Playing House

Although we bought our little house last February, we still consider ourselves fulltime RVers. It's just a place to sit in the winter for now. Because of this mindset, I feel like I'm playing house. Ron has his projects and I pretend to know what I'm doing taking care of a house. It's been 8 years and I really wasn't very good at it then. Ron however is a wonder at being Mr. Handyman. Take for example the saga of the master bathroom.

When we bought the house, it had that 'stuck in the sixties' look.


Ron changed out the light and replaced the mirror with a big recessed mirrored medicine cabinet which I thought we would never fill. However universal law states that you will fill any available space and we did.

We were still stuck with a vanity top and sink that neither of us was crazy about so when we saw one in a thrift store in Yuma, I insisted it would fit the spot.

Well I was wrong. The new top was not deep enough, but never fear, Ron is always up for a challenge.

He simply added a 2x4 behind the back splash. Alright there was nothing simple about it, but he did it anyway.


Then he covered the board with a piece of molding that we already had in the garage!


And, voila! Here is the beautiful result. (Now I guess I need to get more colorful accessories.)


And we finally signed up for trash collection. I think only RVers can fully appreciate the convenience of having your trash hauled away. The company gave us this GIGANTIC can that will be emptied twice a week. At first you might wonder how we'll ever fill it, but when you have citrus trees that seem to always need trimming, it fills up pretty quickly. And then there are those days like today when we forget to put the thing out. Geez.

AACA Museum

For the past week, I've been visiting my father in Pennsylvania. And, no, I didn't drive, but risked my health and flew. I now have a cold which I hope is just that. But I digress. . .

I had a lovely time with my Papa who is doing very well, thank you. One day we went with his neighbors Al and Carol to the Antique Automobile Club of America's museum in Hershey, the town famous for delicious chocolate. Although I forgot to bring my camera, my father kindly stepped in and took pictures for me. I felt like a reporter with my own professional photographer! The museum is really terrific with lots of cars that are older than I am. I really hate it when the antique cars are ones I remember when they were new.

Lest we forget where we are, they park the Hershey Kissmobile at the front door.


I really liked this car from 1895. It was made in Chicago and was called a Benton Harbor Motorcycle. Doesn't look like a motorcycle to me - more like a sleigh.


Like my father observed, these cars probably look better today than they did when brand new. Just look at the shine on this Cadillac.


Here I am looking at the model cars with Al and Carol. Hey! Am I the only one having fun?


I don't know what kind of car this one is, but it looks particularly nice with the background.


This is a 1919 Briggs-Stratton Model J Flyer. Propelled by the wheel in the back with a small lawnmower type engine, it's a true 'rear-wheel drive.'


Now that's what I need - a motor on my bicycle to help me up the hills. Actually this is a 1908 Indian Twin Racer.


My father really liked the Coca-Cola truck.


And I loved the model train layout. This is only a very small section of it. Look at the corn field!

WIN Triathlon

For the past week the WINs have been in Lake Havasu City, most famous as the site of the London Bridge. The bridge was purchased by developer Robert McCulloch in 1968 for $2,460,000. It took three years and another $4,500,000 to transport and reassemble the bridge. Sounds crazy, right? But by bringing in this impressive bridge, not to mention digging a channel to run under it, Mr. McCulloch kicked his developing plans into high gear. The tiny town he created in the Arizona desert is now a thriving metropolis.


Each piece was numbered to facilitate the reassembly process. Carolyn spotted some of the numbers still visible.


But my favorite part of the story is the legend that Mr. McCulloch thought he was buying the more impressive Tower Bridge.

It makes a great story, but I think anybody with Mr. McCulloch's business sense would know what bridge he was buying.

Now on to the WIN Triathlon - hiking, biking, and kayaking. First up was the hike in SARA Park on the south end of Lake Havasu City. It begins as an easy walk down a wash. . .


Which becomes a bit more challenging through a slot canyon. (For embarrassing pictures of me, see Diana's blog here.)


Once through the slot (or SARA's crack as the locals say,) some of us returned overland on a fairly well-marked trail until we took the wrong wash at the end. Even with that it was an easy hike of about 2 1/2 miles.

Others in the group (Ron, for one) decided to forge their own trail and arrived back at the parking lot about 2 hours later. We were already home and showered by then.

Next was the kayaking. We put in about 1/2 mile south of the bridge and kayaked up the channel to it. Here are the WINs under the London Bridge.


I liked this view of the bridge architecture and one of the unique lampposts, molded from French cannons captured during the 1815 battle of Waterloo. Wow! See what you can learn online?


Most of the group continued around the island formed by said channel, but wimp that I am, I turned around. That was some of the clearest, prettiest water I've ever kayaked.

While I was waiting (no, I didn't leave Ron this time) I walked back to the bridge where they have cute shops and ICE CREAM! I had cappuccino chocolate chip. Yum.

I also saw this tour boat that reminded me of the one my daughter and son-in-law got married on. If they would only read my blog, I could ask them what they think. LOL


And I discovered why there are so many ducks in the area.


Back at our launching point, Patty entertained us by practicing her kayak reboarding technique. Carolyn is ready to lead a hand or maybe just laugh.


We all admired Patty's new 'big girl toy.'


Then today we did some biking. Here we are on the island with Lake Havasu City in the background.


What a good looking group! Bill, Bill, Carol, Peter, Ron, (fearless leader) Mark, and I all had a perfect ride.


On the way home I snapped this picture out the window. Can you see why I thought it was amusing?

Maybe I'm just crazy, but I thought that Saguaro under the Sheriff's sign looked like a person with his hands raised in surrender.

Golden Shores, AZ

What a great name for a town! It conjures up sparkling sand alongside cool water. Although it is only a few miles from the Colorado River and there is plenty of desert sand, it's not exactly what you might picture from the name. However we had the best time there. There are two bar/restaurants in town where we met the nicest locals. We went to the Silver Dollar for Halloween which was especially fun. They had a costume contest and karaoke. I'm very sorry I forgot to bring the camera, but there were some really great costumes. Our WIN guys especially loved the 'Dallas Cowboy Cheerleader' and the really tall 'school girl' in the short plaid skirt. The karaoke was probably the best I ever heard. These people really practiced! My favorite was the guy who did a perfect mimic of 'The Monster Mash'. I also was amazed by a guy who sounded like Frank Sinatra and a girl dressed like a salt shaker who I swore was a professional singer. We danced, sang along, laughed, and had a great time and we didn't even dress up.

We stayed two miles out of town at a campground right on Topock Marsh. This made it convenient for taking leisurely paddles while we attempted some birdwatching. I also did some WIN watching. Here's Paul posing for the camera.


And Bill looks pretty peaceful.


What unusual bird has our leader Bob spotted?


Maybe this rare can-can bird?


These trees were like something out of a horror movie.


Isn't this guy cute?