Tag Archives: SARA Park

Alpine SoCal Winter Blast Rally – Days 4 & 5 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

The Winter Blast Rally has been over for two days now and we’ve moved on to the La Paz County RV Park in Parker, AZ.  But, I still have to recap our last two days of the Rally for you; which really just includes one more day of fireworks (Sunday) and then the always sad moving day (Monday).  Sorry for the delayed reporting, but us full-time RVers get busy too 🙂

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Our Sunday morning started out like all the other fine Alpine SoCal Rally days, with an awesome breakfast spread put out by our now famous Host(s) and Co-Host(s); Dave & Nicole Guhsé and Paul & Katie Lisec.  Thanks once again guys!  They prepared and conducted a flawless Rally as seen through the eyes of the members, although I’m sure there were many behind-the-scenes challenges what with all the moving parts and pieces.  They even had a specific challenge when the wind picked up just before dinner-time to threaten our scheduled Chicken Dinner, but they adapted and overcame as you ‘ll see later in this blog post.

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The now famous; Alpine SoCal breakfast spread.

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Another nice sunny morning enhanced our breakfast conversation.  The forecast called for a little wind with some gusts later in the day.

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One of our members showed off this cool cloth, (I’ll call it a towel), that she embellished with the logo of an Alpine Coach commemorating the Alpine SoCal Winter Blast 2016 Rally.  Teresa Weitz is a very talented lady with a very capable sewing machine.  I wonder if she’s taking orders!?!

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We hung out at the Rally site all day on Sunday and caught up on emails and my previous day’s blog while visiting with our fellow Alpine SoCal members.

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View from the upper level at the SARA Park Rodeo Grounds of the many Motor Homes and Trailers in attendance.

As usual nowadays, we took our grandson’s dog “Sheba” for one of her long walks through the Rodeo Grounds.  She didn’t take the fireworks too well the evening before.  Stilla spent most of the evening comforting her in the bedroom of the Coach when the fireworks started.

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All manner of motorhomes and trailers are here in the park for the fireworks extravaganza.  Here’s a nice vintage trailer (below).

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Here’s another picture of our site (below).  The wind is starting to pick up and the flag is whipping around.  You can see Mike Kuper’s “new to him” Can-Am Spyder® which is parked next to the Urban Escape Vehicle.  I helped Mike & Donna get it loaded into his trailer.

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This is Mike & Donna Kuper (FlyingtheKoop.com) putting the Can-Am Spyder “to bed” after squeezing it into their trailer.  I helped Mike guide it in while Donna sat on the back because the rear tire kept spinning on the slick ramp.  I think Mike’s committed to buying a bigger trailer in the near future.  Check out his blog to find out 🙂

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Even the gusty winds didn’t stop some of our hardy SoCal members from gathering during the day.

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By mid-afternoon, the wind gusts got bad enough that our Host(s)/Co-Host(s) decided to take down the tables and chairs at our get-together site before they blew away.  We also had to take down the EZ-Up tents for the same reason.

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The wind didn’t stop us from getting our scheduled chicken dinner tho…  the contingency plan was to serve the food from Dave & Nicole’s Coach.  Everyone took their meals, covered with an extra paper plate for protection, back to their respective Coaches to eat out of the dust and wind.

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Everyone lined up at the Guhse’s door like homeless people on Thanksgiving Day at the local mission in the inner city 🙂

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I had a moment of clarity, (it’s rare, but it happens), and decided to help out by standing in the doorway and handing the covered plates out to folks.  This way, we minimized the in & out traffic in their Coach and prevented anyone from a slip, trip, or fall on the stairs.  Here’s Teresa (below) begging for her meal 🙂

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The wind actually cooperated with our Rally and died down in the evening.  Here’s another beautiful Arizona sunset for you:

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And then it was time for more fireworks.  Here’s a small sample again:

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Of course, our grandson’s dog “Sheba” didn’t enjoy them so much again, but this time she did better and wasn’t shaking as much or as often as on previous nights.  We wouldn’t have brought her along on this trip if we knew how she’d react to the fireworks, but we didn’t have any other options since we’re dog-sitting for our daughter who doesn’t have a place for her yet.

On Monday morning, folks started packing up to move on to their next destination(s).

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We spent the morning saying our goodbye’s and see-ya-laters as folks rolled out of the park.

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By noon-time there were only a few Coaches left in the parking area.  We initially thought we’d stay put for one more night.  Our fresh water was still around 1/2 and our waste tanks only showed 1/4 full…

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… but, we got a message from some friends we met in Colorado who are staying just down the road in Parker, AZ at the La Paz County RV Park.  So we decide to join them.

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So here we are now with Jerry & Marilyn Baumgartner who are on an extended RV trip from their home state of Oklahoma:

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Our other old friends Bob & Mary McCord from Colorado are also here in the park.  I wrote about them in a previous post.  They spend most of the winter here hiding from the snow in Colorado.

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I’ll post again soon.  I think we’ll enjoy a week-long stay here next to the Colorado River and take advantage of the weekly rate of $155.

