Thursday 28 April 2011

17/03/2011 - LV-Mesquite-Paker Dam, Arizona

17/03/2011 - 20/03/2011 -  We left LasVegas for Mesquite, Nevada - about an hour and half drive.  We will be coming back to LV (yes yet again), we are planning to catch up with friends from our old Telstra days (Colleen and Geoff Pierson).  Mesquite has about 8 championship golf courses - which is why we are here.  Of course we are staying at a Casino, Golf, RV Resort - what more could we ask for.  The population of Mesquite is less than 20,000 - I'm sure there are at least than many visitors here.

21/03/2011 - Today we went for a drive to see the famous Wolf Creek Golf Course - (known as one of the golfing simulations of Tiger Woods in the Tiger Woods PGA Tour Series for playstation, WII and Xbox).  Well what a majestic looking golf course - but boy does it look hard, this is one that I think the Big Fella will be playing on his own.  After this we headed on over to the Casino to have a look around and a bit of a Poke.  This really is a golfers / slot machine mecca.  I overheard some men talking who said that it costs more to bring the wives than it does for them to play golf everyday - there are a few casinos and many spas / salons around the area - they have catered for both males and females...

22/03/2011 - Well it's off to Casablanca Golf Course for an early morning tee off.  Of course with our luck there has been a frost delay - so our tee of time is delayed by about half an hour.  This is a lovely course, but one which as claimed a  few of my golf balls - not sure how the Big Fella went - but he played really well and we had a great day.  Yep no surprise to anyone the Big Fella whipped my butt. 

24/03/2011 - Today is the day that the Big Fella is playing Wolf Creek - I've decided that my money would be better spent signing up and playing in the Slot Tournament at the Casino - a first for me.  It costs $20.00 to enter for 3 time slots between 11:00 and 4:30.  I'm registered at 12:00, 12:20 and 12:40.  Well of course registration was at 10:00 so I had two hours to spare - needless to say I go and play the pokies - which of course costs me a lot more than the $20.00 - it could end up being an expensive day.  Well 12:00 finally came and I entered the room which has 30 Poker (Slot) machines set up, the idea is to get as many credits as you can within 10 mins - all I can say is that I've never seen so many people hit their buttons so quickly - it was a real mad house - my right hand / arm got sore so I had to change over.  It was a bit of fun - but something that I don't think I will do again - even though it was definitely cheaper than being out on the floor - or for that matter playing wolf creek.  The Big Fella came home with a big smile on his face - he had a great day and was really amazed by the golf course.
25/03/2011 - Off to Palms Golf Course.  Well for me the weather that I hate the most to play golf in is the wind - and the wind is swirling around at up to 60km's per hour.  Not good for my golf - I know I'm going to be in big trouble.  After about 7 holes - Cornelia has decided that enough is enough it is now starting to rain as well. The Big Fella, myself and Rick have decided to continue - which we were glad that we did - because the wind did die down on the back nine and the rain stopped. Rick is a real athlete and we found out during our golf that he was an Olympian ski jumper, received a football scholarship for uni and played high level baseball.  Of course even with the weather change this didn't help my golf - even though if I was playing well I couldn't beat the Big Fella - even with the weather he had a great round and finished up only 5 over with 37 putts - he had a fantastic round and really played well - I think I need to reconsider these bets.  One of the things that I did enjoy about the golf though is the little chipmunks and many many rabbits around the course - of course the Big Fella lets me know that I'm not suppose to feed the chipmunks - but hey the apple core slipped out of my hand.


26/03/2011 - My usual routine is to wake up in the morning - go for a walk, come back have a look at our email / facebook.  Well the first email that I notice is one form Buy.com thanking us for the purchase of a Bushnell Pro 1600 Slope Edition Rangefinder - the Big Fella has been busy last night.  Of course when I talk to him about it he says that he bought it for me - yeah right - as if I'm going to believe that.  We decided to go for a drive up to St George, Utah - one to have a look around and then another to see if I can buy a pair of golf shoes, I've decided that if we are going to keep playing golf - I need to get a pair of golf shoes rather than playing in my runners.  Of course the Big Fella already has a pair (maybe this will help my golf - I doubt it - but I've got to try everything). The drive up to St George is a lovely drive - unfortunately after going to about 4 different golf stores, I have no luck trying to get a pair to fit me - no wide sizes.  As luck would have it on our drive back to Mesquite, we passed a golf shop and decided to turn around and go back to it - lucky that we did as I finally found a pair of shoes that would fit.

