April 6th - It's That Road Again

Having arrived in Needles we were once again on Route 66. As we drove through the quiet town it definitely had the air of having been bypassed by Interstate 40. We had planned to stay at North Shore RV, as  it appeared to be reasonably priced, only to find that it is a privately owned club, which we clearly did not belong to. So we pulled into what looked like a very seedy motel and RV park next door, only to find that once past the rather rundown gate, that it was a very pretty little park which enabled us to camp right beside the Colorado River. Very pleasant. We spent some time in the evening just sitting by the river, which flows very fast at this point, which is about 30 miles south of Lake Mojave and 100 miles south of Lake Mead and the Hoover Dam.

Sunday morning we set out to cross the Mojave Desert to reach the more populated areas of California. Before leaving Needles we drove to the site of the Harvey House restaurant, which in 1909, when it was built, was called the ‘Jewel in the Crown’ of the Harvey Houses. How times change, Needles has been bypassed, the railway is used almost exclusively for freight and the town has died. ‘The Jewel in The Crown’ is now just an empty shell.

One thing that was becoming more apparent is that Route 66 substantially followed the East West Rail track. What was also apparent was that there is an enormous amount of freight transported by rail. Every few minutes we passed giant trains moving across the desert. We counted one train at 151 wagons long, being hauled by 4 locos. The bulk of the wagons had containers piled two high on them, taking freight from the giant cargo boats coming into Long Beach from China to the Eastern and Northern States. One could imagine the containers full of T-shirts, toys TVs and goods already for distribution to Wal-Mart’s, for us to buy them.

Rather than driving on the probably very bumpy I40 we followed the old Route 66 where possible. It was till desert, but had that historic feel to it. We stopped only in Amboy, which is a town built by a man named Roy, who in the 50’s saw great things for this part of the desert, that is until the I40 bypassed it. His legacy is the place known as Roys Motel and Café, which is now an iconic destination on Route 66. The 50’s Motel is still there complete with furniture, just locked up, the little motel ‘houses’ are still there and you can walk through them, though they are stripped bare. The café does not serve food and had nearly run out of gas ($4.99 p gal). The owners seemed content to let it return to the desert from which it started, in contrast to a lot of the places on Route 66 which are trying to develop the Route 66 industry. Driving on a few miles we stopped at Bagdad for our picnic lunch. We knew it was the town of Bagdad because the map said so, the town had been abandoned and all buildings had gone. All that was left was a couple of people looking for stuff with metal detectors. We couldn’t even find the sign for the town.

We rejoined I40 only to turn North at Daggett. We crossed Route 66, but could not find the border patrol point mentioned in Grapes Of Wrath, where to get into California they had to lie about Granny needing to get to see a doctor (she had died about an hour before). Driving up into the mountains we crossed the I15 at Peggy Sue’s Diner, continuing on to the Calico Ghost Town County Park and RV Park.

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April 6th - Lily the illegal alien

Friday
After spending time at Lake Havasu we moved North to I40 and crossed the Colorado River into California with fear and trepidation as Sally’s Easter Lily (given by the First Christian Church in Pheonix), which has been such a wonderful plant, was now in danger! From the Federales! We had to pass through the dreaded Agriculltural Border Checkpoint, which clearly states that you may not bring soil into the state of California (unless it is used for plants that have been grown entirely indoors), so Lily may be confiscated as an illegal alien. We were fully prepare to argue that it was an indoor plant, but had no proof since it had been given to us in its mature state. We pulled up at the checkpoint, wound down the window, the officer asked if we had any firewood! To which we answered not and we were on our way with Lily still intact and seated on the back seat of the van. The first town you come to in California is called Needles. We planned to stay here for a night