Stay tuned…

Alpine SoCal Winter Blast Rally – Day 3 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Lots of pictures today… consider viewing on your desktop or laptop computer instead of mobile device for the optimum experience 🙂

Today’s schedule for Saturday includes, but is not limited to; Breakfast, Board Meeting, Cowboy Concert & BBQ:

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Good morning from “Alpine Row”:

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Breakfast was stupendous once again thanks to our “Wagon Master(s) Dave & Nicole Guhsé along with Co-Hosts Paul & Katie Lisec.

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The “now famous” Alpine breakfast spread:

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I think it’s safe to give our Host(s) and Co-Host(s) an A+ rating for their rally hosting performance so far 🙂  There’s only one more dinner (Chicken) to be served to our group on Sunday.  Thanks again, Dave/Nicole and Paul/Katie!!!

After breakfast we held our Alpine SoCal Member Meeting.

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Here I am trying to act “presidential”…

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For you Alpine Coach Owners… don’t forget to go to the Alpine SoCal website under the “Members Only” section to read the minutes from the (very productive) meeting 🙂

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Once we completed our meeting, the guys stuck around our designated “get-together” site to decorate Valentines Day cupcakes…

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Our awesome co-host Katie Lisec came up with the idea for the guys to decorate the pre-made cupcakes with different colors of icing squeezed from zip-lock baggies which she expertly applied per each persons requested preference.

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Then she had lots of different sprinkles and candies on hand for the guys to get even more creative with…

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Of course, some were more creative than others:

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Jack Giddens.
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Joel Langord.
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John Foster.

Won’t Mary be surprised?…

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Hope that icing doesn’t stain Katie 🙂

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Most of the guys couldn’t have done it without a little artistic talent to help them out.

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We all stored our Valentines Cupcakes in Paul & Katies’s basement.  The idea is to bring out the cupcakes after our dinner on Sunday.  Won’t those wives be surprised ?  AWWW 🙂

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After our rigorous morning of meetings and cupcake decorating, some of us decided to go on a hike to “The Crack”.  The trailhead starts just outside the entrance to the RV parking area here at the Rodeo Grounds and follows the dry wash through a slot canyon to the Colorado River.

At the beginning of our little (~3 mile) hike we saw signage at the entrance/exit to the Rodeo Grounds RV Park reminding folks to sign up early for next year’s event.

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We hit the trailhead with walking sticks and plenty of water.  Follow along on our hiking adventure:

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Our hiking entourage consisted of Greg & Marcy Vaughan, John & Lorraine Foster, Donna Kuper, and of course, Stilla and I with grand-dog Sheba.

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We took “Sheba” off her leash.  She did great and always stayed with the group.  There were quite a few other hikers on the trail today and many of them also had their dogs off-leash.

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I was the first to go down a particularly steep drop in the canyon.  Luckily someone put a rope here to help folks get safely down.  This rope wasn’t here last year when we did this hike.  To read about last year’s blog post on this hike click (HERE).

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Stilla handed Sheba down to me.  She wasn’t too sure about this drop, but she was fine in all the other areas and turned out to be quite the mountaineer dog.

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Donna took a unique approach to the drop.

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After everyone negotiated the steep drop, we navigated our way down into the bowels of the canyon.  However, Greg & Marcy were smarter than us and turned around at the drop.  They were sipping adult beverages long before we finally made it back to the Rodeo Grounds 🙂

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I believe we only had one wet shoe casualty getting through the canyon… but I think it’s best they remain unnamed, right Lorraine?

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Sheba would often go out ahead and scout out the trail.  If we took too long, she’d come running back to see why we were so slow.

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Once we successfully navigated the narrow canyon, and came back out into the sunlight, we decided to not continue in the dry wash to the Colorado River and took the high trail back towards home.

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Nice view, eh?

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You can see the Colorado River (Lake Havasu) in the distance.

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We made pretty good time on the return trip since we were above the dry wash on a rocky trail and out of the soft sand most of the time.  Although, it was definitely cooler inside the canyon and we were reminded of that as the sun beat down on us.  Sheba would often rest in the shade of a bush or rock and wait for us to catch up.  Silly humans, she probably thought to herself 😉

When we got back, not too much worse for wear and tear – we found a couple of our members working on some new flagpoles!  Ed Mathews and Jack Giddens made a flagpole for the Alpine SoCal club while helping Michael Weitz put one together for himself.

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Thanks Jack and Ed!  They refused payment for the new flagpole, so I’m probably going to be indebted to them for a while on behalf of the club.  I think they like it that way 🙂  We’ll see each other again at the next rally in Phoenix (Goodyear) for baseball training in March where I’m sure they’ll come collecting, right?

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Around 4 PM it was time for all of us to head down to the Rodeo arena and barn for the Cowboy Dance & BBQ:

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Donna and Stilla in front of the live band.

It was crowded, but everyone got fed after going through the long food line.

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The food was excellent and the band played a wide variety of music.  Our Alpiners were well-fed and well-entertained 🙂

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Back at our designated “get-together” site we all gathered for the evening fireworks again.

