Day 20 - Travel day to Quartzsite, AZ

Early this morning, Beverly sat outside and photographed the beautiful sunrise before we got ready to leave Lake Havasu City.

It is our travel day from Lake Havasu to Quartzsite.  We headed south on Highway 95 to Junction I-10.

Quartzsite is a gathering of thousands of RV’s of all descriptions in a desert setting.  Many of the units were dry camped.  However, we were fortunate to have a large, graded, open campground with sewer, water and electric.

We ventured to the huge display of new and used RV’s, tools, repairs, and add-ons, which were applicable to the RV lifestyle.

The members of the caravan gathered at 5pm for the daily social.  Everyone was at ease with a good trip and new places to explore at the big show here.

Submitted by:

#3 Beverly and Stuart Blythe

Day 19 - Lake Havasu - tour of London Bridge

The balloons are gone; all is quiet on the western front.  Today we did a rideshare over to the London Bridge for a guided tour.  Our guide, Yon, who was from the Netherlands, first had us go through the visitor’s center and look at pictures of the bridge throughout history starting from the 1200’s, to the most recent version that we see here today.  Back then, there were houses across the bridge. 

The bridge was purchased by Robert McCullough in 1968 for use as a tourist attraction in his master planned community of Lake Havasu City, Arizona.  The bridge is hollow.  Only the exterior granite stones were used in order to keep the weight down. 

Yon took us up a flight of 51 granite steps on one side of the bridge, walked us across the bridge where we crossed to the other side and descended back down a slightly lesser number of steps. 

One very interesting thing he showed us was where two soldiers had carved their names and the date under the bridge in 1942. 

After our tour, we visited the Candle Factory for a candle carving demonstration.  There were hundreds of candles in this shop.  We watched the carving, and then several of us went on to other places.  A few folks had lunch together, some did some shopping.  

At 5:00 we all gathered once again in the Satellite Room for another staff-prepared dinner.  Tonight it was nachos and margaritas!

After we left there, a few gathered at the lakefront property of the Blythe’s again, with a nice fire, provided by Joe’s Campfire in a Can.

We leave here tomorrow for Quartzsite.  We have been having wonderful weather.  Hope it continues.

Submitted by:

#2 Spence and Madi Schaaf

Day 18 - Lake Havasu - Balloon Festival - Day 4

Today was our 5^th day in Lake Havasu City and the final day of the Balloon Festival.  Some of us were up bright and early to see the balloons lift off.

It was great fun to have balloons landing in close proximity to our rigs again today.

Several members of our group said that they felt this balloon festival was more enjoyable than the one in Albuquerque.   The one in Albuquerque is so large; it is hard to get up close and personal with the balloons and their pilots and owners.  Jim and Claudia Miller spent some time talking with the owner and pilot of one of the Panda Balloons.  They learned that a regular balloon costs in the neighborhood of $30-50 thousand and a special shaped balloon costs $100,000 up.  The balloons must be inspected after each 100 hours of flight time and the pilot must have a pilot’s license.  If they want to carry passengers, they must have a commercial pilot’s license.

Wagonmaster John drank his first birch beer today!  John Huettemann kept telling him that he needed to try one and today seemed like a good day for it.  John (Mincks) said that it was very tasty but it needed some vanilla ice cream to make it complete.

The three Adventurers that were dry camping in the overflow area were able to move into full hookup sites today.  Stuart and Beverly Blythe are now enjoying the view from their lake front site; in fact they invited us to join them for our evening social.

Our Wagonmasters made a special presentation to Joe and Donna Risley for volunteering to host our evening socials during the past 4 evenings.  Also to Stuart and Beverly Blythe for being so gracious in volunteering to dry camp in the overflow area for the 4 nights.

Tomorrow we will explore the London Bridge and associated English style village.

Submitted by:

#1 John and Sally Mincks

Day 17 - Lake Havasu - Balloon Festival - Day 3

Another perfect day at the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival!  Every launch is different.  The variety of colors and shapes was endless, but today we saw something we’d never seen before – two identical balloons in the shape of panda bears.

Today’s winds carried some of the balloons out over Lake Havasu.  Since it would be a 75-mile drive around the lake for the chase crew to retrieve a balloon that landed on the other side, the balloons dropped ropes to boats waiting below so that they could be towed back to our side of the lake. 

The pilot of the panda bear balloon actually dipped his basket in the water – we’re told that’s the sign of a really skillful pilot!

