A NEW CELL PHONE

OK, so big deal! This, in and of itself, is not really worthy of spending a lot of time discussing. But, as I mentioned in the last blog, we had an issue on the horizon that needed to be solved. That issue was the need for two cell phones under certain circumstances. When we leave Lake Havasu in about 4 weeks, we will be in the motor home for about 5 months, and normally, one cell phone is all we need. However, this year, I'm using the motorcycle rack on the back of the RV, and taking my dual sport bike, for what I hope is the opportunity to do some adventure touring in the back country of the Pacific Northwest. When I'm gone on the bike, I will need a phone in case of emergency, and to keep in touch with Patty. She, of course, will also need a phone for emergencies, and to stay in touch. There will be other situations this year, where we will both need a phone, so, the search began for an additional phone that will only be used occasionally. The first stop was at Sprint, where we could get a free phone for a two year contract, and an additional $30 a month. With activation fees, that was going to be over $400 a year. The second option I explored was the Jitterbug, which has a plan for 50 minutes at $14.99 a month. The catch with Jitterbug is the fee for the phone is $145, so with activation, this route was also going to be over $400 a year. The Third option was a Trac Fone, which we purchased at Wal-Mart for $19.95, along with 120 minutes for $20. Total investment - a little over $40, and no contract. The purchase of minutes over the next year, should be under $100, so we now have a 2nd phone for a minimal investment. The icing on the cake is that the phone is a Motorola, (made in the US), with camera, bluetooth, and a bunch of other bells and whistles that we probably will never use. I haven't activated it yet, and probably won't until we leave near the end of next month. When we have a phone #, I'll post it on the blog.

PARTY IN THE CHANNEL

A continual parade of boats

Watching the action in the south channel


One of the attractions of the Desert Storm weekend, is all of the boats cruising through, and parked in the Bridgewater Channel. While we sat and watched the parade of boats, the Desert Storm Shootout was taking place about a mile from our location. The shootout is an opportunity for the event participants to run a two mile, closed, straight course, where their top speed is measured at the end of one mile. I won't be surprised, if I read in tomorrows newspaper, that one, or more of the boats reached a speed of close to 200 mph. Because the course is so long, it's difficult to watch unless you are sitting on the lake in a boat, so we were content to sit in our chairs, as we watched the party in the channel. If you like to people watch, this venue is one of the better places. Of course, the music from the megabucks stereo systems is a bit over the top, as many of the boat owners were having their own shootout, as to who has the loudest system. I know we're getting older, and there's this huge generation gap regarding what qualifies as good music, but I will never get into this rap, hip-hop, or whatever you call it. Because the scenery and action was to say the least, quite interesting, we put up with the loud noise (I won't even call it music). After an hour or so, we decided that we had seen enough, and certainly had heard enough, so we packed up our chairs, and headed off to Wal-Mart, where we found an affordable solution to a problem that was looming on the horizon. More on that in the next blog.

DESERT STORM

The annual kick off to the boating season here in Lake Havasu City, AZ, is an event called Desert Storm. Yesterday, many of the participant boats, and lots of other big boy toys were on display at a street party on main street. We also had a cold front move through the area, so it was a virtual desert storm. When you walk around some of these monster boats, it's hard to believe that most of them are capable of traveling at between 100 and 200 mph. Part of the desert storm activities include what is called the shootout, which takes place tomorrow. A one mile course is set up and the top speed of each boat is measured at the end of the mile. Last year the top speed was 174 mph! Today is the poker run, and Sunday, there will be an offshore race. These activities bring a lot of boats and spectators to the city, and is a big shot in the arm for the local economy. The evolving of the power boat over the years, is pretty amazing. The boats have gotten much bigger, two engines are common, and some are even powered by jet engines. I must admit however, that a 20 year old, 18 foot flat bottom, with a big block chevy sitting out in the open behind the driver, is still in my opinion, the definition of a real power boat.