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Even the Langord’s mascot was in fireworks viewing position at one of our tables 🙂

I had a “Chinese Lantern” that we purchased in Quartzsite last year and have been carrying around in the Coach.  It seemed like a good time to set it free.  We saw quite a few of these lifting off from the RV Park so we decided to “join the crowd”.

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Greg and John helped pre-heat the air over a campfire while we lit the flammable material.

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Up, Up, and Away it went.

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And now, how about some fireworks?  That’s why were here, right?

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I took a few pictures of our Alpine Owner’s group watching the fireworks through my night-vision device by holding the iPhone up to the lens:

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Pretty cool, eh?  Okay, here’s some more fireworks then…

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And that’s all for now folks… hope you enjoyed the show!  We all did 🙂

I’ll try to catch you up on our last day (Sunday) here at the Rally as soon as possible.  Stay tuned…

 

Alpine SoCal Winter Blast Rally – Day 2 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

It’s too easy to get behind on the blog posts here… with so many friends (old and new) to catch up with, coupled with late night firework displays to watch, and my “presidential” duties; it seems as if there’s just not enough time in the day (or evening) to keep up.  And on top of that, the internet connectivity slowed waaay down once more folks arrived in the park.  Anyway, here’s your Day 2 recap (better late than never, right?), starting with another copy of our Rally Schedule:

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As you can see from the schedule (above), each day is pretty much “free time” to do whatever you want with fellow Alpine Coach owner’s and friends.  Many folks go out sightseeing, others hang around the park and do hikes or other activities.

Our Day 2 (Friday) of the Rally kicked off with another awesome breakfast spread courtesy of our Host(s)/Co-Host(s) aka “Wagon Masters” David & Nicole Guhsé and Paul & Katie Lisec.  Dave went all out once again (just like at the Lake Powell Rally) and toasted bagels to order.  We also had hard-boiled eggs along with the usual complement of yogurts, fruits, and assorted pastries.  No one is complaining yet, except maybe about their waist lines 🙂

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Dave toasting bagels. We’re all still waiting on the Omelettes though 🙂
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Awesome Alpine breakfast spread.
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Full and contented Alpiner’s after breakfast.

After breakfast, I held an Alpine SoCal Board Meeting.  My first as the newly elected president.  We only have a small number of Board Members in attendance here at this particular Rally and it was relatively quick and painless 🙂  It was mostly an opportunity for me to prepare for tomorrow’s (Saturday) Membership Meeting.  Now, I just have to find time to write up the “minutes” of the meeting 🙁

Then Stilla and I took our grandson’s dog “Sheba” over to the SARA Dog Park again (like we did yesterday) but found out it was closed.  We are still dog-sitting until our daughter finds a place in Phoenix that allows pets.  Meanwhile, my Mom is dog-sitting our little dog “Coach” back in Casa Grande, AZ at the “dirt farm”.

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We went in search of another dog park in Lake Havasu and ended up  stopping by one of the beaches that is accessible to vehicles on the man-made island after crossing over London Bridge.

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Sheba had a great time running and playing on the beach and in the water:

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Then we stopped at London Bridge Beach

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… and found a nice ‘off-leash’ fenced-in dog park for her to play “catch”.

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She played “catch” until she was all tuckered out.

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Then we drove down to Parker, AZ to visit with old friends Bob & Mary.  They spend time during the winter here at an RV park in La Paz County next to the Pirate’s Den RV Resort.

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Bob & Mary are also good friends with my Dad and stepmom Elaine. They are members of the same camping group (FCRV Rolling Springs) in Colorado Springs, CO.  We are also still members of the same group.  We’ve attended a good number of camp-outs with them over the last few years along with my Dad & Elaine.  It was great to see them again and catch up on things 🙂  We missed the opportunity to visit with them while we were at the Quartzsite “Desert Rat Rally” in January because we just didn’t find the time.  Good to see ya again Bob & Mary!  Until next time… 🙂

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(L to R) Mary, Bob, and Stilla alongside the Colorado River in Parker, AZ.

We headed back to the SARA Rodeo Grounds for the evening’s fireworks show and got back just as it was getting dark.

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I was amazed at how many people were parked alongside the highway as we came back into Lake Havasu and neared the SARA Park Rodeo Grounds.  Folks were setting up at any place they could find to watch the fireworks:

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Some people found high vantage points (above) and others just parked alongside the highway (below).

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Happy Hour was in full-swing after we got back to our RV Park.  Those Alpiner’s sure know how to party (in moderation of course) 🙂

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I won’t bore you with lots of pictures of fireworks today, (especially since the battery died on my camera/iPhone) but here’s a couple that I “borrowed” from fellow Alpine Owner’s John & Lorraine Foster:

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Needless to say, the Western Pyrotechnics Association put on a pretty good show and it promises to be even “grander” tomorrow evening on Saturday.  And then, everything that’s left over gets shot off on Sunday we’re told.  The fireworks vendors aren’t allowed to leave with any unspent fireworks.

Unfortunately, “Sheba” didn’t do very well with the fireworks going off.  She trembled and panted quite a bit throughout the evening until the noise stopped at 10 PM or so.  The only way we could find to keep her calm was to have one of us stay with her in the bedroom of the Coach with the doors and windows closed and the radio turned up loud.  Stilla spent a lot of time in the Coach comforting her.

