Monday April 1, 2024 Nassau to Bisbee

OK, party is over. But wait! We get to go home to Bisbee Arizona!!

Checkout was at noon today and the Orange Hill Beach Inn called a taxi for 12:30. It’s an extra Easter holiday here (Easter Monday?) so the advice we got was get to the airport 3 hours early.

The taxi was right on time (the hand sanitizer lady) and she got us to the airport with almost no traffic ($25 which we had to use all our change and small bills to pay since she could not make change). Check in was easy and Deb scored us main cabin extra upgrades which means lots of leg room and free drinks (ok one free drink). Flight to Dallas was easy (about three plus hours) and everything went smoothly.

We were meeting our friend Leslie and taking the same flight back to Tucson. The layover in Dallas was 4 hours so we found an earlier flight. Sure enough, Leslie had done the same thing and we met at B39 for the 8:55 flight. But not so fast…

A big rain/thunder/lightning storm was coming in and we ended up leaving around 11pm after waiting for it to pass over. So we ended up getting back to Tucson 5 minutes later than our original flight did, about 11:55pm. Got the bags, the Quick Park shuttle guy was waiting for us and we were in the car 10 minutes later.  We stopped at Loves for some milk and coffee then got home by around 2am. Felt like a college all nighter (we still got it!!). Good to be home!!

Sunday March 31, 2024 Cat Island to Nassau

Our Western Airlines plane takes off at 1pm so we planned to leave with the dingy around 10:30 to leave time to walk to the airport. Erick whipped up some scrambled eggs and toast and a pot of coffee. We packed up and rode into the beach where it looked like we would find a road out to the main road and then walk to the airport. 

A grumpy old white woman scolded us for walking on a private road and parking our dinghy on a private beach, so we apologized and continued on. Erick went back to move the dinghy to the Fernandez Bay Resort beach. (The same grumpy woman later gave Hannah and Erick a ride back from the airport so partly redeemed herself). Unfortunate, since every local person had been nothing but kind to us up until then.

We got to the airport in plenty of time so said our goodbyes to Erick and Hannah. Another couple was there who were Vermonters (of course). The plane dropped off 50+ people and loaded us 50+ people on and we had a quick 30 minute flight to Nassau. We got a burger for lunch at a Wendy’s and then a $20 cab ride to Orange Hill Beach Inn where we always stay. We had nice long showers to knock off the remaining salt and sunscreen, Deb had a swim in the pool and Milo took a nap. We caught up with Jake and Nath, who are counting the days until the babies are born. Nice dinner (ribs for me and cracked conch for Deb) then blog writing, and bed. Apparently tomorrow is a holiday here (Easter Monday) so we need to get to the airport an extra hour early since a lot of folks are on vacation and traveling.

Saturday March 30. 2024 Rum Cay to Cat Island

OK, time to head back to Cat Island. We had a long day ahead of us so the flopper-stoppers were raised, engine checks done and set the autopilot for Conception Island. Hannah made a yogurt, fruit, and nut mixture for breakfast after getting all the sails up and shutting down the engine. Pure sailing today with a nice breeze out of the north east. Once offshore the swells are real ocean swells so a lot of riding up and down the waves and troughs. A good reading day with a lunch of spaghetti with red sauce and veggies. We passed Conception and then headed north to Cat

Island. The plan is to anchor near the airport so we can walk there tomorrow. Erick turned the engine back on as the wind died and we picked up speed. We anchored about 5:00 pm which means happy hour was late. Rum drinks and then Thai lettuce wraps (rice, ground turkey and spices) for dinner. Tonight we went for a movie (Capt Ron, a boater's old classic) and popcorn. Off to bed and our last night on the boat.

Friday March 29, 2024 Rum Cay

Deb here. Leisurely morning on board Bonnie Lynn. Erick made a delicious German pancake for a late breakfast, topped with blueberries, yogurt, and maple syrup. 

