We just got back from a week’s holiday, and found some new snow in our driveway. Not enough to give us a problem, but it looked like about a three-foot drift in front of the garage. When I stuck the shovel in it, it bounced off. Finally I realized the snow had slid off the metal roof during the warm weather, then turned to ice when the temperature dropped again. I managed to get past it with the blower to clean up the driveway, but the car will have to sit outside until it warms up again.

Last Saturday, we flew out of Saskatoon to Calgary, then to Seattle, then to Las Vegas, where Sandy and Blaine were waiting for us. Our plan was to stay there overnight, then drive down to Lake Havasu, where Sandy and Blaine have a timeshare. We didn’t reckon with Las Vegas weekend traffic. It took us at least two hours to drive down the Strip to Fremont Street, where we learned that there wasn’t a hotel room available in town, partly because of the weekend, and partly because of Nascar races. We didn’t find a room until we got to Laughlin, and by the time we got to bed it was about 3:30 AM Saskatchewan time.

We had a wonderful week at Lake Havasu City; the time-share was at the London Bridge Inn, right beside the bridge and the English Village. You have likely heard the story of that bridge - the city of London, England decided London Bridge was no longer adequate for their traffic, so they put it up for sale. McCulloch (who makes chainsaws in his spare time) bought it for about 1.3 million, shipped it by boat to California, then by truck or rail to Lake Havasu, for a further cost of over five million. There was a peninsula sticking out into the lake; the bridge was reconstructed, piece by piece, on dry land, then a boat channel was dredged out underneath it, so that the peninsula became an island.

Lake Havasu City is pretty new; I don’t think there was much there before about 1968 when Davis dam was built on the Colorado River to create a reservoir for thirsty Californians. It is very clean, beautifully landscaped, and prosperous-looking. We didn’t see any sign of graffiti, or panhandlers or other undesirables. Lots of bikers, but they were mostly old farts like ourselves.

The weather was perfect; into the 80s every day, and still shirtsleeve weather late into the evening. There was a light overcast one day, and it was welcome - it would have been too hot if the sun had been out.

We made a side trip to Oatman, AR where we petted the donkeys, or burros, watched a shoot-out, visited the tourist traps, and saw some incredible scenery. Another day, we went to Grand Canyon where we had a helicopter ride over the Canyon. I was a bit disappointed in it; once we were in the air and finished going backwards and sideways, we might as well have been in a fixed-wing plane for far less cost. Afterwards, we went to a couple of viewpoints on the rim, and I felt the view was much better than from the helicopter.