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Our little dog “Coach” handled the noise quite well last year when he was here with us, but every dog is different.  They all have their own unique personalities, don’t they?

Well, that’s all for now.  Check back soon for a recap of our Saturday activities.  I’ll try to get caught up quickly.  It’s now Sunday afternoon and I’ve got a lot of other things to get caught up on as well 🙂

Alpine SoCal Winter Blast Rally – Day 1 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Here’s your Alpine SoCal Rally recap for Day 1 of the 27th Annual Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Show (←link) which is held at the Special Activities and Recreation Area (SARA) Park Rodeo Grounds.

According to the official website (www.golakehavasu.com) SARA park is an 1100-acre regional park with spectacular mountain views and access to Lake Havasu.  The park’s facilities cater to a wide range of recreational activities and also serve as venues for events such as the popular Winter Blast fireworks display, obstacle races and concerts throughout the year.  SARA Park has a network of hiking and mountain bike trails, ballfields, dog park, rodeo and fairgrounds.  Other activities include BMX and motocross racing, roller hockey, RC plane field and a shooting and archery range.

Last year we attended the same fireworks show and rally, click (HERE) to catch up on last years fun if you missed it.

Here’s our Rally Schedule:

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As you can see from the Schedule (above); we are all basically “free” to do whatever we want each day after breakfast because all the activities take place in the afternoon/evening.  Today (Thursday) is a Happy Hour at 4 PM and then a Pizza Dinner w/Salad will be delivered to us by 5 PM.

How about a quick tour of our area?  Here’s the sign at the entrance to the Rodeo Grounds.  I guess they haven’t gotten around to changing it out for the WInter Blast Pyrotechnics Show.

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RVs were lined up at the entrance throughout the day to check in to the Rodeo Grounds parking area for the weekend activities.

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This is the access road leading to our upper level parking area (below).  A couple of the RV parking areas are separated by the rodeo arena and grandstands.

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Most of our Alpines are parked in the same area, spread out over at least three separate rows.  We ended up in the middle of row D with good friends Mike & Donna Kuper on our left and Ed & Donna Mathews on our right.

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We’ve known Ed & Donna since our first Alpine SoCal Rally in St. George, UT back in 2012.  It was great to see them again after such a long time 🙂  Mike & Donna we came to know first through Mike’s blog @FlyingtheKoop.com and then we finally met in Portland during the Alpine Coach Pre-Rally to the FMCA Rally in Redmond, OR which we both attended together in 2014.

Here’s some shots of our Rally site taken yesterday and today:

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The parking area for the RVs is spread out over the rodeo grounds on at least three different levels which you can somewhat make out from the photos:

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Good looking Coaches, eh?

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For those of you who have been following the blog, you may recall that we were able find a good home for one of our oldest daughter’s dogs the morning after we arrived here.  Little ‘Ember’ went to Alpine Coach owners Ron & Jeanne who live in Las Vegas and we’ve since heard from them that she’s doing just fine 🙂  Jeanne sent us this pic (below).

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Ember seems to be “Lucky in Las Vegas”.

However, we’ll have to continue dog-sitting our daughter’s other dog ‘Sheba’ (pictured below) since she really belongs to our grandson Kaan and he’d be heartbroken if we gave her away.  Although, there’s been some interest shown among our fellow Alpiner’s 😉

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Stilla and Sheba.

It wasn’t very late in the day before folks started congregating between the Coaches for drinks and conversation.  Happy Hour starts early around here 🙂  I busied myself during part of the day with some cleaning on the Urban Escape Vehicle exterior while Stilla went shopping with a couple of the girls.

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A couple more Alpines are still expected to arrive.  We’re supposed to have 25 Coaches once everyone gets in.  Here’s Peter & Patricia Huber’s coach pulling in (below).  They arrived just in time for the first official dinner of the rally; Pizza night, Yoo Hoo!

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Around 4:30 PM everyone started gathering in our designated “get-together” site that our Rally Host(s) and Co-Host(s) set up between their Coaches.

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In my new capacity as president of the Alpine SoCal Chapter; I said a few words to welcome everyone to the rally and we thanked our Rally Host(s) Dave & Nicole Guhsé along with our Co-Host(s) Paul & Katie Lisec for setting everything up.  So far, so good… but we’ll have to wait until later in the Rally before we can truly rate their performance 🙂  Right?

Come-n-get it!  Pizza is served:

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Everyone enjoyed the pizza and salad as well as each other’s company:

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Good times again with good people 🙂

At dusk, the first fireworks started going off in the park area next to our Rally site.  The fireworks were mostly random and sporadic with long lag times between.  Probably test shots and some training for the pyrotechnic crews.  Many folks went back to their Coaches and didn’t hang out at the “get-together” site for very long after it got dark.  There will be plenty more fireworks in the evenings ahead.

Our grandson’s dog ‘Sheba’ didn’t take the noise very well and Stilla left early to comfort her inside the Coach with the radio on to help drown out some of the loud bangs.  Hopefully, she gets a little more used to it before tomorrow’s fireworks show which should be pretty spectacular based on our experience last year.

