A visit from a Monster

First off, thank you once again to our followers, some of whom have recently joined.  We greatly appreciate your comments and your faith that what we write, is worth reading!  Maybe not - ha!

Of course, you are wondering from the title of todays' blog, what the heck?  We have visited a number of formal desert displays of horticulture and creatures over this winter season in the southwest, and yet the most thrilling for us has been boondocking in the desert and seeing creatures and plants there.  We come from a place in northern British Columbia, where brown and black bears and grizzlies, moose, and very large fish are commonplace. We have bears and moose in our front yards!  Here in the American Southwest, we are thrilled to bits over tiny wee creatures and flowers on cactus.  This is another reason why we all travel, I guess.  Experiencing new places and new cultures.

This afternoon in the heat of the day, which was about 85 F, we were visited by a lizard that was about one foot long, including the tail.  WOW!!!!!

Photo Courtesy: Bob Stone

Isn't he/she a lovely specimen?  My camera would not have taken near the fantastic picture that our friend Bob Stone could do on his Canon - thanks Bob! The lizard looked at us and sunned itself about 5 feet away on the rocks.  Later in the afternoon, we noticed a wee skink that was about a tenth of the size of this guy, scurrying about the rocks.

Today was a quiet day, observing the Imperial Dam goings on ( not much ) and checking the internet for upcoming activities in the Yuma area.

What a view!

A great day here at Imperial Dam LTVA.  Check out the view from our front door!  You cannot get that at a commercial RV Park, and only $40 for 14 days to boot.

Yuma Proving Grounds Heritage Centre

Lovely green grass at the Army Base - we haven't seen that much green grass in some time!

This morning, we got organized and Don, Bob Stone and myself visited the YPG Army Base right next to the LTVA.  In fact, we drive through it to get here.  We provided our passports, drivers licenses and vehicle registration to the guard at the gate and enjoyed a look around the Heritage Centre, or Museum.  We may go back another day for lunch at the little cafe there. For over 65 years, this portion of Arizona's Sonora Desert has hosted a variety of military activities, training and equipping up to one million soldiers during WW2 alone!  The US Army Yuma Proving Grounds now has one of the best multi-purpose test range facilities in the US Department of Defense.  From our hill top location, we hear the booms of *something* and watch helicopters and C130 ( Hercules ) flying overhead.  We also see tanks and lots of dust in the distance!

A little bit of a temperature difference for those poor soldiers if they travelled from the YPG!

This once was the 'engine' of a land train that towed long lines of vehicles across the desert      

made it to Yuma by 3:10

On the road again today, from Lake Havasu City to the Imperial Dam Long Term Visitor Area, about 23 miles from Yuma, Arizona.  There was a bit of construction along the way and we were stopped for about 20 minutes near Parker Dam, as new sewer and water lines were being installed, as well as road widening.  Most of the dams along the Colorado River are now closed to traffic and the public ( since 9-11) . Highway 95 now sees more traffic and yep, road construction to deal with it!

A pleasant morning conversation while waiting!

Further along the road there was oily road crack sealing - yuck!  That was slow going.  We made it and are now settled into the most AWESOME rv site ever!!!!!  Stay tuned for pictures tomorrow.

On another note, Ally had her spa day in Lake Havasu City and now looks very pretty but she has an ear infection and we have to line up a Vet appointment in Yuma. Poor old gal.

Are we there yet Mom?

What is on the list next year, Louise?

A quick trip to Las Vegas yesterday to drop off Barrie and Louise at the airport.  They were making their return to Canada via Edmonton and about to enjoy an almost 50 degree temperature difference when they landed! I tried to talk them into staying longer and going with us down to Yuma, but there are always things to do at home and an upcoming ski trip for them.  Thanks for the visit - we had fun!

Louise had requested to see a Saguaro Cactus ( done! ) and also a Joshua Tree.  The Joshua Trees around Searchlight Nevada, elevation about 3550 feet, have many more limbs than those in Joshua Tree National Park.  Why that is, we don't know.

You will have to ignore the old tire in the photo, as we didn't get a very good camera shot and it was on the side of the road. Louise still has no trouble climbing trees! Now we just have to talk them into RV'ing down here next winter!

Enjoying HavaBBQ on a cool day

We made an appointment for dog to (not) enjoy a Spa Day at PetSmart this morning and we have some restocking of the larder to do in anticipation of our departure tomorrow.

Cactus and HDR

While we tried for many days to book a boat tour up the lake to Topock Gorge and the petroglyphs, it was to no avail as the seats were all full. So, another thing to put on the to do list for another year.  Instead, we tried to find a Saguaro cactus for Louise to have her picture beside and amazingly enough it was a tough job!  I think we will be more successful as we travel up to Las Vegas to drop them off at the airport there for their trip back to Saskatoon and the lovely temperatures of about -40 C ( or F ) with the windchill!

Hey, you guys told me there would be those big cactus - so where are they?

Louise's other request was to see a roadrunner bird.  Well, try to find one of those on demand!  No problem!  There is one living at the Home Depot in Lake Havasu City.  Just call him HDR! ( Home Depot Roadrunner ).  We think the fellow from the weiner wagon outside the doors has been feeding him leftover hotdog scraps, as customers told us this particular bird just hangs out there.  Of course, he performed beautifully for us in the parking lot.

We took the small boat across the lake to Havasu Landing Casino, just for the ride and had lunch on the other side.  I think could easily be a miss for most peoples' to do list.  It was a nice day, so an enjoyable ride all the same.

Ahoy Mateys from the London Bridge!