BOAT RACING

When it comes to motor sports, with big V-8 engines, count me in! In this case, I guess the classification would be "water sports", since the action took place on the Colorado River. Yesterday, Patty and I drove 35 miles down to the "Parker Strip", where the Bluewater Casino was the sponsor of some boat racing action. The approx. 1 mile circle course was on the river, in front of the Casino, and there was a variety of boats, ranging from blown engine, to outboard powered classes. The main event of the day was the 25 lap, grand national class, that featured boats such as the Rusher Air boat from Lake Havasu, pictured above. This boat was running away from the field, when on about lap 13, a steering cable broke, and that's all she wrote, as the driver sat on the river, and was a spectator for the rest of the race. Some of the best action was in the "Nostalgia Flat" class. These boats can be just about any combination of motor and hull, but they cannot exceed 80 mph. They have a GPS device which is checked after the checkered flag, and if the GPS shows that they went over 80, then they are disqualified. I talked to one of the drivers before the race, and even though most all types of racing can become expensive, this class looks like it might be somewhat affordable. Hey Marc, are you reading this? On the way home, we stopped at La Paz County Park, and had a picnic lunch on the river, as we watched the boats cruising up and down the Colorado. It was an enjoyable day on the river, with a cloudless sky, and temps in the low 90's.

A HARLEY RIDE

Davis Dam on the Colorado River

After passing many fields of orange poppies, it was briefly back to civilization, as I took Highway 14 through Lancaster, and south to Palmdale. This is the point where a choice has to be made as to traveling into the L.A. metro area, or passing to the east of the San Gabriel mountains, and avoiding the L.A. freeway system. Not a hard choice. I've taken this route around L.A. several times, continuing southeast on Highway 138, 18, and 247, to Victorville, and Yucca Valley, ending up for the 2nd night in the Palm Springs area. This is the same route we used to take, when we rode the bikes south to the annual Prison Run in Yuma, AZ. After spending the night in Indio, and having an awesome Mexican dinner at the restaurant next to the motel, I continued south toward the Salton Sea. I had not been around the east side of this huge lake for a lot of years, so decided to take Highway 111 toward Brawley. There isn't much development on this side of the Salton Sea, mostly the State Park system, and a few very small communities. At Brawley, I turned east, then northeast on Highway 78, passing the world famous Glamis Sand Dunes. During holiday weekends, these dunes are the destination of thousands of people with a multitude of sand toys. On this day, I didn't see a soul playing anywhere in the sand. From Glamis, it was back to the Colorado River, and north through Blythe, Parker, and back home to Lake Havasu. I stopped briefly at the Parker Dam, as I crossed from CA to AZ. The photo shows the downstream side of the dam, but doesn't show what is the deepest dam in the world. When the city of L.A. department of Water & Power built the dam to create Lake Havasu, they had to dig down over 300 feet to reach bedrock and a stable foundation for the dam. The picture shows what is the tip of the iceberg, and not the 300 plus feet of dam that rests under what's visible. From the dam, it was just a short ride home. In 2 1/2 days, I covered 1,017 miles, took in some great sights, but as always, it was good to get home and see my girls.

A HARLEY RIDE

The new bridge above Hoover Dam
Highway 138, northwest of Lancaster, CA

East entrance to Death Valley National Park





Each spring, I usually take off on the Harley for a few days, and for at least the last 4 years, the ride has circled through Death Valley. There's something about riding in the desert, away from civilization, that I have always enjoyed. The more remote the road, the better I like it. This year, I left on Tuesday, and rode north to check out the progress on the new bridge that will take traffic off of Hoover Dam. The prediction is that the bridge will be open to traffic near the end of this year. It has been an amazing project to watch from its inception several years ago, and as the picture shows, there's only one section missing on the actual bridge deck. From the dam, my journey took me quickly through Las Vegas, and over the hump to Pahrump, then west to Death Valley, where premium fuel was $4.29 a gallon. Even with 91 octane, this is the one place where my Harley motor isn't real happy, due to the below sea level elevation. Since building this engine almost 10 years ago, the 10.25 compression ratio works pretty well on premium fuel, even better on AVGAS. But, at below sea level, I have to be careful and not let the R.P.M.'s fall too low, or that distinct pinging sound rears it's ugly head. From the Death Valley floor, I climbed out the west side, where Highway 190 traverses Towne Pass, at a little over 5,000 feet. Continuing west, I dropped into the Panamint Valley, where I turned left on Trona Road, and headed for Ridgecrest, and a stop for the first night. The Panamint Valley has been where I by chance, usually see FA-18 fighter jets from China Lake, and I wasn't disappointed this year. This is obviously an area where they do a lot of low level training, because I've enjoyed seeing them in 3 of the last 4 years I've made this trip. Four years ago, I watched 2 FA-18's make several low level passes, and I waved each time they went by. On the last pass, as one of the jets approached me from the front, I waved again, and the pilot dipped his wings, acknowledging my presence. That was very cool, and something I will never forget. In fact, that experience is one of the reasons I have made this trip, through the same valley in the middle of the desert, for the last 4 years. After spending the night in Ridgecrest, I headed west on Highway 178, over Walker Pass in the southern Sierras, and made a stop at Lake Isabella, where I included myself in the photo at Lake Isabella. From there, I continued west over the mountains, then turned south, and climbed back up the mountains with all of the other traffic on the "Grapevine". Near the top, I took Highway 138 east toward Lancaster, and passed by huge Poppy fields that turned the landscape from green to a golden orange. There are a few places in California where the poppies are dominant, and this is one of those places. I'll finish the rest of the trip tomorrow.