Late morning Hannah, Erick, and I loaded into the dinghy for a bit of an explore on land. We parked the dinghy on shore and took off on the road, with the first goal of visiting the salt pond. We eventually found the salt ponds, no longer used but at one point a place where salt evaporated out of the salt water, with walls to keep the water in. It was all very similar to what we’d seen on Long Island last year, just smaller.

Following this, we walked up a hill to an abandoned

structure with great views. There were two other out buildings as well and it was all rather sad. Inside the main building was a model of a proposed development on Rum Cay that obviously never happened. If it had, the current state of Rum Cay would have been much different for sure. 

After the hot walk we headed back to the dinghy and boat. In mid-afternoon Erick asked if anyone wanted to go snorkeling. I was the only one who took him up on his offer, so off the 2 of us went in the dinghy. We traveled quite a way up the coastline, finally anchoring in a spot with lots of coral heads. Erick hoped to find some spiny lobsters, but no luck. He did manage to spear a small grouper, and we saw lots of colorful fish (and one menacing barracuda) as well.

Back to the boat for a shower before heading back to shore with the dinghy. We’d made a 6 pm reservation at Kaye’s Restaurant, and decided to go over early to get a walk in. We walked a nice loop, seeing the new clinic, the school, the Anglican Church, and a bunch of homes. As we walked by Toby’s Bar the proprietor, Jackiie, came outside and talked us into a cold drink. We sat at the bar and had beers (everyone else) and a cuba libre (me, kind of a rum and coke in a can) and peppered her with questions about life on Rum Cay.

After our drinks we walked to Kaye’s and had a wonderful culinary experience. She’d asked the day before what we liked to eat and Erick had suggested she cook us whatever she wanted, and we weren’t disappointed. Kaye and her daughter served up lobster bisque and johnny cake first, followed by

salad, and then steamed conch, goat curry, peas and rice, and a green bean/cabbage cheesy casserole. All of this was washed down with delicious rum punch, and followed up with a cinnamon hot cross type bun for dessert (a tribute to Good Friday). So good and quite the authentic Bahamian experience, all for about $40/person.

We rolled ourselves out of there and back to the boat. Another great day!

Thursday March 28, 2024 Conception Island to Rum Cay

Deb here. Excitement today, since we made the decision last night to head to Rum Cay instead of back to Cat Island. Hannah and Erick had never made it to Rum Cay and were curious to check out this island, about 10 miles from Conception Island.

We got underway and had delicious homemade sourdough toast for breakfast. We arrived at Rum Cay by 10:30 or so. A bit later we loaded into the dinghy and headed to the government dock, which had been rebuilt recently. Rum Cay has a total of about 90 residents, and when we docked we learned that a “Grill and Chill” party was happening at 1 that afternoon for residents, involving ribs, chicken and a party. The few locals there were really welcoming, and we walked on to check out the town.

Intel from a couple of boaters we’d met was that Kay’s is a not-to-be-missed restaurant, and we saw Kay’s as we started our walk. We went inside Kay’s “Sand Bar '' (which really is a bar with sand on the floor) and talked with a few people hanging out. One woman, Sue, lives in Gila, NM now but lived in Bisbee for 15 years back in the 1970’s to mid-1980’s bartending at the Copper Queen and climbing the stairs to High Street at the end of her shift. We met Kay and asked about dinner, but she said we’d better return tomorrow since the Grill and Chill was taking place that afternoon.

We continued on and it was a hot sunny walk to the point and the site of the old marina. Apparently a hurricane really devastated this Cay in 2017, and the island has never fully recovered. Lots of goats were wandering around, and Sue had warned us that the goat situation had gotten out of hand.

Back to the dinghy and out to the boat for lunch. The Grill and Chill still hadn’t gotten started, so we thought lunch on the boat was a better option. Hannah put together tasty half BLT’s on homemade bread, which we enjoyed with Erick’s pasta salad from the day before. These two really know how to eat well!

