a cool Lake Havasu City

We have been enjoying our time here in Lake Havasu City with Louise and Barrie, Don's sister and brother in law.  They have continued on with us after their time in Las Vegas for another week or so before flying back out of LV.

Today has been a very rainy day, so Louise had a great idea to take in a movie and we all enjoyed The King's Speech.  Our friend, Bob Stone, has also rejoined us here in LHC. Great movie.

Prior to our rainy day, we made a day trip to Quartzsite and have also enjoyed HavaBBQ here in LHC.  This is a sanctioned Kansas City BBQ event and it was a good thing we checked out the action yesterday, as today would have been a wet one to try some BBQ.

yep, Barrie, you can get your kicks on Route 66!

Tomorrow if the weather clears we'll perhaps swing by the Sunday Swap meet here.
PS Congrats to Curtis on getting through 'year 2'. Welcome home.

Walking and Gawking Lost Wages

We lost $2.00, or should I say, Kim lost $2.00.  That was the amount bet, and the amount lost in all of 3 minutes.  So, that was the end of the gambling.  Our short visit to Las Vegas with Louise and Barrie ( Donalds' sister and BIL ) and their friends, Doug and Joanne was one of major walking, getting turned around in the massive complex of Ceasars Palace, tickets to see Cirque d' Soliel's production of " O " and a tour of the Hoover Dam. All great stuff, but busy! 

Don and I stayed with the fifth wheel at Sam's Town RV park, on Boulder Highway.  It was a nice park, but they do have an absurd sewer hookup system.  Most people did not hookup till they had to dump.  To offset that wee problem, the RV park office had an excellent young man who gave us great directions on how to drive around.  We thought that we would take advantage of the shuttle, but it came back at 9:30 PM, so it was straight down Flamingo Drive to Caeser's and free parking there.  

Anyone in the market for a colourful new RV?

Four floors of M and M's!

Donald, Barrie, Louise, Doug, Joanne and Kim - of course, by the sign!

Included with our tour of Hoover Dam, was a guided tour of the Power Plant, after we went through metal detectors and security.  We were instructed to sit through a short film about the Dam, and then were promptly informed the Power Plant tour was cancelled.  A visitor near the end of the day said she asked one of the dam workers why the cancellation, and he informed her that they had a busted pipe and water all over the place.  Hmmmm.

busted pipe or a crack?????

It was a great day though and nice to have a beautiful bus and informative driver. He felt bad about the cancelled tour, so on our way back to the strip, he went by the " Pawn Stars " store, which contrary to how it looks on tv, is a tiny little dump. Our driver made no hesitation about what a rip off place it was, and continued with an informative tour of closed down properties and the "behind" story of some of the strip hotels. 

Since no pics allowed at the show, here's the marquee! No! Not Manilow! "O"!

El Garces

Since we had travelled so far to see the restored Kelso Depot, used at one time by Union Pacific, it would be a shame not to mention the BNSF ( Burlington Northern Sante Fe ) Depot that was used by that railroad at one time in Needles, California, and down the street from us.  This station is one of the "Harvey House' designs along the Sante Fe line and the reason for the elaborate design of its' competitor at Kelso.
This building, though, has a note on the outside that it also will be restored, but other than the obvious interior cement shoring, perhaps for earthquake modification, this work has stopped. It was scheduled for a limited opening in 2008.

It is surrounded by a tall chain fence and barbwire, with on duty security and a dog, so at least perhaps the plan is still to proceed with renovations. While we were driving by, many many other cars were looking as well.  We hope the renovations start again, because it is a beautiful building and would bring some much needed tourism dollars to the centre of Needles, along ol' Route 66. The building was one of many constructed by the Fred Harvey Company in his deal with Sante Fe.  The architect of this building was Mary Coulter, and the Harvey House Restaurant operated until the 1960's. One of her other designs has been fully restored in Barstow, and it is on our plans to go and see.  Mr. Harvey hired only women to work in his buildings, under contract for one year.  They lived nearby in a strict boarding house with a house mother.  A movie was made about the " Harvey Girls" with Judy Garland in it.

Mary Coulter also designed the Harvey House next to Union Station in Los Angeles.  This beautiful building has been restored and there are pictures on the internet of its' interior, but it is not open to the public. Instead, it is used for movie sets and fund raisers. For the time during the early 1900's, Mr. Harvey was a great promoter of women in work and careers!

We also drove up to the Avi Casino, at Fort Mohave, to have Sunday Brunch.  We wandered through the casino, and out into the grounds.  It was noisy and busy inside!

The town of Needles has restored a few of its' buildings, some of them in the 20's Art Deco style. If a few more were done, as well as some of the unique little houses and streets a little cleaner , it would be quite a tourist draw.

restored and used as a College

Not restored, perhaps a Masonic Hall at one time?

