YIKES-----100 DEGREES !!!!!

April 26, 2017

It was too early to go home because of all the rain, so we decided to go to Bullhead City, AZ for  2 weeks.  I thought Palm Springs was windy, but I think Bullhead City is worse. At least in Palm Springs it was calm in the morning and got windier as the day went on. Here in Bullhead City,  sometimes it is windy even when we get up and then gets worse. I will say, we love the warm weather, but are getting a little tired of the wind.  I'm talking about high winds of 25 mph and higher, with gusts up to 40-60 MPH.  It also means I have to do more cooking inside. When it is so windy, Denny can't grill outside. The wind blows the fire out. Darn!!

One day last week it was 100 degrees. That is a tad hot for us. Luckily, we had gone to Kingman, about 30 miles from here for most  of the day.   It was a little cooler there.   After we get home from being out all day, we usually sit outside, relax and have happy hour, but certainly can't do that when it is 100 degrees!!!

We have never been here, so there were new things to see and do. We went to see Davis Dam, a rock and earth dam that supplies electricity to a lot of AZ and NV.  It is isn't quite as spectacular as a concrete dam like Hoover, but still very interesting.  If you put all of the rock and earthfill in boxes, 3 cu ft sq, they would reach from Los Angeles to Chicago, 3, 642, 000 cubic yards total.

Davis Dam Power Plant

Davis Dam

Lake Mohave, can see the start of Davis Dam on the lower left

Also saw the Petroglyphs at Grapevine Canyon, about 6 miles west of Bullhead City. It makes you wonder what these symbols meant to the Indian tribes. They are about 1000 years old.

There are a lot of petroglyphs on the tall rock formations on the right. You wonder how in the world they even got up to the top. Can't really tell from the picture, but it is at least 20-25 ft to the top.

We also went to a car museum in Laughlin, NV, just over the bridge from Bullhead City.  As we travel around, my interests are in history (Petroglyphs and the Civil War)  and Denny's are Air, Car and Space museums. Also anything to do with science and the earth. Here we had both. 

I have never heard of a marriage trap, maybe the bride and groom traveled to the wedding in it ???  It could be yours for a mere $143, 750

Looking at the cars below, we have certainly come a long way!! Thank heavens

  1915 Ford Speedster

1935 Ford

1907 Red Runabout

1875 Hand Drawn Fire  Hose Cart

1963 Studebaker, looks so weird without a front grille. Thought I was looking at the trunk

1965 Harley

1995  Tropica electric car, didn't realize they had one this early. has Lithium batteries and gets 250 miles on one charge

Since the car museum is in a casino, it also included several slot machines. This is the earliest I saw,   a 1915 model

Here are two flags that we have never seen before.

This flag contains all the names of people that died in the 9-11 terrorists attacks

This flag contains all the names of the emergency personnel that died saving lives in the 9-11 terrorists attacks.  Both of these flags were quite moving to see, as we looked at them, we couldn't even speak.

PICTURES OF THE AREA

Nov 19, 2017

We are leaving tomorrow to start our travels going home. I took some miscellaneous pictures that really didn't have a category, so thought I would just post them.

 In the Coachella Valley, you see lots of windmills and solar panels for electricity. Liked this picture because you see both. It is very windy in the valley, so there are lots of windmills.  The solar people don't think much of windmills and vice  versa. Of course, they each  think their energy source is the best.

 This a great bracelet I bought to add to my collection of Seahawk gear to wear on game days. It is made out of a Budweiser beer can. Amazing what people can think of!

 Notice the ladders half way up the palm trees?  Haven't quit figured out why they are half way up and how do you get to the bottom of the ladder.   What is the purpose of them???  One of the Mysteries of Life I guess.

This RV is a little too small for us. Can't imagine staying in it.  It was at the site for a couple of weeks. It is like a 2 man tent on wheels.

This is an RV from Austria.  Very different from ones made in the U.S. Wouldn't it be cheaper to buy one over here than to have it shipped over?  Denny saw a man coming back from the pool in a very skimpy speedo bathing suit.  In Europe, men still wear them. Glad they don't in America. Was not a pretty sight!!