Stay tuned…

Winter Blast Farewell & Hello Havasu Springs Resort (Lake Havasu, AZ)

On Monday morning, the Alpine group met for breakfast and fond farewells.

Here’s a series of photos I took during our last breakfast together before everyone went their separate ways:

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The parking area here at the SARA Park quickly cleared out.

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Bye everyone… til next time!

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What a great time we had here with some of our old friends and even more new ones!  The Pyrotechnics show every night was just icing on the cake.  The real fun was spending time with fellow Alpiners.  Hopefully, we’ll see many of them again in March at the Alpine Pre-Rally in Valencia, CA and then right afterwards again at the FMCA Rally in Pomona.

There were still a couple Alpines left in the parking area as we departed.  I thought for sure, we’d be the last to leave… we weren’t in any hurry and weren’t even sure what our next destination would be.

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On our way up here to the “Winter Blast” Rally last week, we passed a sign that read; “RV Park – $10 Full Hook-Ups”.  So remembering that – we headed back south from Lake Havasu City… saw the sign again and turned on in to the Havasu Springs Resort.  (This is where I’d normally put a link to the resorts webpage, but the connectivity is so slow here… I gave up)

Now, we figured there’d be a “catch” to the $10 per night but also figured – what the heck, we’d check it out.  And sure enough, here’s the “catch”.  We’d have to sit through a 90 minute presentation on this place.  I’m sure they are trying to drum up new resort members or buyers of their vacation homes.  The presentation is a small price to pay for three nights at $30 🙂  So, I’ll report back after the presentation and let you know the details if anyone is interested.  It is a very nice resort so far, except we haven’t been getting good internet or cellphone signal here.

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We were given a quick tour on a golf cart as soon as we arrived to check out sites.  We settled on a relatively open spot in the gravel that overlooks the water.  The other sites we were shown had trees that might have interfered with our satellite TV dish, plus, we would have been packed in rather closely to other rigs.

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We wandered around part of the resort after we got parked and set up.  Here’s the building that we have to go to on Wednesday for our presentation.  I think they’d charge us $50 per night if we didn’t do the presentation.

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We walked down along the water and mini-beach.  All the areas of the park are dog-friendly… just not any of the buildings.

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They have a pretty nice fishing pier that is open 24/7.

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Picnic areas and nice green grass in front of the motel rooms and near the pool.

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Pool and hot tub area.

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View of the pool area above our parking site.

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Here are some of the vacation homes.

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One of the dock areas.  I believe there are more on the other side of the resort.

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Nice cactus view along one of the lake-side paths.

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We’ll check out more of the resort on Tuesday and maybe hit the pool.  Anyway, this is a good time to catch up on laundry since we have full hook-ups with 50amp power.  The washer/dryer has been going non-stop since we parked.  It’s a pleasant change to not have to monitor battery usage or run the generator.  We can splurge and leave the coffee pot on, or watch TV late into the night, etc., 🙂

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Will post again on the blog within the next day or so… contingent on internet connectivity.  Until then… don’t work too hard:)

 

Winter Blast – Day 3 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Sunday morning found the Alpine SoCal family enjoying another continental breakfast courtesy of our fine rally hosts.  Another warm and sunny day was on tap.

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After our continental breakfast, coffee, and chit-chat… folks started  heading off to begin their individual planned activities for the day.

As we headed back to our coach, we met a couple of our fellow Alpiners returning from their morning hike.  Jack had returned to “The Crack” to conquer the route he had attempted the day before.  I reported in my last post that Jack turned around yesterday when confronted with the dry waterfall “cliff” that I wrote about.  This time, he reported that they had conquered the canyon and had basically taken the same return route that we did.

This park has some very neat trails, hopefully we can get the opportunity in the future to check out some of the others.

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However, we had already decided to spend the day checking out the ATV trails on the east side of US 95 that we’d heard so much about.  There was reportedly a massive network of riding trails waiting to be explored.

David Guhse took a photo of us – all geared up and ready to go…

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We put little “Coach” in his doggie back pack and after a short drive through the residential area across from the SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) Park where we are staying, we soon hit the network of trails and were on our way.

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Luckily, we had taken our hand-held Garmin GPS so we can find our way back by following our “bread-crumbs”.  Otherwise, with the many forks and criss-crossing trails, we might still be trying to find our way back 🙂

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Lots of beautiful desert scenery:

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After stopping at a particularly difficult section – deep in one of the many valleys.  We decided to stop to eat the lunch (sandwiches) that Stilla had packed for us.

We were soon joined by another couple that were out exploring on their Can-Am ATVs.  They are also staying at the SARA Park to enjoy the fireworks.  Since we also have a Can-Am ATV, we already had something in common.  We chatted with them while we had lunch and they shared the location of a mine that they had just found.

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They were also carrying along their own little dog, so Coach had someone to talk with as well, while we ate lunch.

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After our lunch break, we followed the directions our new acquaintance(s) had given us and soon found the abandoned mine.

It turns out there were at least three separate mines in the immediate vicinity.  We walked a little ways from the ATV to check them all out.