 All these things are of course, easier said, then done.  We hope that if the El Garces completes the renovation, that other buildings will follow.

Kelso Depot

About six weeks ago when we were staying at Desert Hot Springs, we made a day trip up the Yucca Valley and stopped at a California Tourist Information Building.  The lady there informed us that there was a road from the Yucca Valley to Las Vegas, and somewhere along this road was a restored railway station and Beanery ( railroad diner ).  We put the information in the back wee recesses of our brains and today decided to bring it out and go look for this road and station. Some 50 miles west on I-40 and what do we see in the distance? Mt. Jacinto, of the Coachella Valley/Palm Springs area - we were close!

Northwards on the Kelbaker Road leads to the one-time town of Kelso, California. The former train depot lies in the middle of Mohave National Preserve, a 2,500 square mile expanse of desert and mountain country.  Not to be confused with Joshua Tree National Park, to the south. This preserve has the densest stand of Joshua trees in the world, and one of the most extensive dune fields in the country.

The front of the Kelso station ( 1924 ), restored by citizens and the National Park service, faces the busy Union Pacific tracks, going from Los Angeles to Salt Lake City.  It operated for less than a century, but excellent displays and story boards are displayed throughout the building, as well as the Beanery operating as usual.

Hey, they are still serving railroad men!

In case you didn't know, I retired from a career as a Freight Conductor with Canadian National Railways.  This station was quite fascinating.  During WW2, there were nearly 2,000 residents and Kelso was a rough and tumbling boomtown.   "The town jail, little more than a steel cage, was unable to handle all the demands put upon it.  They had so many wild characters, Finnell recalled 'They would have to chain them up to the trees outside the depot to sober 'em up' " (From 'Kelso Depot'(c) 2008 by Scott Thybony).

Beautifully restored Spanish mission-revival style

Helper engines were stationed in Kelso to help push the trains up, and turn around at Cima ( 2.2% grade) The steepest grade on CNR lines where I worked, was less than 1.5%, so the Union Pacific grade is very steep!

Old original maps in map drawers in the library

A great day! We continued from Kelso, through the Preserve heading into Nevada and the town of Searchlight. Highway 95 turned out to be a great divided, easy drive down to Laughlin!

For Sam: Eastbound Intermodal at Meet, Kelso

If you look beyond the front of the train above, by the headlights, you can see the 700 foot high Kelso Sand Dunes, 7 miles distant. If you climb to the top of the dunes, and run down, creating a little avalanche of sand, they make a 'booming' noise and the Rangers also call it 'singing'.

Hee Haw... the Burros are calling again

Yesterday was a long day starting with heading across the Arizona border for fuel.  Diesel fuel here in Needles, California is $4.15 a gallon and we paid $3.29 just up the road in Fort Mohave, Arizona.  So, the few pennies saved made a whole day of touring a bit more cost effective.  The burros were calling once again, and this time from Oatman, Arizona. Now here is a folk story that I didn't know and Donald is passing along... some burros have a dark cross on their back like the one above, with a stripe over the shoulders and the longer stripe down the back. The story goes that God gave the burro the " Mary Stripe" or cross shape for the burro or donkey carrying Mary to the manger.  This mommy burro and her wee baby both had the stripe. The other folk story is that the cross is for the donkey carrying Jesus on Palm Sunday.

 Lunch today was in the Oatman Hotel, decorated with dollar bills. Closer to home, the Hyder, Alaska saloon is decorated the same way.  Of course, all I can think of for both those establishments, is that the walls are never cleaned and how much dust and dirt is clinging to those bills, and not the cumulative dollar amount on the walls!

we'll pass on making a purchase offer on this

 Since it was still early afternoon, we decided to go further on ol' Route 66, to Kingman.  The maps and guide books had clearly stated that no Rv's or large trucks should travel this part of Route 66.  Yep, we agree with that and the passenger door handle has a new spot rubbed on it.  At the top of Sitgreaves Pass, the view both ways was spectacular.

the tiny dark bumps in the plain are the skyscraper casinos of Laughlin,Nevada

On the other side of Sitgreaves Pass, we enjoyed a new landscape, and drove the quicker way back to Needles on the Interstate.  What was that on the highway? snow? Yes, transport trucks driving from Flagstaff were dropping dirty clumps of snow from their trucks as they hit the rougher pavement of the California part of the highway. We thought maybe we would head that way and see part of the Grand Canyon in the last week of February, so we checked the long term weather forecast....yea, have to make some new plans. Brrr.

The new header picture is taken from outside the railroad station in Needles,Ca for our railroad buff readers.  The track is mainline, and the busiest we have ever seen, with most eastbound trains using 5 units.  You might have to endure a few more train pictures tomorrow as we check out the old station and some bridges.