After lunch we climbed back into the dinghy for snorkeling. We checked out some coral heads not far from Bonnie Lynn, and although not the greatest snorkeling in Erick and Hannah’s opinion, John and I were pretty happy to see colorful fish…. those blues and yellows are especially stunning. John got a bit more excitement than he’d wished for, coming face to face with a large shark as he was snorkeling. He wasn’t sure how to respond, but the shark swam off away from him. Hannah guessed it was a nurse shark and asked John what it looked like, to which he replied “big”!

Post-snorkeling we all rinsed off, changed, and had rum drinks and snacks. Erick and Hannah taught us the High Stakes version of Farkel, which John won. Erick made incredible cracked conch for dinner, which he served with a huge cabbage salad made by Hannah. Coconut ice cream for dessert and off to bed. Another wonderful day.

Wednesday March 27, 2024 Conception Island

Hannah and Erick know this island pretty well having been here a couple times. So a dinghy ride into the extensive mangroves and then a hike to the ruins were in order.

Erick made breakfast of eggs, grits, bacon and fruit then off in the dinghy to the mangroves. This dinghy is the second one they bought for surprise with a  15 hp motor so it gets 4 of us where we want to go pretty quickly compared to the first dinghy which had a 6 hp motor. They plan on buying a bigger dinghy and a bigger 23 hp engine since Bonnie Lynn takes more people and they’ll need to ferry more people back and forth.

Milo got pretty burned so today he upgraded to SPF 50 and no more burns. There is only one entrance to the mangroves and you have to go in when the tide is up since there are breakers at the entrance. You get to ride a wave in if you time it right, which Erick did.

Once in the mangroves there are a lot of turtles. We saw a lot of turtles swimming around plus a ray. A couple kinds of birds were hanging out under the mangrove trees. The mangrove trees are 3-4’ high with roots that are exposed since the tide goes up and down. We saw what looked like an old dam or maybe a walkway across a section of it. Someone spent some time on this island stacking rocks.

We had to get out before the tide got any lower so we found a hole in the breakers and shot out of the mangroves into the ocean and then back to the boat for lunch. Eric whipped up a pasta salad and then back to the beach to hike.

We hiked down the beach, about 0.7 miles according to two men we met on the beach, which is very clean and very white, and then climbed up the rocks and hiked along the top of the rocks. The trail was hard to find but Erick macheted his way trough the underbrush until we found the first rock wall which was stacked rocks with no “concrete”. Then we hiked along a rock bench on the bluff until we found the building ruins. These are made with alternating layers of rocks and some kind of concrete. It looks like a small group of buildings. Someone was doing something here. More research required.

Then over to the other side of the point and down to the beach. The hike back was all on the rock bench which was quicker than through the brush, and then back down the beach where we met a couple from Canada and a couple from Germany trying to open a coconut with a hacksaw and a hammer which they’d carried with them on their swim over to the beach. Who swims with a hacksaw and a hammer and two coconuts? Erick did his machete magic on the coconuts to help them out.

Back to the boat for rum drinks and a supper just after dusk of grilled chicken, bok choi and potatoes. In bed by 9pm. 

Tuesday March 26, 2024 Crossing to Conception Island

Big sailing day today! It’s about a 5 hour crossing to Conception Island, a Bahamian preserve that is protected from any kind of development. No fires, no dogs, no anything that will damage the ecosystem. Erick made a frittata for breakfast with the left over taco stuff from last night.

The wind was good so Hannah and Erick got a bunch of sails up (this thing has more sails than Carter has pills), and we ran part of the day with no motor. I call it a crossing because we left the nice shallow light blue waters and spent the day with nothing but 3000 feet of dark blue water under us and nothing to look at except the horizon. Medium swells so just exciting enough not to get sea sick. And how did anyone not get lost at sea before GPS?

Erick made sandwiches for lunch which kept us busy with the rolling sea.

The satellite stuff told us there were a couple boats already there but when we pulled in there were about 7 boats, but still plenty of room and good anchorage.

We took the dinghy in to shore (with a few cold beers) and did a walk to the other side of the island. It looks like someone has collected any beach trash as there were a couple of piles of plastic trash here and there. Once back to the dinghy we all went for a swim in the crystal clear water before heading back to the boat.

