Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Fort Beale RV Park, Kingman, Arizona

May 26, 2020

Temperature 96 Degrees

Historic Route 66

Andy Devine

Barbara Has Some New Toys

We’re quickly learning how to live with the heat in this area.  The secret is to get out and about early and make sure you are home before 12 noon or as to close to that as possible.  Oh, one more thing, and don’t touch any metal – including metal hand rails – that have been exposed for any length of time to the sun.  Can you guess how we figured this one out?

Route 66, stretching from Chicago to Los Angeles, was established Nov. 11, 1926. But it never even got to blow out the candles on its 60th birthday cake.  With the expansion of the interstate highway system, the road was decertified in 1985. All signs were taken down and it was removed from maps. The highway immortalized in novel, song, film and television ceased to exist.

Today, though, due to the dedication and hard work of the Historic Route 66 Association of Arizona the old road is back.  Now, however, it is known as Historic Route 66.   Today it enters the state on the Navajo Reservation at Lupton. It continues across the northern half of Arizona passing through Holbrook, Winslow, Flagstaff, Williams, Seligman, Kingman, Oatman and finally Topock before continuing into California.

Most of the eastern half of Route 66 Arizona is submerged beneath I-40, leaving orphaned segments at exits and towns. But don’t be discouraged. Arizona has more than 250 miles of drivable Route 66, including the longest unbroken stretch in existence, 158 miles from west of Ash Fork to the California state line.

Today we went for a drive along Historic Route 66 – at least the Kingman section.  One of the things we discovered today is that car enthusiasts from around the world routinely ship their cars here to drive this historic road.

The photogenic water tower that marks the roads entrance into Kingman.

The beginning of the Kingman Historic District.

Yup, we’re on the right road.

The view down the road.  This is not a route you take if you are in a hurry.  However, if you want a delightful, relaxing trip with all kinds of interesting things to see and do this is the route for you.

It’s pictures like this on buildings that you will find all along the route.

 

The day after Memorial Day this mural really caught my eye.

Quirky sayings are the norm wherever you look.

Even McDonal’s gets in on the act.

At least you know up front you’re going to get charged for an extra bed!

There are also odd and unusual statues along the way.  What this is or why it is here I have no idea.

The ever present mountains.  I never tire of looking at them.  Now if someone could only be convinced to put a tunnel through them so you don’t have to go over them.

Every year in Kingman they close off a part of Route 66 to hold the Kingman Street Drags.  It is a three day event and will be held in October of this year.  The Drags is a genuine street race, but with all of the safety equipment you would expect to find at a purpose built track and a full timing system, with reaction times, 60’ times, 330’ times, 1/8-mile times and speed. Plus, it’s legal!

In Kingman, a portion of Route 66 is also known as Andy Devine Ave.

Anyone reading this blog remember him?  I do which I guess sort of dates me!

He was born in Flagstaff on October 7, 1905 but moved with his family to Kingman when he was a year old.

He was a man of substantial girth for which he was always being kidded.  But it was his peculiar voice for which he was best known.  Do you remember it?  I do.  Though there are many stories of how his voice came to be no one was exactly sure what was it’s cause.

He appeared in more than 400 films, ten of which he appeared in as sidekick Cookie to Roy Rogers.  He also made several appearances in films with John Wayne.  But he is perhaps best remembered for his role as Jingles, Guy Madison’s sidekick in The Adventures of Wild Bill Hickok.

He also provided the voice of Cornelius The Rooster in several Kellogg’s Corn Flakes TV commercials.

This, though, is what he is best known and remembered for.

Time to head for home.  When we arrived back at the park we discovered that Barbara had some packages waiting for her at the office.

Her first new toy was her Food Saver.

Her second new toy was her Ninja Cooking System.  What did I get?  Why nothing at all.  As someone I love said best It’s Barbara’s turn not yours.  No argument from me.  After all I’m sure I will benefit in many ways from her new toys.

That was our day on The Road of Retirement.  Once again it felt good to get out and about.  One thing we did discover, the roads are packed again.

The first traffic jam we have been in during the last four months.  Oh well, what will be, will be.  Overall it was a fantastic day and we continue to give thanks to the good Lord for every minute of every day we are given to live and enjoy.

Thank you for joining us today.  We always appreicate your company and comments.  See you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Fort Beale RV Park, Kingman, Arizona

May 25, 2020

Temperature 86 Degrees

Memorial Day – All Gave Some, Some Gave All

Flowers for My Lady

The Potato Grinder Can Only Mean One Thing 

May we never forget that All Gave Some, Some Gave All.  

Let us also remember that there are many yet who are standing in the gap for you and me ready to give their all for the freedoms we hold dear today.

Flowers for my lady.  It’s been all too long since I’ve bought her flowers just because.  I corrected that oversight when we went shopping yesterday.