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Here’s a few pics of some holes in the ground… in case you didn’t know what those look like 🙂

I dropped a rock into this one and never even heard it hit bottom.

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More holes:

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We used the GPS to keep us on somewhat on track but took an alternate route to get back near our starting point.

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What a cool area… so much to explore… definitely have to come back here.

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We made it back without incident with plenty of time to spare before our scheduled chicken dinner, also courtesy of our rally hosts.

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Here’s some fellow Alpiners enjoying their chicken dinners.

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Looks good, doesn’t it?  Tasted good too!

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After dinner, we had our general membership meeting to discuss old and new business.  We successfully dodged (I think) being nominated to  host any future rallies.  Unfortunately, we just don’t know what our long-term plans are until we can get the house sold, and can’t afford to make any commitments just yet.

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Alpine SoCal general membership meeting/session.
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Alpine SoCal general membership meeting/session.
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Alpine SoCal general membership meeting/session.

Our rally hosts (Nick & Ramona Escamilla) and co-hosts (David & Nicole Guhse) now officially get an A+ rating for their outstanding performance… after the meeting they broke out “make-your-own sundaes” with all the fix in’s.

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Everyone crowded in for the dessert.  No one was to be denied.

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What a treat!  I topped mine with the Snickers crumbles as well as the Butterfinger’s chips… yumm.

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And what better way to enjoy our dessert than with some more fireworks!

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Yes, it’s official… you can get tired of fireworks.  After 4 nights – they were still spectacular but were wearing on us just a little.  Even little Coach hardly noticed them at all tonight.

It’s been a great rally!  A big thank you to our host(s), co-host(s), and all the great Alpine Coach Association members!  Tomorrow morning everyone will be going their separate ways… see you down the road 🙂

Stay tuned to see where we end up next… even we don’t know.

 

 

Winter Blast – Day 2 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Day 2 (Saturday) of the Alpine SoCal “Winter Blast” started out with another fine breakfast courtesy of our (so far) outstanding hosts (Nick & Ramona Escamilla) and co-hosts (David & Nicole Guhse).

Notice the Valentines Day motif.  awww… 🙂

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I heard about a nice hike located right here in the park from Jack Giddens.  He and a couple others had attempted it the day prior.  Sounded fun, so we decided to give it a try.

The trailhead is located at the entrance to the rodeo grounds here where we are parked, and since the parking area is so huge, we thought we’d get a head-start and drive down to the trailhead parking lot.  There we broke out the doggy back-pack and my “sympathy” stick and headed on down the trail.

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Coach was perfectly happy with the situation as you can see.

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We stayed on the main trail and headed down the wash into a canyon.

I found some information online about this hike, click here and here  for more info.

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We paused for a flower picture because you don’t see flowers too often here in the desert.

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The scenery was incredible.

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There are trails all over these hills… see the people way up there in the pic below?

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The canyon started to get tighter and tighter…

Even little Coach said; “Carry me again… Carry me…”

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We meandered our way through the canyon, which by the way – I understand is called “the crack”.

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Finally, we came upon this drop-off that Jack had reported about yesterday.  It was like a little dry waterfall chute and was treacherously smooth.  Oh, and did I mention it was definitely more than a ten foot drop… this is where Jack and his entourage from yesterday had turned around.

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I wasn’t about to turn around after going this far, so I scooted down on my stomach while Stilla held me with my “sympathy” stick (cane).  After I was a foot or two from the bottom the cane came apart and I plopped to the bottom.  No harm done, just a bump on the knee. 🙂

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Once at the bottom, Stilla lowered little “Coach” to me in his back-pack and then Stilla lowered herself while I held her feet as she slid on down.

Now we were committed… no turning back now.  Hopefully, there’s another trail to get back out of here!

Next, we came upon a spot where there was no way through without getting your feet wet.  I opted to take my boots off and my trousers had the zip-off legs.  Stilla decided to trudge on through.

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If you were able to stay (balance yourself) on the mini boulders it was only knee-deep.

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We continued on… all the while, thoughts of that movie where the guy is trapped in a slot canyon and had to cut off his arm, was going through our minds…

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And then, at last! We came back out into the daylight.  What a cool canyon.

After coming back out into the open, we saw a trail on the right that went up and back towards the way we came, but this time above the canyon.  We followed it up for this magnificent view of the Colorado River.

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Then we stayed on the main trail heading back.  There were several chances to go higher when the trail forked, bet we were careful to stay on the lower trail… finally we ended up back in the wash where we started before the canyon got tight.

And were we glad to see the rigs back at the rodeo grounds as we got closer to the parking lot 🙂

Nah… it wasn’t bad at all.  An awesome way to spend the day… and we got some much needed exercise.

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After we got back and relaxed a bit, it wasn’t long before it was time for the scheduled “Cowboy BBQ” sponsored by the park.

Here’s a view of the huge grill sending up some smoke and good aroma as we walked down to the lower parking lot area to partake.

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Close-up view of the huge grill.   Yummm.

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We saved some seats for our fellow Alpiners as the line for the food grew longer and longer.

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A band was in full swing.

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Here’s a couple pics of our happy SoCal Alpine Coach group:

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Good food, Good people, Good fun!