Milo got pretty sunburned so he has to do better tommorrow. The SPF 30 did not cut it today.

Every night Milo and Erick put the “flopper stoppers” down, which are two dampers that extend from both sides of the boat. The have one way louvers that cuts way down on the boat rolling at night. Clever.

Pineapple mango rum drinks before dinner. Erick grilled lobster tails, which he served with rice and a nice fresh salad, which made for a nice evening. Another perfect day!

Monday March 25, 2024 Back to sea

Today Hannah and Erick picked us back up after their hideout on Eleuthera. Malcolm insisted we take some fresh veggies from the garden for the boat, so he and Deb gathered a nice bag of greens which were very welcome on the boat. Malcolm says he’s been doing the garden a while and they get nice vegetables but nobody keeps it up after he and Sally leave, so when he comes back the next year he has to start over.

Two loads to get us and the luggage to the boat and one last wave goodbye to Sally on the beach (Malcolm went fishing this morning).

We sailed to Fernandez Bay and Hannah took Deb and I on a dinghy ride through the mangroves. The water was kind of low tide so we ended up “poling” part of the way. We saw a small shark but no turtles or birds to speak of.

Back on the boat, Erick fixed us delicious rum drinks, followed by delicious chicken tacos for dinner. We were all tired so said

our goodnights after dinner and dishes at about 9 p.m.

Sunday March 24, 2024 Cat Island Day 4

Deb here again. We slept through what we later heard was an epic storm at midnight last night with major lightning and rain. Today the blue sky was back, although very windy and good sized waves on the ocean. In the morning we hung out reading, walking, and talking with Sally and Malcolm along with others staying here. At about 2 we headed to Da Pink Chicken with Sally and Malcolm, who have a rental car for their 3 month stay.

Da Pink Chicken is a classic dive beach bar owned by Patie and her spouse Dean. Patie cooks in the She Shed, and Dean tends bar in the open air space. We spent several very fun hours chatting with locals and non-locals, eating chicken wings and coleslaw, and enjoying rum punch and beers. A pretty perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon.

Once back at 6 pm we sat on the porch with Malcolm and Sally watching the sun set and snacking. Yep, another great day on this laid back island.

Saturday March 23, 2024 Cat Island Day 3

Deb here. Today was all about the impending storm. We had a lovely lazy day, doing lots of reading. We had a first round of rain in the late morning, then another round in mid-afternoon. In between we managed to get a beach walk in, and even had a nice swim later in the day. We’d made plans to eat in the dining room at 6:30. Shortly after we sat down for dinner the storm started in earnest, with torrential rain, lightning, and big thunder. A few minutes later the power went out! Through it all we enjoyed a delicious dinner of cracked conch (me), Cornish hen (John), accompanied by mashed potatoes, salad, and a vegetable dish. For dessert we had tasty red velvet cake. All in all a great day!

Friday Mar 22, 2023 Cat Island Day 2

Today we move from the 3 bedroom cabin to the single bedroom duplex closer to the beach. A lovely couple from Scotland, Malcolm and Sally, are next to us. They’ve been coming each winter for 3 months at a time, and they’ve been coming to Cat Island for 8 years. Rollezz has only been here for about 8 years so they are long time return folks. We can see why.

Malcolm is a retired fishing guide and he bone fishes here. He can just walk out back of the cottages to fish.

We had breakfast in the big cabin and decided not to rent the car for another day. There was some confusion because Maurice didn’t come for the car until midday, which I suppose means he didn’t have

anyone that needed a car. There are only 1800 people on Cat Island and only so many cars. Malcolm and Sally rent a car for the entire 3 months and they say it’s pretty slim pickings. A lot of the cars are in fairly rough shape by the sounds of it. Our rental yesterday had 265,000 km (165,000 miles) which seems impossible since the island is only 47 miles long. They must buy used cars and bring them over from somewhere. (Somewhere that they understand the Japanese woman on the GPS….)