If the potato grinder is on the counter that can only mean one thing.

That potato pancakes are on the menu! I’m not going to tell you how many of them I ate for supper today.  But I will say this, I did leave a few for breakfast tomorrow morning.

That’s about it for today.  I did dabble a bit with our route plan for 2021.  OK, I know it is going to change a hundred times over before next year. You have to start somewhere, however, and I enjoy doing stuff like this.  Where are we going to go?  Oh, here, there and everywhere.  We’ll catch up with family and friends before permanently moving to the Southwest.  We’re both looking forward to our travels next year.

That was our very basic and very simple day on The Road of Retirement.  We just sat back and relaxed.  Well, I did but Barbara spent most of the day doing laundry and cooking,  I promised her a gold star for her forehead.  Tomorrow we’ll be out and about, at least in the morning before it gets too hot.

Amen.

Thank you for joining us today.  We always appreicate your company and comments.  See you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Fort Beale RV Park, Kingman, Arizona

May 24, 2020

Temperature 81 Degrees

Sunday Worship – Colts Neck Reformed Church

Foraging for Food

The Decision Has Been Made – East Coast Again in 2021

What a beautiful cool, crisp morning to awake to.  The sun was shining bright, the sky was clear and all things considered it appeared to be the makings of another beautiful day.  And that it was.

We began the morning with worship at our home church in Colts Neck, New Jersey.

There was a time of special music.

Pastor Scott’s message was from the book of Nehemiah.   He reminded us of how God works through ordinary people like Nehemiah, and people like you and me.  He reminded us that all we need to do is remain in touch with God through prayer and like Nehemiah we too will discover what God wants us to do.  He then challenged each of us to discover what we can do individually to help rebuild our communities and our country in the months and years ahead.

There was a time of Patriotic music.

The service then moved to the cemetery adjacent to the church.

From here Pastor encouraged us to remember this Memorial Day that some gave all and all gave some.

The worship service concluded with the choir singing The Battle Hymn of the Republic.

Come early afternoon and we went out foraging for food.  Once again we found the same attitude here as elsewhere, no masks, no social distancing.  One good thing, the shelves were fully stocked as was the meat case.

The flip side of this, when they say prices have gone up by over 50% they weren’t kidding.  We spent double what we normally spend for the same amount of food we usually purchase.  Ah well, the freezer is restocked as is the pantry and the storage lockers underneath.

The decision has been made.  We’re going back East and remaining there during the better part of 2021.  We both decided we wanted to spend some time with family and friends on the East coast.  In addition there were a couple of states and attractions we haven’t visited yet.  We also realized it would make no sense to go all the way back to Florida at the end of this year, then turn around and race back out here the beginning of the following year.  However, come the end of 2021 we’ll head west once again for the winter.  Also, if things work out we’ll purchase property at North Ranch for a home base going forward.  That’s the plan right now.  Yet, given how plans have changed so many times this year we can only hope our plans for the next year and beyond will come to pass!

That’s it for our Sunday on The Road of Retirement.  We had another great day all around.  It was also one of the last of the remaining cool days in store for this area.  Come Wednesday and we are supposed to go to 100 degrees and remain there for a good number of days thereafter.  Ah well, it is what it is.

Let’s never forget.

Thank you for joining us today.  Keep your comments coming.  Keep safe.  Wear your mask – if not for yourself then for someone else.  Remember, six feet apart or you could end up six feet under. Wash your hands often.  See you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!

 

 

 

 

Places We Have Called Home In 2020

Home Is Where We Park It – Fort Beale RV Park, Kingman, Arizona

May 23, 2020

Temperature 79 Degrees

Lake Havasu City – London Bridge

Let’s go back to yesterday and our trip to the London Bridge.  Once we discovered that it was only an hour’s drive away we decided we had to go.

The trip was an easy one with light traffic and moderate temperatures.  I wish I had had an opportunity to take some pictures of the mountains along the way.  They were absolutely breathtaking.  I can’t help but think, though, every time I see them what the first settlers to this area must have thought when they saw them.  Today we have roads in place to either go over or around them.  The early settlers in contrast had to find their way on their own.  It had to be really rough and daunting at times.

Soon enough we were in the parking lot outside the visitor center and the London Bridge.

The entrance gate to the visitor center.  The gate was once a part of Witley Court in Worcester, England.  Following a fire in 1937 which destroyed Witley Court everything of value was sold.  Robert McCulloch (more about him later) bought one of the gates and shipped it to Lake Havasu City.

Some of the art work at the top of the gate.

When the London Bridge was dedicated in 1971, McCulloch gave 1 acre of land next to the London Bridge to the City of London.  The City of London placed the pedestals with the Dragons on the top on the border between their land and the village.  The City of London built an original English Pub on their land.  Alas, it is no more.  In time the City of London sold their property to Lake Havasu and they constructed the Visitor Center where the Pub used to be.

