Friday, February 24, 2006

As I was saying before I timed out a couple of days ago and lost my entire post - we are in Lake Havasu, AZ. We arrived on the 18th and found a great spot just a couple of blocks from the Hampton, where Tru and Schred were staying. We are in a state park right on the water, an easy cycle from London Bridge (we can almost see it from our site) and then just across the bridge from the 3.6 mile cycle path around the island. Having discovered the path, we've become quite enamoured of it. When we finish our circuit of the island, we head up the hill to the Safeway for provisions. Only today we discovered that the library is only another block up the street. The last time we found it, we were in the motorhome, having wandered all over Lake Havasu in search of a bicycle shop where I had a flat fixed (We had gone searching for inner tubes, but my bike is metric and the local tubes aren't, which is a great excuse for not changing the tire myself, I think.) We had a fun day out, finding not only the bike shop but a used book store - I found a copy of A Beautiful Mind, which I have added to my bookmobile collection. We also discovered the world's most decrepit laundromat. I swear that 90% of the machines were out of order, and there were no supplies in the supply dispenser. I walked next door to get change at the little mini-mart, and I saw a sign on the door advertising pasties. Woo-hoo! I thought. A little snack wouldn't go amiss - but could they really have real pasties? Would they have any veggie pasties? I smiled at the counterperson and asked "Do you really carry pasties?" "Yep." and she pointed at some little daisies in cellophane wrappers that hung from an overhead wire. Ah. Not pasties. Pasties.

Anyway, all this happened after our first two days here, which were spent in the company of Tru and Schred. We had met Tru before - several years ago at Cliff's place - but not her charming husband, who set himself the task of getting my husband thoroughly drunk. He succeeded, need I say. They found commonalities nobody would have expected. Tru and I, meanwhile, shopped at the flea market, wandered the tourist mecca by London Bridge, and dutifully trekked to the shopping centre for pizza and beer to feed this budding buddyhood. It was about 3/4 of the way through this last effort that we realized we could have been at the movies, watching Brokeback Mountain, and we had missed our chance. Never mind. Next time.

I'm about to time out again. We'll be here until Monday morning. Maybe I'll make it back up the hill before then. I do hope everyone is well.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

In a big hurry - reading too much, ran out of time to write! We've decided to stay here in Lake Havasu through next Sunday night (26 Feb?). We're staying at the State Park right in town, where we have a site right next to the lake. I can walk to London Bridge from where we are camped - very nice. Jane would hate it. No hydro, no direct water. ;>). I'll come back tomorrow and talk about Tru & Neil's visit, which was great fun. Bye, now.

Sunday, February 19, 2006

We have escaped the clutches of winter. We drove from Ely, NV to Las Vegas, fighting crosswinds all the way. There was one truly beautiful place that should have been named Organ Pipe something, but wasn't. Shortly thereafter, we passed through Crystal Springs and then found a tiny town called Alamo that sported not only a pay phone but a car wash. I called Pam in Texas and confirmed that Gracie had arrived in Las Vegas the night before. All other plans were cast aside, and after washing off the mud and salt of our wintry trip, we drove into Henderson, where we checked into the Boulder Lakes RV Resort on the Boulder Highway.

The following morning, Gracie and Adrienne came to pick me up, and I spent a delightful evening with them and Mike, Adrienne's partner, whom I had never met. I approve of him, even though he is a Republican. He has a great sense of humour. The next morning (yesterday), I cast aside my plan to go see Gracie one more time, because the thought of finding my way through Henderson made me turn pale. Instead, we drove to Lake Havasu, where we met Tru and Neil and paid a visit to the Javelina Cantina. Today, the weather is even better than it was yesterday - we think it's about 70F outside - and I'm thinking of breaking out the kite I bought in Oregon.

Altogether, things are looking up.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

At last, at last it's time to write in the Turtle journal. We started our trip the day before yesterday (Feb. 13) by catching the 10:15 ferry out of Duke Point. All went smoothly. We used the truck route to the border, got a friendly border guard who heard we would be stopping in Texas and brightened right up. "You ever been to Austin, Texas?" he smiled. I told him I have a sister there and he let us right through. Heh™. Friends in high places.

We spent the night at the KOA campground in Yakima, which (Yakima) is much drearier a place than I remembered. Never mind. A good night's sleep was had by all. Yesterday we drove on to Caldwell, Idaho - just a few miles short of Boise. It was mighty nippy when we stopped, but this morning's weather report still came as a shock. Boise was in the grip, it seemed, of a blizzard. R composed a Plan B that would take us on a more westerly route than I93, but when we got out onto the highway and saw that none of the oncoming traffic was snow-covered, he reverted to Plan A, which he soon regretted. We found ourselves crawling along, stopping, crawling a bit more, through blowing snow - but there was no snow on the highway itself. Once we got past Boise, the traffic cleared right up, so I guess we were involved in a combination of weather-related and rush hour traffic.

So there we went, south on I-93, through blowing snow, battling fierce crosswinds, until we got here at about 4 pm. "Here" is Ely, Nevada, 6000 feet + in elevation, cold as the proverbial. We decided that the situation called for a hotel room, so we're at the Prospector Hotel & Casino for the night. The manager has allowed us to hook the Turtle up to electricity so it won't freeze tonight, but we're going to cower in our room and hope the nasty weather blows over by morning. We have to go up another 1000 or more feet before we start descending, so I certainly hope all the snow is gone in the morning.

While we're here, I'll catch up on the Den and see if I can talk to my kids. I noticed as I walked to this room that there's a hot tub, which has to be a good thing.