cliffs here.

Friday was our day for one of the more famous hikes in the park.  It is called Angels Landing. The full return hike is about 5 hours; it includes a scenic walk part way up the side of a cliff  where you finally inter a gap in the cliff.  After a bit of a tight walk between two cliffs, you enter 22 tight switch backs (Called Walters Wiggels) and eventually en d up on a plateau called Scouts landing.  Many people stop here, because what follows is is a narrow ridge that drops both side well over 1,000 ft, and at one point is only 3 ft wide!  The parks branch has installed quiet a number of chain handrails for those who might otherwise lose their balance, but the hike is definitely not for the slight of heart.

What amazed the 3 of us was that there were parents allowing children as yound as 3 years old to make this treacherous hike.  Meg and Dave were definitely shook up by the sight of so many people and children hiking this perilous trek.  They declined to go much more that 1/3 of the way along the “spine”, but I was determined to make it to the end.  However, once there, I could not believe the number of others who had made it.  Apparently it was one of the busiest days of the year because Angels Landing had been closed the previous 10 days due to maintenance.

At one point I was able to get a walk-by view of an enormous California Condor.  When it eventually flew, its wing span was about 7 ft!

The view from Angel’s Landing is truly breathless.  You get a 270 degree view of the valley below at about 1,800 ft.  It does seem a daunting hike, but once there, you do not want to leave.  This is my third time up to the location, but each time is just as satisfying as the first.

On Thursday,Meg and Dave did the hikes of Emerald Pools and Weeping rock.  At Weeping rock, the water bubbles out of a sandstone cliff.  There is so much water dripping out of the rock, that hundreds of hanging plants adorn the cliffs here.

Friday was our day for one of the more famous hikes in the park.  It is called Angels Landing. The full return hike is about 5 hours; it includes a scenic walk part way up the side of a cliff  where you finally inter a gap in the cliff.  After a bit of a tight walk between two cliffs, you enter 22 tight switch backs (Called Walters Wiggels) and eventually en d up on a plateau called Scouts landing.  Many people stop here, because what follows is is a narrow ridge that drops both side well over 1,000 ft, and at one point is only 3 ft wide!  The parks branch has installed quiet a number of chain handrails for those who might otherwise lose their balance, but the hike is definitely not for the slight of heart.

What amazed the 3 of us was that there were parents allowing children as yound as 3 years old to make this treacherous hike.  Meg and Dave were definitely shook up by the sight of so many people and children hiking this perilous trek.  They declined to go much more that 1/3 of the way along the "spine", but I was determined to make it to the end.  However, once there, I could not believe the number of others who had made it.  Apparently it was one of the busiest days of the year because Angels Landing had been closed the previous 10 days due to maintenance.

At one point I was able to get a walk-by view of an enormous California Condor.  When it eventually flew, its wing span was about 7 ft!

...a great background!

The color of the rock changes with every glance.

even more Rocks!

              ...don't break off!

Another shot in the "Narrows"

    The road on the way out of Zion

                     

               "I will do anything for a treat"

More Zion

                  ANGLE'S LANDING

Probably the most famous hike at Zion is Angels Landing.  You end up on top of this rock after 3 - 4 hours of walking/climbing!

                    THE VIRGIN RIVER

This little river is responsible for all of the rock sculpture in Zion (over serveral million years though).

Zion parks

                 THE NARROWS

We walked about 2 km up the river.  As you went further, the rock walls get narrower and higher, so a point where they soar to 1,800 ft above you.

It gets a little precarious at times!

Oct 11 to 17 (Mon – Sun)

We relaxed on Monday, and I buzzed around on the scooter.  Ade laid back and relaxed.

On Tues Dave and Meg and Finley arrived.  We planned to hike the narrows tomorrow

When you are at Zion, it is almos a mystic experience.  The colorful beauty and immenseness of the surrounding cliffs  remind a person just how small we are.  First the area was an inland sea (700 million years ago); then the pressures inside the earth forced the whole area up about 10,000 ft; then the Zion river carved canyons 2,000 ft deep into the relatively soft sandstone layers.  The colored stratification (ranging from white to yellow to orange to red!) of the canyon walls never cease to capture and hold your attention as interest turns to amazement.

