Sunday, December 27, 2015

Start of Lake Havasu City adventure 2015

After one relaxing day to recuperate from our 2500 mile trip, I started my job at Lake Hills Inn on 11/9.  I had been contacted by email on our trip to Havasu by the company I would be working for, asking me to cover in Bullhead City (an hour from Lake Havasu) for 3 days my first week, and one day in Kingman (also an hour).  I felt obligated to do so, but, oh boy was I sorry I did. This just aggravated my previous exhaustion to the limits.  OH well, I soon recovered and chalked that one up to a lesson learned.

We were told by those staying in our park about a fun little place to eat that was fairly close, called Blondies.  This is a small bar and restaurant.  They have a nice little patio with grass-like umbrellas, or you can eat inside.  A lot of the RV locals go there.    Our first 2 weeks here, Kirk was able to take two bike rides.  One with a group from the park to Quartzite, eating at Silly SAMs, and the other with a group from town (The Hangover group) to Parker and California  where they ate at Dumas Walkers in California. 

On 11/21 Kirk and I took the local ferry boat, which is located down by the London Bridge, over to the casino at Havasu Landing on the California side.  The boat ride takes about 20 minutes.  The casino is very small, has a small restaurant, and is very smokey.  We probably won't return, mostly because of the smoke smell.    Earlier in the day, we had attended the Mud, Sand, and RV event at the Havasu State Park.  It was pretty small, yet interesting, and something to do.  Not much for RV's though.  They had a couple of 5th wheels, and class C's and that was it.  Around here, people are more into the Razor's, boating, fishing, etc.
             London Bridge
  Picture from ferry boat of Havasu State Park

11/22 we went on a motorcycle ride with our neighbors, Paul and Bev (Canadian's), and their friends, Mark and Nola.  We rode to Parker Dam where we saw Burro's along the roadside, down to Quartzite, ate at Silly Sam's for lunch and then rode back.  On our way back we stopped at Sundance in Parker for drinks.  This is a neat place on the River and the building itself has some history.  A little side note here, while dismounting our bike upon arriving at Sundance, my foot was caught in the side bag, and I slowly fell to the ground.  How embarrassing!  i was fine, but later realized my elbow was a little "puffy" and determined it was an olecranon bursitis.  Been wearing an elbow sleeve since.  No infection though.  Yay! (i guess).

Kirk and I celebrated Thanksgiving this year (11/26) by me working and him cooking :).  I came home to an awesome meal of turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes and gravy, rolls,  corn (from our summer harvest), and pumpkin pie.  I just may work every holiday if this is what I will be coming home to each time.  Plenty of turkey left over to freeze for future meals.

I decided I needed boots for going on motorcycle rides, so Kirk and I drove to Bullhead City to Kohl's.  I found some pretty nice looking boots, and even though they aren't riding boots, they look better than my tennis shoes on the bike.  After shopping, we drove down 95 and ended up at the Desert Bar in Parker.  This is a bar in the desert.  You will want to have a fairly reliable vehicle to get there.  Although, we saw regular cars driving to and from there, it made me wonder.  This road is not paved.  It is more of a bumpy, narrow, rocky path.  By the time we arrived at the bar, I was exhausted from being jostled around so much.  Believe me though, I would do it over and over again.  It was a great, and beautiful experience.  We went on Sunday, the last day of a 4-day Thanksgiving weekend for many people.  Along the road there, you could see where people go out in the desert and target shoot.  A lot of people drive their razors, quads, etc to this place.  It is only open on Saturdays/Sundays from October to May.  It is ran soley on solar power.  I did see they have large propane tanks.  They do have flush toilets.  The food is great.  Every year, the owner adds something new to the place, so it is advised that you visit whenever in the area to see the upgrades.
Road to the Desert Bar
Almost there
You can see the solar panels that provide all the electricity 
The walk over to the bar
An old church. Historical. And Kirk. 
View from parking lot. 
Picture from the walk over.  Just a cool place. 

Leaving Florida November 2015


We were very excited about going to Lake Havasu City in Arizona.  Not so excited about making the 2500 mile trip in 3 1/2 days.  As always, once we arrived, we were exhausted and said we would NEVER do that again, even if it meant turning down a good assignment.  Kirk and I just don't bounce back like we used to.  And, this trip took about a week to recover.   We left Florida on 11/3 and arrived in Lake Havasu City on 11/7.  We are staying at Havasu RV Resort on Victoria Farms Rd.  This park is an owner park, which means that all the sites are bought and occupied by RV folks and not the park.  There are a few park models (casitas), and there are some sites for RV,s that have small casitas along with the RV.  Many of the owners don't occupy their sites, and so they rent them out to folks like us who are just looking to rent for a season.  We were fortunate to find a nice site close to the entrance (site #3).  This park has a club house with a small workout center, 2 pools, hot tub, bocci ball, small 9-hole putting green, and occasional activities.  It's a gated park so we feel very safe here.  Following is the list of the the RV parks we stayed at on our trip from Florida to Lake Havasu:

11/3  We stayed in October Bend in Lake City, Florida our first night on the road.  We picked this park as it was close to I-75 near the rest area.  We thought it would be right off the exit and so would be easy to get on/off since we were just needing to spend the night.  ANYWAY, the ad online was a little deceiving.  Once you take the exit, you have to drive about 5 miles to find the place.  The paved road turns into a rock/dirt road (which was at least smooth and solid).  There were no pads, just grass.  It did have full hook-ups and pull throughs.  This was a small campground with only 14 sites.  DO NOT drive back into this place in the dark.  We called the owner once we arrived as the site she had told us to pull into was already occupied.  She was very nice and told us to just pick any site that was open.


11/4 We left Lake City and drove to Breaux Bridge, LA.  There we stayed at a place called Poche's Fish and Camp.  This was a very neat place, with all sites on the pond.  If one wanted, you could even fish from your site.  We will definitely go back to this place when we can stay longer.
 From our site at Poche's Fish and Camp
Beautiful morning at Poche's

11/5 The #1 worst roads in the nation (or at least the ones we have been on so far) are in LA.  And they know it.  They even boast about it.  We spent this night at North Llano River Park in Junction, TX.  This was a  nice little park, however, the river was almost dried up.  But, I'm sure it is great when the river is up.  We ate some great BBQ at a place called Lums in town.  You order your meal at the register, but don't pay for it till after you are finished.  Which is kinda odd, as there is no waitress (you wait on yourself).  So, it's an honor system that you will pay before you leave.   The next morning before leaving we talked to a group of bicyclers from Scotland who were tent camping at the park.   They were biking from LA to Miami.

Lums in Junction, TX.  These are their smokers/BBQ outside their restaurant.

11/6 Spent the night in Bowie, AZ at Dwaynes Mountain View RV Park.  This is just a small park off the interstate.  Mostly overnighters, and people who are working in the area temporarily.  The owner at this park was a great guy and fun to talk with.  Also met his wife who was very sweet.  They have a small gas station in front of the park and sell their homemade jerky and other stuff.  Met the maintenance guy also, who seems to be just part of their family.  We would definitely return to this place to spend the night.

11/7  Arrived in Lake Havasu City early afternoon.  The owner of our site met us there.  While Kirk talked to him and was guided into our site, I walked over to the club house and got us all checked in.  So far the people here are great.  Needless to say, Kirk and I were exhausted and very glad we had a day to rest before I started my assignment on the 9th.
Our site at Havasu RV Park