The winds also carried the balloons directly over the campground, allowing those who slept in this morning to get up close and personal without ever leaving their rigs.

After the launch we headed back to the RV to sort and edit the 235 photos we’d already taken.  Meanwhile biplanes and skydivers soared overhead, visible from our rear window.

For dinner we headed back to the food court, which featured just about everything from Greek salad and pizza to BBQ and chocolate dipped fruit kabobs.  Afterwards the balloon glow lit up the chilly night sky.

Submitted by:
#18 Greg and Jean Truax

Day 16 - Lake Havasu -Balloon Festival Day 2

The second day of the Balloon Festival started warm and sunny with no wind.  Bi-planes began the festivities this morning with a fly over followed by the ascension of hot air balloons so that at one time more than 40 were visible in the air. What a beautiful, memorable sight.

At one o’clock we took an interesting narrated scenic boat cruise on Lake Havasu. We began by passing under the world famous London Bridge and out onto the lake. Each block of the bridge was disassembled in England, and reconstructed in Lake Havasu City to become the second largest tourist attraction in Arizona.

Lake Havasu, a reservoir, was formed in 1949 when Parker Dam was built 15 miles south on the Colorado River. There are 4 major dams and 36 smaller dams on the river.  This is the busiest boating lake in the southwest United States. Camping along the lake is accessible only by water.

A Lighthouse Club is responsible for building 1/3 size replicas of famous lighthouses in the U.S. These lighthouses have increased safety on the lake and there will be a total of 40 when the club has completed them.

The staff graciously treated our Adventure Caravan group to a Lasagna dinner tonight. Thank you Sally, John, Madi and Spence.

Following dinner we enjoyed a Night Glow, and Field of Fire on the Balloon field.  











Submitted by:
#17 Reg and Marge Traband

Day 15 - Lake Havasu City, AZ - Balloon Festival

Today we woke up to a beautiful windless day.  Beautiful blue skies and temperatures into the 70’s.  A far cry from what we had been accustomed to.  It was a great day for the start of the Lake Havasu Balloon Festival.   We were able to walk out onto the field among the crews setting up their individual balloons.  There were many different shapes and sizes.  The one that really caught our eye was the Old Woman in a Shoe.  It was about the largest balloon in the festival and had a Ground Crew of about 20 individuals.  Most of the balloons only had a crew of 4 to 6.  We were even able to almost walk inside the different shaped balloons as they lay on their sides while fans blew air to inflate them.  While they did not have a mass ascension like in Albuquerque, they did have a several lift off at a time. 

The nice thing about this festival is that there were many different events to keep us occupied.  We watched a demonstration put on by the Sheriffs Canine unit.  Their dogs are well trained and expensive.  Cost about $10,000 each.  The dogs are trained in sniffing out drugs as well as missing people.  They are a one-person dog and trained to attack anyone who makes an aggressive move towards their handler.  Would be a great dog to own but the only one who can own a retired dog is the handler.  There is way too much liability for giving or selling the dog to anyone else.  After watching the Police dog demo went over and watched dogs in a Frisbee catching demonstration.  While that was fun, I really think That Joe Risley’s dog, Emmy, a member of our caravan, would have done a better job.

We also watched Sky Divers and a Biplane flyover.  There were about 200 different vendors where you could purchase the many different Trash and trinkets that are offered at any festival of this type.  They had a large selection of food offered by the many different vendors from all over the country. I had a Chicken Bar B Que sandwich. That was delicious.

After the days festivities Joe and Donna Risley hosted a great social at their Motorhome.  They fixed Pizza and your choice of either Apple or Cherry pie prepared over their campfire.  Everyone went home tired and ready to rest up for tomorrow’s activities.

Submitted by:

#16 Bill and Carole Sistek

Day 14 - Travel Day to Lake Havasu City, AZ

Help! – We are lost and we haven’t even started out of the campground.

Log in hand, map that John gave us, road atlas, and a map of Arizona, off we go.  This should make for an interesting 70 miles to Lake Havasu.  Glad to leave the cold wind, but Madi has promised warmer weather.

Passing Oatman, I had to enter the picture from yesterday, because so far, no great points of interest today.

Just crossed the mighty Colorado with the Needle Mountains in the background, and now on through the spectacular Mohave Mountains and Lake Havasu.

Mohave Mountains 

Submitted by:

#15 Bill and Norma Rugg