April 4th - Buckskin Mountain and Lake Havasu

Thursday We are now heading North along the East side of the Colorado River to visit Lake Havasu. We took AZ Highway 95, which is long and very straight, cutting straight through the Yuma Army Proving Grounds to Quartzsite. (not to be confused with the CA Highway 95, which runs up the West side of the Colorado River, although at one point, in Needles they actually meet on a bridge cross the Colorado). WE now left the Sonoran Desert, seeing that last Saguaro somewhere south of Parker. We stopped just North of Parker at the very pretty AZ Buckskin Mountain state Park, right on the edge of the river. A beautiful park only marred by the enormous number of recreational boats moving up and down the river, jet skis, ski boats, pontoon boats, power boats. Good fun to watch, but a constant noise. We discovered that the river from Parker to Lake Havasu is one enormous water activity centre. Footnote. Interestingly the weather in Yuma was getting noticeably warmer, with the temp creeping above 100F, so the tourist season was winding down for the hot summer. Whereas in Parker, 150 miles North, the temperature was getting noticeably warmer, with the temperature creeping above 100F and yet the summer tourist season was just starting! Go figure. (as they say over here). Lake Havasu and its links to London On Saturday, after our two nights at Buckskin Mountain, which were very pleasant, we were ready to move on. We planned to take a very short drive to Needles, just 70 miles north, but to stop off in Lake Havasu to visit the Famous London Bridge. We found the bridge without any trouble. It was bought by a man named McCulloch in 1968 , dismantled, stone by stone, transported to the middle of the desert and rebuilt by 1971. (Now a theory exists that the guy must have been insane, can’t imagine why). Then they dug a channel beneath the bridge to connect two more bits of desert together. Then they waited until the tide came in (a bit like Noah), in the form of Lake Havasu, which is a reservoir about 50 miles long which has been made by damming the Colorado at the Parker Dam. Now the bridge sits happily spanning a beautiful blue expanse of water. A far cry from its dirty damp days in the middle of London.

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April 3rd - Playing In The Sand

Wednesday

Determined to have a quiet day we took a short ride to look at the local desert. This is the largest expanse of Sand Dunes in North America, known as the North American Sahara. We only got to the South East corner of this 30 mile stretch of sand dunes, but it was enough to see how amazing the landscape is. We sat for a bit, I went for a walk up a dune to see the view, with the temperature now over 100 degs F in the shade (oh! there is none) it was not a long walk. Then as we sat a guy came up and offered us a ride on his Dune Buggy, well that was a great idea (of course he wanted payment for it) so, Sally went first, donning the crash helmet and thoroughly enjoying herself, she went speeding off over the dunes with Dennis the Dune Buggy Driver. Only to return sometime later still with a big grin, having enjoyed it all the way. Now it was my turn and after putting on the helmet we sped off into the desert, like a modern day Lawrence of Arabia, nothing around us but sand, sand and more sand. Riding up impossible slopes, looking at the sky beneath us as we drove over crests, then hurtling down  (what seemed) vertical cliff faces al made for a very enjoyable ride. At one point we stopped in the midst of …. Nowhere! Dennis pointed to a dune and told me that was the spot where they filmed scenes from Return of the Jedhi. There was actually a small gravel patch which had been imported for some reason for the film (to create a stable platform for filming from?). We then rolled over the dunes some more before returning to Sally, the van and safety. We both agreed that this was real serendipity – unexpected good things. We both really enjoyed our trip in the desert. Following this we drove back to Yuma and had our lunch at the small Gateway Park, which is a public beach next to the Colorado River and Yuma State Prison (now closed), right next to the place where trains first entered California in 18 something.

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April 1st - Yuma Crossing

Monday
We arrived in Yuma and are staying at a very nice RV park, quite quiet as many of the Canadian Snowbirds have now left to return home for the summer.
Yuma is tucked right into the bottom left hand corner of Arizona. It is there because it is one of the few places where one could reliably cross the Colorado river. It is  also the highest navigable point on the Colorado, so food and material could be shipped from the sea some 240 miles to here. These two factors meant that in the 19th Century it became the East West Route of choice to get to California. It also became the army supply depot for the whole South West, stuff was sent round the Horn and then distributed via mule train to the army forts. Once the railroad came the geographical reason for it went away, but it still remains a very important army base. It has the famous Yuma Proving Grounds, where military equipment of all sorts is tested. The original supply base, or Quartermaster Stores, is now a State Park, so we visited it in the morning, which is of course where we found out all this information. We were also fascinated to learn that Yuma is the place where the Colorado was first dammed  to provide irrigation for the agriculture. The city proudly boasts that it grows 90% of the leaf salad in the U.S.A. It is the Lettuce Capital of the world!.