The hike up the Narrows starts with a free shuttle ride from your campsite or the town, to the end of the canyon (a distance of 8 or 9 miles).  Then you start a riverside walk for a mile and then you are forced to enter the rather cool waters of the Virgin River.  As you walk a mile or so up the river, the walls get much higher (up to 1,800 ft) and the channel gets narrower.  It is a somewhat tight feeling in places, but from time to time, the sun’s rays are able to shine between the walls, and the feeling is almost euphoric.

This little water fall came from a distance of about 1,000 ft.

Meanwhile, "back at the ranch"!

Zion, via Lake Meade, Hoover Dam and Vegas

Sunday October 10, 2010

By 9:00 we were packed and had to say good bye to Parker, although both of us would have just as soon spent another day or so.  However, Dave and Meg and Finley were to meet us in Zion, so we made tracks.  It is quite a desert run when you head north on the Colorado river from Parker.  Not much in the way of agriculture in this dry waste-land

Just before Los Vegas, we stopped at the Hoover Dam.  It was one of President Roosevelt’s pet projects in the New Deal financial package that he and Congress used to get the USA out of the depression years of the 1930’s.  In it’s day, it was an engineering wonder, but by the standards of modern dams, it is just another big dam.  For the next 6 months or so, the highway runs along the top of the dam, which is only about ¼ mile long, but reasonably tall.  Because of the paranoia of the American psych., you must pass through a check-search point before the Dam, where they interrogate you and check out your vehicles for aliens, bombs, and saboteurs.  In a few months the new highway will completely bypass the dam over a newly constructed bridge a few hundred yards south of the dam.  The dam provides the electricity for Los Vegas, and backs up the Colorado river to form lake Meade.  This lake is enormous with hundreds of miles of lake shore and is regarded by many as the houseboat Mecca for North America (the industry on Meade is considerably bigger than even the Shushwap).

As soon as you see lake Meade, one thing strikes you immediately.  The lake is about 100 ft lower than the maximum height the dam allows.  This was a low water time of year, but in the last decade, Meade has been continually loosing water.  Its high level is expected to be 70 ft lower than it used to be years ago.  This reduced amount of water reserve is having a dramatic effect on its ability to generate power—brown-outs in Vegas?? Would America let that happen??  There is even concern that if the present climatic drought conditions continue for 15 years or so, the water will not rise high enough to enter the penstocks and generate any electricity period!

On the north side of the dam is the town of Boulder.  This is a very nice place, with attractive newer houses.  Ade was surprised that it has not been regarded as a retirement haven for Canadians as it is within a few hours drive or so many attractions from Vegas to the National parks of Zion, Bryce, and Grand Canyon and only minutes away from the enormous lake Meade.

Over the years we have certainly seen enough of Los Vegas, so we skirted the town, although we did get a great view of the skyline of Vegas with its structurally amazing buildings on the strip.

We pulled into Zion about 5:30.  The entry to Zion, through the quaint little town of Springdale is very appealing.  There are no box stores, and many of the shops have a quaint uniqueness about them that definitely attracts walk-by pedestrians.  Unfortunately, the park was full, but we did have a back up plan.  Last year we found a very quiet location on a paved cul-de-sac about ¼ mile off the strip of the main part of town.  We returned to find it just as we had left it last year, so we parked Rita, and spent the night surrounded by 1,500 ft sandstone walls on one side and exposed to a crystal clear black sky with hundreds of bright stars twinkling down on us.

Too good to leave.

Saturday  October 9, 2010

We decided that the laid back part-time serenity of the campsite outweighed the noise of the speed boats that came by every 10 minutes.  It seemed that we lucked out according to the campsite manager.  Up until this week, he had not seen a day under 100 degrees since spring time!!  Also, he said that in the summer the boats were so numerous that you could almost walk across the “lake” on boats!  It was a really enjoyable, lay-by-the-lake type day and we took full advantage of it.  I took the surf board out into the lake and paddle around for a while.  (It was the first time the board had been in the water for the last month, what with the cool temperatures we endured on the West coast.)  The day time temperature rose to the high 80’s, and once again in the evening it was clear and 28 degrees—much to our liking.  In the night it cooled down to 24 degrees, what more could you want.

