Grand Canyon

We traveled northwest of Lake Havasu to I-40. At Flagstaff, we went on State Hwy 89 to 64. We unhooked the car at a tourist area and got permission to leave the RV to travel on 64 to enter the Grand Canyon from the east. We have seen the Grand Canyon from the other three directions but the east side quickly became our favorite. These pictures will tell you why. It is easier to see the Colorado River as it cuts through the rock to create the canyons. We were fortunate enough to see the first elk that we have seen in Arizona.

Craggy Wash

A few weeks ago, we drove along the Colorado River to Lake Havasu, which is about 70 miles from Quartzsite on Hwy. 95. On the north side of the city is a new shopping plaza with major stores like Dillards and JC Penney that are now opening. About a mile further north on Hwy 95 is Craggy Wash, which is a two- week free boondocking area. We are still camped in the CRA campground but visited Craggy Wash and beyond to check for Escapee stickers to see if any old or new friends were there. No, we didn’t find any. Most SKP’s have moved north but we decided to put the green toad in four- wheel drive and explore.


The camping spots are quite flat but further down the trail the area is “craggy.” It amazes me how rocks are so varied in appearance with only slight changes in color. I know part of the reason is how the light hits them.

Pictured are the Road Runner that we saw and some migrating butterflies. There are hundreds of orange butterflies flying north but it is difficult to catch them on camera.

London Bridge Was Falling Down

Remember when you stretched your arms to hold a friend’s hands to swoop down and catch the kids walking under you while singing the nursery rhyme, “London Bridge is Falling Down?” I imagined the bridge to have huge girders or cables that stretched to the sky (like my arms). I thought it would look like the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco. Wrong. All you see when you drive over the bridge is a few cast iron lampposts and empty flagpoles over the highway. You need to go under the bridge to see its beauty.

The London Bridge that was built in England in 1831 and was slowly sinking into the Thames River, isn’t even the bridge that the rhyme was written about. An information sheet from the Lake Havasu Convention and Visitors Center says that it “dates back to when Danish Pirates, having seized London, in 1014, were attacked by Viking chieftain, Olaf Haralsen, and his men. The Vikings had been enlisted by the British to help them regain control of London. The Vikings rowed under the then London Bridge, made of wood, slung stout ropes around the pilings and then rowed downstream pulling the bridge and the Danes all down into the water.”

The Vikings weren’t the only ones who tried to make the London Bridge fall. If you take a boat ride through the bridge, you can see the marks of shells fired into the bridge by German soldiers in World War II.

The brochure said, “In the early 1960’s it became obvious that the (1831) bridge was sinking 1/8 inch each year and would have to be replaced. Cause of the sinking? The bridge, originally built for pedestrian traffic, was now seeing 100,000 pedestrians and 10,000 vehicles each day. The footings . . . were on soft ground and with increased traffic flow with the weight of the structure itself” were causing it to slowly sink into the Thames River. London Bridge was falling down.

Robert McCulloch, Sr. had a dream of building a city and using the London Bridge as a tourist attraction. He hired C.V. Wood who planned Disneyland in California to be the master planner for the project. (The statute is of the two men and their master plans.)

The brochure from the visitor center said that, “The Colorado River runs through Lake Havasu and is backed up by the Parker Dam, creating the Lake.” Mr. McCulloch purchased twenty-six square miles of land along the lake in 1963. He purchased the 1831 granite London bridge for $2,460,000 and paid between five and seven million for dismantling, transportation, and reconstruction of the bridge plus building the site for it. The rebuilt bridge, that was built with five arches and is 930 feet long and 49 feet wide, was built on dry land. Then a one-mile channel was dredged out beneath the bridge.
Even though Mr. McCulloch had dreams on a gigantic scale, I doubt that he had any idea of how large the town of Lake Havasu has become since he died in 1977.

