Guess Where We Are?

That's right - we're in Vegas, baby! Where else on earth would you see a sign for a wedding drive thru!














Since our last blog, we've spent a few days in Los Angeles and then spent a day travelling through the Mojave desert on the way to Las Vegas

The time spent in LA was quite busy. Having visited Disneyland with the boys 20 years ago, we thought a trip down memory lane would be appropriate. So off we went to see Mickey. We discovered Disney now has two theme parks in LA, so we opted for the California Adventure Park.

Of course, my daredevil husband had to ride the death drop at Paradise Pier













and we both got absolutely soaking wet on the water rafting ride, which was just before I got completely scared out of my wits by riding the Screamin' Californian roller coaster! The things you do for love!

While in the LA area, we knocked two more NHL arenas off our list.

First, we visited the Honda Center and watched the Ducks clinch a playoff berth, by defeating the visiting LA Kings in a shoot-out.












Then it was on to the Staples Center to watch the Kings defend their turf against the visiting Phoenix Coyotes. LA may have once been home to Gretzky but it was none too kind to his Coyotes that night, winning the game 4-0.















But the 'coup de gras' of this leg of our trip was a visit to Sony Studios to watch a taping of Wheel of Fortune! Didn't get any pictures (no cameras were allowed inside the studio), and I'm not sure if our section of the audience ever got scanned by the TV cameras, but you can watch for us in the audience on Apr 7, 8, and 9 when the episodes air.

Then it was on to Vegas. There's so much to do and see here it's overwhelming. Today we took a stroll down 'The Strip'.


We started with lunch at the Hofbrauhaus,















then we checked out the local Hard Rock Cafe,

















before visiting Venice (yes, the scenes below are indoors) and checking out the gondolas and gondoliers!

















That's all for now. Take care and we'll see ya next week.

Easing into El Centro

Well, Yuma was a bust! Pulled into the RV Park to register and was advised that only one pet per site is permitted, and that rule applied to most parks in the Yuma area! The staff were quite helpful and gave us the name of three parks that they thought might allow two pets. We checked out two of them and they were dumps so we said a quick hello and goodbye to Yuma and headed on down the road to El Centro, California.

El Centro is located in the Imperial Valley in southwestern California. Very quiet area with lots of sunshine and warm weather but not much to do unless you

like riding dune buggies over the Algodones sand dunes (not us),

or bird watching at the only sea on the North American continent that below sea level (again not us)

or golfing - that's us! Spent the entire time in El Centro on the golf course. Wonderful!

The only other item of note for this leg of the journey was the celebration of our 27th wedding anniversary. As those of you who were at the wedding will remember, there was a lot of white stuff falling that day, but not this year as you can see from the photos below. Never thought I would be BBQing in shorts on Mar 21st.

So it's off to Los Angeles this week. Expect the pace will pick up significantly!

Sporting in Phoenix

As planned, we headed out to Phoenix on Wednesday and this location has been all about sports; both playing and viewing.

We started off by watching 'Capt Canada', Steve Nash, and his Phoenix Suns beat the visiting Golden State Warriors. What a game! End to end action - even Jim enjoyed it!

On Saturday night we knocked off the second arena on our mission to see a professional hockey game in every NHL city with a visit to JOBing.com Arena to watch the Coyotes host the Edmonton Oilers.

Contrary to the excitement of the basketball game, this one was a bit of a snoozer. For those of you who watched the late HNIC game, you already know the Oilers came out on top. Despite the team's poor showing, the fans sure love their Coyotes. Ran into an older gentleman on the way in. Said he played five different sports in his younger years but had he had the opportunity he would have exchanged all five if he could have played hockey. Growing up in the desert he said the only exposure he had to the game was at the movies when the film clips showed Rocket Richard scoring.

On Monday we got in our only game of golf for the week. We managed to scrounge two free rounds at The Legacy Golf Resort. The cost of golf here is the only deterent to returning for a longer visit. That being said, this course was fantastic, the company was great and even the game wasn't half bad!

On Wednesday we're off again, this time we're headed to Yuma and our first view of the mighty Colorado River.

Still in Tucson

We liked the Tucson area so much, we decided to stay another week. On Tuesday it was "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and what a game it was!


The spring training "hometown" Chicago White Sox took on the Anaheim Angels. The game had a classic finish. It was the bottom of the 9th, two on, two out and two strikes on Nick Swisher when he hit a solid double down the right field line to win the game. A good time was had by all!



At the south west edge of town you can find Arizona's version of the Garden of Gethsemane. Sculptor Felix Lucero was a soldier in WWI. He vowed that if he was spared he would dedicate his life to sculpting religious figures. In addition to the Last Supper, there are statues of Joseph and Mary and one of Jesus in the tomb.