We walked back to the rig to get ready for the evening’s happy hour and fireworks show.

We passed by this mound of sand that was the center of activity for all the kids… and even some teens.  They were having a blast sliding down the sand hill…  Oh, to be young again, eh?

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Another Arizona sunset reflected off the front of the Urban Escape Vehicle.

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Then – We all gathered at our designated viewing spot and enjoyed each other’s company and the spectacular fireworks.  Here’s a few pics that came out alright once I used the Canon instead of the iPhone.  Of course, pictures can’t do justice… you have to see it in person.

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There was music and announcements specifically for the fireworks extravaganza on the radio, but it was difficult to get tuned in for whatever reason.  At one point, I went to the Coach and retrieved our old AM/FM ’57 Chevy radio that I used to take to car shows.  After messing around with it for a while, we were finally able to get it tuned in and hear some of the announcements and music.

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And finally, if you want to see some more of the fireworks… just click on the following video clips I recorded with the Canon.  Hopefully, they represent a little of the better displays.  Several of my clips wouldn’t copy over to the blog due to size.  So these will have to do.  Enjoy!

Stay tuned for more adventure tomorrow… we plan on taking the ATV out and checking out some of these trails in the area that people here have been telling us about.

 

 

 

 

 

Winter Blast – Day 1 (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Friday morning was the official start of our Alpine SoCal group’s “Winter Blast”!  It’s at the SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) Park in Lake Havasu City.  We’re here enjoying the 26th Annual Western Winter Blast Pyrotechnics Show.  (Click on the links for more info.)

Here’s our official gathering spot, between the Host and Co-Hosts’ Coaches.

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Our agenda for the weekend:

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Although on Friday morning we didn’t “officially” have breakfast scheduled – most folks gathered in the morning to enjoy coffee and each other’s company.  Here’s a group of our fellow Alpiners out walking their kids in the morning.

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Here’s another shot of a row of elegant Alpines.  17 Coaches are in attendance.

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We ended up at the end of a row with no one beside us on either side.  A row or two away from our “gathering spot”.

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Since we had time to kill until Happy Hour and Pizza this evening, we jumped into the Silverado and headed into town.  The park is only on the southern outskirts of town, so we didn’t have far to go.

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View of Lake Havasu coming into town from the south.

We stopped at a Polaris dealership that had a lot of cool looking off-road vehicles, ATV’s and such… it doesn’t hurt to look, right?

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If you have about $30k burning a hole in your pocket – here’s a pretty wild looking new Polaris with a Ford engine you can spend it on.  I thought I’d share a couple pics of this unique vehicle.  Wonder how many they’re selling?

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Looks like a fun “toy”… too bad we can’t afford any more “toys” now that we’re retired 🙂

Although difficult to read – the banner says; “Welcome to Lake Havasu City” under the blazing Arizona sun.

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We crossed over the London Bridge onto the man-made island to see if anything changed from the last time we were here in January of last year for the Balloon Fest.  Click on the London Bridge link for more info if you don’t already know about it.

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We drove down onto the beach and hung out with little dog “Coach” for awhile.  He was here last year too – wonder if he remembers?

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The Lake Havasu water isn’t as clear today as I remember it from other times we’ve been here.  Lots of green algae-like stuff floating along the shoreline.  Still pretty though.

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The town seems to get bigger each time we see it.

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We also stopped at a couple of the lighthouse replicas that dot the landscape in and around Lake Havasu.  I believe there are around 24 of these.  Click here for more info on those if interested.

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We watched folks out on their boats, either fishing or just cruising around.  For a brief moment we thought about breaking out the inflatable sea-eagle raft with trolling motor that I carry in the back seat of the Silverado.  Stilla squashed that idea… it was getting late.

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Stilla is always on the lookout for German bakeries or such.  So she googled locations in Havasu and came up with this place.  It was more of a fast-food deli and didn’t have what she was looking for.  We walked in and right back out.

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After another quick detour at Ross Store, we headed back to the rally site.

We made it back on plenty of time for happy hour and before you knew it – our Pizza had arrived!

David is on the left, Nick on the right.  Nick and Romana Escamilla are our fine hosts for this event.  David and Nicole Guhse are our co-hosts.  And what a fine job they have done so far!  Although it is still early… we can’t give them a rating just yet, right? 🙂

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The pizza and salad was fabulous… no one could complain, there were even leftovers for breakfast on Saturday.

And here are some pics of our fellow Alpiners enjoying dinner and each other’s company:

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As it got dark, we moved the groups’ ez-up tent out of the way to clear the view for the evening fireworks show.

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Another nice Arizona sunset.

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Everyone moved their chairs to good positions for the evening’s fireworks show.  I didn’t take any pics of the fireworks… you’ll just have to take my word for it – they were pretty awesome!  The iPhone camera doesn’t do good night-time photos.  Maybe I’ll break out the Canon for some pics later.  We still have a couple more evenings of fireworks… wonder if we’ll be tired of them by then?