Friday (Oct 8)

Dave, Meg, Jaime, and Finley left in the morning for Pheonix to drop Jai at the airport (on Friday).  Ade and I spent the morning and some of the afternoon at the pool and then decided to leave for Parker. 

However we had to deal with one problem.  On the evening of Wednesday, we left a rug outside on the cement pad to dry and in the morning Ade put the rug back in Rita.  Well immediately after she did this we started to smell this odd odor in Rita.  We did not connect the odor with the rug and left it on the floor all day.  Well finally, with Meg’s help, we figured out what was going on.  A cat had urinated all over the rug and now the smell was in the camper.  Immediately we took the rug out, but the smell still lingered in the camper.  Somehow the odor had now transferred into the carpet!!  On Thursday afternoon before heading to Parker, we decided to go to Walmart and purchase a mini shop vac.  With this little unit, and Pinesol, and a lot of carpet soaking and scrubbing and vacuuming we finally overcame this nauseous odor.

Our next destination was Parker city, Arizona.  The road from Palm Springs was characterized by jagged desert mountains on both sides of the highway.  The erosion on these mountains made them look like the wrinkled, folded skin that you might see on a Sharpei dog that never seems to grow into its skin.

Our 5:00 dinner stop was just on the side of the road, but it was truly beautiful.  The sun was low in the sky providing exquisite lighting on the “wrinkled” mountain peaks.  Beside us was large, flat, well irrigated field land.    The air was full of the sweet smells of freshly plowed, and freshly mowed alfalfa fields.  Ade made a great meal, and both of us spent quite a number of pictures as the setting sun’s glow caused the lighting on the hills to change with every passing minute.

By 7;00 we had reached our destination on the Colorado River—a BLM campsite (named Crossroads) that we stayed in last year.  We had almost the same spot, parked under a shade tree, only a few meters from the river. The temperature was in the mid twenties, and we also had a panoramic view of the easterly desert mountains as the sun, which by now had set provided a sharply contrasting backlight to the rugged hills.  What a great place at a very nice price of only $5 for the night—hard to believe!

At this spot the Colorado river was more like a narrow lake than a river.  The flow has almost been stopped by a series of dams above and below the city of Parker.  The temperature of the water was wonderful.  Even I could jump in without loosing my breath for a moment or two.  The downside of being at this picturesque site was the noise—and it was not traffic noise.  Like Lake Havasu, this area is the playground of anyone who has a low and very powerful “Fonzie” boat.  The river/lake was about 120 meter across, and these speed demonds would be flying by at 50 miles an hour.  Fortunately it was evening and many of the boats were pulling in, so we soon had a very pieceful and mild evening under a glittering sky with no light pollution.

This spot is so nice that we decided to spend the next day.



This is the view behind us.  Sorry about the poor photo--blame blackberry.

Bye Bye San Diego, for now.

Oct 3 – 9

How could a week pass so quickly.  Meg, Jaime, Finley and Dave took in the San Diego Chargers game, while we dog-sat and laid back for the day on Sunday.  The kids really enjoyed the game.  They arrived extra early to be entertained by a huge tail-gate party in the biggest parking lot they had ever seen.  People had set up their pickups with party decorations, cooking facilities, flat screen tv’s (for those who did not have tickets), and there was even a game of street football going on in the parking lot!  They spend an hour just talking to people and hanging-out in the parking lot.  Of course Finley was a great hit with everyone.  She has an uncanny ability to smile at strangers just at the right time, and of course they suddenly cannot take their eyes off her and the conversations begin.

At the game they were seated immediately in front of some rather tough looking biker guys who were tattooed from head to toe.  Meg was a little uncomfortable until Finley started smiling at the toughest of the 3.  That melted him immediately and Meg said she thought the guy spent more of the game smiling and talking to Finley than he did watching the game!

Margaritaville

Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

...still our own private pool

It is hard too believe that it could be ninety degrees and we are the only people at pool-side.

Emerald desert campsite--a nice spot!!
Sent on the TELUS Mobility network with BlackBerry

Some campsite!