Tucson is surrounded by five different mountain ranges. To the north are the Santa Catelina mountains and that's where we chose to do some hiking and sightseeing this week. First we went to Sabino Canyon. This state-run recreation area allows people access to nature at its best. Unlike the Desert Museum, the wildlife in this area are not in cages so one has to be careful where you hike as you could run across a mountain lion, bobcat, a gila monster and the dreaded rattlesnake (and apparently there are numerous varieties of venemous snakes that call this area home).










Fortunately, the only wildlife Jim and I ran across was the cardinal and a black feathered bird that looks remarkedly like the cardinal

The Sabino River runs through the canyon. It is completely devoid of fish of any type. Difficult for the fish to survive during the 5-6 weeks where the river is completely dry each year. This river has no springs feeding it - it is totally fed by snow melt from Mt Lemmon.








Speaking of snow runoff, the tram driver told us that Arizona is the only place he knows of where bridges are built with the intent of having the water flow over them......












This explains all the signs we see along the roads that state, "If flooded do not enter," DUH!

On Sunday we heard about all the snow that had hit eastern Canada and I guess we got a little homesick. To cure that we took a a 27 mile trip up Mt Lemmon, 8000 ft above sea level. In high school I remember our geography teacher, Mr Best, talking about how the changes in altitude can resemble changes in longitude and the trip up Mt Lemmon certainly demonstrated that. It was like travelling from Mexico to Canada!




We started in the desert at 2400',








travelled through evergreen forests at 6000',


















and hit snow at 8000'

On Wednesday we head out to Phoenix. if you get the Oilers/Coyotes game on Hockey Night in Canada, keep your eyes peeled for us. We'll be sitting up behind the Coyotes goalie

Toolin' 'round Tucson

After a great round of golf at the New Mexico State University golf course on Tuesday afternoon, we headed down the I-10 to Tucson on Wednesday. We were sorry to leave the wonderful folks at the Hacienda RV Park but the trip must go on and we're sure there are more nice folks around the next bend.

Every trip has to have it's fair share of "oops" along the way. We've been selecting most of our RV Parks using both the Woodalls and Good Sam recommended 'ways ahead'. Well, we finally got caught! When we arrived at the Prince of Tucson RV Park, we learned the pull thru sites were only 12' wide! To put this in perspective, our RV is 10' wide. There we were happily setting up the RV when a Winnebago pulled up next to us - and I mean next to us! If we opened our RV doors at the same time we would have collided. Should have taken a picture but we were so focussed on getting to another RV Park that the camera was the last thing on my mind. All's well that end's well though, because the park we moved to is almost as nice as the Hacienda.

Located just west of Tucson is the Arizona-Sonora Desert museum. What a place! As we travelled through the deserts in both Texas and New Mexico, I was fascinated by the different types of vegetation. But it wasn't until we reached Tucson that I found the desert I'd been expecting.

The museum provided us with the opportunity to walk through it and view the animal and plant life that is unique to this area. Not all the animals cooperated so we were only able to catch a good view of the coyote,

lovingly referred to as "God's dog".

As far as I'm concerned, the snakes also cooperated because the only ones visible remained safely tucked behind thick glass.

No trip to the Tucson area is complete without a trip to historic Tombstone, stomping grounds of Marshall Wyatt Earp and the site of the gunfight at the OK Corral. Jim had no sooner arrived in town when the local lawmen were accousting him for daring to show his legs in their town.



We managed to escape with all our body parts in tact and toured Main Street, which looks remarkably like it did back in the late 1800s.

We watched reenactments of famous incidents that occurred in the town, including the gunfight at the OK Corral. At lunchtime we stopped at Big Nose Kate's for a bite to eat and a wet, and lo and behold, Jim was fingered again. This time he wasn't so lucky as the Sheriff's deputy made sure he would cause no more trouble in his town!

One thing became abundantly clear as we walked through town; Tombstone was not a safe place to be in the late 1800s! Many a prospector, cowboy or gunfighter ended up at Boothill, the local cemetary. With the exception of six souls, all were carried from Tombstone to Boothill in the horse-drawn hearse pictured below. Built at a cost of $8000, this hearse was one of only six constructed, and the only one known to still be in existence.

The hearse carried folks to the gravesite on top of a small hill outside town.

Jim is standing behind the burial site of the four hombres on the losing side of the gunfight at the OK Corral!

Back then when a mistake was made, folks were not afraid to admit that mistake. (Double click on the photo below to enlarge it and read the headstone)

Like I said, Tombstone was not the place to be in the late 1800s!

We managed to squeeze in a round of golf on Friday afternoon. Played with a gentleman who, in his younger days, played AAA baseball for the Yankees. Needless to say, he kept us entertained with stories. Next Tuesday we'll get to see the big boys play, as we have tickets to a baseball spring training game between the White Sox and the Angels. Should be fun!