Almost Christmas

It's almost Christmas.  This year it will be just another day for us.   Nothing exciting or interesting or fun, just another quiet, pleasant day.    

When last we spoke we were getting ready to break camp and leave Lake Havasu and travel a short way to our next stop in Desert Hot Springs, California.

It was a nice, uneventful drive on a very familiar route with views of the Colorado River along the way.

 

We arrived at our site at the Catalina Spa and RV Resort about a week and a half ago.    Since then we have driven to the grocery store, once.     We understood that. since we were coming into California from another state, we would be required to quarantine for two weeks.    Evidently no one here worries about such things.    We do, however, so we limit our exploration to the aisles of Von's and Stater Bros. and will do so for our entire stay.    We won't take part in any "activities" at the resort, and won't enjoy the warmth of the hot mineral pools.    We'll sit in the sun, read, do little projects around the house, cook and generally live our lives as "normal" in 2020.

This resort is not as full as we've seen it but there are still plenty of people here.   Our site is perfect for us.....Mount San Jacinto out the windshield and the desert behind us.   To either side are sites that, evidently, Canadian's usually take for the season.    Needless to say, they're empty now so it's lovely and quiet and safe.

We have plenty of welcome friends.   So many that we often have to duck our heads during second cup and/or happy hour for fear of being struck in the forehead by them as they do their thing.

This is the same place where a little hummingbird spent at least 5 minutes checking out sweet Lewis and eventually landing on his nose a few years ago.....a very friendly place indeed!

flaps down, coming in for a landing.....

touchdown!

I was reminded that today is my birthday, regardless of what FB says.   I was reminded about said birthday when I  was served my usual breakfast with a merrily burning match inserted in the banana and an acapella rendition of the birthday song.     Evidently Dave didn't know where (or if) I keep birthday candles so he improvised.... I don't know what I ever did to deserve such a sweet man, but I'm regularly touched and surprised by his thoughtfulness and caring.     Thanks Dave.    

Torpor

We've fallen into a state of torpor, all three of us.

We seem stuck in our site, sitting in the sun, watching the birds and the boats.   We find ourselves dozing in the sun, reading, watching the Casino ferry go back and forth, back and forth, and eating.    That's all.

We have a very nosy and personable Road Runner that cruises by our Second Cup chairs each morning, slowly making eye contact with each of us as he passes.

We watch several large groups of quail noisily poking and hustling along, lots of Albert's Towhee and Great-tailed Grackles checking out everyone's fire rings and a little Kestrel sitting in one of the lakeside trees, waiting.     Osprey fly over the shore, looking down, Say's Phoebes and Blue Gray Gnatcatchers dart out from the shrubbery, grab their prey mid air and then retreat to the bushes until the next bug flies by.  Egret's stroll the beach,  Seagulls congregate for a snooze on the beach in front of us and Coots, Goldeneye, Bufflehead, Loon, Mallard, Lesser Scaup and Western Grebe's dive for their lunch just off shore.

lots of go fast boats here

 

We were delighted to be able to watch a huge Christmas boat parade last Saturday.   The traditional, sponsored Parade was Covid cancelled so we were super surprised to discover that the citizens had gotten together and organized their own holiday Parade.    I think there were more participants in this parade than in the original one.    We stopped counting at number 55!     They were colorful and loud and wonderful.   Best of all they slowly passed right by Beluga so we had front row seats!

We've been to the grocery store but quickly returned to our quiet site, shocked by the number of  unbelievably rude and crude political signs plastered all over large pick up trucks and huge, flapping flags.     It's almost more than I can stand.    Calgon, take me away!

We did spend a little time putting up our Christmas tree.    Lewis supervised from his post on the bed.

Early next week we move into California and a 14 day quarantine for the holidays.  Joy to the World.

We're back!

When we last spoke we were in Arizona, Cave Creek Regional Park Arizona.    Since then we've covered some ground.....

We spent a little time in Boulder City, Nevada.    We did a some exploring and had a couple of physically distant visits with Pam and John.

Lewis supervised the cutting of the turkey - he doesn't need a mask

I was lucky enough to score four days of full hook up camping in Death Valley State Park so we left Boulder City and headed to Furnace Creek, California.    This is a park we've never visited before so we both were excited to finally get there.

We settled into our site at Furnace Creek Campground late in the afternoon.    No TV, or internet and very little Verizon coverage.    We didn't mind one bit.   Robin and Tom gave us a big box of old DVD's before we left the lake so we dragged them out and kept ourselves entertained in the evenings.

site 77

The weather was lovely, warm enough in the sun during daylight hours and cool for sleeping.    The campground was a bit of a zoo after the Thanksgiving holiday, but we didn't spend much time there and when we did I was thankful for our "poof" curtains and DVD's!

The park is so huge, the scale of it boggles my mind.    It's almost impossible to capture it's hugeness (is that a word?) in a photograph so I focused, instead, on smaller pieces.       We covered most of the popular sites within a 20 mile or so radius and managed to find a deserted canyon to follow for a wonderful, private lunch and afternoon of exploring.    Here are some pictures of our time in Death Valley.

oh Dave.....

see the tiny white rectangle above and to the left of Rocky?

Yep, that's where sea level is.....

lots of folks at Badwater so I snapped this picture and moved on

Dave pondering Devil's Golf Course

close up of the lumps!

Artist's Palette

Dave heads up the trail to the Natural Bridge

Jeep commercial

driving through Twenty Mule Team Canyon

One day we packed lunch and turned off state route 190 and headed into Echo Canyon, away from the "must see" spots.     It was a wonderful drive through a geologic wonder.    We were all by ourselves the whole time, ahhhhhh 

entering Echo Canyon

can you see Dave enjoying lunch in our private restaurant?

 lava squeezed up from an ancient sea 

I'm sorry if you're tired of rock pictures.... I was in my glory in Death Valley!

Dave is reminding me that it's happy hour time, so I'll sign off and head outside - the chairs are waiting.......

Lake Havasu State Park