Little “Coach” did real well during the fireworks.  He appears to have gotten used to the loud noises… especially if he’s carried 🙂

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We did have a couple moments of excitement during the fireworks show on Friday evening.  A couple of them shot way up in the air trailing flames, made slow arcs and came down in our parking area with big thuds.  Fortunately, no big explosions and as far as we all could tell. no rigs were damaged.  Whew… felt like Iraq again for a couple moments…

There were a few long intermissions between firework displays.  At one point, I went back to the Coach and brought back my night-vision device to share with others and look at the stars.   Here’s a pic I took with the iPhone through the night-vision at some of our Alpine friends sitting in their chairs.

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And here’s another with Stilla and Nicole looking over the wall, waiting for the next fireworks volley.  Pretty cool, huh?

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We’ve been told that the Saturday and Sunday fireworks show are even more impressive… can’t wait to see… it’s been great fun so far.

Stay tuned for day 2 of our Alpine SoCal “Winter Blast” Rally… coming soon.

 

 

On to the Rally… (Lake Havasu City, AZ)

Yeah!  This post will get you caught up to date… here we go:

On Wednesday morning, we puttered around at the Elks Lodge in Parker until sometime around noon – did some more laundry, and topped off the water tank. Then we headed on up the road to meet our Alpine Coach group for the Fireworks Rally in Lake Havasu.

Here’s our spot in front of the Elks Lodge.  This picture was taken after our neighbors had already left for the day.

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It’s a very scenic drive up US 95 after the town of Parker heading into Havasu.  Here’s a few pics to try and prove that claim… what do you think?

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There are several scenic turn-outs (view areas) that can accommodate big rigs but we’ve been through here a few times before in the past, so we just cruised on by and snapped pics out the windows.

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Here’s the entrance to the rodeo grounds.  We turned off of US 95 just south of town onto the loop that surrounds the park.

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We were greeted at the parking area entrance by volunteers or park employees that confirmed we were pre-registered.  I had to put the Coach in neutral and set the air brake so I could jump out and step into a trailer parked alongside the makeshift entrance in order to check-in.  We got a “welcome packet” of sorts that included info on the park and it’s activities along with local advertising flyers, brochures, etc.,

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Then I was told to follow the guy on the ATV… he would direct us to our site.  That’s him way-ahead of me in the picture below – I think he was in a hurry to get me there.

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There are several tiered levels of parking areas here at the SARA Park Rodeo Grounds.  We chased the guy on the ATV to what I think is the second level from the end – where he stopped to indicate our spot.  Here’s a couple pics of the surrounding parking area:

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According to this website; ” SARA (Special Activities and Recreation Area) Park is an 1100-acre park with spectacular mountain views and access to Lake Havasu. The park’s facilities cater to a wide range of recreational activities and also serve as venues for events such as the popular Winter Blast firework display, obstacle races and concerts throughout the year. SARA Park has a network of hiking and mountain bike trails, ballfields, dog park, rodeo and fairgrounds. Other activities include BMX and motocross racing, roller hockey, RC plane field and a shooting and archery range.”

The same website goes on to say in another paragraph; “The park is also home to Havasu 95 Speedway, an ASA-sanctioned paved oval track which is one of the biggest attractions in Lake Havasu City…”

Our parking site was on a slope and we couldn’t get quite level without the HWH leveling system telling me were maxed out on one or more of the jacks.  The HWH display panel indicated an “excess slope” warning and one of the front tires was 4-6 inches off the ground.  So I turned the coach around and moved over closer to one side in our allotted space and it leveled alright.  We found out later that the fireworks are going to be behind us now… hmmm – might have to rethink this if we want to sit in the Coach to watch any of the fireworks out the front windshield.

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The coaches and rigs continued to file in throughout the rest of the day and into the evening.

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At last count… seventeen Alpine Coaches were in attendance!

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After all the rigs had filed in, we found out by the end of the day that we are all alone… no one has the spot on either side of us.  The other Alpines are mostly next to each other and are in the next two rows over from us.  Oh well, we probably need the exercise anyway when we join the others for our scheduled activities.

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We had an impromptu “Happy Hour” with our Alpine friends.  There was lots of meeting and greeting going on.  Some folks we haven’t seen for quite awhile – since St George, UT a few years ago even – others we saw as recently as the Desert Rat Rally in Quartzsite just last month.

On Thursday, we drove into town in the morning to pick up a few additional grocery items to get us through the rally and then we just kind of hung out at the park until it was “Happy Hour” time again.  The rally doesn’t officially start until Friday but that doesn’t stop anyone from getting together.  There was more meeting and greeting and then there was a small sample of fireworks after dusk.  Most of our Alpine group gathered at our designated meeting spot between the Host and Co-Host Coaches… will post pictures later.

Little dog “Coach” did fairly well with the little sample of fireworks so far, but he wasn’t without problems… he appears to be limping now while favoring a front paw.  We couldn’t find any stickers or thorns, so we have to assume he jumped off the couch and landed wrong or something like that when we weren’t looking.  He’s already better this morning (Friday) as I’m finishing up this post.

Let the Rally begin!   Stay tuned for more of our Alpine SoCal “WINTER BLAST” rally fun… coming soon.  I’ll try not to get behind again for a while 🙂