It's getting hot out here... so takin' off all our....

Yes! We have located the desert and it is hot. Of course, we are - let me rephrase that - I am a whimp and do not love the heat. I know it gets hotter and I know people survive out here (but only the crazy and nutty folks), but when it gets close to 100 degrees... woooo, I am HOT. Not a bragging kind of hot, but the sweaty, dusty, icky kind. :0)

• Lake Havasu, AZ: We left Las Vegas and headed through the desert to Lake Havasu. The drive down was pretty boring for the most part and did I mention hot? Matt is sick of me saying it, so I'll repeat often on the blog that only I update thus far. Any-hoo, we can't use the a/c in the truck because of the pulling of the trailer and all, AND we always seem to be traveling up hill with the sunshining on my side. That is no matter what direction we're heading. HA. But we survived and made it to Lake Havasu City where the water was SO blue and the mountains so jagged, it was very pretty. We were originally going to stay in some free RV camping (thanks for the tip Tom & Sandra) by the airport, but wanted to stay close to the water, so we drove down about 15 miles South of the city and stayed in the Cattail State Park. It was a nice little park and we had access to the lake. Bailey and I sat and watched the water for a while and Matt walked through the desert on a trail. We went into town one day and walked the boardwalk by the London Bridge (imported from London, England really!) and saw all of the boaters. We were there too early in the morning so we didn't see any of the sunbathing, topless beauties that we would have been "lucky" enough to see if it were Spring Break. Bummer, huh? Matt was a bit depressed about that. At night, we heard the bats flying above us catching bugs, and the thousands of shy quail running through the bushes by our trailer. Cute little buggers, but they are fast and didn't like their picture taken. After two days, we headed back into the desert towards Yuma, AZ.


• Outside of Yuma, AZ is the Imperial Sand Dunes State Rec. Area. We drove out there (back into CA at this point) and saw the acres and acres of dunes right from the freeway. We exited and found a camping spot with about 50 other campers in one dusty, 97 degree, sand-covered area, tried to pull in but got totally stuck in the sand and had to let air out of the truck tires to get out, unpacked the toys and took a little ride into the dunes. Needless to say, we were not prepared for these dunes. There are drop offs and it's hard to see where the deep sand is and we don't have the "paddle-tires" that are definitely needed for this type of riding. I managed to get stuck a few times and Matt said it was quite a workout to stay up on the motorcycle in the sand. We did see an old plank road used from 1916-1926 for driving over the dunes. Not much there now and it was pretty much covered with sand, but the sign said it was there, so I guess it is there somewhere... Lots of fun superstitions about the dunes and what is buried there; everything from old pirate ships to lost gold wagons. I wasn't about to go sifting through the sand - again, because of the heat - so I'll leave that duty to another soul to find someday.


• Right now, we're in Casa Grande, AZ visiting my Gramps Earle. He lives in a beautiful park and it's like an oasis with a large pool (I've already used it twice) and nice facilities. We're not 55 years of age, which is the rule, but Gramps got us in and paid for our 2 night stay. For that we are very thankful! He made us dinner last night and breakfast this morning. We're heading over in about an hour for another dinner and a night of card playing. He usually wins, but I figure I need to repay him somehow for the free stay. :) I'll post pictures of this area next week.


• Tomorrow, we're heading out. We have a week to get back to California City, CA (yes, back to CA) where we'll be attending an off-road event with some friends. Then we'll be in Palm Springs, CA from April 23-30th.

I sure hope we hit 100 degrees... boy, am I looking forward to that!!! HA!