This belated Havasu post comes to you from just north of Phoenix, on the shore of Lake Pleasant, where it's less than "pleasant." Temps soar into the 80's under skies that aren't cloudy all day. Yes. It's tying or breaking records here and the extended forecast shows no relief in sight. "Might as well go home," Bobbie mutters, a trail of sweat trickling from her brow. "Goldie doesn't do 80's very well neither do I."
The heat is on. We decide it's time to pull a U-turn, head north to higher elevations and sixty-somethings...before I end up a solo Rv'er.
Somehow I survived growing up in and around the Valley of the Sun...playing in the desert when it was over a hundred degrees. I drew the line around 105, at which time I either went to our trailer park's pool or stayed inside to watch The Little Rascals and/or The Three Stooges on tv. I remember times in July and August when the pool-water was to warm to offer relief.
It's hard to believe how hot it gets in January these days. Recall temps pushing 90 ushered us out of Borrego Springs a couple years ago in January. What the hell do people do all summer in such places?
Havasu has a nice State Park with Rv sites spaced far apart. It's always booked solid, tho, so it's for people who plan ahead and make reservations. We prefer to ride with Sara N. Dippity, who never locks into anything, especially temps over 80. We stayed in the "Overflow" section; basically a paved parking lot but near the water.
It pushed our "Max" borderline in Havasu so, except for a couple desert hikes, we mostly spent time walking along the lakeshore where it was a couple degrees cooler.
Here are a few shots of our stay there...
We test-paddled these pedal-kayaks and almost "pulled the trigger." Such fun, but over 5K for two. One of the problems we couldn't get over was hauling them around on top of our Subaru, as they were quite long and cumbersome.
Rv's jammed nuts-to-butts and elbow-to-elbow across the water from the State Park.
Look at these spacious sites...right on the beach, too.
That's the news. Time to head north and higher up.
Peace out,
mark, bobbie, and "Sara"
Hot!! Hey, Mark. Our sweet kayaks are made by Swift Kayak, are 39 pounds each, and we lift them on top our tracker. They are 13.5 feet long and yeah 5 k for two but worth every cent. I would highly recommend light weight for "Our age" lol and foot pedals are not needed. We paddle for many miles in ours.
ReplyDeleteTo each his own as they say; other than floating on water it sure doesn't look like there is any reason to stop over, winter or anytime. You can't beat Winter in Sonoma Co,.if you want to play in a river or hike on a beach you've got lots of options and there are crab shacks & oyster bars and plenty of wineries to either chill out in or heat up in depending if the fog is in and the fire pits are roaring. Dam sounds like I should be working for the Tourism bureau:) Mark I though we were going for another great hike today. It's okay, Im sure you've got another special place picked out for tomorrow. See ya there :)
ReplyDeleteThat Bobbie will look for any excuse to go home ;-)
ReplyDeleteOur friends back in Pensacola had the pedal kayaks and they were a lot of fun. We thought they were way too heavy to lug around, though.
Hope it cools off so you can head our way soon!
Wow. We just missed you guys. We're parked right behind that Prevost in your photo's. I've had one good hike on the crack in the rock trail.
ReplyDeleteHey Jerry...sorry we missed you guys!
Deletemark
I've used a pedal kayak once as well, loved it! Too bad they're so spendy.
ReplyDeleteYep, if you've got a nice place to go that isn't in the 80's that sounds like the right place to me!
5K...and no 500hp engine?...What are you folks doing there?...Sheesh, you must have been kidnapped and being held for ransom....Long wait for them to hear from Oooray, Co...eh?
ReplyDeleteUpriver......:+=)......
Hi Mark, thanks for stopping by my blog! Looks very hot and tropical where you're at. I'm still holding out hope for a huge dump of snow on our mountains though...it's been a crummy ski season in the Cascades so far. Enjoy your sunny wanderings!
ReplyDeleteLike Goldie and Bobbie we like it under 75 degrees. We won't be looking for Florida or Phoenix when we hit the road in the winter 3 years from now, I was thinking more like southern Utah! 31 degrees here by 9:00 a.m. this morning, I'm stopping for a hike as the "heat wave" is only for 2 days.
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