February 28, 2014

Crystal Gayle performed at the Riverside Casino in Laughlin last night to a sold out crowd.  998 people crowded into the showroom to hear her sing her famous songs, as well as those of other performers.
She's still a beautiful lady with a great voice and her hair is so long now it touches the floor. It was below her bottom last time I saw her in the mid 90's. 

Loretta Lynn is her sister and Crystal used to sing back up for her, something I never knew before.
Now her other sister Peggy Sue travels with Crystal and sings back up for her.
Here is Crystal and Peggy singing together.
We really enjoyed the show, but my pictures didn't turn out so thanks to the internet, I have a couple of photos to post.

February 19, 2014

Friends Ann and Bob Bjornson from West Kelowna, B.C. were here visiting for a couple of days. They've been travelling around Arizona for the past few weeks visiting friends and family, and are now slowly heading back home.

We enjoyed their company, hung out in Laughlin, had a few drinks and alot of laughs. 

February 15, 2014

When we were here two years ago this Pedestrian Bridge wasn't here, but this year it is complete. This bridge spans the highway (SR 163) and is one of the main entryways to the Laughlin Greenway Trail which leads to the Davis Dam. 

There a number of trails leading to the dam, all nicely paved. The one we walked was the Riverwalk Trail, which is 2 miles long. All along the trail are day use areas. 










I have to admit that I didn't walk all the way to the dam, but Michel did, so he snapped a few photos. I sat on a bench in a shady area to wait for him to return, then we walked back to the Ped Bridge. 

This is a photo of the USS Riverside. This tour boat takes groups up and down the Colorado River on narrated excursions detailing the many features of the area.  In the background is one of the camp grounds located at the Davis Dam Park. 

February 10, 2014

Here are a couple of familiar faces.
My cousin Darlene and her husband Ed Cyre flew into Las Vegas last week to spent a few days with us here in Bullhead City. It was great to have them here, and tho they didn't stay with us in the motorhome they were close and we managed to have a few laughs and a great visit. On Monday we stopped for lunch (and a beer of course) at a Mexican Restaurant before we carried on to Oatman. CHEERS!

Oatman is an old ghost town on Route 66. From the 1900's to to the late 1940's Oatman was the largest producer of gold in Arizona. The population back then was 4000, and now this town supports a little over 100 people. 

Though Oatman is only a shadow of it’s former self, it is worth a visit to this lively ghost town that provides a number of historic buildings, burros walking the streets, and costumed gunfighters performing a bank robbery, shoot-out on the street.

The Drulin Hotel was built in 1902 and is still in operation today
This old hotel is now called the Oatman Hotel and people have come from all over to have a pint and staple/tape their ''autographed' dollar bills on the ceiling and walls. The bartender there told us that they estimated there was over $100,000. 
Pretty expensive wallpaper!!

Tuesday we spent the afternoon in Laughlin, where Darlene and I enjoyed a session of Bingo - no wins I'm sorry to report, but we did have fun. The guys took in the Antique Car Show, which is on-going at the Riverside Casino  - 
Then we went to the show - popcorn for dinner - yummmmm.

Wednesday we were off to Lake Havasu City, home to
the London Bridge which crosses a 930 ft (280 m) long man-made canal that leads from Lake Havasu (on the Colorado River) to Thompson Bay. The US paid $2.5 million to the City of London when the bridge was replaced in 1968. The bridge was disassembled, and the marked stones were shipped to Lake Havasu City and reassembled for another US $7 million. It opened on October 5, 1971

On our way home from Lake Havasu, we stopped to have dinner at Pirates Cove Bar and Marina.

Thursday we did a little shopping then took in the 2 for 1 Buffet at the Avi Casino. There is certainly no shortage of places to eat around here. I only cooked a few meals.
The week went by so fast and it was sad to see them leave, especially because they were heading back to the cold and snow, and although the week was colder here than normal even the coldest day here is better than the weather at home!

That's it for now - thanks for reading!!

