London Bridge

Hi everyone! :)
Today is the first day that is too hot to be outside at lunchtime, even in the shade so I figured I had better do a little catching up!

So backing up a bit - The weather slowly got better and the sun started to shine, still needed a light jacket while walking Tess but we were getting reports that snow was falling at home so a light jacket sounded good to us!!

First chance I got we drove into Quartzsite. At the right time of year the ..um...town? is crazy with vendors selling pretty much everything. In February they have a big rock and gem show and its wall to wall vending tents and RVers... we have never made it to that, I think Greg plans it that way! There are a couple permanent stores that sell lots of important must have souvenirs and things.... but my favourite, and the favourite of most of the ladies around here are the bead shops!!! Rows upon rows upon rows of beads - glass and wood and plastic and shell and STONE!

Greg is very patient as I marvel over the size and shape and color and, well, just the idea of all those pretty rocks just hanging around waiting for me to take them home! And the best part!!!!! Everything is half price!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Although I think one sale sign was printed on a newspaper dated 1945 and permanently glued to the wall - but if it says sale it must be good!

I was pretty well behaved this trip since I haven’t had a chance to use the turquoise from our last trip, I resisted the temptation to get more. I picked up a couple small beads and some findings for my chain maille earrings and didn’t buy anything for Tanya even though EVERYTHING would have been PERFECT for her jewellery and her creations would sell so well at her etsy store at http://www.etsy.com/shop/tanyaw85! (sorry tan but no worries, next year maybe Grandma will come and the guys won’t be around but it was a good plug huh?? ;) )

There is one higher end bead store that I left for last and again was well behaved...until Greg was busy paying for the couple things I had picked out and I was left to wander over to the glass case with more stone beads.... well I bet none of you ladies would have been able to resist the natural purple stone I found either!!!!!!

The next day the sun was warm and we were going to spend it relaxing around the river, right after a quick trip back to quartzite to pick up a couple more glass beads since they worked so well! I was only after the last store we had been to and Greg said sure :) I think he knew it was closed Tuesdays!!

Back at the park we had a nice relaxing day and it warmed up enough to put our shorts on.

Tess was thrilled to be able to play in the water.

Until she went just a little too far

But all in all it was a good day :)

Wednesday we went up to Lake Havasu to see the London Bridge.

This bridge was built in the city of London and purchased by the city of Lake Havasu in 1968 for $2,460,000.00. It took three years and another $4,500,000.00 to transport and rebuild the bridge. This is very interesting I agree but the real reason I absolutely HAD to go stand on this bridge was because my Grandmother stood on this exact bridge when it was still in London :) So this was my pilgrimage to honour my Grandmother :)

Driving up to the bridge:

Driving over the bridge:

And no great pilgrimage is complete without a beer to cheers with!!

And of course the other side:

Holding the Bridge up:

In case you’re not sure... me on the bridge:

And I am certain that this must be the exact place my Grandma stood!!

Driving home I had to take pictures of the surrounding desert. This may not look like much to some but I could not get over how green the desert was!! (Oh look mom! She was right! the mountains are darker as they get closer!!)

It was a beautiful drive along the river

That was our stay in Colorado Springs in Ehrenberg. We headed out on Thursday March 11th to one of my favourite Western Horizon Resort parks for our last two weeks of vacation but you will have to wait for midday on Friday to hear about it because there is a breeze and I’m about to put on my spf 45 and go sit in the shade!! Lol

Oh, did I mention we stopped at Quartzsite on the way home from the bridge??? ;)

Driving Miss Tess

Ok, so this is a nice relaxing, no pressure, get away. I can lay back and do nothing at all if that’s what I feel like...... until Greg posts 3 times on facebook that I will be updating our brand new blog tonight. Now that wouldn’t be so bad if anything interesting had happened but I am happy to say it has been a wonderfully quiet, uneventful trip so far..... well for us, Tess on the other hand may beg to differ..... don’t worry Eran, only her puppy pride has been hurt...



