Across the Desert, October 4,007

We spent last week in the Bay Area of California, visiting nieces, grand nieces and grand nephews, as well as a daughter and two grandchildren (who are either in or graduated from college).We also had a lovely diner in our RV with an old schoolmate of Madie’s and his escort. So as you can see we spent a terrific week, just visiting. Then we moved on to Sacramento, where we visited more nephews, nieces, and grand nephews .Lots of fun for us – but perhaps would prefer not to detail the names on a blog.

From Sacramento, we proceeded on a trip to Phoenix. It is still petty hot in the Southwest, so the desert looked ---- well, deserty. I reflected back to 40 to 50 years ago or so, before cars were air conditioned and before the Interstate highways existed. At that time taking an automobile trip West was a big deal --- the sort of thing a man, having made the trip, would take his pictures and put on a presentation at the Rotary Club. In those days, people would stay in a motel day, the day before crossing the desert, and then cross a night when it was cooler. In those days, in the West people carried a canvas bag full of water in front of their car. Water seeping through the canvas, would keep the water cooling. Evaporative cooling in the 1950’s, I guess.

I usually like the desert, but I must admit that after the green forest, clear lakes, and glacier-covered mountain-tops in Alaska and Canada, the desert looks a little scruffy.. Madeline and I both thought that the Mojave Desert, characterized by Joshua Trees, was nowhere as pretty, perhaps even a little ugly, compared to the Sonoran Desert, characterized by Saguaro Cacti.

On our way to Phoenix, we stopped at Lake Havasu City, which is a relatively new city perched in the desert on the shore of a lake formed from a dammed-up Colorado River. One of the important attractions there is London Bridge, which is the original London Bridge ,which was torn down and transported stone by stone to Arizona. For a variety of reasons, we did not get to visit the Bridge until late one very hot afternoon, so we were not in the best of humor. The bridge was much shorter than we expected, and was not particularly impressive. There is said to be an English Village type shopping area under it. We got out of the car looked at the Bridge, but decided we did not feel like shopping, so returned to camp. I had expected to see two towers and lots of shops along the bridge – not so. I guess the Bridge probably seems misplaced in the middle of the desert, when I, at least, was expecting a scene from a Dickens’s novel.

We finally arrived in Phoenix and as I write this, I am in the RV and the RV is in a Freightliner garage, getting oil, filters etc changed.