Nice to have a quiet day after all the travelling. We walked south on the beach a long way. There is zero trash on the beach which seems impossible since we normally see boat trash on other islands. A few sea sponges here and there and a few starfish. Actually nothing but wide white sand beach and coral or limestone rock toward shore and then mangrove further in.

Down the south beach there are a few houses that for whatever reason are not occupied and are in really bad shape. We are guessing they were built by someone as their house on the beach and either they passed away, the storms drove them out, or they never finished them. I can imagine it is really expensive to get a 2x4 here between the boat trip and then the rough roads.

We did some reading on the beach, a little lunch and then we walked north on the beach. We never saw anyone else on the beach so we seem to have our own little island. North of us are houses about a half mile away that appear to be in service although we did not see anyone around or signs of recent activities. So they must be vacation places.

Friday at Rollezz is pizza night and games night, so everyone orders pizza and we all get together in the dining room. Sally drove to pick up the pizzas at the gas srarion a mile or so away. After pizza we played Sequence, which Deb and I had never played. This apparently is the game they play most of the time. Lovely way to spend a Friday night. We can see why this place gets great reviews. Very nice people.

The wind is already picking up so we headed in for the night. Tomorrow the bulk of the storm will arrive.

Thursday Mar 21, 2023 Cat Island Day 1

We had cereal in our cottage and then met Hannah and Erick for coffee. We rented a car for the day to explore the 49 mile long island. The whole island has about 1800 people and everybody knows everybody. Maurice came late with the car and Erick had to give him a ride back to his place. Yvonne had to call three people to find a car to rent and this was back near the airport. Yvonne, her husband, her sister Margaret, and a woman named Beverly from Jamaica seem to run the place. Rollezz Resort has been in operation for 8 years and consists of 10 or so bungalows that all appear to be new. They sit right on a beautiful 6 mile long beach with nobody nearby. A couple from Scotland Deb met comes every year for three months!

First stop with the car is Como Hill, the Mt Everest of the Bahamas at 206 ft. above sea level. It’s the highest point in the Bahamas and it took all of 10 minutes to conquer. There’s a stone tower and out buildings called the Hermitage which look big from the base of the “mountain” but once you get there seems to be something you would expect elves to live in.

After the strenuous hike down the “mountain” we drove to Gilberts, the pretty good grocery store on the island. The whole island was abuzz since the mail boat came in this morning, which is their weekly delivery of everything. When the mail boat comes, there are lots of people driving around delivering and picking things up.

We stopped back at Rollezz to put groceries in the refrigerator and then drove to the southern end of the island. The car we rented had 270,000 km on the odometer and the roads here have nasty potholes everywhere. It’s a tiny Nissan “Dayz” with a GPS we never did figure out how to turn off, that barked out directions in Japanese. Erick did an admirable job weaving around the potholes and I checked the tires when we stopped to see if any were missing air. 

At the southern end of the island is an airstrip and a sport fishing marina called Hawk’s Nest where a few people were cleaning the daily catch. They were excited that they’d caught a 58 pound Mahi Mahi, which is just 2 pounds short of “tournament weight” whatever that means.

The big excitement was feeding the entrails to the sharks off the dock. 15 or 20 sharks were waiting and it was quite a show to see them throw the chum to the sharks. Yikes.

Then back to Rollezz through the northbound minefield of potholes. Hannah and Erick went back to the boat to clean up and we met back on shore for a nice dinner (grouper, steak, chicken along with peas and rice, salad, and delicious cabbage)and evening here at Rollezz. Hannah and Erick are getting up at 3am to move the boat to a marina in Eleuthera to be safe from the oncoming storm. We’ll see them back here in a few days. We bid them farewell as they took the dinghy back to Bonnie Lynn on another moonlit night.

Wednesday Mar 20, 2023 - Nassau to Cat Island

Slept like babies as we should have since we got up at 1am yesterday. There is a large group of high school kids staying here which is pretty cute and they were pretty quiet last night. There’s a pool here and they were in it yesterday.

We got breakfast in the hotel which was a buffet, scrambled eggs, sausage, pancakes & French toast, etc.

