Lake Havasu City, Arizona

On Monday, February 20^th, we had a nice drive on I-10 east from Indio, CA to Quartzsite, AZ, then north up Arizona State Route 95 to Lake Havasu City, AZ.

We stopped in Parker, AZ for lunch at Crossroads Café. It is one of those “breakfast is served all day” home-style cooking, family-owned places so I enjoyed their hand-breaded chicken fried steak and eggs.    

We spent four nights at Lake Havasu State Park. The campground was full the whole time we were there so we were glad we had reservations. It was a very nice state park with great views of the lake and evening sunsets.

Lake Havasu City, population 52,000, was founded in 1963 by Robert P. McCullough on the east side of Lake Havasu, formed by a dam on the Colorado River. McCullough was notable for McCullough chainsaws and also for buying the old London Bridge and moving it to Lake Havasu City.

London Bridge was purchased for $2.5 million from the city of London in 1968. It was disassembled, stones marked, shipped to Lake Havasu City, and reassembled for another $7 million U.S. The bridge was completed in October 1971.   

Lake Havasu City is very warm in June, July, August and September with average daytime highs of triple-digit temperatures. I spoke with a local resident who told me they use swamp coolers and air conditioning and many home garages are even air conditioned. He said that he and his wife escape the summer heat by taking their motorhome and head to the Midwest during the summer months.   

We arrived in Las Vegas on Friday for the next couple of weeks. We’ll hang out, then go to the Las Vegas Motor Speedway and camp for a week to see the NASCAR races two weeks from today. 

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Indio, California

We had a nice drive up to Indio last Friday after spending six weeks in Oceanside. It seemed like forever since we’d hooked up our F-150 to our motorhome for a trip down the highway.

We stayed in Indio for three nights at the Outdoor Resort Indio, a class A motor coach ownership resort. There were many high end motorhomes staying there, mostly from Canada, WA, OR, ID and CA. We had stayed here one time before, about two years ago and were impressed with all the landscaping and very beautiful flowers.

On Saturday night we went to the Events Center at the Fantasy Springs Casino on the edge of Indio to see Bonnie Raitt, our first time to see her. I was impressed with the range of her voice and her guitar playing. 

Sunday, we went for a ride about 65 miles south, along the Salton Sea, to Niland, CA. 

We wanted to see “Salvation Mountain”, an art work made of hay bales and thousands of gallons of lead-free paint. It is about 50-feet high and about 150-feet wide, constructed by Leonard Knight.

He worked on it from 1980 until December 2011, when the 80-year old Knight was placed in a long term care facility in El Cajon for dementia. He passed away in 2014. However, a public Salvation Mountain charity was established to support maintaining Leonard Knight’s artistic endeavor.        

Salvation Mountain is adjacent to “Slab City”, where many permanent and broken-down old RV owners and squatters from across the country live “off-the-grid”. Slab City took its name from the concrete slabs that remained from the abandoned WWI-era Marine Corps Camp Dunlap.

We left Indio on Monday and headed east on I-10, through Quartzsite, Arizona, then north towards Lake Havasu City. We stopped in Parker, AZ at the “Crossroads Café” for lunch (breakfast served all day kind of place). Their home cooked meals are very good.

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Camp Pendleton (continued)

We learned early last week that my great Aunt Vi had passed away on Super Bowl Sunday. She was 105 and would have been 106 in a few months. Her memorial service was last Saturday.

My sister Janet and her partner Nancy from Sacramento drove down last Friday in their RV and camped with us here at Camp Pendleton. My uncle Paul flew out from Maryland to attend the services too.  

We enjoyed a small family reunion on Sunday night at my Aunt Clara and Uncle Earl’s home in Vista with their son Paul, my Uncle Paul, Janet, Nancy, Julie and me.

The four of us enjoyed a couple of nice Pacific Ocean sunsets in the evening here at Camp Pendleton and then seeing the young Marines drive by the campground in their amphibious vehicles during the day.

 

On Wednesday we joined our friends Rob and Janet on a train trip from Oceanside to San Diego’s Old Town. The train was so enjoyable to ride, without the stress of driving the hectic, crowded interstate. It was only $5.50 roundtrip for each of us to go about 35 miles down the coast.

We enjoyed our six weeks at Camp Pendleton, but we head out tomorrow morning for a short drive up to Indio, California for the weekend.    

Steve & Julie Cornelius

Camp Pendleton

We drove down to Camp Pendleton on January 3^rd for a six week stay at Del Mar Beach Resort. We decided this time to take a spot on the 2^nd row facing the Pacific Ocean, with the utility hook-ups on the correct side of the motorhome.

 

We’ve been busy the past month with a VA appointment to get my new hearing aids, new eyeglasses, routine dental appointments, and hanging out at the beach. By the way, the Oceanside VA Clinic gave me outstanding service. 

We enjoyed going out for breakfast with our friends Rob and Janet to the Beach Break Café in downtown Oceanside on the old Highway 101.

We also liked the tea at a small business called Succulent. The outdoor café décor included beautiful succulent plants.

 

Julie and I went to Solano Beach on January 18^th to the Belly up Tavern to see the band Tower of Power, from Oakland. They have been performing horn-based R&B since 1968. We enjoyed a concert at Belly up Tavern two years ago when we saw the Colorado-based band Big Head Todd & the Monsters.

We went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park with Rob and Janet on January 19^th. It was our first visit to the safari park and the wildlife there have lots of room to roam. The safari park is just east of Escondido, CA about 30 miles northeast of San Diego.

We have enjoyed dinner a couple times with my aunt and uncle, Clara and Earl, who live in nearby Vista. It was interesting to see their lemon, lime, and avocado trees as well as the garden they have in their back yard.

Last Tuesday we drove to San Diego with Rob and Janet to visit the San Diego Zoo again. It was 100 years old in 2016 and we never tire of visiting one of the best zoos in the world. I enjoy the pandas, on loan to the zoo from China, as well as the koalas from Australia. The polar bears were pretty neat to see too.

 

Steve & Julie Cornelius