4/26/06

Blog Update

4/26/06 Sorry, no picture of the London Bridge will appear on this blog. I never was in town again during the daytime to take the picture. Perhaps next year... The pictures I am posting today are some of the ones I tried to take at the fireworks event at Sara Park in Lake Havasu City. I apologize for the poor quality of these pictures and also the fact that they can’t even begin to communicate to you the awesome quality of this experience. But we had a demand from an avid viewer of this blog for an update and some pictures, so see below.

The Western Pyrotechnic Association puts on this 4 day event each year in February in Lake Havasu City and it has been remarkable both years we attended it. Usually there are fireworks being shot off as soon as they might be visible in the darkening sky, with organized arrangements and displays, often to music, starting at 8 each evening. For over an hour each night, the fireworks that are being detonated are as awesome as the grand finale at most 4^th of July fireworks events. This year, on Sunday night, there was a presentation by the LaRosa Family from Italy. This family has been in the business for 3 generations and they presented the most awesome display which was impeccably choreographed to Andrea Bocelli singing one of his operatic blockbuster hits. Additionally, some of their fireworks were very different from the American ones and quite impressive.

Besides the fun of going to the fireworks displays each evening, it was enjoyable being at another event with the Boomers. About 20 rigs of Boomers and RoVing Rods stayed near us in Craggy Wash, on the north end of Lake Havasu City. We had Happy Hour gatherings each day and also set up a big Happy Hour and Tailgate Party at Sara Park on Saturday, with the Boomers staying right there in the parking lot. As usual, the food was delicious and we enjoyed meeting new people and catching up on gabbing with old friends. After the fireworks event was over and the number of rigs left at Craggy Wash had been depleted by half, Chuck & Betty Goehring supplied enough fish for a big fish taco potluck. More great food and more good socializing.

The biggest downer about our time in Craggy Wash was that we had a total of 6 mice as uninvited guests! Each night we would hear them, I would get up and set up the glue traps, and we would catch them. We have already heard that after we left, our nearest neighbors, Chuck & Betty, took over as the proprietors of the mouse hotel.

Now we are camped with our friends Vi & John Primmer, and Lee & Susie Blattner at the Avi Casino, which is an Indian Casino not far from Laughlin, NV. We have been enjoying cheap buffets and breakfasts but still managing to stick to the South Beach diet for the most part. We are still walking at least 4 miles a day, doing crunches and lifting small weights. So far I have lost 12 pounds and Elaine has lost 18. Probably Susie will be outdoing us on the weight loss front because she is currently down and out with the flu. Sure hope she feels better soon, and we REALLY hope we don’t get it!!

The last big news is that we have been using John and Vi’s internet access to make some exciting travel plans. You already have read on this blog that we will be taking another cruise between Galveston and Lisbon leaving April 24 and arriving May 6. After 5 days in Lisbon, we are going to poke around Portugal for 12 days with Lee & Susie in a rental car. On May 27, after we visit Elaine’s nephew in Spain for a few days, Elaine and I will be picking up a 15 day Morocco trip with a UK company called Imaginative Traveller. They are a company a lot like Intrepid, the travel company we have used in the past in China, Vietnam and Central Europe. Then we will fly back to the USA on June 11 and spend about 2 months in the RV, probably going up to British Columbia. On Aug. 28 we use the second half of our air ticket and fly to Istanbul where we will have until Sept. 3 to explore on our own. Then we start a 31 day tour, again with Imaginative Traveller, that goes through Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and ends in Cairo on Oct. 3. On Oct. 8 we start a 15 day Egypt trip that includes a week on a 4 star river boat on the Nile, stopping along the way to visit various sites. It ends on Oct. 22 and we will have a week until the ship leaves from Venice to return to Galveston, taking 18 days and hitting some very interesting ports. Now I am working on nailing down all the little details for all these trips.

Don’t know how long we will be staying in this area, but with rainy cold weather still happening in California, we aren’t inclined to hurry our return to Park Sierra. That will be our staging area for trip preparation and packing, and also where we will leave our RV while we are in Europe.