What an Ending!

One of our final stops on our way north heading for home is Dick and Gerry Carsons in Salem our Oregon State Reps for UMCI. There hospitality has been great and Gerry knows how to put on tasty meals.

After breakfast this morning they decided to take us on a ride out to the Oregon Coast. It has been warm enough the last two days to ride. We went to Mo’s Seafood Restaurant in Taft Historic District of Lincoln City

for lunch and boy were the chowders every good. From there we went along the coast to Newport and stopped at Depoe Bay the smallest port in the US. It is unbelievable how small the opening into the harbor is and they can only get in or out during high tide.

Our ride was 291 Kms of beautifully scenic back roads. We arrived back at Carsons around 5:30 p.m. A most enjoyable day. Thanks again Dick and Gerry.

Hello Reno!

After a day of driving we found ourselves with winter and at Reno for two nights. There was snow on the ground and in the mornings we tread carefully on the ice. We are camped behind the Grand Sierra Resort (formerly the Hilton) in their RV park. Not cheap, it's $30. per night. Had fun doing some gambling. Rick managed to win enough to pay for our dinner. After going out to dinner with Dennis & Myrna then the two of us went to the show and saw "Michael Clayton". A very interesting story.
This morning we are off to Klamath Falls on the journey home. We will be home on the first. Our winter adventure is slowly winding down.

Death Valley

A new first for us!! Our campground at Furnace Creek Ranch was at -190 ft below sea level, what a sleep even with out a snorkel!! No cell service and no internet, what a lonely feeling! No contact with the outside world. Death Valley, California is a place that everyone should experience but we do recommend doing it in the winter. The hottest temperature ever recorded was in 1913 and it was 134F in the shade. The hottest ground temp was 202F. It was very windy while we were driving around and we needed jackets. However, it was warm in the sun.

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We took the bikes and drove to Badwater which is the lowest place on the North American continent -282 ft below sea level. It is so interesting travelling around this continent of ours. We went off the main road to traverse the 20 mule team canyon, Artists Drive, artists palette and the mosaic canyon! All wonderfully interesting.

The Mosaic Canyon was a 1000 foot climb in 2 1/4 miles on the trike and then a 1/4 mile hike on an old dry creek bed into the canyon. Beautiful, scenic and well worth the effort. It was a mixture of smooth marble like terrain as well as the mosaic walls polished and weathered by time. Another ride we went out to Stovepipe Wells

and passed some interesting natural phenomena along the way - Devils Cornfield and the Sand Dunes.

Also there are the remains of a Borax operation from the late 1800's. The Chinese laborers actually scrapped the borax off the desert floor. The immensity of it can only be realized if you are there looking out at the vista.

We did a ride one morning to "Scotty's Castle" to find out the name is a misnomer as Scotty (Walter Scott) never did own it. It really is an interesting story, too long to tell here. We took the tour of both inside the mansion and underground. Scotty's friends the Johnsons who were the real owners were many years ahead of the times as the technology they used was phenomenal in and around the "Death Valley Ranch". Scotty when he was young was part of Bill Cody's "Wild West Show". A very interesting gold mining con artist who had a lifelong friendship with the Johnsons. They took good care of him and his family financially and he kept them and their guests entertained with his stories.
The desert floor was covered in a lot of areas with yellow daisies from a recent rainfall.

It doesn't take much to get them growing.
What we found to be awesome was keeping an eye on our GPS we were below sea level on most of our rides in Death Valley.

For Buzz

Buzz, we sure hope that we haven't changed any of your plans, LOL. Yes it has been a few days since we last posted anything. Our last few days in Yuma were mainly spent saying goodbye to friends and packing up. We changed our plans a little and decided to stay out of California as much as possible, due to the high cost of fuel there, about $1 per gal higher.