Cute little road runner that came right up to us while we were sitting outside

The large palm tree in the center is called a Washingtonian Palm Tree.  It is the only one naive to the West Coast. There are 200 varieties and they are all imported from other countries. I thought the Washingtonian was a strange name for a palm tree. thought it would be named after another area of warm weather, not Washington. Saw this on our tour of the old homes of Palm Springs

DESERT X--MIRAGE, HOUSE OF MIRRORS

APRIL 18, 2017

 I have an app called Roadside America. It shows you all the quirky, interesting things to see in the area.  One of the items it listed was the House of Mirrors. In Palm Springs there are several Desert X art installations. The largest one is the Mirage, House of Mirrors.  It is a house built entirely of mirrors, inside and out. The exterior walls reflect the desert landscape.  This isn't a real house, just walls.  Amazing to see. It is nothing but glass. Wonder how much it took to build, how long it took to install and how long to dismantle?  It comes down Oct. 1st., that's why I wanted to see before we leave.

 Pass thru from room to room

 Denny at entrance to room

Taking pictures, looking into a wall

Ceiling

 Left side is the desert, right side is image on the exterior wall

Soffits, mirroring the desert floor

Back

front

 back

Wide view of back

CLASSIC OLD PALM SPRINGS

APRIL 12, 2017

I decided to be the typical, classic tourist  in Palm Springs. One of the things Palm Springs is noted for are all the old movie stars that had homes here. In the old days, it was in their contracts that stars had to live  within 2 hours of Hollywood. That is why Palm Springs became the playground and residence  of the rich and famous.  There are several tours to the different neighborhoods.   It was a 2.5 hr walk thru the Las Palmas neighborhood. The old homes were built in the 30's thru the early 60's.  They were either Spanish architecture  or mid century modern. Palm Springs is the mid century modern capital of the world.  It was very interesting. I saw the homes of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, Clark Gable and Carol Lombard, Liberace, Kirk Douglas, Gene Autry, Lucille Ball, Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell and many others.  The only one in this neighborhood that is current is Leonardo DiCaprio. He now lives in the Doris Day home. He is actually in Palm Springs right now attending the famous Coachella Music Festival. You can't really see very much of the homes, they are all behind huge palm trees, bushes and walls.  I took a few pictures just to show you a big part of Palm Springs history.  Denny can't walk this far, so our friends, Linda and Fred went with me.

Would have been interesting to see what Palm Springs was like in the hey days of the 40's and 50's. I bet it was an amazing place

Typical 

This is Gene Autry's home. The bronze horse sculpture holds the ashes of his famous horse sidekick, Champion 

Side entrance to his home, his wife still lives here, she is 91 years old

This is the home of Jack Warner. This door was a prop on one of his pictures.  If a horse came thru, you opened the entire door. If it was just a person, you only opened the shorter light colored area. A 2 for 1 door,  HA, who knew you needed one!

Mid Century modern home, typical door was ceiling to floor height.  can't imagine how heavy that door is

Typical security walls and trees

This is the best view I could get of the most expensive real estate in Palm Springs. It is 4 acres, worth $4,000,000. A little too expensive for me!!

Anybody remember the TV show, Miami Vice?  This house was used as Sunny Crockett's home  in Miami, but really filmed in Palm Springs. Does look like it belongs in Miami

This was the home of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Notice the floor to ceiling green door to the left. Isn't this a beautiful gate.

GLUTTON FOR PUNISHMENT

March 29, 2017

In my last post, I mentioned that I would probably never do the Hike to The Flag again. Well, never say never!  Since I first did it,  I have gone up 2 more times.  Last Wed, I did it again, not sure why, just because  I could, I guess.  It was hot and we had to leave 2.5 hrs later than we did the week before.  I stopped a lot more because of the heat, but I kept up. Yahooooo!!!

What made it so much harder this time, is that I had gone up just 2 days earlier by myself.  There were 5 caches in the area that I had wanted to do for several years. I started with the closest and just kept going up. When I say up, I mean STRAIGHT UP  the mountain, no trails.  I should have done them in a different order, but, by the time I realized that, it was too late. I was committed.  Instead of the trail, I hiked up and over a small mountain, hiked into the valley, then straight up the side of a tall mountain.  The terrain I was on made the Hike to the Flag,  child's play.  Several times I stopped and told myself this was a stupid thing to do all by myself.   After I got to the top,  I started down and about  15 feet from the top,  hiked horizontally to the next mountain.  It was pretty steep. 

This is the last time I do it, been there, done that 3 times. Enough for me!!! The things I do for geocaching!!

Not sure these pictures will show how steep it was but I did take a few. At least you can see the terrain

Saw this little guy

 This is actually part of the Hike to the Flag, notice the trail.

After I climbed up and over a mountain, I walked across this valley, then straight up this one. After finding the cache, I dropped down about 15 ft and hiked horizontally across the mountain to the next one.