January 5, 2014

My first post of the year; I can't believe it's January already and it's been almost a month since my last post. I'd say it's about time I update...
last year was very good to us and we're anticipating another year of fun, family and friends.  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 We had Christmas dinner with good friends Rich and Tina and about 150 other residents of the Fiesta RV Resort. It's always a good meal with good company.
 
 
 
 
 
 

(The Richards l to r: Grace, Jane, Ed, Lou)

 
 
 
On Friday we visited with family. Two of my many Alberta cousins Lou and Ed with their wives Grace and Jane were travelling through Bullhead City enroute to their winter homes in Yuma and Mesa.  We met up for an enjoyable chin wag, catching up on what's been happening since we saw them last - two years ago!  
 
 

Ed, Lou, Michel

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
After dinner we tried out a few of the slot machines in the Avi Casino.  Jane was pretty lucky, but she was the only one. But we didn't stay long.  They were parked behind the casino, so we went back to their rigs and had tea and visited a little more.
 
 
 
 
 



l to r: Grace and Lou, Myself, Ed and Jane

It was wonderful to see them again. Hopefully it won't be so long in between our next visits!!

 

Saturday rolled in with another beautiful hot day. And today we visited with friends. We hadn't seen Ron and Ann Roszak since our Panama Canal Cruise, four years ago. Ron and Ann are two of the first people we met when we started RVing, but we don't travel the same roads very often, so it was really nice that our paths crossed again and we had the chance to get together.

l to r:  Ron, Myself, Ann, Tina, Rich

The end to yet another good week in Arizona. Life if good - Thanks for reading!!

 

December 11, 2013

We spent two days at sea returning to Miami. where we did the usual "cruise' things: eat, lay around the pool, catch the show in the evening.....

But today was a real "hurry up and wait" day, beginning early. The cruise line asked that we try to be out of our staterooms by 8:30 am - and I know that sounds early, but they had a 4:00 departure time the same day and lots to do to get ready. So we were up early, had breakfast and were debarked by 9 am. 

Then we waited an hour for our shuttle to take us to the airport. Our flight wasn't until 4:15 so there wasn't any rush to get there, but we had nowhere else to go, so we waited at the airport for 5 hours.

 

That's not so bad, there's a lot of shops and stuff at the airport. We all managed to keep busy, reading, computer then lunch before we took off.  Then we had a 5 hour flight. As the flight wasn't full, we were able to move up to our own row. Michel had the window seat, so he took some pictures of Miami through the window. They turned out so nice I thought I'd share them.  

 

Once we were on the ground in Vegas, we went from 85 degrees to 35 degrees! It sure was cold.  Then we had a nice 1.5 hour drive to Bullhead City.  So in actual fact today, December 11th, 2013 was 26 hours long instead of 24 - It was a long day. and we were all very tired and glad to be home, in spite of the wind and the cold temperature.

 
 
 

December 8, 2013

Welcome to Philipsburg, Sint Maarten.

 
Philipsburg is four parallel streets squeezed between Great Bay, where the cruise ships dock, and Salt Pond, where salt was made many years ago. All of St Maarten is duty-free, but Philipsburg has shop after shop each trying to outdo the others offering electronics, alcohol, jewelry, linens, perfume, and more.  Michel and I spent the day walking around this quaint little town.

Our original plan was to partake in the America's Cup Regatta. This is where you have an opportunity to join a racing crew on one of two 70-foot long sailboats with masts 8 stories high and then race against each other. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2OX4RSAHJCY 








But it was too windy, so the race was cancelled, thus our choice to tour the little port town. 


We rode back and forth between three little ports on these water taxies.

Played tourist, shopped, took silly pictures and laughed a lot.
Stopped for a rum punch and it almost knocked my socks off!
ingredients include: spiced rum, vanilla rum, dark rum, another kind of rum, then a shot of amaretto. By the time she finished pouring this over ice there was only a sliver of room at the top of the glass for the juice. I had to go back twice for ice once we got a larger glass. But it was sure GOOD!!

Ice Cold Beer, EH!

At the end of our day we spotted this yacht parked at the dock.
I don't know if you can see the emblem 'air' on the side, but this yacht belongs to none other than Michael Jordon!!