Our flight is scheduled for 1pm so we called for a taxi at 10:45. We heard that the Western Air flights leave early. The taxi got us there around 11am ($26) and the airport here was way more modern than we remembered. We’ve been here before but only remembered walking across the tarmac to get to and from the plane. We’re on a regional flight which may have not gone upstairs where the modern airport is. We met a woman named Patie who is the chef at Da Pink Chicken Beach Bar on Cat Island and she was on the same flight (only one flight daily) so we followed her. The plane was pretty modern, about 50-60 seats, so not as rustic as we are used to here for puddle jumpers. Sure enough they lifted off the runway at 12:45 and we landed on Cat Island about 30 minutes later. The plane was full and we waited in the parking lot for them to pull the wagon with the bags up to us. Margaret and Beverly were waiting  to take us to the Rollezz Resort where we’ll stay until Sunday. First stop was the grocery store but we didn’t feel organized to buy anything but some snacks.

The resort is on a beautiful beach peninsula and we have a very large modern cabin with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a kitchen / dining room. Good cell service (T-Mobile) so I texted Hannah and they brought the dinghy over to meet us. Their boat is anchored right off the beach. We caught up with those guys and decided to go over to the boat for supper. We got the nickel tour through the boat and it a beauty. The people they bought it from, Bonnie & Earl, custom built it 20 years ago. Structurally Earl made sure everything was built heavier than required, the engine is bigger than required, and everything was built for the long run. Aesthetically, the interior has lovely wood everywhere and the cabins are woven together to offer privacy and yet the movable walls allow a large common space. Hannah & Eric have a nice stateroom in the back with their own bathroom. Wow!

Eric prepared a nice sunset meal of grouper, wild rice, summer squash and tomatoes. The tasteful lighting on deck made for a beautiful evening.

Hannah gave us a moonlight dingy ride back to shore where we collapsed into bed.

Tuesday Mar 19, 2024 Bisbee to Nassau

Set the alarm for 1:00 am but woke up 15 minutes before. Long day today…

Our flight from Tucson to Dallas leaves at 5am and it’s 1.5 hrs drive to the car part and another some minutes shuttle ride to the airport. Once again, the stress is unwarranted since everything worked out great. 

The kiosks and desks do not open until 3am so we arrived just as they were starting their day. We got our luggage checked in and boarding passes and found our gate. We like our little Tucson airport. Small and hard to get lost in.

Flight left right on time and we got to Dallas in 2-3 hours. I slept most of the way.

In Dallas we changed terminals so had to ride the little monorail to Terminal A from C. They called our names and we got an upgrade to first class all the way to Nassau. We have only been in first class once before on a 40 minute flight between Phoenix and Tucson so this counts as the first upgrade.

I sat with a guy from Arkansas who was going to Nassau to get a motorboat certification of some kind so he can rent a boat in Europe. Three day course. Deb sat with a woman who worked all the way down while her husband and kids were back in the cattle seats.

Got to Nassau early, where it was overcast and they may get a little rain (did not see any after all). Got our bags and a $20 taxi to Orange Hill Beach Inn where we have stayed before. Reasonable family run place where they have a honor system cooler and meals so you don’t need to take a taxi anywhere. I had my first Kalik beer, I have officially arrived in the Bahamas. Tomorrow we get a puddle jumper (Western Air) to Cat Island where we will stay at the Rollezz hotel and where Hannah and Erick will meet us. Deb had a glass of wine and we sat on the balcony and enjoyed the warm humid air then off to an early bedtime. 

Friday Mar 15, 2024 Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument to Bisbee

OK, time to go home. We took advantage of the dump station and cleaned everything out so we wouldn’t have to do it at home. Then Rt 86, a couple hours, to Tucson. We stopped at one of the Bisbee Breakfast Clubs now in Tucson (there are 6 in Tucson now!!), then Rt 10 to Benson then home.  Did the driveway shuffle and cleaned everything out of the van. Dave flies back to Vermont on Monday so we have a little rest time and a few events before he heads home.