Currently we are in Las Vegas spending the money we saved on fuel but we are having fun. We took the trikes out and drove down the Strip to Fremont Street, had lunch and then came back to our camp at Sam's Town RV Park

Casino and went to a movie, cheaper than going into the casinos. Tomorrow we are off to Death Valley for a few days and then on up to Reno.

Car Show in the Foothills

Saturday Myrna & I attended the parade of old cars and floats. The Shriners had 3 wheel electric scooters that they rode and did a formation drill. The Red Hat Ladies had several entries in the parade. There was a roast beef barbecue after. We saw Larry & Shirley Volding there and visited and looked at some of the old cars. After looking around Myrna and I went and saw the Bucket List, what a great movie. The rest of the day we just enjoyed sitting outside and taking in the sunshine.

London Bridge

To start this blog I will mention Valentine's Day without a camera! We forgot! The four of us headed over to Wellton where Reg and Kathryn are staying for a happy hour drink and then over to Tacna to the Basque Etchea Restaurant for dinner. Well was it packed with people! But well worth waiting for. Rick's catching a cold by now, I think because of all the wind, and not feeling the greatest. It's Saturday and the weather looks calm and sunny so Rick and I decide to go on a ride to Lake Havasu City and visit the London Bridge. Well what a great day!
For lunch we stopped at the Crossroads Cafe at Parker and even though it was busy, busy we really enjoyed the ambiance and the meal. The scenery around Parker is spectacular with lots of greenery because it is along the Colorado River. An area we feel would be great to explore for possible future vacations! Then on to Lake Havasu City and the London Bridge.

In 1962, London Bridge was falling down. Built in 1831, the bridge couldn't handle the ever-increasing flow of traffic across the Thames River. The British government decided to put the bridge up for sale, and Robert McCulloch, Founder of Lake Havasu City, Arizona, and Chairman of McCulloch Oil Corporation, submitted the winning bid of $2,460,000.
The bridge was dismantled, and each stone was numbered. Everything was shipped10,000 miles to Long Beach, California, and then trucked to Lake Havasu City. Reconstruction began on September 23, 1968, with a ceremony including the Lord Mayor of London, who laid the cornerstone. On October 10, 1971, the bridge was dedicated.
London Bridge crosses a narrow boating channel that connects with Thompson Bay on the Arizona side of Lake Havasu. Prior to the arrival of London Bridge, the land upon which the bridge was placed was a peninsula. A large dredge was used to carve a one-mile channel, removing over two million cubic yards of rock and earth in the construction phase. Water was then diverted from the lake, under the bridge and then back into the lake through Thompson Bay. On the Google Map aerial view, the pushpin marked "A" is the London Bridge Resort, and just to the left is McCulloch Boulevard and the location of London Bridge.
Rick and I enjoyed walking on the bridge and taking pictures.

A young fellow very kindly asked if we wanted him to take our picture on the bridge so here we are. We also found our flower bud tea in a spice shop at the bridge mall.

Riding around before heading out we found many beautiful houses and took pictures of the ones we were really impressed with.

On the way back we went across the Parker Dam and travelled in California along the Colorado River back to Parker where there was a 100 year anniversary parade just finishing up. Lots of people celebrating. Then we stopped at the Stone Cabin for a break.
Interesting history, it is 250 years old approximately and built by the Spaniards. We arrived back at the motor home at 6:00 p.m. and relaxed and watched a couple of movies.

Desert Ride

Another great day in the sun and a great ride. Kathryn, Reg, Fred & Diane met us around 11:00 a.m. and took us on a ride out into the desert to the Imperial Wildlife Refuge.

We all took a picnic lunch, it was 29 C and a little dusty but well worth it.


We went to Fishers Landing on Martinez Lake for a refreshing break after going to the Wildlife Refuge. It was like being in the Florida Keys again with the scenery of boats and palms. Is this the Arizona desert? or did we make a wrong turn? Another stop was to the Painted Desert trail head, there you could take trails out into the desert to see all the colors. On the way back we took a side trip to the Cocopah Casino and left a donation behind.