RVing in the AZ/CA Desert

RVing in the AZ/CA desert means parking your RV on BLM land or in campgrounds and exploring by foot or with our 4-wheel drive Suzuki toad (towed). I look for wildlife that is either animal, plant, or mineral. Most of the wild burros in this area have the same genetic black mark on their shoulders. Note how well their coloring blends with the rocks to camouflage them.

The water flowing down the desert rocks into “washes” often reveals new rock formations. You can tell when rock has been moved because the dark “desert varnish” is on the side rather than on top. Most of the time it is leverite rock, which is explained to the new visitor as “leave it right where you find it”. Sometimes huge amounts of water flow down cracks and create an oasis with palm trees.

Most of the flowering cacti have shed their blossoms but we found some octillio with red blossoms and prickly pear cacti with dark pink flowers.

Back at the Emerald Cove Campground we found that the new miniature golf course has been finished. The kids on spring break found golfing a fun thing to do.

Wedding of Amanda Klein to Benjamin Mead

After the lush green of Hawaii, Iowa was very brown but the temperature was in the upper 60’s and there was plenty of sunshine for the wedding of Amanda Klein to Benjamin Mead on March 21, 2009. A week later, on March 28, Iowa had two and a half inches of snow.

My son, Mark, was very proud of his beautiful daughter. Her mother, Connie, and brothers Joshua and Matthew and sister, Emily were happy but younger brother wasn’t too sure when this picture was taken.

Kari De Joode, a bridesmaid, is the granddaughter in dark pink in the picture with my granddaughters. You can see that I will have more weddings in the coming years with beautiful granddaughter brides.

Fun in Honolulu and on board the ship

Two of the landmarks of Honolulu, the clock tower near the port and the statute of King Kamehameha in downtown, were seen while on the bus tour that returned us to the ship.

Paulette at Germaines Luau honored Cathy Robnik. We were late to the luau because of road construction but they waited for our van to arrive before the luau began. Because we accompanied Cathy, we were given the best-reserved seatsat the luau. I felt like I was accompanying either royalty or a movie star. The hula dancers and the man who used lighted torches in his dance were accomplished performers.

On the ship, we were treated to a reserved table which is the largest one in the dining room so all fourteen of us could sit together for the two hour gourmet meals. l to r are Craig, Don & Suzy, Fran & Bill, Jack & Jeannie and my back. In the other picture are Sharon & Ron, Cathy & John and Laurette & Craig. Terry took the pictures.

If you didn't want the fancy lobster, escargot, lamb, prime rib, or deserts of Cherries Jublilee, Crepe Suzette or Baked Alaska; you could order steak and ice cream off the left side of the menu. When I asked the group what was the best part of the trip, they agreed that it was spending two hours together every night with good friends and good food.

USS Arizona Memorial

The next day in Honolulu we visited the USS Arizona Memorial to WWII veterans. Many Japanese were also visitors. I spoke to one of the young couples who were waiting for the theater to open before riding the boat to see the memorial. When I asked what he thought of the memorial he indicated in broken English that it was a victory for the Japanese. I said, "In my opinion, Nagasaki and Hiroshima would never have happened if the Pearl Harbor had not happened." They nodded their heads. We took each others pictures and waved when we saw each other again.
There were no Miller relatives on the Navy ships when Pearl Harbor was attacked but Terry’s father, Bill Miller, joined the Navy on December 9, 1941 and was immediately sent to Honolulu to clean it up. On the back wall is a list of Navy personnel who didn’t survive including several Millers. Oil on the water was a poignant reminder that the effects of this war are still with us.

The Island of OAHU

In Honolulu, we rented a car with Cathy and John Robnik and drove around the island.

Most of the flowers that are pictured are from the Dole Pineapple gardens. Wildlife included the gecko and snail.

We saw the surfers and big waves at the bonsai pipeline and other beaches. Fran and Bill Rayner joined us for a shrimp lunch at a roadside shrimp farm.