Good to be back home!.

Odometer = 26448

Thursday Mar 14, 2024 Koffa to Organ Pipe National Monument

I did not have the pie as tempting as it was....

It was nice camping last night with no lights to spoil the night sky. Today we continue our “Arizona Sample Pack” tour, a big loop around Arizona.

We set the GPS to get us to Yuma but we did not go right into town. After a few attempts I got the website to give me a reservation, only a dozen left or so. There are 200+ sites there so this spring break again is keeping us sharp. 

We hit I-8 and then east then Rt 85 through an Indian reservation to the park. The visitor center had a ranger tour of the local cactus’ which we did. I think it helped Dave sort out all the different cactus’ here and clarified some things for me.

Nice campsite for $10 with the senior pass. Bathrooms had running water, flush toilets and hot free solar showers which we partook of.

Quit evening, made dinner in the camper and bed. We drive home tomorrow.

109th night in the van

odometer = 26208

Wednesday Mar 13, 2024 Lake Havasu to Koffa National Wildlife Refuge

 

Great night at Lake Havasu, gotta come back. Today we dive into the Quartzsite scene. The Quartzsite area is a mecca for RV folks in the winter. There are vast BLM Dispersed camping places available and the town itself has anything an RV person could want. There is a little kinda secret place south of Quartzsite that a friend tipped us off to last year and Deb & I stayed there once. 

We tried to follow the Colorado River as closely as we could which took us south and then a bit west over the river to Blythe CA. Lots of crops being grown, not sure what. They need to put signs next to every field saying what they are growing. Drives me nuts.

We hit interstate Rt 10 and then east to the Quartzsite exit. We saw gas prices go up by a dollar in California and then back down by a dollar in Arizona.

Quartzsite was fairly busy. We went north to find one of the big dispersed camping areas so Dave could see what that was all about. Then south on Rt 95 and turn into the Palm Canyon area of Koffa. It’s about 5 miles to the end where you can hike into the canyon where the palm trees are. Deb and I did it last year. Not too many people here so we drove back down the hill about a half mile and pulled into one of the many flat spots with a fire ring of rocks. 

We relaxed until after the sun went down. Dave saw a string of Starlink satellites going by. They launched 23 more this morning and I assume they were on their way to being placed in the right spots up there. Space is getting crowded for sure.

Made some dinner and then off to bed.

Tuesday Mar 12, 2024 Flagstaff to Lake Havasu State Park Campground

Because the Forest Service and other sites are closed, it looks like we better not go any further north. So west it is. There is a big piece of Rt 66 that goes through Oatman that I have been curious about so we took the interstate, Rt 40, as far as Selgiman AZ where Rt 66 picks up. This section is pretty original with Burma Shave signs and old gas stations, mostly all closed. Part of it goes through an Indian Reservation and the coolest part was a real windy, guard rail free section called the Golden Valley. Not much traffic on this road which I-40 bypassed. It twists and turns down the western side into the town of Oatman which is only about two blocks long and full of tourists feeding the wild burros that wander through town. It appears that there is still active mining all through here as we saw some modern looking, but small scale equipment. I think tourists are all they mine here now.

We finished up Rt 66 and headed south along the Colorado River. 

Lake Havasu is a huge reservoir which we had heard about had never been to. It looked pretty busy (spring break, I know) so we stopped at Lake Havasu State Park to ask about our chances of finding a site. The guy said he had space in the overflow camping area so we said what the heck, we stay here tonight.

We went into town and saw London Bridge. Kinda bizarre but the guy who made his money selling McCulloch chainsaws who married into the Briggs & Stratton family decided to buy the London Bridge (they were building a new one. He had it taken apart, stone by stone, shipped the stones to Los Angeles, shipped it to Lake Havasu and re-assembled it. Only in America!

It is actually a really beautiful bridge which carries day to day traffic. They built a nice park under it with shops and a nice park.

Dave had never been to an In-N-Out burger place so we had an early dinner. Back to the campground and spent the rest of the evening talking to assorted interesting people walking by.