ONE MANS TREASURE

I'm not sure how you measure the success of a garage sale, but my primary motivation was to just get rid of it. And get rid of it we did! When the dust settled, we had about 4 boxes of junk left, and it was promptly hauled to one of the local thrift stores. When the garage sale ads were deducted from the our sales, we netted just a few dollars under $400. Not bad for a lot of stuff that would have either ended up in the trash, or at Goodwill. The real good news is that I now have a few empty shelves in the garage, and my shed is uncluttered. Now, our calendar is clear, and except for some local activities, and my annual Harley ride into the Death Valley area, we're home for a little over a month, before heading north for the summer.

GARAGE SALE PREP.

For at least the last year, we've been stacking up stuff for an eventual garage sale. That stuff was about to take over what little space I had left in the shed, and my garage shelves were spilling over. So, we finally set a date of this weekend, and put the ad in the paper. I moved the motorcycles out of the garage, and all of that stuff is now in between the jeep and truck. The next step is to put prices on everything, and get it ready to move out into the driveway on Friday morning. Compared to a lot of garage sales that we check out from time to time, we actually have quite of bit of nice, usable stuff. There's a lot of junk too! I suspect when this is over on Saturday, we'll be loading a lot of that stuff into the truck for a trip to the local thrift store. At least it will be gone from here, and there will be a little bit of breathing room. We enjoyed our visit with Ron & Margaret, who will be on the ferry back to Skagway, Alaska in a few days. One of our long range plans is to travel back to Alaska next summer (2011). There's something about the "Great Land" that gets in your blood, and keeps calling you back. The plan for this summer, is to spend most of our time in the Northwest, traveling around Oregon, Washington, and possibly British Columbia. Our departure date this year will be about a week later than last year. We're shooting for hitting the road on May 17th.

THE OTHER HAVASU

Patty, Margaret, and Ron in front of the London Bridge

Our friends, Ron and Margaret Boughton, have been visiting the last couple of days, as they take a break on their long journey from Florida, back to Skagway, Alaska. We first met Ron and Margaret, during the summer of 2004, our first year working in Alaska. We decided yesterday, to take the Casino shuttle across the lake to Havasu Landing on the Calif. side of the lake. While waiting for the boat, which leaves on the hour, we walked along the bridge water channel, taking in some of the spring break action. It was a really nice day with practically no wind, and temps in the low 70's. Some of the kids were out, and a few boats were cruising the channel, but it was relatively quiet. The Indian Casino at Havasu Landing, on the Calif. side of the lake, operates a shuttle that leaves from the London Bridge, and takes about 15-20 minutes to travel across the lake. Once we arrived at the Casino, we bypassed the games of chance, and headed for the restaurant, where we had a nice lunch. The view from the lake view table, gave everyone a better perspective of how much area Lake Havasu City actually covers. The last time Patty and I had been at the Casino, was 2 years ago, when we rode the Harley's around the lake with our friends, Bob and Diana. When we got back to the house, none of us had much of an appetite, so my plan for BBQ'ing some steaks was put on hold. Ron and Margaret are staying thru today, and we're going over to Bob and Jeanette's for a late lunch/early dinner.