Tuesday to Thursday (Oct 6, )

Rita was ready by noon and we were on our way to Palm Springs.  The ride there was very interesting as we once again crossed the desert mountains in an easterly direction.  We were headed to Palm Springs via Salton Sea. 

Salton Sea is a land-locked body of salt water with its own unique ecosystem of birds, fish and insects located 235 ft below sea level.  It is a very warm spot and many Canadians used to go to the area in the winter months.  We stopped at one of the beaches and were surprised to see a beautiful sandy beach, many pelicans in the water and a generally nice spot, but there was not a single camper in sight!  They whole area looked like it was in the midst of a depression.  The marina did not have a single boat in it, and the nearby homes looked derilic, with broken down fences and garbage everywhere, and at ¼ of them seemed semi-abandoned.  I imagine the root problem of this situation is found in the state of the American economy, but in this location it was worse than anywhere we had seen.

I talked to an older gentileman who like use just drove into the beach area to take a look.  He told me that he had not been back to this spot in 45 years!  When he was young this area was a favorite swimming hole and fishing spot for his family.  When they moved away, he was never able to return.  You could see that he was very sad and disappointed at what had happened to such a beautiful spot in his youth.  He said that the lake level had receeded considerably since his youth, and that he read pollution and the warming water temperatures had killed much of the fishing in the lake/sea.  Although the area was extremely depressed economically, the the derrilic marina and its adjacent sandy beach with full rv services (for only $15) seemed like a great spot to spend a night or two, but this was not a spot that Adrienne fancied so we moved on.

Oddly enough, as we travelled north of Salton Sea (only about 3 miles), the land suddenly turned a lush green.  Irrigation was everywhere with a variety of crops ranging from ground crops to date palm plantations.  Even one of the towns had the unlikely name of Mecca.  From this point most of the way to Palm Springs, massive irrigation projects have turned the desert into an oasis—however much of the water was going to feed the isatiable demands of the enormous walled residences that make up Indio, Palm Desert, and Palm Springs.

With the help of our trusty GPS we located Dave and Meg inside one of these walled complexes (Emerald Desert).  It had duplex condos and rv pads located around a pool, hot tub, and gym complex that was landscaped to perfections with various types of grasses, flowers, and palm trees—very nice.  Also on the complex was a driving range, tennis courts, and a dog run.

Palm Desert is a very unusual town.  Golf carts are an accepted means of transport on the road.  They have their own lane at the side, like a bike lane!  In driving my scooter around the area for miles, I could not find a one stand-alone single family residence.  Everyone lived in these enormous walled complexes, of which a number had their own golf courses!  They were really quite grand.  For about $200,000 you owned a half of a beautifully designed duplex/condo (plus strata fees monthly!).  However, almost  no one lived in these units from late spring, through summer and into September.  For these months, the temperature never went lower than 100 degrees in the day, and did not cool down much at night!  However, for the fall and winter months, the place is paradise.

In the 4 days we spent at Emerald Desert we had a great time with the kids and little Finley.  The pool complex was just perfect as the daytime heat went to about 90 degrees.  I even worked out in the well equipped air-conditioned gym.  It was a treat to have Adrienne join me one day.  There were no takers for tennis but it was a most enjoyable time.  The days we spent at the pools constantly amazed us, as for 90% of the time, we were the only ones enjoying the facilities, inspite of the fact that there were a good number of huge diesel-pusher rigs parked on their pads with older couples, just kind of “hanging-out”.

On Thursday, we went to an enormous farmers market in downtown Palm Springs.  They close off the main street and vendors set up for a distance of about 5 blocks!  Every vendor had to make all the merchandise that he sold so there was no imported or “copy-cat” merchandise for sale.  The several hundred merchants sold everything imaginable from massages, to veggies, to crafts and arts that ranged from $5 nicknacks to $10,000 paintings and sculptures.  That night Palm Springs downtown was quite a “happening” place as in addition to all the street vendors and the very large crowd on the street, the regular store merchants were also open and doing quite well.  The numerous little bars were packed; some had live entertainment, and the dance floors were rocking with an interesting crowd of patrons who ranged in age from 20 to 70.  The area is definitely for the gray-haired set, but quite a number of younger couples and children were mingling on the street.

.