27/03/2011 - It's time for a rest day - we are staying home to watch the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational Golf Tournament.

28/03/2011 - Canyon Ridge Golf Course - Today we had another lovely day on the golf course - oh life is great.









29/03/2011 – 31/03/2011 - Virgin River Canyon – Utah. One our drive up to St George we saw this campground and decided that we would come here for a couple of nights. This campground is really out in the middle of nowhere – but has just spectacular views and is so relaxing. It was nice to just sit outside beside a campfire and really take in the views.

 







31/03/2011 – 06/04/2011 – Vegas (again). We left the Virgin River to return to Las Vegas to catch up with a couple of friends from out old Telstra days – Colleen and Geoff Pierson.  We spent our first night in Vegas in the old RV Park in the downtown area – we really do love this side of Vegas – it seems to have more atmosphere and character than the Strip. We met up with Colleen and Geoff on Friday afternoon and took them to the old downtown area where we had a great look around and a lovely dinner. We introduced Colleen and Geoff to the 99c margaritas.
 








02/04/2011 - Dave picked up Geoff and they went to the Atomic Testing Museum (thanks Geoff – because you went with Dave I didn’t need too).   A fact not welll known about Las Vegas is that Area 51 which is about 50 mile from Las Vegas was used for testing atomic bombs.  From downtown Las Vegas you could see the mushromm Plooms when they exploded the bombs.  Obviously very little was known about radiation at that stage.   

04/04/2011 - Dave and I ventured down to Pimm to have a game of golf course at the Lakes Golf Course. We just can’t get over the spectacular golf courses around here. Even Dave is impressed. We are really enjoying our golf and after Dave had a large winning streak, I’m back on track and have one the last couple of games – I really did hate losing – I’m not the best loser.



05/04/2011 - On Tuesday we met up with Geoff and Colleen and took them for a drive in Stubbie out to the Nellis Air Force Base – they both had a turn at driving Stubbie around in the car park at the NASCAR track. We then went to one of my favourite chain restaurants ‘Red Lobster’ for a delicious lunch and suggested to Geoff that he order the Lobsterita – a very large Margarita, whilst Colleen and I had a lovely bottle of white wine. Colleen and Geoff were planning to catch-up with friends for dinner at around 7:00pm so we decided that we should just go to Circus Circus for a little while. Well of course it is Vegas and all good plans can go astray. The guys went to the TAB Bar, whilst Colleen and I headed for the pokies and for drinks. Of course I should of known that when we discovered that Colleen and I had the same birthday (Nov 28) it was going to be a great night, well let’s just say that Colleen and Geoff cancelled their dinner date. Which at the time I thought was fantastic; they are both great company and a lot of fun. I do remember playing roulette, Blackjack and Craps – oh and eating a huge pizza – but in between there are a few blank spots – I do remember laughing and having a great time though.

06/04/2011 - The one problem was that Dave and I had booked Stubbie in for a service and to get a service on the Propane at 8:00am. So of course we needed to be up early to drive her over to CampingWorld. We had originally planned on not hooking Shooter up to Stubbie – but when we both woke up (after the alarm went off for a little while) at around 6:00am we were a bit fuzzy so decided to hook Shooter up so we would both be in Stubbie. Well all I can say was that it was a long day – they didn’t finish with the Propane until around 2:00pm –by this time we had both had enough of sitting in the waiting room and were a little bit tired. We still a 3 hour drive in front of us to get to Parker Dam. It was a long drive for me, as when Dave is tired – he hands the wheel over to me – so needless to say I did most of the driving – at one stage I said to the Big Fella to have another sleep, in which he replied that I must be getting tired and that he would stay awake – well within 30 seconds I didn’t need to look over to see that he was sleeping – he was snoring. We arrived at the RV Park at Parker set-up, had some dinner and then we both went to bed early.