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Today we had fixed up to visit with some British people we had met in the laundry at Whispering Palms in Tuscon. We arranged to meet in Applebee's, where we had a very pleasant lunch, talking over the travels we had been on. Talking away the day is very tiring so siesta time called.

From Drop Box

31st March - Easter Sunday in Phoenix

We have enjoyed being in Phoenix and so stayed on for a few more days than we had planned. On the Saturday night our neighbours invited us to go eat with them at a Mexican restaurant, it was great fun, I had the Chimychanga, Sally a shrimp salad with rice, very nice. Lots of laughs at how three couples with such different backgrounds can have such similar ways of handling their relationship with each other.

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So we are staying here for Easter Sunday. I had spotted a very interesting looking church round the corner from our RV Park - The First Christian Church on 7th Ave. It is a very interesting building, Frank Lloyd Wright designed it for a Seminary somewhere else, but it was never used  until this church came along and used the plans (in 1971) for their new church. The building itself is a wonderful piece of architecture, however on checking our their website it also seemed to be a good church community, so we decided to go there for their Easter Sunday Service. It was a really good service, very free, great music, with a good challenging sermon. Sally and I were both quite moved.

View all       First Christian Church Phoenix

Following the service, and lunch in Wildflower Bakery, I took Sally to a 'local' (13 miles away) park, called McCormick Railroad Park. It is a community park which has lots to do with trains, it is run by volunteers. It is also the place to go for Ester Sunday Picnic with the family, there seemed to be thousands of people there. It was great fun. We rode on the miniature train, which goes right round the park, we (being the train load in general, as well as us) waved at everyone, they waved at us. It was great to see so many families out in the sunshine with their picnic stuff BBQ's, coolers, toys, skateboards, kites. There is a small carousel, a whole load of train museum stuff, including the Presidential train from 1921. It is also the resting place for the Arizona Merci Boxcar, talked about in a previous blog, so we saw that. They also have a pavilion for Model Train Layouts. There are 4 layouts set up by local model train clubs. we were entranced by these toy trains, the level of detail and the sheer scale of them. What was to be a quick look turned into a couple of hours. We were even invited to go into the club members area to look in more detail at one train layout. Thank you to a guy named Paul, who showed us round. So once more we had a great day and returned to our trailer tired but happy.

View al           lMcCormick Railroad Park

Tomorrow we move on to Yuma.

Merci Train UPDATE!!!!

I do so enjoy discovering things.
While looking into the Merci Train we both had the feeling that they were familiar, but could not place where, or if we had seen one before, So I returned to the Merci Train website and checked more carefully the locations of the boxcars in all states we have passed through. Using Google maps, satellite views and Street view I could then cross reference the locations with our photos. I looked again at Jackson, we were so close to that one. The boxcar in Bristol, Tennessee was close to us, we may have driven past it, but the map shows that it's location cannot be seen from the road. Lastly I looked at Louisiana. The boxcar was displayed at the Old State Capitol, well we had visited the new State Capitol, but could not recall going to the old one. However as soon as I brought it up on Street View I recognized the building, so then checked on our blog archive - found it on 21st October 2012. We had heard about the Downtown Friday Concerts, a series of concert held in a public square, just by the Old State Capitol Building Friday evenings, this week was to be Zydeco! So we had driven into Baton rouge after lunch and parked the car nearby. As we arrived early we had toured the Old Capitol and then gone for a coffee. I re-read the blog. But while I have recorded our visit to the Old State Capitol, there was no mention of the Merci Boxcar and no photos of our visit. In fact I had been quite dismissive of the exhibits there, with the exception of the fine staircase.
So I then checked the Photo Albums on Picasa and lo and behold, there was and album showing our visit and a careful  search showed that in the background to a couple of the pics and one video is the Louisiana Boxcar!! More than that, I then searched through our photo archive and found it! We had actually had a look at it  and examined it close up, but I had not included the picture in the blog. So here are those pictures.
Oh I am so easily pleased!!! But I had tracked down that little niggle. Yes!