I admit I wasn’t very organized in my preparations this time but boxes got flung and clothes got stuffed. About 3 days before leaving I realized Tess needed her rabies shots before we left, so in a panic I called Dr. Bates and managed to get in that day (he is open from 2:30 to 4 – 3 days a week). Greg and I rushed down with Tess in tow around the corner straight into a Sheppard that decided to try and put Tess under its paw, of course Tess wasn’t having it and a small squabble erupted before I could reverse direction and pick her up. After calming her down we opened the door to the vet and Tess immediately started to whimper. We were told that her rabies was good till 2011 so she just needed her boosters, all is good! Dr. Bates looked at her and she started to scream... he hadn’t even touched her yet!........

We crossed the border late in the afternoon, right after my chemo on Tuesday. There were no worries about the crossing, we have had enough experience with this that we just don’t bother to bring any food items whatsoever and do a shop soon after getting in to the states. The only thing we didn’t get was the papers for Tess’s rabies shot because I thought the old papers were out of date and didn’t bring them, I did have a really old rabies tag in the trailer. My mom tisked me about it before we left but we have been bringing our dog across the border for years and no one has ever asked for them and it was too late to get copies. Hmm, yes they did ask...of course. Lucky for us when Greg told the boarder guard they were in the trailer (he thought they were) and went to get them the fellow told us not to worry but make sure they were in the cab next time........

We spent the first night at Tulalip casino and the next night at 7 feathers casino just before Grants Pass. We have stayed there a number of times now, the first time was in the parking lot but since then they have built a really nice RV park. The people there are super friendly and the landscaping is on its way to being beautiful. When we arrived the lady asked where we would like to be in the park and we said we didn’t care. She noticed we had a dog so asked if we would like to be next to the fenced in dog park. Thinking this would be really nice for Tess to be able to be off leash (as long as there were no other dogs in sight) we took the spot right next to it.

Sure enough, right outside our front door was a gate to the small but grassy dog run. As Greg set up the RV I took Tess over and took her off her leash so she could run and jump and chase her ball like a real dog......... for those of you who do not know our Tess this next bit explains her perfectly, we should have known. I released the leash with an air of anticipation and she stood there and looked at me. Thinking she just wasn’t use to the off leash experience I tossed her ball for her to chase, she took three steps then headed to the fence and very gingerly walked all along the fence line trying to keep her feet in the air. The ball was forgotten as the smell of other dogs poop offended her nose. After realizing that there was no way to retrieve the ball without leaving the safety of the edge she turned and carefully retraced her steps to the gate and looked at me like I had lost my mind. Yes my dog is prissy.

Later, Greg apparently didn’t think I had tried hard enough to show her the joys of freedom and decided to try again. He also removed her leash in the park, this time she didn’t even budge so Greg opened the gate to put the leash back on and she found her own freedom, and she was happy to run and run.. until I offered her a treat in the RV and she just couldn’t resist.........

Thursday night we spent at Rolling Hills casino in Corning, California and friday we stopped for the night at a rest stop in Lebec, it was cold windy and noisy with truckers, reminded us why we stay at Casinos even if we don’t spend a dime on gambling!!

Saturday around noon we arrived at our first destination – Ehrenberg, Arizona. The sun was shining and the temperature was 25 degrees, it was a good day.... for us. Poor Tess. It seems they were re-enacting the civil war across the river that day... complete with guns and cannons! Tess was already not happy with the whole trip, and loud noises are not her favourite thing. The rest of the day was spent hiding under the table..........

We woke this morning to a downpour, I don’t think you could find more mud anywhere than a desert in a rain storm. Now rain is something Tess doesn’t mind at all... being from Hope she is use to it. This morning she got to play in the river and got lots of walks. We spent most of the day with her and she was just starting to think this wasn’t so bad, until Greg was putting away groceries and left the cupboard door open next to the couch. After figuring out that Greg hadn’t brought anything good back from the store for her she managed to jump head first into the corner... I am amazed the whole park did not come to see who was killing their dog, after half an hour of crying she skulked under the table to stay, well at least until we offered her a treat......

So here we are, enjoying a nice relaxing day in the rainy desert :). We are happy but I’m thinking it’s a good thing Tess doesn’t have a thumb or she would be using it to get herself a ride home without us!