 07/04/2011 – Parker Dam, California / Arizona. The RV Park that we had selected to stay in just fantastic. One of our requirements was that it needed to have Cable TV so that we could watch the Masters. We have 70 channels of cable, unfortunately we don’t have Wifi at the site – we need to walk up to the clubhouse, and we don’t have cell coverage anywhere in the park. The Park is situated on the Colorado River and is just beautiful. The park includes all sorts of cohabitants including wild donkeys, rabbits, road runners, woodpeckers, hummingbirds (The Big Fella’s favourite birds) and many other species of birds and ducks.Of course it is Spring and the flowers are starting to bloom and the animals are coming out to play - some of them are realy frisky especially those donkeys. The water in the river is just so clear (a bit cold for me to swim in yet – even the temp has been up to 37.5 degrees Celsius (humidity only 10%). It is great to sit back on the bank (or in Stubbie) and watch all the skiers, fisherman and pontoon boats go up and down.



13/04/2011 – Today we decided to head up to Lake Havasu and see the London Bridge  London Bridge is a bridge in Lake Havasu City, that is based on the 1831 London Bridge that spanned the River Thames in London, England until it was dismantled in 1967. The Arizona bridge is a reinforced concrete structure clad in the original masonry of the 1830s bridge, that was bought by Robert P. McCulloch from the City of London. McCulloch had exterior granite blocks from the original bridge numbered and transported to America, in order to construct the present bridge in Lake Havasu City.

We had originally planned to spend a week here, but it is just gorgeous and so relaxing – we are getting a few things done and we are both really really relaxing and enjoying everything, so we have actually paid
for the whole month.

16/04/2010 - Today I have decided to try out the Yoga classes are held on Saturday, Sunday and Wednesday. Well after my first session on Saturday, I realised just how inflexible I have become and also that my balance is not so good, the instructor said to me to just concentrate on my breathing and to focus on one point – I said I can only concentrate on one thing at a time. I have really enjoyed the classes that I have been too. Even though I wasn’t keen on the instructor letting me know that the rate for over 50’s was $8.00 – I know I didn’t have any make-up on and I’d just been for a walk – and the worst things was that I confessed to the Big Fella – who doesn’t miss an opportunity to remind me.

16/04/2010 - 17/04/2010 - Dave and I have been sitting by the River watching all these really fast boats go up and down the river and wondering why - then we found out there were speed boat races going on about a mile down the river - that explained a few things.

18/04/2011 – We decided to go for a drive to Quartzsite - Quartzsite is a popular RV camping area for winter visitors, and tourism is the major contributor to Quartzsite's economy. Nine major gem, mineral, and 15 general swap meet shows are very popular tourist attractions, attracting about 1.5 million people annually mostly in January and February.

The snowbirds travel here and spend the winter – whilst I think it might be fun to stay for a couple of nights, I really couldn’t see us spending more than that here.

25/04/2011 - The Big Head and I've decided to go and have another game of golf - it's been at least two weeks since we've had a game and the Big Fella is getting itchy.  The Emerald Canyon Golf course is only about about 20 minute drive away so that's where we head.  After checking in and being told that the rattle snakes are out and not to go into the dirt, I knew there was a good chance that I would donate a couple of golf balls - if they go one foot off the fairway - I'm not going to try to recover a $2 golf ball. After 18 holes we were all square - much to the Big Fella's disappointment...  Oh well at least neither one of us had to pay our debts. I must admit now that the Big Fella has his new Bushnell Pro Finder - it does take us a bit longer to get a round of golf in - of course every shot has to be measured at least once, before a club selection is made. 

26/04/2011 - Now after the golf course letting us know that the snakes are out - I'm looking around a lot more closely for any signs of a snake -they are definitely not my favourite animal.  Of course I'm wandering through the park and hear a hissing noise (okay I thought it was hissing) so of course I turned around and never went past that bush again.  I later realised that it was more likely to be the noise from the sprinklers.  I let the Big Fella know about the fun I've had and then he also reminded me that the rattle snakes make more of a rattle noise not a hissing sound - no comfort to me now.

Well we have booked our flights home and will be arriving back in Brisbane on 24 June. We will be putting Stubbie and Shooter back into storage. Our Visa’s for the States expires at the end of July. We had originally planned, that in this trip we would of seen all we wanted to see of the North East side of the USA and the South East side of Canada – but we have decided that to be out of the States by the end of July we would need to really get a move on – and we enjoy taking our time and not having to rush – so we have decided to come home for awhile and then come on back to the States and Canada.

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