The fountain was built in 1999 with stones from Mexico and the lions from a landscape company in Las Vegas.  The fountain has nothing to do with the London Bridge – it is just there!

The entrance gate and the fountain as seen from the Bridge itself.

This was our first stop.

When you walk in the door you know immediately where you are!

This is why you are here – the famed London Bridge.  It is the second largest tourist attraction in the state of Arizona.  The Grand Canyon is first.

The sixty four thousand dollar question, though, is how did the London Bridge end up here?

To begin with the bridge here today is not the original London Bridge.  The first London Bridge was built of wood.  Over the years bridges came and went.

One of the earliest bridges had homes and shops built on top of it.

In time the homes and shops were removed leaving just the bridge.  Actually, a new bridge.  Fast forward to 1962, the London Bridge (131-years-old at the time) was discovered to be sinking into the Thames, unable to handle 21st century traffic demands.  Rather than demolishing it the city of London decided to auction the historical landmark to the highest bidder.

Enter Robert Paxton McCulloch.  A real estate developer who acquired 26 square miles of land upon which sat an abandoned military landing strip.  He was given the land by the government for free with a promise to develop the land.  But the real estate agents could not bring in prospective buyers.

McCulloch’s real estate agent, Robert Plumer, learned that the London Bridge was for sale and convinced McCulloch to buy it and bring it to the area to attract potential land buyers. The initial response from McCulloch was, That’s the craziest idea I have ever heard, but after consideration, he decided to go ahead and purchased it for $2.46 million.

The London Bridge was dismantled block by block, with each section marked and numbered

and then shipped through the Panama Canal to Long Beach, California.

The bridge arrived in pieces at the Port of Long Beach, California and were transported overland to a storage compound.

The bridge pieces were reassembled by matching the numbered stones.  It took three years and a few more million dollars to put it back together.

Some interesting things to note about the bridge:

When Robert McCulloch brought the bridge to Havasu from London, he only brought the outside of the bridge because the inner granite structure was too massive to ship.

McCulloch built a concrete structure in the shape of the London Bridge and used the outside of the bridge to complete the structure in Havasu.

The London Bridge was reconstructed by tearing a page out of the Egyptians book on how they built the pyramids.  Mounds of sand were created to outline the original construction of the arches. As the arches were finished, the sand mounds would be removed.

To place the bridge 2 million cubic yards of earth were moved, 10,000 cubic yards of concrete were poured over nearly 2 million pounds of structured steel and three miles of wire provided power and light during the reconstruction of the bridge.

The bridge was not reconstructed over a river, but rather it was rebuilt on land in a position between the main part of the city and Pittsburgh Point, at that time a peninsula jutting into Lake Havasu. Once completed, the Bridgewater Channel was dredged under the bridge and flooded, separating Pittsburgh Point from the city, creating an island.

The Bridge today spanning Bridgewater Channel.

Ah yes, stairs and lots of them.  They lead to the walkway on the bridge.

On the way up the stairs you can see one of the numbered blocks.

At the top of the stairs we discover the love locks.  Two lovers buy a lock, write their names on it, throw the key in the in the Bridgewater Channel.  This means:  we will stay together forever.

I started my walk across the bridge at the dedication plaque.

The view across the bridge to the other end.

One of the old vintage lamps on the bridge.  I discovered that they were once cannons used by the French army under Napoleon Bonaparte in the Battle of Waterloo in what is now present-day Belgium.  The cannons were brought to England after the English and Prussians armies defeated the French. Iron was needed for the lamp posts, and being the recyclists the British are, the canons were melted down and used to illuminate the bridge at night.  Now how about that.

The plaque at the other end.  A half mile to, and then a half mile back to the beginning.  Yup, I got my exercise today.

Picture of the Bridgewater Channel from the bridge itself.

Time to go back down.

There was Barbara waiting for me.  Mask on.  Six feet from the next person.

That was our trip to the London Bridge.

I almost forgot, yup, I got a new T-shirt.

Time to wrap up our day on The Road of Retirement.  We really enjoyed getting out and about yesterday.  Looking forward to doing more of it as we can in the days and weeks ahead.  However, most of what we had planned to visit this year is no more.  We have decided to scrape it all and just make our way back to Florida for doctor appointments.  We’ll come back out next year and try to do then what we wanted to do this summer.  Time will tell.

Finally, this Memorial Day Weekend.

Hope you enjoyed our tour of the London Bridge.  Always appreciate your comments.  Keep safe.  Wear your mask – if not for yourself then for someone else.  Remember, six feet apart or you could end up six feet under. Wash your hands often.  See you tomorrow.

These are the voyages of  Elvira and it’s two intrepid travelers.  Our continuing mission: to explore as many new states as possible, to seek out new acquaintances and make new friends, to boldly go where we have never been before.

See you on down the road!